Accessibility
How to play by keyboard with a screen reader.
The game in short
The map is a galaxy of bodies: planets, suns, bases, meteorites, and one black hole at the centre of each galaxy. You start with one home planet. Every planet you own makes probes over time. Sending probes at another body attacks it, and if enough arrive you take it over. Other players are doing the same around you. The long-term goal is to take every sun in a galaxy and then its black hole (see Getting Started).
Turning on the map cursor
Press M anywhere outside a text field. You hear "Map cursor on", followed by the body nearest the middle of the view. Press M again to turn it off. The game remembers the setting next time.
While the cursor is on, the arrow keys move from body to body instead of scrolling the map.
Your first turn
- Press Home. The cursor jumps to your strongest planet; at the start that is your home planet.
- Press R to hear what is around you, sorted by direction: how many of the bodies are yours, allied, enemy or neutral, and how far away the nearest one is.
- Press Space to select your home planet. You hear "1 selected".
- Use the arrow keys to move to a neutral planet. Because your planet is selected, each reading now ends with how long a send would take, or says the target is out of reach.
- Press Enter on the target. The send dial opens. The arrow keys change the amount by 1%, and Page Up and Page Down by 10%. Enter sends that amount. Shortcuts: 0 sends everything, and C sends exactly enough to take the target.
- Press Escape to clear the selection when you are done.
Finding your way around
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Go to the nearest body in that direction. North is up. Each step tells you the direction, the distance in grid cells, and the body: owner, kind, name, level and garrison. For example: "north-east, 14 cells: enemy planet Vega, level 12", followed by its garrison and owner |
| Shift + arrow keys | Go only to bodies with the same kind of owner as the current one. For example, from an enemy planet to the next enemy body |
| Page Up / Page Down | Go through your own bodies one by one |
| Home | Return to your strongest body |
| L | Where you are: which galaxy, how far from its centre and in which direction, how far from its edge, and where your nearest own body is |
If a direction has nothing nearby, you hear "Nothing loaded to the ..." and the view moves that way. Press the same arrow again a moment later to find what has appeared there.
Upgrading and other actions
Clear any selection first. Then move to one of your own bodies and press Enter to open its menu. The arrow keys move between its buttons, such as Upgrade (its cost is read with it), Auto-upgrade, Give and Rename. Enter presses the button, and Escape closes the menu. See Planets for what an upgrade does.
Staying informed
- I lists hostile swarms on their way to you, soonest first, with the direction they come from and how long until they arrive.
- Attacks, captures, losses and incoming swarms are read out as they happen. You can turn this off in the Account panel.
- If the body under the cursor changes owner, you hear "Changed hands".
Other ways in
- F opens the Focus panel, which lists your bodies and what each one can attack. It is useful when you want lists instead of walking the map.
- ? opens the list of all keys. Controls has the full tables.
- Escape goes back one step at a time: it closes an open menu, then clears the selection, then turns the map cursor off.