Endless Sky

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Overview

Endless Sky is a sandbox-style space exploration game similar to Elite, Escape Velocity, or Star Control. You start out as the captain of a tiny spaceship and can choose what to do from there. The game includes a major plot line and many minor missions, but you can choose whether you want to play through the plot or strike out on your own as a merchant or bounty hunter or explorer.

As a new pilot, only a handful of ships are within your price range. The Shuttle is the cheapest and most versatile option, nearly as nimble as a fighter and mostly used for ferrying passengers. The Star Barge is a slow ship, but with ample cargo capacity, enough to take on multiple simultaneous delivery jobs. The Sparrow is the cheapest interstellar ship you can buy that is designed for combat.

Your game is saved automatically every time you take an action while landed. If you quit the game while landed on a planet, your progress is saved; otherwise, your progress since the last planet you departed from is lost. To return to a specific point in time, save a snapshot of the current game from the main menu.

Made by: Endless Sky contributors
Released: 2015

Controls guide

Flying

Key	Action
`Up`	Thrust
`Left`/`Right`	Turn
`Down`	Turn to face backwards, to slow down
`E`	Auto steer toward your target
`A`	Afterburner
`Alt`	Hold to turn toward the mouse
`L`	Land on a planet; press again for the next one
`J`	Hyperspace jump along the route set on the map
`M`	Star map, to set a route
`P`	Pause
`Caps Lock`	Fast forward
`Esc`	Main menu

Fighting

Key	Action
`Tab`	Fire primary weapons
`W`	Select a secondary weapon
`Q`	Fire the secondary weapon
`N`	Next target; with Shift, your escorts
`R`	Nearest hostile ship; with Shift, nearest other ship
`V`	Nearest asteroid
`T`	Hail the target
`S`	Scan the target
`B`	Board the target or the nearest disabled ship
`D`	Deploy or recall fighters
`C`	Cloaking device

Your fleet

Key	Action
`F`	Fight my target
`Y`	Hold fire
`G`	Gather around me
`H`	Hold position
`U`	Use ammunition or save it
`Z`	Harvest flotsam

Landed

Key	Action
`T`	Trading
`J`	Job board
`B`	Bank
`P`	Spaceport
`S`	Shipyard
`O`	Outfitter
`H`	Hire crew
`D`	Depart
`Shift`/`Ctrl`	Buy or sell 5 or 20 at once, both for 100

Anywhere

Key	Action
Mouse	Buttons, the map, picking targets
`I`	Player and ship info
`/`	Message log
`Alt`	Hold to see each button's shortcut key
`F1`	Help for the screen you are on

Cheatsheet

Radar colours

Green: Owned by you: your ship and its escorts
Blue: Friendly: planets that will let you land, ships not hostile to you
Yellow: Hostile, but busy attacking someone else
Red: Ships attacking you, planets that won't let you land
Grey: Disabled ships, planets you can't land on

Ship status

Blue ring: Shields
Gold ring: Armor
Fuel bar: Each break is one jump of fuel
Energy and heat bars: Engines get power before weapons when energy runs short

Tips

Your ship can't collide with asteroids or planets, but shots and missiles that hit an asteroid are destroyed: hide behind a big one when missiles come your way.
There is no friction in space. To slow down, turn to face the way you came and thrust.
Job board work pays better than trading, especially if you line up several jobs along the same route.
Once you have explored a system, the map remembers its prices: open it with M and pick a trade good to see where it sells high.
Not every system has a planet where you can refuel. With only one jump of fuel left, land and refuel before going on.
Hold J with escorts: they get ready, and everyone jumps together when you let go.
When pirates attack, run toward a government ship or land on a planet. If you can't, hail them and offer a bribe.
In a Sparrow, mining asteroids is the safe way to earn money: shoot an odd-looking asteroid until it breaks, then fly over the fragments.
Preferences can turn on automatic aiming, which turns your ship to track the target while you fire.