HOW TO PLAY · FLIGHT OPERATIONS
Blitzer Briefing
Your first haul. Try not to make it your last.
Get paid. Stay alive.
Mine. Collect. Bank. Steal the lead.
- Get out there. Leave your berth and head into the field. The cargo isn't coming to you.
- Take something valuable. Break gem deposits, then their fragments. Approach the loose gems and use the offered siphon action. Ordinary field rocks yield nothing. Admiring them pays nothing.
- Make bank. Get back to your syndicate's port, dock, and unload. Preferably alive. The cargo won't deliver itself.
Flight controls
Learn these before you become someone else’s salvage.
| Action | Mouse / keyboard | Controller |
|---|---|---|
| Steer | Mouse | Right stick |
| Increase / decrease throttle | W / S | Left stick up / down |
| Roll | A / D | Left stick left / right |
| Brake | Space | LT / L2 |
| Fire | Left click | RT / R2 |
| Siphon / dock / undock | F | X / Square |
| Switch camera | V | Y / Triangle |
| Look around (free look) | Hold Alt + move mouse | Press View / Create, move the right stick, press again to return |
| Headlights | L | Right-stick click |
| Transit drive | Tab, outside sites | Left-stick click, outside sites |
| Select inventory slot | 1–6; mouse wheel cycles occupied slots | D-pad left / right |
| Use / trade / hand over selected item (when offered) | R | D-pad up |
| Mission or adventure briefing: open, next, close | B | B / Circle |
| Shop while parked; Join mission while its briefing is open | E | A / Cross |
| Menu / settings / quit | Esc | Menu / Options |
Read this.
Choose Practice to learn offline, or Deploy to fly with other Blitzers. Pick one of six syndicates; a sector hosts at most four of them and twelve Blitzers in all.
Tab (or the left-stick click) queues transit. Fly clear of the site: when the visor's remaining distance reaches zero, the four-second spool starts automatically. Press again or brake to cancel. Leaving needs 1 km clearance; returning keeps the 5 km slowdown zone. Guns and the siphon are offline while driving. Use the radar to find your syndicate's port. Approach a free berth until docking is offered, then dock and wait for unloading to finish. Docking sells your bulk cargo.
Throttle stays where you set it; brake to slow down. Mouse steering acts like a virtual stick: move back toward its center to stop turning. The outer steering range adds faster turns while small corrections retain their original response.
Free look keeps your current turn while you look around; throttle, brake and roll remain available, and weapons still aim forward with the ship. Release to return the view forward. Mouse steering returns to its previous offset. If the mouse is almost centered and you are barely turning when you start looking, the small turn settles instead. On a controller, View / Create toggles the look: press once to look, again to return, then center the right stick before steering resumes. You can also look around while fully parked in the hangar.
The Blitzer Visor is the shared instrument surface; there are no physical cockpit screens. Parking brings up its full detail. Docking keeps you in cockpit view until departure finishes, then restores your previous flight view.
These are the default bindings; follow the on-screen action prompt for item actions such as siphoning or trading. Selecting an inventory slot does not use or sell it. Controller labels above use Xbox / PlayStation names.
In Preferences, adjust mouse and controller sensitivity, controller deadzone, and separate pitch inversion settings. By default, mouse up raises the nose; pulling the right stick back raises the nose.
Cargo isn't money until you bank it. Until then, you're a delivery opportunity.
Loose gems destabilize in space: ordinary drops last three minutes and begin cracking and shedding flakes halfway through. They keep their full value until they crumble away. Your cargo hold stabilizes collected gems. Rift gems break down faster, so don't linger over those.
Opening the menu does not pause Online flight. Space is unmoved by your settings.
Flight is continuous: there are no rounds, countdown or automatic match resets. Timed world events continue. A retiring Online sector gives notice before returning you to the main menu; choose another sector to continue.
Beyond the first trip
- Adventures. Your syndicate's gate lights its front when a destination is ready. Fly through with whatever you carry, explore, and return through the counterpart gate before the event ends. Belongings, hull and confirmed balance travel with you.
- Missions. A transmission at home announces an optional timed delivery competition. Press B to read it and E to Join while the briefing is open; only deliveries after you Join count. The winning syndicate is announced once for everyone at home, and joined winners still connected at home receive bonus credits. Ignoring a mission costs nothing.
- The rift. Diamond exists only there, and the rift pulls. One warning, RIFT COLLAPSING, means leave now; waiting it out loses the ship.
- Aliens and the Hive. Destroyed alien and Hive craft drop gold, and the Queen releases gold as she takes damage. Gold and diamond drive your Blitzer rank.
Guided missiles
Siphon or buy missiles into inventory and select their slot. Press T / LB / L1 while looking at a craft to designate it, keep it ahead until the visor acquires a lock, then fire with RMB / RB / R1. Press Target again to clear.
TARGETING, MISSILE LOCK and MISSILE INBOUND warn you of escalating threats against you. Cover and maneuvering can defeat a missile, and one can still hit after its motor goes dark.