Connecting to neural network...
Connecting to neural network...
"In space no one can hear you scheme."
A glimpse into the world of Outer Empires, live from Alpha testing.
Space is big. Really big. And nobody's going to hold your hand out here.
Outer Empires drops you into a persistent, player-driven galaxy with nothing but a starter ship and whatever ambition you brought with you. What you do next is up to you. Run trade routes between stations. Hunt pirates ... or become one. Stake a claim on a colony and build it into a hub of commerce. Form alliances and wage wars over territory that actually matters.
Every station, every market price, every political alliance ... it's all shaped by real players making real decisions. The economy isn't a simulation running on rails. When a trader floods a market with ore, prices drop. When a blockade cuts off supply lines, stations feel it. Your actions ripple outward in ways you won't always expect.
Start in a government loaned shuttle and work your way up to military cruisers, nimble interceptors, or hulking freighters. Fit your ship the way you want it ... there's no single "right" build, just trade-offs and the question of whether you packed enough fuel.
Claim colonies, construct facilities, and set up production chains that feed into the wider economy. Manage station permissions, set docking fees, and decide who's welcome at your doorstep ... and who gets turned away at the airlock.
Combat is tactical and punchy. Positioning matters. Ship loadouts matter. Knowing when to jump out matters more. Whether you're running security for a mining op or ambushing a rival convoy, every engagement has stakes because losses are real.
Factions aren't just a chat channel with a shared tag. Pool resources, coordinate fleets, control territory, and project power across multiple systems. Or go solo and make a name for yourself as the pilot nobody wants to cross.
The galaxy doesn't wait for you. But it does remember you.
Outer Empires 2 is a living, player-driven universe. Choose your path, or forge your own.
The galaxy has 23,000 star systems. Most of them have never been visited. Not charted, not surveyed, not even glanced at. They are just out there, waiting. If you jump into an unvisited system, you might genuinely be the first player to ever see it.
That matters because scan data is valuable. Explorers and Prospectors survey planets, moons, and asteroids for resources ranging from Common through to Exotic rarity. What you find can be sold on the market to colony builders who need it, or kept close to give yourself an edge on where to set up next. Systems further from the populated core tend to hold rarer deposits, which means the further out you're willing to go, the better your chances of finding something nobody else has touched.
When you're ready to trade, the player-driven market supports buy orders across almost every category, sell listings, and private sales. Price history shows low, average, and high for every item so you can spot opportunities, and pop-out views let you watch several markets at once. Hauling jobs come in standard and rush variants; rush jobs pay more but run to a hard time limit. Build enough of a reputation at a station and better contract tiers open up over time. Players can also post their own hauling contracts, with the payment held in escrow until the cargo arrives.
The galaxy map lets you plan multi-hop routes, filter systems by service type (markets, shipyards, fuel, repair) and overlay faction territory, market heat maps, or traffic data to work out where to go next. Cartography mode shows the galaxy's named regions and localities at a glance.
open_in_fullExpandRaw resources enter the game through three routes. The most direct is asteroid mining: scan an asteroid to identify what it holds, then set up a dedicated mining ship to extract it. Dedicated mining vessels carry Ore Hoppers that hold significantly more volume than standard cargo, and fitting a Speed or Yield Grapple changes the balance between cycle time and output per run. If you'd rather mine to order, government Mining Jobs issue a scan for exactly the resource they need and pay you to deliver it.
The second route is planetary and lunar extraction through colonies. Once you have a colony established on a planet or moon, you can build a mine, run a scan to identify the local deposits, and set it extracting a chosen resource passively over time. This ties industry directly to colony ownership, as the colony infrastructure does the work, but you have to build and manage it first.
The third route, arriving in Alpha 5, is salvage. Ships lost in combat already leave wrecks worth looting, and the full salvage system will let salvagers pull raw materials from them. This creates a supply chain that feeds off conflict rather than geography.
Whatever the source, raw resources have to be refined before they can be used. Refineries are colony structures, so getting materials processed means having access to a colony with the right facilities. Refined materials then go into Manufacturing Plants, which run blueprint jobs to produce the finished goods that fill the game economy: ship components, weapons, ammunition, flatpacks for colony construction, and general commodities.
Blueprints can be researched to improve them. Each research run lets you target a specific stat to push upward, but the process always degrades something else in return. The trade-off is intentional, and it means a well-researched blueprint produces items with characteristics you won't find anywhere else on the market.
open_in_fullExpandColonies can be founded on planets and moons outside of government space. Each one is built from the ground up: Command Center first, then power generators, habitation, hydroponic farms, warehouses, refineries, manufacturing plants, research labs, and defence structures. Every building needs workers to run it, and those workers need to be housed, fed, and paid. Workers are split into Blue Collar, White Collar, and Specialist tiers depending on the facilities they operate. Underpay or underfeed them and morale drops. Let it slide too far and you lose the colony to rebellion.
Choose your Command Centre carefully. Industrial, Extraction, Refining and Research variants each push one line of production 20% further, at the cost of everything else. Hire a Colony Administrator to boost output even more, but they need paying every month and they take time to travel out to you.
Outside of government space, players can also deploy Outposts, Stations, and Starbases using construction packages. These structures push the game's population into areas that would otherwise be unreachable, opening up new systems for trade, colonisation, and conflict. Every space structure has a job board, giving pilots operating in the area a source of work even in the furthest corners of the galaxy. Starbases support the largest ship classes. Station owners decide who can dock, refuel, fit ships, clone and trade, with permissions set for the public, factions, groups or individual pilots. Station owners earn income from the services they provide, and Corporations allow players to buy shares in stations and draw dividends without having to build anything themselves.
Remote Operations lets you manage colonies and manufacturing from anywhere in the galaxy. Check production queues, adjust worker wages, and respond to problems without flying back in person.
open_in_fullExpandCombat in Outer Empires 2 is tactical and deliberate, inspired by submarine warfare rather than twitch shooting. Positioning, power management, and weapon selection decide the outcome. Knowing when to engage and when to run matters as much as knowing how to fight.
Choose your weapons wisely. Lasers draw from your reactor with no ammunition limit. Rail guns hit hard but require stocked cargo. Torpedoes deal devastating damage but are slow and relatively easy to intercept with Point Defense systems. Missiles are faster and harder to pick off, but pack less of a punch. Running shields costs reactor power, and juggling all of it under fire is where the skill comes in.
Information is a weapon too. Ship and cargo scanners reveal what another pilot has fitted and what they're hauling. A passive scan goes unnoticed, while an active scan gets more detail but sets off an alarm on the target's ship. Hire crew to lend their skills to your ship, and fit escape pods so they make it home if the ship doesn't. New pilots are protected from PvP while they learn the ropes, so the galaxy's sharks have to wait until they've grown some teeth.
Factions add a political layer on top. Join or found one, set rank hierarchies across 10 permission levels, manage a shared treasury with a full transaction log, and fight for territorial control across the galaxy. Faction warfare, territory control, and coordinated operations are the endgame for many players.
open_in_fullExpandThere is no class selection screen in Outer Empires 2. Three independent career tracks (Public, Private, and Military) level up simultaneously based on what you actually do. Run hauling jobs and your Public track grows. Win fights (patrol and bounty jobs, or in open space) and your Military track advances. Manage private contracts (survey, mining or salvage jobs) and your Private track develops. All three progress in parallel, and none of them lock you out of anything.
Higher career levels unlock access to more powerful ship classes. A high Military rank opens military-grade cruisers, while a high public rank unlocks exclusive trading vessels, and developing the private rank gives you access to better mining, salvage, and manufacturing ships. Skills span 16 groups (Navigation, Combat, Engineering, Commerce, Science, Leadership, Manufacturing and more) and train in real time whether you are online or not... enhancing your chosen career.
The result is a pilot profile that reflects exactly how you have played. A combat veteran with a side interest in trading looks completely different to a merchant who occasionally hires mercenaries. Your choices accumulate. There is no resetting, and no single correct build.
Alpha 4 opened in May 2026 with around 50 testers, and true to our word, nobody was reset. Established players kept their ships, credits and colonies. Our aim is to see how new arrivals get on with them: whether they trade with them, work for them, compete with them, or try to undercut them.
It's been a busy few months. Since Alpha 4 opened we've shipped Mining Jobs, Station Management and Permissions, a reworked market with buy orders for almost every category, Ship and Cargo Scanning, PvP protection for new pilots, a rebuilt flight model, a new graphics engine, civilian traffic in normal space, hireable Ship Crew and Colony Administrators, specialised Command Centres, and the first phase of Player Contracts. There's a full breakdown in the Dev Log.
We'll still be honest about what needs work. Combat has had a lot of attention but is still being balanced. Crew and Administrators launched with a starter set of skills, and more are on the way. Salvage and colony and station warfare haven't landed yet; both are coming in Alpha 5.
Alpha 4 is invite-only. We send out invites periodically as capacity allows. If you want to be considered, register your interest below.
Alpha 5 is coming in Q4 2026. Once again, nothing will be reset: your pilot, your ships and your colonies all carry over. Alpha 5 brings colony and station warfare, fleets, more player contract types, salvage jobs, expanded crew skills, and much more. It also brings the Outer Empires 2 desktop app to Steam, for both Windows and Mac.
The latest from the development team.
Alpha 4 opened its doors on 7 May with around 50 testers and no resets. It brought two new mining ships, the Rock Chipper and the Rock Sled, plus a full Combat Log with shareable kill records and a ranking system, a reworked profile, and new outposts in the starting systems to make the first few hours easier. Later in the month we released the Public API, giving players scoped, read-only access to their own character data so the community can build tools.
June was our biggest month yet. Station owners got a Station Management panel with a full permissions system, letting them allow or deny docking, refuelling, ship fitting, cloning and trade for the public, factions, groups or individual pilots. The market was reworked with buy orders for almost every category, pop-out views, saved views and "My Buy/Sell Orders" tabs. Mining Jobs arrived on the job board, and Ship and Cargo Scanners let you see what other pilots are fitted with and what they're hauling (they'll get a warning if you scan them actively). We also added more than a dozen new skills and full UI scaling, and gave every region and locality in the galaxy a name.
New pilots are now protected from PvP until they reach a rank threshold on any career track. They can opt in early if they're feeling brave, and anyone who fires on another player loses their protection. Changing course mid-flight was rebuilt on your ship's real physics, so heavy haulers swing wide and light couriers turn on a dime. Under the hood we moved to a new graphics engine with a bespoke lighting shader: 70 times fewer draw calls per frame, faster galaxy map performance and noticeably snappier controls. A new Cartography map mode shows the galaxy's named regions at a glance.
You can now hire crew for your ships. Every hull has some crew space, larger ships can fit extra berths, and each crew member brings their own skills. Fit escape pods and your crew will make it home if the ship doesn't. Losing your connection no longer ends your session: the game reconnects on its own and puts you back where you were. The game also behaves properly when it's left in a background tab. And you're no longer alone out there: civilian NPC traffic now flies through normal space, so the galaxy feels a lot more lived in.
Colony owners can now hire Administrators who bring skills that boost a colony's output. They take time to travel out before they start work, and they cost upkeep. Combat missions have been renamed Patrol missions and joined by Bounty missions, which pay more but put you up against tougher foes. Scheduled maintenance now comes with proper warning in game chat and on Discord.
The first phase of Player Contracts is live: post a hauling job and another player picks it up, with the payment held in escrow until the cargo is delivered. Colonies can now be founded with a specialised Command Centre (Industrial, Extraction, Refining or Research), each boosting one line of production at a cost to the others. Five new size-2 shuttles, one for each line of work, give every career track a proper first ship, and colony buildings now each have their own build time.
Alpha 5 builds on what Alpha 4 started, and once again nothing will be reset. Colonies and stations can be attacked, so what you've built is worth defending. Fleets let you fly with friends: group up, take on jobs together inside the same instance, and keep an eye on the status of every ship in your fleet. Player Contracts are expanding beyond hauling with new contract types. Salvage Jobs arrive along with a wider round of salvage updates, and crew are getting a much bigger set of skills. Alpha 5 also brings the Outer Empires 2 desktop app to Steam, for both Windows and Mac. And that's not everything.
Further out, faction diplomacy will let factions formalise alliances, declare rivalries and negotiate, so it doesn't all come down to who shoots first.
The road from Alpha to launch: where we've been and where we're headed.
Core engine, database architecture, ship configuration, foundational combat system, market economy, and the first playable builds with a closed group of testers.
All three career tracks playable. Economy and job progression balanced. Asteroid mining added. Closed testing with around 35 active players.
Opened to around 50 testers with no resets. New mining ships and Mining Jobs, Station Management and Permissions, market buy orders across almost every category, Ship and Cargo Scanning, new player PvP protection, rebuilt flight physics, a new graphics engine, ambient civilian traffic, Ship Crew and Escape Pods, Colony Administrators, Bounty missions, specialised Command Centres, and the first phase of Player Contracts.
No resets. Colony and station warfare, fleets (fly jobs together in the same instance and see your fleet's ship status), new player contract types, Salvage Jobs and salvage updates, expanded crew skills, the desktop app on Steam for Windows and Mac, and much more.
Wider testing pool, performance hardening, economy balancing, faction diplomacy, and final feature completion ahead of launch.
Outer Empires 2 opens to all players. The galaxy is yours.
Join the Adventure Together: At the heart of our universe lies a vibrant and passionate community that's ready to welcome you into its fold. Discover a hub of camaraderie, discussions, and shared experiences where players from around the world come together to shape the destiny of our galaxy.
Join the Conversation: Dive into the action on our official Discord server, where you can engage in real-time conversations, ask questions, and connect with fellow players. Our Discord community is a bustling space for discussions ranging from gameplay strategies to lore debates, ensuring there's always something exciting to talk about.
Shape the Future: Our community isn't just a place to discuss the present - it's also a platform to influence the game's future. Participate in discussions about upcoming features, suggest improvements, and vote on development priorities. Your voice matters, and our community is where your ideas can come to life.
Register your interest and we'll keep you posted on the latest news and updates.
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Phutty Studios has been building multiplayer games for over 15 years. We're a small independent studio and Outer Empires 2 is our most ambitious project to date.
We build games we want to play ourselves. Multiplayer, persistent, and with enough depth that there's always something worth doing. We listen to our players, we're honest about where things are at, and we'd rather ship something that works than rush something that doesn't.