Getting started

Your account#

XETODUS is free to play: open the game in a modern browser and you are on the sign-in screen. There is nothing to download or install. Check the system requirements if your computer or phone is older.

Ways in#

Create account

Choose a callsign (your account name), an email address and a passphrase, then press Enlist. Your email lets you recover the account later.

Sign in

Enter your callsign (or your verified email) and passphrase and press Launch. If this device has a passkey saved for your account, the callsign field offers it and you can sign in without typing the passphrase.

Continue with Google

Where it is shown on the sign-in card, this signs you in (or signs you up) with your Google account instead of a passphrase.

Play as guest

Play as guest, 2 hours, no account creates a trial pilot for you with nothing to fill in. It is the full game, with a few exceptions listed below, and you can save the pilot at any time.

Guest trials#

A guest trial is a real pilot on a real server: you fly, fight, mine, take contracts and earn skills exactly like everyone else. A small timer pill on screen counts down your two hours and turns amber near the end.

• Trials cannot chat, trade on the market, join a clan, buy a Charter or send Recruit a Wingmate invites. You can still read chat.
• Press Save my progress on the timer to keep the pilot: pick a callsign, an email and a passphrase (or continue with Google where offered). Nothing is lost and your progress carries over unchanged.
• If the two hours run out, the save form opens by itself and your pilot is still there to keep.

Pilot slots#

One account can hold up to 3 pilots for free (5 with the Vanguard Charter). Each pilot has their own skills, wallet, ships and home. The pilot screen shows every pilot with their faction, level, credits and location, and lets you change a pilot's look with Appearance.

Creating a pilot#

Press New pilot on the pilot screen. Creation has four short steps, and you can go back to any of them before you finish.

1. Allegiance

   Choose the Solari Accord, the Kheper Syndicate or the Vanta Dominion. Your faction decides where you start, which portrait set and card art you see, and whose story you follow first. See Factions.

2. Portrait

   Browse the portrait library by lineage and pick a face. Surprise me rolls a random look.

3. Pilot card

   Choose the card background, frame, emblem and accent color that frame your portrait wherever other pilots see you: in chat, on target cards and in the rankings.

4. Callsign

   Name your pilot, optionally add a title and a short bio, then press Begin.

Names#

A pilot name is 3 to 24 characters: letters, digits, spaces, apostrophes or hyphens, starting with a letter. Names are unique and permanent, so choose one you will be happy to see on a leaderboard. The dice button suggests a name that fits your faction and lineage.

Lineages#

Portraits are grouped by lineage. A lineage is purely how your pilot looks and who they are in the story; it never changes stats.

From the game's own data

Choosing a faction#

Three hundred years ago an exodus fleet crossed a wormhole into an uncharted cluster of stars and could never go home. Its descendants split into three powers. You fly for one of them.

From the game's own data

Solari Accord

The lawful republic of the core, seated aboard the Long Promise at Fatal. It keeps the Charter Rolls, the courts and the Accord Marshals, who police Secure space. Ivory and gold. It prizes order and continuity above almost everything.

Kheper Syndicate

The shipwrights' and miners' guild of the Kheper Expanse, seated at Selnem. Everything in the cluster was dug, built or hauled through Kheper, usually at a margin. Its jump gates are copies of alien ring geometry that nobody fully understands. Its underwriter, the Keelwright Mutual, writes the Hull Bonds.

Vanta Dominion

Heirs of the Picket that held the wormhole open, seated at Bagoia IV. The best-trained warfighters in the cluster. Forty of their ships were lost with the rearguard, and the Dominion has never quite believed the Collapse was an accident. Carved over the Bastion wall: "Something followed. Be ready."

What the choice changes#

• Your start. You begin docked at your faction capital's trade hub, which becomes your home station: the place you wake up if your ship is lost. You can move it later with Set as home station in any station's header.
• Your first story. Each faction's contacts have their own opening quest chain. The wider story opens to everyone as you go. See Missions and events.
• Your look. The faction sets the portrait set, card art and the default paint of your ships.
• Who you talk to. You share the Faction chat channel with every pilot of your faction.

No hull, skill or activity is reserved for one faction. Every hull can be flown by any pilot who trains the skills it needs, and you can travel and trade anywhere in the cluster.

The other powers#

Hollow Crown

Pirate clans that raid the fringe from hidden bases. They answer to no one, except the Crown. They are the pirates you fight, not a faction you can join. See Combat.

Independents

Unaffiliated stations, surveyors and bounty offices that answer to no power.

Your first flight#

A new pilot starts docked in a Sparrow, a forgiving multirole skirmisher fitted with Pulse Emitter S (2), Missile Launcher S, Barrier Regenerator and Ablative Plating. The first pilots you create on an account also get ₡100,000, a load of missiles in the hold and a starter kit in the station hangar: a Mining Laser, a spare Mass Driver with Kinetic Slugs, a Deep Scanner and Flares.

The first time you launch, a welcome briefing from Dockmaster Mirren Halvard shows the basic controls. Press Begin Flight School to take the lessons (recommended), or I know how to fly to skip them.

1. Undock

   Press Undock at the bottom of the station screen. A short launch sequence plays; press Esc, Space or Enter to skip it.

2. Take the stick

   With mouse flight (the default), click the flight view: the cursor hides and the mouse becomes a joystick. Hold Alt any time to get the cursor back for windows.

3. Throttle up

   Hold W to raise the throttle and S to lower it. The throttle stays where you leave it. X is all stop.

4. Pick a destination

   Click a station or gate in the Tactical list on the right. Its card appears above the list.

5. Warp

   Press J. Your ship turns to align, spools its drive and drops out of warp next to the destination.

6. Dock or jump

   Press J again at a station to dock, or at a gate to jump to the next system. , docks at the nearest station from anywhere in the system.

• Flying and navigationWarp, cruise, gates, the galaxy map and autopilot in depth.
• ShipsHull classes, buying and fitting your next ship.
• CombatWeapons, defenses, Engage and the law.

Flight School#

Flight School is a chain of 9 short lessons that teach the game by doing it. Each lesson completes from what you actually do in the world, a card shows a live checklist, and a pulsing outline points at the button or list you need. The lessons pay ₡290,000 in total.

From the game's own data

• Rewards are paid once per account. Your other pilots can still take the lessons for practice, but each lesson's credits are paid only the first time.
• The lessons follow your flight scheme: keyboard, mouse aim and touch players see their own keys and buttons.
• Rookie Patrol sends one weakened Crown scout at a time, with no missiles and a recovery break between scouts. They still shoot back, so warp out with B if your armor runs low.
• Skipping Flight School forfeits the rewards you have not earned yet. You can reopen it any time from Review Flight School in the handbook or in Settings, Gameplay.

Keyboard and mouse#

Settings, Controls offers three flight schemes. The keys are the same in all of them except for steering.

Mouse flight (default)

Click the flight view to take the stick: the cursor hides and the mouse moves a virtual joystick (the reticle). The further the reticle sits from the center, the harder you turn; bring it back to the center to fly straight.

Mouse aim

The mouse moves an aim reticle through space, your ship turns to bring its nose onto it, and your guns fire at it.

Keyboard

The arrow keys pitch and yaw and A / D roll. The mouse never turns the ship and stays free for windows, the map and targeting.

Touch controls#

On phones and tablets the game shows on-screen flight controls. Settings, Controls, On-screen touch controls sets them to Auto (shown on touch devices and whenever a finger touches the screen), On or Off. A tablet with a keyboard can use both.

Stick (left)

Push to turn: the further from its center, the harder you turn. Let go to fly straight. The stick centers wherever your thumb lands.

Roll arrows

The two buttons above the stick roll left and right.

Lift and Down

Near the ground, extra buttons lift the ship and lower it for landing.

Throttle lever (right)

Slide up for speed, down past zero for reverse. It clicks into place at zero and at full.

Warp

Becomes Dock, Jump, Land, Take off, Loot or Approach for whatever you have selected.

Stop

Cuts the throttle and aborts a warp.

Cruise

Toggles the cruise drive.

Fire and Msl

Hold Fire for guns and turrets (they fire along your nose and lead a target near it). Msl appears when you carry launchers; its ring fills as the missile lock completes.

Boost

Burns while held.

Engage

Locks the nearest hostile, flies into range and fires automatically. Push the stick to fly the fight yourself.

• Drag across empty space to look around, and pinch to zoom.
• Tap a marker in space or a row in the Tactical list to select it.
• Tap a module in the rack to switch it on or off; hold it to change its activation mode.
• On a phone the Tactical list folds away after you pick something, so the target card and controls stay visible. The menu bar shows Chat, Map, Cargo, Quests and Skills, and More opens every other window.
• Android browsers can hide their bars with the Full screen button in the menu.

Joysticks and gamepads#

You can fly with a joystick, a flight stick with a throttle lever, or a gamepad, next to or instead of the mouse and keyboard. Turn it on in Settings, Controls, Joystick & gamepad.

1. Enable controller flight

   Flip Enable controller flight on.

2. Pick the device

   Connect the controller, press one of its buttons so the browser can see it, then choose it under Device.

3. Check the mapping

   The panel shows the buttons you are pressing and the live value of every axis. Use them to assign the yaw, pitch, roll and throttle axes and the fire, missile, boost, brake and travel buttons.

4. Tune it

   Set the stick dead zone, and unassign any axis you do not use so it cannot drift.

• Physical throttle lever makes the throttle axis set your speed directly. Move the lever once to activate it. With it off, a centered axis nudges the speed up and down.
• Invert controller pitch and Invert throttle axis fix sticks and levers that read backwards.
• While a controller flies, the mouse stays free for the interface. Middle-drag still orbits the camera.
• Esc releases flight control; click the flight view to take it back.
• Controllers need a browser that exposes them to web pages over a secure connection. If nothing is detected, try another browser.

A tour of the HUD#

System (top left)

The system's name, its security (Secure, Contested or Lawless), its region and owning faction. Near a planet it adds the world's name and your altitude.

Menu bar (top)

Every window: Chat, Map, Favorites, Cargo, Resources, Skills, Missions, Quests, Hunting, Extracting, Colonies, Flotilla, Retainers, Vanguard, Clan, Rankings, Almanac, Recruit, Help, Account and Settings. Hover a button to see its key.

Status gauge (bottom)

Three rings: shield (blue), armor (amber) and hull (red), with the battery as a ring of yellow segments inside them. The center shows your speed, the flight mode (FLIGHT ASSIST, FA OFF, CRUISE, ALIGNING, WARP DRIVE, AUTOPILOT, LANDED), the three layers as percentages and the battery charge. Your portrait sits beside it and opens your pilot card.

Throttle bar

Next to the gauge. Zero sits a third of the way up; below that is reverse.

Module rack (bottom)

Your fitted modules: high slots on the top row, mid and low below. Weapons show the button that fires them (LMB or RMB); other active modules show their number key. A lit module is running. Small A and E badges mark modules set to Auto on damage or With Engage, and M, W, L or B a weapon set to Manual only or to a target size; right-click (or hold) a module to change it. See module modes and weapon fire modes.

Tactical (right)

Everything around you, nearest first, with search and filter chips. See Tactical.

Target card (right)

What you have selected: its shield, armor and hull, your lock progress, distance, bounty and actions such as Approach, Warp to, Dock, Jump, Engage, Orbit, Mine automatically or Loot.

Combat panel

Appears above the target card when you are under fire or hostiles are near: who is shooting you and how hard, incoming missiles, and the Engage and Emergency warp buttons.

Law card

Appears at the top of the right column when you are Suspect, Criminal or Wanted, with a countdown. See the law.

Chat (bottom left)

System (everyone in this star system), Global, Faction, Clan, Help and Trade channels. Click a pilot's name to message them.

Center messages

WARP while warping, Aligning for warp, the cruise spool countdown, and what an autopilot is doing (Docking autopilot. Steer to cancel).

Reticle

Under your nose marker: LOCKING, OUT OF RANGE, IN RANGE or ON TARGET. Damage you deal floats off the target (cyan on shields, amber on armor, red on hull); red arcs point at whoever is shooting you.

Edge glow

A red glow around the screen edges means your hull is taking damage. Get out.

When you dock, the HUD gives way to the station screen: your ship in the hangar, the station's services (Hangar, Fitting, Market, Contracts, Industry, Contacts, Job Board, Wallet and more) down the side, and the Undock button. See the hangar.