The Vanguard Charter#
The Vanguard were the first hulls of the exodus fleet to cross into the Xetodus Cluster. Charter-holders fly under their colors. The free way to play is called Freeflyer, and a Freeflyer can fly every combat, mining and trade ship, fit every module, visit every core system and train every core skill.
- Price
- $4.99 a month, from the Vanguard service at any station or the Vanguard menu. Cancel any time; your perks last to the end of the time you paid for.
- Earn it in play
- Charter time can also be bought with Aether: 500 Æ for 30 days. Aether Vouchers drop in play and trade on the market, and each one redeems for 100 Æ, so a dedicated pilot can keep the Charter without spending money.
- Stipend
- Members receive 200 Æ for every 30 days of Charter time, for liveries or toward the next month.
Refunds and billing questions are covered on the Refunds page and in the Terms.
What's included#
| Freeflyer | Vanguard | |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot slots | 3 pilots | 5 pilots |
| Market orders | 25 per pilot | 60 per pilot |
| Open contracts | 6 per pilot | 20 per pilot |
| Aether stipend | None | 200 Æ / month |
| Vanguard liveries | Faction, clan and Aether liveries | + 10 Vanguard schemes |
| Pilot card | Standard & earned styles | + Member styles |
| Vanguard badge | Not included | Chevron badge |
| Cloud-saved layout | This device | Every device |
| Colonial network | By Colonization level (1 to 5) | +1 colony |
| Flotilla skill | Not included | Flotilla skill & crews |
| Reclamation skill | Not included | Salvage tugs, 1 to 4 |
| Xenobiology skill | Not included | Up to 14 greenhouse plots |
| Cartography skill | Not included | Charting across the cluster |
| Members' areas | Not included | Members' regions, Deep Drift, Greenhouse Bays, Deep Signals |
| Vanguard hulls | Not included | Survey yacht & salvage tender |
| Favorites | 100 per pilot | 250 per pilot |
From the game's own data
What each Charter perk does
- Pilot slots
- Two more pilots on your account. If the Charter lapses nothing is deleted: your most recently flown pilots stay playable and the others wait in cryo-storage until you're back.
- Market orders
- Keep more buy and sell orders on the books at once. Buy now / Sell now never needs a slot.
- Open contracts
- List more item exchanges at the same time.
- Aether stipend
- 200 Æ every 30 days of Charter time, for liveries or toward your next Charter month.
- Vanguard liveries
- Exclusive paint schemes that every pilot in space can see, including finishes the free paints don't have: metal flake, pearl, a thin-film sheen and trims that glow.
- Pilot card
- Member frames, backgrounds and emblems for your pilot card.
- Vanguard badge
- The Vanguard chevron next to your name in chat and on your pilot (you can hide it).
- Cloud-saved layout
- Your window layout, audio and control settings follow you to every device.
- Colonial network
- Found one more colony than your Colonization level allows: more worlds to build on, not faster income (each extra colony earns less than the last).
- Flotilla skill
- Hire contracted mining crews at a station's Flotilla Office and train the Flotilla skill from their hauls, also while you're offline. Crews cost contract fees, wages and fuel, fly real ships other pilots can see and attack, and their capped haul earns far less per hour than flying yourself. If the Charter lapses they stand down in dock; nothing is lost.
- Reclamation skill
- Send salvage tugs from any station's Salvage Yard on timed expeditions into the Deep Drift. Fully automated: standing orders keep them sailing for up to 72 hours after you log off, and they bring home salvage, components and the odd Exodus relic. Charter fees and a daily salvage manifest keep it well below flying yourself.
- Xenobiology skill
- Grow alien strains in station Greenhouse Bays, from Lumen Moss to Voidvine. Crops grow in real time while you're away; treat blight between stages, then harvest food, medical supplies, luxury goods, Dusk Resin or Void Matter into the station hangar.
- Cartography skill
- Chart stars, worlds, belts, gates and anomalies for the faction survey offices and earn filing fees. Charts stay fresh for a week, and Cartography opens the deeper Salvage Yard fields.
- Members' areas
- The Deep Drift wreck fields beyond the charted cluster (reached by salvage tug), a Greenhouse Bay in every station, and a Deep Signal in every star system: a members-only site past the outermost world with a long survey, a big fee and sometimes a sealed Exodus databank. Plus 7 members' regions of the frontier, the Charter Reach, the Lantern Veil, the Halcyon Choir, the Thunderhead Reach, the Silverbough Cradle, the Vesper Reliquary, and the Starwell Hollows: their own Deep Drift fields and greenhouse biomes, pulsars, magnetars, nebulae and gate ruins to chart, and elite belts and relic sites (variety, never a better rate than free play). If the Charter lapses while you're there, gate control moves you and your ship to the nearest free station; nothing is lost.
- Vanguard hulls
- Two hulls built for the Vanguard skills, bought for credits in the Vanguard store: the Astrolabe survey yacht (charts 25% faster from 50% further out) and the Driftcomber salvage tender (a fifth salvage tug and richer Deep Drift hauls while it's docked at your yard). Sidegrades, never combat upgrades. If the Charter lapses you keep them; they wait safely in dock until you renew.
- Favorites
- Keep more starred places per pilot: stations, belts, worlds, gates, sites, colonies, whole systems and saved points in space, each one click from Travel. A convenience only; if the Charter lapses nothing is deleted, you just can't add more until you're under the free limit.
Vanguard skills#
Members can train 6 extra skills: Flotilla, Reclamation, Xenobiology, Extracting, Cartography and Captaincy. They are members' content in the classic sense: new activities to enjoy, built so they never buy power.
- Their bonuses work only inside their own activity: a high Cartography level makes charting better and nothing else.
- They count toward no total level, pilot level, Overall ranking or achievement. Each has its own hiscore board, marked Vanguard. The core skills are the same for everyone.
- Every Vanguard activity costs credits to run, is capped per account each day, and earns far less per hour than flying yourself.
- Skill Tomes can't be used on them: they train only from their own activity.
| Skill | What you do | Bonus (inside its own activity) |
|---|---|---|
| Flotilla | Contracting and commanding mining crews that work the belts for you. Trained by the ore your flotilla delivers, also while you're offline. | More and bigger crews with level · +0.25% crew yield & −0.3% wages per level (flotillas only) |
| Reclamation | Sending contracted salvage tugs on timed expeditions into the Deep Drift, the wreck fields beyond the charted cluster. Fully automated: standing orders keep the tugs sailing while you're offline. Trained by every expedition hour. | More tugs with level · +0.3% haul & −0.2% expedition fees per level (expeditions only) |
| Xenobiology | Growing alien flora in station Greenhouse Bays. Crops grow in real time, also while you're away; tend blight and come back to harvest. Trained by planting and harvesting. | More plots with level · +0.3% crop yield & −0.5% blight per level (greenhouses only) |
| Extracting | Surveying moons with Seismic Beacons and building drill rigs on their deposits, the Syndicate's deep-bore tradition. Rigs stay where you build them, work while you're away and are seen by every pilot on the moon; keep them fueled and land beside them to collect. Trained by everything you collect, every survey and every rig you build. | More rigs, deeper deposits and heavier rigs with level · +0.3% rig output per level (rigs only) |
| Cartography | Charting stars, worlds, belts and signals for the faction survey offices, and tracing each system's Deep Signal. Trained by every chart you file. | Harder targets with level · +0.4% survey fees per level (charting only) |
| Captaincy | Hiring and commanding Retainers: wings of contracted warships that escort you, hold a point, strike or raid anywhere in the cluster. Trained by commanding them while you're online: their fights and their hours on duty. | More ships, wings and heavier hulls with level · up to 50 ships in 10 wings at 99 (Retainers only) |
From the game's own data
Read more in Skills, Clans and groups, Planets and colonies and Exploration.
Vanguard hulls#
Two hulls are built for the Vanguard skills. They are bought with in-game credits in the Vanguard store and at Vanguard berths in the capital trade hubs, and they are sidegrades: utility ships for their activity, weaker in a fight than the free hulls of their tier.
| Hull | Class | Hold | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astrolabe | Pathfinder | 600 m³ | Vanguard survey yacht: charts 25% faster with 50% more survey range, fast cruise, light guns |
| Driftcomber | Hauler | 9,000 m³ | Vanguard salvage tender: a fifth Salvage Yard tug and +10% expedition hauls while docked at the yard, +20% salvage, 9,000 m³ hold |
From the game's own data
Members' areas#
The Deep Drift wreck fields (reached by salvage tug), a Greenhouse Bay in every station, and a Deep Signal in every star system: a members-only site past the outermost world. Members can also fly the frontier's members' regions: the Charter Reach, the Lantern Veil, the Halcyon Choir, the Thunderhead Reach, the Silverbough Cradle, the Vesper Reliquary and the Starwell Hollows. They add variety (their own wreck fields, greenhouse biomes, stellar sights to chart, elite belts and relic sites), never a better rate than free space.
Looks#
Members fly 10 Vanguard liveries, including finishes the free paints don't have: metal flake, pearl, a thin-film sheen and trims that glow. Every pilot in space sees them. The Vanguard chevron sits next to your name in chat (you can hide it), and members get extra pilot card frames, backgrounds and emblems.
The Vanguard liveries
| Livery | Description |
|---|---|
| Vanguard Ivory | The colors of the first ships through the wormhole. |
| Nebula Veil | Deep violet hull with a glowing magenta trim. |
| Solar Wind | Burnt orange plating, charred panels and a sun-gold accent. |
| Void Runner | Near-black hull with cold cyan running lights. |
| Moonpearl | Warm pearl over plum-gray with a lavender sheen at the edges and softly breathing lavender trim. |
| Nightprism | A near-black thin-film coat that slides through teal, violet and gold as the hull turns, with mint light running aft along the trim. |
| Cold Chrome | Bright metal-flake silver over graphite with electric-blue accents and a blue drive. |
| Tidal Lumen | Deep-water teal with a pearl sheen and bioluminescent bands that roll aft along the trim. |
| Rose Anodize | Anodized rose-copper flake over dark cocoa with champagne trim. |
| Standard Bearer | Parade ivory flake and deep navy under a gold spine and chevrons that glow in slow time. |
From the game's own data
If your Charter lapses#
Nothing you earned is deleted or taken away. Members-only things pause until you renew, and everything picks up where it left off.
- Pilots: your account drops back to 3 pilot slots. Your most recently flown pilots stay playable; the others wait in cryo-storage until you're back.
- Vanguard skills: you keep every point of XP and your hiscore entries. You just can't train them until you renew.
- Vanguard hulls: you keep them. They stay safely docked; board another ship to undock.
- Vanguard items (Vanguard hulls as packaged ships, Retainer Writs, Extracting gear and their blueprints): you keep them, but can't use, list or send them. Open market orders for them are canceled (buy escrow back to your wallet, listings back to their station hangar) and contracts holding them return to your hangar. See Trading: Vanguard items.
- Crews and wings: flotilla crews stand down in dock, and Retainer wings stand down with their contract clocks paused.
- Members' regions: if you are in one when the Charter lapses, gate control moves you and your ship to the nearest free station.
- Liveries: a ship in a Vanguard livery quietly returns to its faction colors. Liveries bought with Aether or credits are yours for good.
- Favorites: nothing is deleted; you can't add more until you are under the free limit of 100.
- Aether: your balance stays on your account.
Fair play#
The Charter comes with a promise, shown in the store so you can check it yourself:
- Every module, every core activity (combat, mining, trade, colonies) and every combat, mining and trade ship is open to every pilot. The Vanguard hulls are utility sidegrades for the Vanguard skills, weaker in a fight than the free hulls of their tier. The members' regions add more places to go, never better rates than free space.
- Skill XP rates, combat stats and loot are the same for everyone. The Vanguard skills (Flotilla, Reclamation, Xenobiology, Extracting, Cartography and Captaincy) have their own hiscore boards but count toward no total level, Overall ranking or achievement, and their bonuses stay inside their own activity.
- Market fees, taxes and mission rewards are the same for everyone.
- Aether and Charter perks can never become credits or items. Credits, ships and modules can only be earned in play.
Playing fair#
XETODUS is a competitive world with a shared economy, and piracy, ambushes and rivalry inside the rules are part of it. A few things are not, and they put your account at risk:
- Cheating: bots, macros that play for you, modified clients, or exploiting bugs. Found a bug? Report it instead.
- Real-money trading: buying or selling accounts, credits, items, ships or services for money or anything outside the game.
- Account sharing: one person owns an account. Don't share, sell or lend it.
- Scams for account details, harassment and impersonating staff.
The full rules are in the Terms of Service. Report a problem in game or on our Discord.
How the economy works#
XETODUS has one shared, player-driven economy. Credits enter the game when you earn them from the game itself, change hands between pilots on the market and in contracts, and leave the game when you pay fees, taxes and upkeep. Almost everything you can buy was made by a pilot.
- Where credits come from
- Pirate bounties, Job Board missions, quests and the story, station buy orders (selling ore, materials, salvage and loot to a station), Flight School lessons, colony taxes, Hull Bond payouts and the members' activities.
- Where credits go
- The market's broker fee and sales tax, contract listing fees, station repairs (shields are free; armor and hull cost), Hull Bond premiums, colony building and upkeep, the running costs of crews, tugs and rigs, credit liveries, and whatever you buy from station sellers.
- Between pilots
- Everything else: market trades, contracts and credit transfers move credits around without creating or destroying them.
Station traders and the player market#
Every station keeps its own buy and sell orders as a safety net, so you can always sell ore or buy ammunition. They are never the best deal: station sellers ask more than a player-made item costs to make, station buyers pay less, and their stock is shallow and refills over hours. So the best prices are between pilots, and bulk demand goes to the miners, builders and haulers who supply it. Prices differ by region, station type and faction, which is what makes hauling pay. See Trading.
- Some things are scarce on purpose: no station ever sells named modules, relics, trophies, Novacite, Crown Alloy or Aether Vouchers. They come from play and change hands between pilots.
- Rich resources are slow to regrow: rare asteroids take hours to come back, so the best belts reward the pilots who work them, not one ship camping them.
- Rewards are balanced against risk: Lawless space pays more than Contested, and Contested more than Secure.
Hull Bonds#
Losing a ship is part of the game. The Keelwright Mutual bonds a hull against loss: pay a premium per 14-day term, and when the hull is destroyed it pays out a share of its keel value, the value of the raw materials in it. Bond a hull in the Hangar while docked. Fitted modules and declared cargo can be added to the bond.
| Bond | Pays out on a loss | Premium per term | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salvage Bond | 40% of the keel value | 5% of the keel value | Cheap cover for hulls you expect to lose. |
| Keel Bond | 70% of the keel value | 12% of the keel value | The usual cover for a working hull. |
| Full Keel Bond | 100% of the keel value | 25% of the keel value | Pays the whole keel value. |
Premiums fall by up to 30% as your pilot level rises to 99. The largest hull classes cost more to bond. From the game's own data
The details (what is covered, renewals and the few losses that pay half or nothing) are in Ships: Hull Bonds.
Currencies#
| Currency | Symbol | Where it comes from | What it's for | Tradeable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credits | ₡ | Everything you do in play: bounties, missions, trade, mining, industry | Ships, modules, materials, fees, repairs, colonies, credit liveries | Yes: market, contracts, Wallet transfers |
| Aether | Æ | Aether Vouchers, the Vanguard stipend, Recruit a Wingmate rewards, and Aether packs in the store where card payments are open | Vanguard Charter time, liveries and pilot card frames | No: account-bound |
| Merits | ◆ | Job Board missions, quests and some events | Faction gear at a station's Merit Store | No |
| Bounty Points | Finished bounty tasks | Hunting upgrades, gear and liveries at a Bounty Office | No |
Credits#
Credits are the game's money. Each pilot has a wallet, shown at the top of the station screen. The Wallet service shows your balance, a journal of every credit in and out, and Send credits to pay another pilot.
Aether#
Aether is the account's premium currency. It buys Vanguard Charter time, liveries and pilot card frames in the Vanguard store, and nothing else: it can never become credits or items, it has no cash value, and it is shared by all pilots on your account.
| Item | Kind | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days of Vanguard Charter | Membership time | 500 Æ |
| Glacier | Livery (yours for good) | 300 Æ |
| Crimson Comet | Livery (yours for good) | 300 Æ |
| Jade Circuit | Livery (yours for good) | 400 Æ |
| Gilded Exodus | Livery (yours for good) | 600 Æ |
| Circuit Trace | Pilot card frame (yours for good) | 150 Æ |
| Gilded Bezel | Pilot card frame (yours for good) | 300 Æ |
From the game's own data
Aether Vouchers#
An Aether Voucher is the bridge between the two: an ordinary item that drops in play (raids, for example) and trades freely on the market and in contracts. Redeeming one in the Vanguard store's Aether tab turns it into 100 Æ for your account, and that can't be undone. It means anything Aether buys can also be earned by playing, and pilots who'd rather fly than spend can buy vouchers from those who'd rather spend than fly.
The Merit Store#
Merits (◆) are what the factions pay you for your service, on top of credits: every Job Board mission, most quests and dailies, and the big dynamic events pay some. Hover the ◆ next to your credits to see your balance, and click it while docked to open the station's Merit Store (under Missions & Activities in the station's services).
Every Accord, Syndicate and Dominion station runs a Merit Store. Hollow Crown hideouts don't. Each store sells the same core of field kits and seals, plus its own faction's gear, so the Accord's modules are only found at Accord stations. You can shop at any faction's store, but a pilot of another faction pays 25% more Merits there. Every item also has a credit price, paid along with the Merits.
| Goods | What they are | Price | Who can buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Faction-Issue modules | Rare sidegrades of standard modules in the faction's style | ◆ 250 to 700 | Trusted: pilot level 20 |
| Field kits | Repair gel, barrier charges, surge cells and one faction kit, in packs | ◆ 30 to 60 a pack | Enlisted: every pilot |
| Requisition Seals | The faction's sign-off that every Faction-Issue build needs | ◆ 30 each | Enlisted: every pilot |
| Blueprints | Build Faction-Issue modules yourself (6 modules' worth of Merits) | ◆ 1,500 to 4,200 | Commended: pilot level 35 and your faction's opening story |
| Faction livery | The faction's paint for every ship on your account | ◆ 2,000 | Commended: pilot level 35 and your faction's opening story |
From the game's own data
| Stations of | Faction-Issue modules | Livery |
|---|---|---|
| Solari Accord | Accord-Issue Pulse Emitter S, Accord-Issue Pulse Emitter M, Accord-Issue Pulse Emitter L, Accord-Issue Barrier Amplifier, Accord-Issue Barrier Regenerator, Accord-Issue Point Defense | Marshal's Dress |
| Kheper Syndicate | Syndicate-Issue Mass Driver S, Syndicate-Issue Mass Driver M, Syndicate-Issue Mass Driver L, Syndicate-Issue Mining Laser S, Syndicate-Issue Seam Cutter M, Syndicate-Issue Hold Extension, Syndicate-Issue Structural Bracing | Guild Hazard |
| Vanta Dominion | Dominion-Issue Missile Launcher S, Dominion-Issue Missile Launcher M, Dominion-Issue Siege Launcher L, Dominion-Issue Burst Thruster, Dominion-Issue Nanite Repair Array, Dominion-Issue Reserve Cell Bank | Crimson Muster |
From the game's own data
Tiers#
There is no faction standing to grind: the stores trust you by pilot level. Enlisted goods are for everyone, Trusted goods open at pilot level 20, and Commended goods need pilot level 35 and your own faction's three-part opening story. A locked item shows what it needs.
Faction-Issue gear#
Faction-Issue modules are Rare sidegrades: each is better than the standard module at one thing and worse at another, in its faction's style. The Accord's are steady and efficient, the Syndicate's rugged, the Dominion's run hot. They are never stronger than the Exodus-Pattern modules found in wrecks, and nowhere near a Legendary. Their item card shows the exact numbers, and the same skill floor as Crown-Forged gear applies.
A faction blueprint builds the module at your own Industry line: one standard module, quantum processors and Requisition Seals per build. Seals are the Merit price of every copy, so a blueprint pays for itself after several builds.
Items you buy are delivered to that station's hangar. A livery is yours at once on every ship: pick it in Fitting.
Something missing or out of date? Tell us on our Discord. More answers in the FAQ.