$5.99 (−60%)Starbound A Whole Universe to Call Home
Flee a broken past, then craft, build and explore colorful alien worlds at your own pace, alone or with friends.
Is Starbound worth it?
Starbound is worth it if…
- you like exploring planet after planet to see what turns up
- you like building and decorating with a huge catalogue of parts
- you like relaxed sandbox games with farming, collecting, and quests
- you want easy online co-op for shared exploring and town-building
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A universe that keeps handing you planets
You patch up your starship, point it at the next star, and beam down to see what is waiting. One planet has an ancient temple, the next a modern metropolis, then trees with eyes and some mischievous penguins. You gather fuel, upgrade gear, and push toward tougher star types with better ores and armor. Exploration is a highlight, with villages, dungeons, and odd treasures scattered across surfaces and caves. It suits slow evenings of just one more planet before bed.
Build a cabin, a castle, or an underwater arcade
You collect hundreds of materials and more than two thousand objects, then shape them into whatever you like. A sleepy cabin in the woods, a medieval castle, a space station of your own. Placement is forgiving, with background walls that go down with a right click, plus blocks, furniture, paint, and wiring for fiddlier ideas. Decorate and expand your ship too, print objects you have already scanned, and raise a whole town if you want tenants to fill it.
Settle down or play hero
You create a character from seven playable races and choose your own pace through the story campaign of quests, dungeons, and bosses. Save the universe from what destroyed your home, or skip the hero work to farm the land, cook meals, fish, and become an intergalactic landlord. Happy tenants leave gifts, and some may even ask to join your ship crew. Capture unique monsters to fight beside you, tame the routine, then head back out when restlessness returns.
Bring friends and bend the rules
Three modes set the stakes: Casual with no need to eat, Survival with hunger and dropped items on death, and Hardcore with permadeath. The game is built to be moddable, with tools to add items, races, planet types, dungeons, and quests. Custom mechs, hover bikes, boats, and movement techs give you more ways to cross land, sea, and space.
What else should you know?
How does the story campaign work?
You start as a new graduate fleeing a force that destroys your home, then repair your ship and chase the artifacts that can stop it. The campaign runs through colorful characters, quests, dungeons, and bosses across tougher star systems. You can follow it straight through or wander off to build and colonize, since there is no wrong way to play.
What can you do besides fighting?
Quite a lot. Farm crops, cook food, fish, collect rare creatures, capture monsters as companions, gather tenants for colonies, decorate your ship, build towns and stations, craft armor, weapons, and furniture, or put together a custom mech. The fighting is straightforward, so the quiet projects carry much of the appeal.
How do survival and difficulty work?
Pick from three modes at the start. Casual skips hunger, Survival makes you eat and drops items on death, and Hardcore ends the run on death. Planets and stars also gate progress through gear and environmental hazards, so better ores and armor open harsher systems. Bring food and prepare before hopping somewhere dangerous.
Can you play Starbound with friends?
Yes. The whole game supports online drop-in and drop-out co-op, so friends can join your universe to explore, build, quest, and clear dungeons together.
