The Space Cadet Field Manual

🛰️ What is Space Cadet?

Space Cadet is a real-time, multiplayer voxel space MMO that runs in your browser — no download, no install. Connect your Solana wallet, claim a planet, and you’re in a shared galaxy alongside other live players (or spectate free, no wallet).

You start as a Pioneer, arriving on a bare Home planet in a one-shot Landing Pod — no house, no gate, just you and the land. You gather resources, craft a tool, build your House, then build a Jump Gate to unlock travel — and from there construct a starship, explore other worlds, and test yourself in PvP, all on an isometric voxel surface that updates live as other players move and fight around you.

🧑‍🚀 Create your Pioneer

Your first step is the Pioneer configurator — pick a name and customize your look.

• Name — choose your Pioneer's handle (shown to other players).
• Colors — tune your astronaut's color scheme in the configurator.
• Persistent identity — your Pioneer carries your levels, perks, inventory, and claimed Home across sessions.

🔐

Connect a wallet to play

Playing requires connecting a Solana wallet — a one-time signature (it moves no funds, approves no transaction) that ties your pilot, progress & inventory to your wallet so you can reconnect on any device. Just want to look around? Spectating is free and needs no wallet.

🎯 Onboarding & Goals

A guided onboarding track teaches the game by doing — and a visible goal list always tells you what to do next.

Your first session is a guided onboarding on a bare Home: move, gather Wood & Stone, craft an Axe, build your House, then build your Jump Gate — which unlocks travel and sends you off to Verdis. After that, an on-screen goal track keeps surfacing the next worthwhile objective so you're never staring at a blank galaxy wondering where to start.

👁️ Spectating

Watch the live galaxy before you commit a single click — no character, no account, nothing saved.

Hit Spectate on the home page (it opens the game with ?spectate) to drop in as a passive viewer. You skip character creation entirely and arrive in a populated shared world with a free camera — drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom.

🎮 Controls

Hybrid controls that feel right on both a phone and a desktop. The same game, two input styles.

Movement

• Click / tap to move — point where you want to go.
• Desktop: W A S D or ↑ ↓ ← → for direct steering.
• Mobile: the thumb joystick for analog movement.

Combat

Combat is driven by a combat action bar — no targeting: run up to a foe and press Attack to swing at whatever's in front of you (it auto-fires while you're adjacent), plus Dash, Block and Medkit. Bodies are solid (no overlapping), and your equipped weapon & armor show on your character. Players only fight each other in the Crucible & the Void; mobs can be fought anywhere. See Combat & PvP for the full breakdown.

🪐 The Worlds

Each world has its own resources, mood, and danger. Some you farm, some you fight on, one is yours to keep.

HOME · CLAIM

Home

Your claimed planet. Build a base, place defenses, and run idle production that ticks while you're offline. The one place that's truly yours.

VERDIS

Verdis

Fuel & organics, wrapped in the living Bloom cycle — the world blooms and recedes, changing what's ripe to harvest.

FERROS

Ferros

Metals & crystal in oxblood canyons. Slow salvage drones guard the richest veins — fight or sneak past them.

TIDEWATER

Tidewater

The chill spot. Fishing and a calmer pace — a place to unwind and stock fish between runs.

PvP ARENA

The Crucible

An on-foot PvP arena with a Bastion safe zone, AI duelists, loot crates, and an objective. Opt in when you're ready to throw down.

SHIP PvP

The Contested Void

Ship-vs-ship PvP space. Your starship is your avatar out here — hunt, get hunted, and watch for AI pirates.

SOLO ARENA

The Gauntlet

Pay to enter, fight for the bounty. A solo wave-survival arena — defeat escalating waves of strong enemies for a scaling Credits + XP bounty, plus a rare drop for a full clear. See The Gauntlet.

🚀 Travel

Getting around is part of the game. There are two ways to move between worlds — a free gate, and a ship you build.

The travel cinematic

Jumping between worlds plays a short travel cinematic — a flight sequence that covers the transition between surfaces, so the galaxy feels connected rather than menu-driven.

⛏️ Gather & Craft

Resources are the lifeblood of everything you build. Each is harvested with the right tool — and respawns based on how dense the area is.

Resources

Tool-gating & respawn

• Tool-gated harvesting — you need the right tool for the job: an axe for wood, a pickaxe for stone, a drill for metal and crystal, and the new Excavator for the rare Titanium & Aether veins.
• The rares are gated & slow — Titanium needs an Excavator T1 + Level 8; Aether needs an Excavator T2 + Level 15 (both enforced server-side). They drop 1 unit/hit on a slow swing with only a handful of veins per world and a long respawn — stocking ~40 Titanium is a multi-session effort.
• A real time cost — each node holds only a few units, and a better tool tier raises your yield and swing speed. Depleted patches take a little while to grow back, so gathering rewards patience and better gear — not button-mashing.
• Density-based respawn — nodes regrow based on local density, so rich areas keep producing and over-harvested patches thin out.

The Crafting Bench

At the Crafting Bench you turn raw resources into gear. Each track is a deep ladder — you craft tier N-1 before tier N — and the high tiers are crystal-heavy goals worth hours of stocking. The weapon ladder is the clearest example of progression-through-crafting:

📈 Progression

Playing earns XP and levels, and leveling earns perks that actually change how you play. Power is always earned, never bought.

Every meaningful action grants XP. As you level up, you earn points to spend across perk/skill tracks. The Character panel is where you review your stats, allocate perks, and see your growth.

Perk / skill tracks

• Vitality — survivability: more health and resilience.
• Harvesting — faster, richer gathering.
• Combat — hit harder, fight smarter.
• Mobility — move and dash with more agility.

⚔️ Combat & PvP

No targeting, no lock-on. Run up to something and swing — whatever's in front of you takes the hit. Simple on a phone, fast on desktop.

Run up and swing

There's no target to select. Move into range, face the enemy, and attack — the swing hits whatever's in front of you. Use the action bar:

• Attack E — swings at whatever's in front of you and in reach. No selecting first. While you're standing next to a foe your swings auto-fire on the beat, so you can focus on moving and dodging. A swing into empty air is a harmless whiff.
• Dash Space — a burst of movement (close or escape) with a brief flash of invulnerability.
• Block — hold to soak a hit; drains a stamina meter (needs a crafted Shield).
• Medkit Q — heal +45 HP over 3s (needs crafted Medkits).

Every button gives instant feedback: a swing, a sound, or a toast explaining why it can't fire yet (e.g. "Craft a Shield to Block"). Enemies and players show floating HP bars and names.

🏟️ The Crucible — on-foot PvP arena

The Crucible is opt-in, structured player-vs-player combat:

• Bastion safe zone — a no-PvP staging area. You're only flagged for PvP once you step out ("flag-out").
• AI duelists — practice and pressure even when human players are scarce.
• Loot crates scattered across the arena reward aggression.
• An objective to contest and a scoreboard to top.

🌌 The Contested Void — ship PvP

Out in the Void, your ship is your avatar. It's open ship-vs-ship PvP space patrolled by AI pirates — hunt other pilots, contest the space, and watch your cargo. Your ship class sets how your ship fights out here.

🛸 Ship classes — six functional hulls

Six ship hulls, each a distinct stat profile for the Void — earned by playing, never bought. You build a hull at the Crafting Bench with gathered resources + a level gate (plus a small Credit cost) — the same "earn it" rail as weapon and armor tiers. You equip one active hull; its HP, damage, speed, and cargo capacity apply to your ship in the Void.

🏟 The Gauntlet

A drop-in co-op wave-survival arena — land with other pilots, ready up, and fight escalating waves together for a scaling bounty + a rare drop. The bigger the squad, the bigger the waves.

Waves & bounty

• Escalating waves — each wave spawns a bigger, tougher batch (more enemies, and every wave they hit harder with more HP): early drones & mites, then skimmers & spitters, then heavy hulks — capped by the Hivemother boss wave. Mobs immediately hunt the nearest pilot across the whole arena.
• Scaling bounty — clear every enemy in a wave and the whole squad banks a Credits + XP bounty that grows each wave. Bounties are granted per wave, so they're yours to keep even if you fall later.
• Full clear — survive the final boss wave for a big bounty + a rare resource drop, then you're warped home a champion.

💱 Economy & Vault

The in-game economy runs on Credits — earned by playing. The Exchange lets you trade resources, and the Vault keeps your gains safe.

🏗️ Base & Raids

Build a base that produces while you sleep — and defend it from other Pioneers in capped, vault-safe raids.

Your first builds — the Core

Home starts bare — you arrive in a Landing Pod with no house and no gate. Your first two builds are the 🏠 House (a cheap claim-the-planet beat) and the ⟁ Jump Gate, which unlocks travel off Home. Both cost only Wood & Stone you gather on Home, so you can never be stranded. They can be relocated but never demolished — your home and your way out stay safe.

Base building & defenses

From there you build out a base with idle production and defensive structures:

High-value functional builds · RARE

Titanium & Aether unlock a tier of functional structures — all placed in the constrained, defensible build core (no spamming unlimited turrets):

Decor — the show-off economy

Decorating Home is the game's deepest cosmetic Credit sink, and it's P2W-clean: every decor prop has zero stats — no yield, no defense, no buff. Pure flex.

• Starter decor (fences, paths, lamps, planters, statues, rocks) is yours from the start — place it for a few Credits each.
• The Decor catalog in the ✦ Wardrobe → ⌂ Decor tab sells rarity-tiered show-off props you own, then place for free as often as you like.
• Buy with Credits — from a Garden Bench (60 Cr, common) up to a Crystal Tree (1300 Cr, epic), a Star Obelisk (1600 Cr), and legendary glowing pieces: a Pulsar Beacon (3400 Cr) and an Aurora Shrine (4200 Cr).
• Earn the rest — the Aurora Arch (reach level 10), the Pioneer Monument (reach level 20), and the legendary Raider Trophy (win a planet raid).
• Ownership is server-owned — you can only place decor you actually own, and placing what you own never costs you twice.

Biomes & Terraform

When you first claim Home you choose its biome — the kind of world it is. Biomes are purely cosmetic: they recolor the ground, sky, and moat only, and never change yields, defense, or any gameplay number. Lava and ice are art, not hazards — Home is always your safe zone.

• Verdant, Volcanic, Ice, and Desert are free from the start.
• Crystal (level 15) and Barren Moon (level 25) are earned — they unlock as you level up, an extra identity flex you grind for.
• Your first pick is free. Later you can 🌍 Terraform to any unlocked biome for 1500 Credits — your buildings and decor stay exactly where you placed them.

Async planet raids

Raids are asynchronous — you attack a snapshot of a rival's defended base rather than needing them online. Crucially, they're built to avoid toxicity and protect your progress:

• Capped loot — raids yield a limited amount, never a full wipe.
• Vault-safe — anything in your Vault is untouchable; only unsecured loot is exposed.
• Anti-toxicity protections — shields and cooldowns prevent a base from being raided into the ground.

🎨 Identity & Cosmetics

Look the part. Cosmetics let you style your astronaut and ship — and they're strictly cosmetic, never power.

• Astronaut & ship cosmetics — change how you and your ship look.
• The Armory — "pimp" your kit: buy rarity-tiered weapon & armor skins with Credits to re-color your visible held weapon and armor plating. Skins are cosmetic only — your gear tier still drives all power.
• Home decor — rarity-tiered show-off props for your planet (see Your Home Base). Bought with Credits or earned via achievements, then placed on what's yours.
• The Wardrobe — tabs for Suit, Visor, Trail, ⚔ Weapon, 🛡 Armor, Ship, and ⌂ Decor to equip your looks and own your decor.
• Rarity tiers — common through legendary cosmetics to chase, all bought with Credits.
• Earned or bought — unlock them by playing, or via the premium cosmetic layer.

💬 Social

Space Cadet is a shared galaxy — team up, form crews, and talk across the right channels.

🏆 Leaderboards

See how you stack up against every pilot in the galaxy. Open 🏆 Ranks from the dock to view the global top 25.

🪐 Visiting & Show-off

Your Home planet is the one place that's truly yours — so show it off. Browse a directory of other pilots' planets, tour one as a guest, leave a like, and sign their guestbook.

📜 Quests

There's always a reason to log in. Daily quests refresh objectives; achievements reward the long haul.

Mid & Late Game — the goal ladder

After the Crucible, your Goals track becomes a long end-game ladder that surfaces the Wave-2 systems one step at a time — the same Titanium → Fabricator → Arc Forge → Aether → capstone-hull loop, now a guided chase with scaling XP & Credit rewards:

Alongside it, long-term achievements give you many things to chase in parallel — Titanium Miner / Baron (50 / 250 Titanium), Aether Adept / Master (20 / 100 Aether), Warlord (200 kills), Mass Driller (gather 20,000), Magnate (sell 2,000), Master Crafter (craft 50), Champion & Void Ace (10 arena wins each), Raid Lord (10 raids), and Master Angler (catch 100 fish). Every counter is server-tracked and saved, so progress never desyncs.

🛡️ Multiplayer & Fair Play

It's a real MMO under the hood: the server is the source of truth, so the playing field stays level.

• Real-time & server-authoritative — the server validates movement, combat, and economy actions. Clients propose; the server decides.
• Anti-cheat by design — because the server is authoritative, you can't fake position, fabricate loot, or dupe resources.
• Accounts & cross-device persistence — your Pioneer is saved server-side and follows you across devices.

🪙 $SPACE & Crypto

$SPACE is Space Cadet's Solana token. It's a premium, cosmetic layer on top of the game — not a power-up, and not required to play.

SOLANA · DEVNET

$SPACE is in devnet testing

The token is live on Solana devnet only right now — it has no real value yet. Mainnet launch happens when the game is fully playable. Everything below is real and testable today on devnet.

🔌 Wallet sign-in (optional)

Connect a Phantom (or any Solana) wallet to link your account. It's entirely optional — it makes your account portable across devices. The server stores only your public key and never holds private keys; all signing happens in your own wallet.

💰 Credits vs. $SPACE

📦 Supply Drops

Supply Drops are premium cosmetic drops bought with $SPACE. Every purchase carries a 50% burn — half the spent $SPACE is permanently destroyed, shrinking supply over time. Supply Drops are cosmetic-only; they never contain stats or power.

🚪 The token gate (built, currently OFF)

A gate requiring you to hold ≥ 1 $SPACE to play is built in the engine — but it's currently off. During testing the game is open to everyone, no token needed. If it's ever enabled at launch, it would only ever gate access, never sell power.

🧪 Testing on Devnet

Want to try the crypto layer? It runs end-to-end on Solana devnet today — with a faucet, so it costs you nothing.

1. Set Phantom to Devnet. In Phantom: Settings → Developer Settings → change the network to Devnet.
2. Connect your wallet in the in-game $SPACE panel.
3. Get test $SPACE from the built-in faucet ("Get test $SPACE").
4. Buy a Supply Drop with your test $SPACE to see the cosmetic drop + 50% burn flow in action.

# Solana cluster
network   = Solana Devnet
faucet    = in-game $SPACE panel → "Get test $SPACE"
value     = test-only — no real value
gate      = OFF (open to everyone)
burn      = 50% on every Supply Drop

🗺️ Roadmap

What's live today versus what's coming. We document honestly — if it's not built, it's marked Coming.

1. LIVE · NOW

   The full core loop

   Claim & build your Home, gather & craft, travel (Jump Gate + Starship), the Crucible & Contested Void PvP, Credits + Exchange + Vault, async raids, progression, social, quests — and the devnet crypto layer.

2. COMING

   Deeper ships

   More ship hulls and classes — bigger range, more weapons and modules.

3. COMING

   Interactive raids

   Richer, more interactive raid encounters beyond today's async snapshots.

4. COMING

   More PvE & world events

   New enemy types, dynamic events, and the payoff of the galaxy's deeper mysteries.

5. COMING

   Mainnet launch

   $SPACE moves from devnet to Solana mainnet once the game is fully playable. A config flip, not a rebuild.

❓ FAQ

The quick answers.