Starbound: Complete Guide

A complete guide to Starbound: choosing a race and difficulty, your first planet, tier and ore progression, the story missions and bosses, ship upgrades, colonies and crew, mechs, bounty hunting, multiplayer and mods.

Researched September 2026 — current as of version 1.4.4 (hotfix, November 2024). Starbound's last content update was 1.4 "Bounty Hunter" (2019); the game is complete but still maintained with small fixes. Check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Race is mostly cosmetic. All seven races (Apex, Avian, Floran, Glitch, Human, Hylotl, Novakid) play the same. Race changes starting gear style, ship design, dialogue and which furniture and weapons you find in villages.
• Choose your mode carefully. Casual (no hunger), Survival (eat to survive, drop items on death) or Hardcore (permadeath). Casual is best for a first run with friends; Survival is the intended experience.
• Follow SAIL. Your ship's AI gives the opening quests that repair your ship, get you off your starter planet and to the Outpost.
• Upgrade the Matter Manipulator. Manipulator Modules found in chests and dungeons boost mining speed, size and add wiring and paint tools.
• Carry torches and a flashlight. Underground is pitch black and full of drops.
• Plant your beam-down location in your head. You can always beam back to your ship if you have the teleporter available, which gets you out of most trouble.
• Ore tier = progression. Better ore means better armor and weapons, which unlock more dangerous planets and the next story mission.
• Pixels are money. Enemies, chests and selling items at the Outpost give Pixels. You'll need lots of them for ship upgrades.
• Play with friends. All content is drop-in/drop-out co-op.

Races

Race | Flavour | Ship

Apex | Ape-like scientists under the Miniknog regime | Sci-fi lab style

Avian | Bird people who worship Kluex | Temple style

Floran | Plant hunters | Organic style

Glitch | Medieval robots | Castle style

Human | Earth survivors | Military style

Hylotl | Underwater culture, Japanese-inspired | Pagoda style

Novakid | Star-cowboy gunslingers | Frontier style

Pick whichever you like looking at; there are no stat differences.

Difficulty Modes

Mode | Hunger | On death

Casual | None | Minor penalty; keep your items

Survival | Yes | Drop items and lose Pixels

Hardcore | Yes | Permadeath; the character is gone

Your First Planet

• Beam down and gather: plant fibre, wood, cobblestone and copper and iron ore near the surface. Grab everything from chests.
• Build your early crafting stations: a campfire for cooking, a crafting table, and a furnace for smelting ore into bars.
• Make basic armor and a weapon from iron and copper as soon as you can.
• Cook food. Raw food spoils and heals little; cooked meals are better.
• Dig for ore and Manipulator Modules. Underground chests and small dungeons hold modules, weapons and furniture.
• Complete SAIL's quests to repair and fuel the ship, which lets you leave the system.
• Pick up a bed or build one on the ship. Sleeping heals.

Ore and Tier Progression

Planets have a threat tier shown in the navigation console. Each tier introduces the ore you need for the next armor set.

Tier | Key ore | What it unlocks

1 | Copper, Iron | Iron armor (Iron Bars) and starter tools

2 | Tungsten | Tungsten armor and weapons

3 | Titanium | Titanium gear

4 | Durasteel | Durasteel gear

5 | Aegisalt, Ferozium, Violium | Three armor paths: Accelerator (Refined Aegisalt), Manipulator (Refined Ferozium) and Separator (Refined Violium)

6 | Solarium | Endgame versions of the three paths, crafted with Solarium Stars

Environmental hazards on higher-tier planets (radiation, extreme cold, extreme heat, lack of air) require Enviro Protection Packs (EPPs) or armor augments. Check the planet info in the navigation console before beaming down.

Fuel and Travel

• Erchius Fuel crystals power your FTL drive. Mine them on moons, where they're common, or buy fuel.
• Short hops within a system are free; FTL jumps between systems use fuel.
• Bookmarks save interesting planets and villages.

The Outpost

After the early story, you reach the Outpost, the game's hub. It has vendors, quest-givers and the Ark, where Esther Bright directs the main story.

Vendor | What they do

Penguin Pete | Ship upgrades (bigger ships need a larger crew plus Pixels)

Terramart | Sells basics and buys your loot

Frögg Furnishing | Furniture and building materials

Infinity Express | General goods

Treasured Trophies | Trophies and decorative items

Story Missions and Bosses

Each mission is a self-contained instance reached through SAIL. Clearing one unlocks an artifact needed for the final mission. Your armor tier should match the mission's difficulty; bosses hit very hard with underpowered gear.

Mission | Race | Boss | Tier

Erchius Mining Facility | Human | Erchius Horror | 1

Ceremonial Hunting Caverns | Floran | Ixodoom | 2

Grand Pagoda Library | Hylotl | Asra Nox | 3

Great Sovereign Temple | Avian | Kluex Avatar | 4

Miniknog Stronghold | Apex | Big Ape | 5

Baron's Keep | Glitch | Bone Dragon | 6

Ruin (final mission) | n/a | Heart of the Ruin | Final

Boss tips

• Erchius Horror: the first real boss. Stay mobile, learn its beam pattern and watch the arena mechanics.
• Mid-game bosses (Ixodoom, Asra Nox, Kluex Avatar, Big Ape, Bone Dragon): each has a distinct pattern with telegraphed big attacks. Spend the first attempt just watching and dodging. The platforms in each arena exist to help you avoid sweeping attacks.
• Heart of the Ruin: a multi-phase finale. Bring your best tier 6 gear, plenty of healing and a strong ranged weapon.

General: bring healing (bandages, medical kits, cooked food), a ranged weapon, and a two-handed melee weapon for burst damage. Hardcore players should over-prepare.

Weapons and Combat

• Weapon types: broadswords, spears, hammers and axes (two-handed), daggers, maces and shortswords (one-handed), guns, bows and staffs/wands.
• Special abilities: many weapons have a unique ability on right-click (two-handed) or in the off-hand.
• Rarity: common to legendary. Higher rarity often has a better special ability.
• Upgrading: craft or find better tier weapons; legendary and unique weapons from missions and villages are some of the most fun.
• Tech: movement abilities (dash, double jump, the Distortion Sphere and more) unlock through progression and make combat and exploration much easier.

Ship Upgrades, Crew and Colonies

• Ship upgrades come from Penguin Pete at the Outpost and are gated by crew size plus Pixels, so recruiting crew is how you grow your ship. Bigger ships hold more crew and furniture.
• Colonies: craft Colony Deeds and place them in a room with background walls, a door and a light source. The furniture you place determines which tenant moves in. Tenants periodically give gifts (their "rent").
• Crew: happy tenants may ask to join your crew. Crew members follow you and provide combat or utility bonuses (e.g. a medic or engineer).
• Space stations: you can build and expand your own station from 1.3 onwards.

Mechs and Space

• Build a mech at the Mech Assembly Station from found or crafted parts (arms, body, boosters, legs, horn).
• Mechs let you explore space encounters, such as derelict stations and asteroid fields, that you can't survive on foot.
• Tier 4 mech bodies protect against radiation (a 1.3.1 fix).

Bounty Hunter (1.4)

The 1.4 update added bounty hunting:

• Take procedurally generated missions to track down criminal gangs on planets and in space.
• Climb the ranks as you rebuild the Peacekeepers.
• New rewards include drones, password keypad locks, a laser mining tool and a sports car.
• Rare elemental monster variants are also worth capturing.

Building and Base Tips

• Your ship is your first base. Put storage, crafting stations and a bed there so everything travels with you.
• Background walls matter. They're needed for colony rooms and keep some monsters from spawning indoors.
• Light everything. Monsters spawn in darkness on many planets; lit rooms are safer.
• Use the paint and wiring modules from Matter Manipulator upgrades for decorative and functional builds (doors, lights, traps).
• Pick a stable planet for a home world. A calm, low-threat planet with a pleasant biome and no harsh environment makes an easy colony site.
• Label chests by content and keep them near the crafting stations that use those materials.

Food and Farming

• Plant seeds from foraged crops in tilled soil; many crops regrow after harvest.
• Cook at the campfire and later a kitchen station for better meals with longer-lasting effects.
• In Survival mode, food spoils, so keep a steady supply of non-perishable or freshly cooked food.
• Pets and colony tenants can be fed with extra produce, and some tenants ask for specific items in their quests.

Monsters and Pets

• Capture creatures with Capture Pods and throw them out to fight for you.
• Elemental variants (1.4) are rare and worth collecting.
• The Collections book tracks captured monsters, fish, bugs and more.

Multiplayer and Mods

• Co-op: join friends through Steam, or run a dedicated server. Party members can beam to each other.
• Mods: Starbound was designed to be moddable and has a large Steam Workshop. Popular overhauls greatly expand content; subscribe carefully and check compatibility with version 1.4.4.
• On newer macOS versions: the 1.4.4 hotfix fixed a launch issue on macOS Sequoia 15.1.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Diving into higher-tier planets underprepared. Check planet threat levels and hazards first.
• Ignoring EPPs and augments. Radiation or cold will kill you slowly.
• Selling unique weapons and furniture you might want later.
• Forgetting to cook food.
• Skipping Matter Manipulator upgrades, which make mining painfully slow.
• Building colonies without background walls. Deeds won't find a tenant for an invalid room.

Advanced Tips

• Farm Erchius on moons before long trips; running out of fuel mid-journey is common.
• Villages are loot goldmines. Race villages hold unique weapons and furniture.
• Use wiring (switches, sensors, logic gates) for doors, traps and automated farms.
• Theme colonies by furniture set to attract specific tenant types.
• Build a hunting pack of captured monsters for early bosses.
• Terraforming and paint: late-game tools let you reshape planets for your base.

FAQ

Is Starbound still updated? Its last major update was 1.4 "Bounty Hunter" in 2019. Version 1.4.4 (November 2024) was a small hotfix. There's no new content roadmap.

Which race is best? None mechanically; pick the look and ship you like.

How do I get more fuel? Mine Erchius crystals on moons, or buy fuel at the Outpost.

How do I get a crew? Build colonies with Colony Deeds; happy tenants will eventually ask to join your crew.

Can I play offline? Yes, single player works offline.

Where are the story missions? SAIL on your ship offers mission instances as you advance the story from the Outpost.

Sources

• Steam store page, Starbound
• Steam news hub, Starbound (1.4 Bounty Hunter update, 1.4.4 hotfix, 10th anniversary)
• Starbounder Wiki, Missions
• Starbounder Wiki, Armor