Pre-1.0 · Closed Playtest

STARS
REBORN// 4X · RTS · P2P

A real-time pausable 4X of fleet command, economic attrition, and fog-of-war. Procedural galaxies. Eight ship classes plus the starbase. Matches end in 15–30 minutes — not thirty hours.

Download · Win · Linux · Mac Join Playtest · Discord

Closed playtest — the download is password-protected. Grab the password in Discord; it takes a minute and gets you the current build on all three platforms.

Ship Types
8+ STARBASE
Match Length
15–30MIN
Galaxy Size
3TIERS
Netcode
P2PAUTH HOST
TACNET · Live Telemetry
Turn Model REAL-TIME · PAUSABLE
Combat Triangle FIGHTER ▸ CRUISER ▸ FRIGATE
Fog of War SCAN-GATED · LAYERED
Economy WORKFORCE + MINING
Engine GODOT 4.6.2
Platforms WIN · LINUX · MAC
New here?
Three steps to your first match.
STEP 01
Get the build
Download for Windows, Linux or macOS. It is a zip — unpack it and run the executable. No installer, no launcher, no account.
STEP 02
Play the tutorials
Four of them, in the main menu: Basics, Movement & Scouting, Combat, and Economy & Logistics. They cover everything the game otherwise expects you to already know.
STEP 03
Take a match
Single-player against one of four AI opponents, or 1v1 — the host opens a game and the other player joins by IP, or picks it up automatically on the same LAN.
§ 01 · Overview

What you're looking at.

DOC · SR-OVW-01
REV 04 / AUG 30 2026

Stars Reborn is a real-time pausable 4X space strategy game built in Godot. Spiritual heir to the classic turn-based Stars! — stripped of the spreadsheet, dense with decisions.

Scout a procedural galaxy. Settle planets. Draft a fleet composition that counters what your opponent is building. Feint. Starve them of workforce. Collapse a front. Every match is a self-contained campaign that resolves in a single sitting.

No session lobbies, no monthly live-service grind. P2P netcode with an authoritative host — you host a match by IP and your opponent joins. That's it. Matches are designed to be replayed, not subscribed to.

Ship Types
9 TYPES
Eight build-capable classes plus the starbase. One combat triangle.
Match Duration
15–30 MIN
Procedural pacing. Victory or defeat in a single sitting.
AI Opponents
4 OPPONENTS
Settler, Rusher, Expansionist, Brain. Distinct play styles, not stat inflation.
Multiplayer
2-PLAYER P2P
Host by IP (port 7777 UDP) or auto-discover on LAN. No servers required.
§ 02 · In-Engine

Live frames. No render passes.

SRC · GAMEPLAY FEED
BUILD · 0.62.5
FRAME.001 001 / 006
—
—
—
▸ FRAMES AUTO · 5.0s
§ 03 · Fleet Manifest

Nine classes. One triangle.

DOC · SR-FLT-07
CLASSIFICATION · PUBLIC
▸ Combat Triangle
 Fighter ▸ beats ▸  Cruiser ▸ beats ▸  Frigate ▸ beats ▸  Fighter
SR-01 · CLASS SCT RECON
Scout Scout glyph
SCOUT
Long-range Reconnaissance
HP40 Speed100 Scan600 / 450 Cost50 m Supply1 Build5s
SR-02 · CLASS FTR ▲ CRUISER
Fighter Fighter glyph
FIGHTER
Interceptor · Dead-zone Closer
HP180 Speed75 Attack64 Range0–70 Scan80 / 70 Evasion12–30% Cost100 m Supply1 Build12s
SR-03 · CLASS FRG ▲ FIGHTER
Frigate Frigate glyph
FRIGATE
Armoured Brawler · Heavy Sensors
HP400 Speed37.5 Attack60 Range0–100 Scan350 / 262 Cost200 m Supply2 Build18s
SR-04 · CLASS CRS ▲ FRIGATE
Cruiser Cruiser glyph
MISSILE CRUISER
Long-Range Missile · 60px Dead Zone
HP280 Speed30 Attack80 Range60–360 Scan80 / 60 Cost300 m Supply3 Build22s
SR-05 · CLASS BMB SIEGE
Bomber Bomber glyph
BOMBER
Orbital Siege · Kills Population
HP120 Speed42.5 Bombs1 pop / 2s Scan80 / 60 Cost200 m Supply2 Build14s
SR-06 · CLASS CLN EXPAND
Colonizer Colonizer glyph
COLONIZER
Colony Deployment · One-way
HP80 Speed50 Scan80 / 60 Cost200 m + 50 pop Supply1 Build20s
SR-07 · CLASS MNR EXTRACT
Miner Miner glyph
MINER
Orbital Extraction · Neutral Worlds
HP80 Speed25 Mining1 mine Scan80 / 60 Cost300 m Supply1 Build24s
SR-08 · CLASS FRT LOGISTICS
Freighter Freighter glyph
FREIGHTER
Trade Routes · Minerals or Colonists
HP120 Speed30 Cargo150 min / 50 pop Scan80 / 60 Cost250 m Supply1 Build20s
SR-09 · CLASS STB STATIC
Starbase Starbase glyph
STARBASE
Orbital Platform · Gates Shipbuilding
HP1000 Attack180 Range0–380 Scan200 / 150 Cost400 m Buildas a structure
DOC · SR-DOC · DOCTRINE
▸ FLEET ROLES
FIGHTER — closes cruiser dead zone
FRIGATE — brawler, heavy sensors
CRUISER — long-range missile
BOMBER — bombs enemy stars
────────────────
SCOUT — 600 scan, 35% evasion
COLONIZER — claims neutral stars
STARBASE — home defender
▸ Refer to §03 · Combat
§ 04 · Systems Briefing

How it actually works.

DOC · SR-SYS-01
4 SECTIONS · DENSE

Economy · Workforce & Mining

Planets run on a single resource: minerals. Output is the product of three levers — population, infrastructure (mines and factories), and a mining/production slider that splits workforce between the two.

  • Pop cap — size × 10 × (habitability / 100). Hab gates both growth speed and the ceiling.
  • Workforce — population / 2, split by the per-star slider.
  • Staffing — each mine/factory wants 10 workers. Below that, efficiency drops proportionally.
  • Extraction — mines × (concentration / 100) × efficiency. Concentration depletes as you mine.
  • Production — factories × efficiency minerals converted into queued builds per tick.

At hab=50, a fully grown planet can exactly staff every building. Above 50 you run a workforce surplus; below 50 your infrastructure is permanently understaffed.

Home StarStarting Value
Habitability85
Population100 / 850
Mines10
Factories5
Concentration100
Surface Minerals100
Starbaseat match start
▸ One resource. No research tree, no tech unlocks. The deck is what you build.

Fog of War · Scan-Gated Vision

Vision is layered. Each of your ships and stars projects a movement-scan radius (wider, tracks position) and a narrower visibility radius (identifies hull, shows HP bar). What you see depends on which rings the enemy stands in.

  • Outside movement scan — enemy is invisible to you.
  • Movement scan only — enemy shows as an anonymous owner-color blob. Position known, type hidden.
  • Inside visibility — full hull + HP bar. For stars, scouts and scanners reveal full planet stats.
  • First contact — a sonar-pulse blip on the frame an enemy is first detected.

Combat is detection-gated: a ship can only target enemies someone on its team has inside movement scan. A cruiser at 360 px range with 80 px self-scan cannot fire without a scout or frigate spotting for it.

SourceMovementVisibility
Scout600450
Scanner I700350
Scanner II1500750
Frigate350262
Starbase200150
Fighter8070
Cruiser8060
Bomber8060
Colonizer8060
▸ Visibility = max(attack_range, move_scan × 0.75). No boost when attack ≥ move_scan.

Combat · Rock · Paper · Scissors

Combat resolves in real time. Proximity clustering engages enemies within 400 px. Ships attack on a 0.5-second cooldown with a 20% miss chance (seeded RNG); scout evasion checks before damage resolves.

  • Fighter ▸ Cruiser — fast enough to close inside the cruiser's 60 px dead zone. Once inside, the cruiser cannot fire.
  • Frigate ▸ Fighter — higher HP + DPS wins the brawl once the gap closes.
  • Cruiser ▸ Frigate — kills at 360 px before the frigate's 100 px guns are in range.
  • Detection-gated — you can only shoot what your team has in movement scan.
  • Bombers — orbit enemy stars at 80 px and kill 1 pop every 2 seconds each; a planet being bombed does not grow, so 8 bombers take a 250-pop home in about a minute. No air-to-air.
  • Formation line drag — right-click-drag with 2+ ships selected to spread them evenly along the line you draw. Sort order matches the line direction so paths don't cross. Useful for fanning a fleet into a firing line before contact; plain right-click still issues move / colonize / bomb / star commands.

Counters are stat-driven, not automatic wins. Bring the right composition for what you scouted — or pay for it.

ClassHPATKRange (px)Role
Fighter902070Dead-zone closer
Frigate20035100Brawler
Cruiser1404060–360Long range
Bomber60—orbitsOrbital siege
Starbase50080130Home defender
▸ Cruiser range · 60–360 px
DEAD · 0–60
OPTIMAL · 60–360
OUTSIDE
▸ Counters are emergent — no explicit multipliers. The triangle works through dead-zone geometry and stat matchups, not hardcoded damage modifiers. 0.5 s cooldown · 20% miss · scout evasion 35%.

Galaxy · Procedural & Seedable

Every match generates its galaxy from a seed. Share the seed to replay the same map; reroll for a fresh draw. Star placement is deterministic from seed × map size, so both players see an identical galaxy at match start.

  • Small · 16 stars — 6000×6600 playfield. 1v1 duel. ~15 min.
  • Medium · 24 stars — 9000×9900. 1v1 extended. ~20 min.
  • Large · 36 stars — 12000×13200. 1v1 marathon. ~25–30 min.
  • Win conditions — elimination (zero stars AND zero colonizers), domination (≥60% of stars, held for 2 minutes), or timeout at 30 min (most stars wins; a hold still running at 30:00 plays out in up to 2 minutes of overtime).

The galaxy picker in the main menu sets size. The seed field reseeds on every menu entry; edit it to reproduce a specific match, or hit the 🎲 button to re-roll.

TierStarsPlayfieldPlayersDuration
Small166000×66002~15 min
Medium249000×99002~20 min
Large3612000×132002~30 min
▸ Seeded RNG. Same seed + size ⇒ same galaxy on both ends.
§ 04.5 · Interactive Model
Economy simulator.
PLANET PARAMETERS
LIVE · INTERACTIVE
Planet Size100
Habitability85%
Current Population100
Population growth chart.
Max Population
—
Max growth / year
—
1 year =
0.5SEC
Years to 50% cap
—
Years to 90% cap
—
▸ max_pop = size × 10 × (hab/100) · growth/tick = pop × 0.00428 × (hab/100) × (1 − pop/max_pop) · 10 ticks = 1 year = 0.5 real seconds
§ 05 · Roadmap

What's Coming

DOC · SR-RMP-01
FORWARD PLAN · PUBLIC

Stars Reborn is actively developed. Phase 01 — the polish pass — is closed, and the logistics half of Phase 02 shipped with it. Here is what is still ahead. The full roadmap tracks all 22 items and marks off what has landed.

▸ MANIFEST · COMPLETE 15 / 15 · LIVE IN v0.62.5
Economy Combat Triangle Fog of War Multiplayer AI Opponents 4 Tutorials Rally Points Patrol Mode Main Menu Scanners Build Queue Trade Routes Miners & Freighters Map Overlays Sound & Music
PHASE 02 · NEXT ECONOMY
Deeper Economy
The single resource becomes three: Iron for ships and basic infrastructure, Silicon for electronics, scanners and precision weapons, Germanium for advanced technology like bombers, mass drivers and battleships. Every planet becomes a strategic decision — control the Germanium-rich worlds and you control the late game. The mobile half of this phase is already live: miners pull minerals off worlds you cannot colonise, and freighters run standing trade routes between them.
PHASE 03 · MID FLEET
More Ship Types
The roster grows past today’s nine. Destroyers, Battleships, Mine Layers and Sweepers, and a stealth scout that sees without being seen. Each with a clear role — no filler units. Fleet composition matters.
PHASE 04 · MID RESEARCH
Five Research Fields
Weapons, Construction, Propulsion, Electronics, Energy. Three tiers each. Split your production between building and researching. Fall behind in weapons? Out-research your opponent in propulsion.
PHASE 05 · HORIZON LATE GAME
Mass Driver + Stargates
Stargates for instant fleet reinforcement. Mass Drivers for cross-galaxy mineral logistics — or as orbital bombardment weapons against enemy planets. The late game gets teeth.
▸ View the detailed alpha roadmap → Phase breakdown · Research tiers · Alpha criteria
§ 06 · Change Log

Recent deployments.

LAST 5 VERSIONS
FULL LOG →
0.62.5 OCT 23 · 2026 FEATURE
▸ Every Match Has a Winner
  • At 30:00 the higher score wins. Stars first; with stars even, the player with more planets wins; with planets even too, more population. Only a match even on all three is a draw.
  • The end screen shows the score each side finished on, so you can see what decided it.
0.62.4 OCT 23 · 2026 FIX
▸ Captured Planets Play Fair
  • Capturing one planet in a system no longer lets you build ships at the enemy's starbase there. You need a starbase of your own, and you can now build one right next to theirs.
  • An enemy starbase that survives your capture of a planet in its system stays theirs and keeps fighting, so clear it or bomb out its planet.
  • A planet you capture starts with an empty build queue instead of finishing the previous owner's orders for you.
  • Starbases orbit the planet that built them, not the system's first planet.
0.62.3 OCT 22 · 2026 FEATURE
▸ The Brain Plays the Whole Game
  • The Brain scouts before it strikes. A scout goes ahead of each Brain strike and takes a look at your system before the fleet commits. If what it sees is too strong, the strike turns back.
  • It keeps attacking when it runs out of room to build. At the fleet size limit with minerals to spare, the Brain no longer sits on its bank: it launches strikes more readily, and once a strike holds a system it leaves the bombers and colony ship to finish the job and moves on.
0.62.2 OCT 22 · 2026 FEATURE
▸ Strikes That Land
  • Brain strikes gather before they hit. A Brain fleet now forms up just outside your starbase's reach and goes in together, aiming straight at the starbase. Its bombers and colony ship wait back until your defenders are gone.
  • The Brain takes far more of your stars. Its strikes stop throwing small groups at defended systems, so when one comes, it means it.
  • Who a fighter picked to shoot could depend on the frame rate, so the same fight could play out differently between machines. Multiplayer matches and replays now stay in step.
0.62.1 OCT 20 · 2026 FEATURE
▸ The Brain Takes Planets
  • Brain strikes now finish the job. When its fleet clears your system, a colony ship moves in and takes your planet, and bombers empty the others so it can settle them.
  • It saves up for the landing. Expect a quiet colony of its own to stop building for a moment while it prepares the next colony ship.
Every release →