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 · 0.62.1
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 v0.62.1
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 →
0.62.1 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.
0.62.0 OCT 20 · 2026 FEATURE
▸ The Brain Builds, Defends and Strikes
  • The Brain opponent now fights. Pick "Brain" as your opponent: it builds a real fleet, comes to the rescue of colonies it can hold, and sends strike fleets to take your stars.
  • Its strikes come to take, not just to hurt. A strike arrives together, clears your defenders, then lands colonists on your planet or bombs it out and settles it. Watch for a lone colonizer waiting near a fight.
  • Leaving a colony unguarded is now a risk against every computer opponent that plays it, and a raid of bombers alone no longer goes unanswered by the Brain.
0.61.2 OCT 20 · 2026 FIX
▸ Computer Fleets Commit to a Plan
  • Computer opponents commit to one fleet type. Before they have scouted you they pick a plan (a fighter swarm, a frigate line, or fighters with cruisers) and build it, instead of a little of everything. Once they have seen your fleet, they switch to the fleet that beats it.
0.61.1 OCT 19 · 2026 FIX
▸ Smarter Fleet Mixes
  • Computer opponents pick their warships from the battle data. Before they have seen your fleet they build a mix with frigates in it; once they have seen it, they build the fleet that beats it best on the test bench.
0.61.0 OCT 19 · 2026 FEATURE
▸ Fleets Fly Together
  • A fleet you send together now arrives together. Select fighters, frigates and cruisers and give one order: they fly at the speed of the slowest ship until the enemy is in gun range, then everyone engages at once. Your fighters no longer race ahead and fight alone.
  • Formation drags and computer opponents' strikes do the same. A ship you order on its own, or one that reaches its spot, flies at its own speed again.
  • The counters read cleanly now: frigates beat fighter swarms, a swarm of fighters beats fighters with cruisers, and fighters with cruisers beat frigates. Scout what you are facing and build the answer.
Every release →