Below you will find some tips to survive your first voyages as well as some additional info you might have missed about the game.
Before we get to that however, it would mean the world to us if you could wishlist Earthless on Steam and follow us on Twitter/X &/or join the Earthless Discord — so you won't miss a beat as we approach Earthless' 2024 Early Access launch.
📝 MISSION BRIEFING 📝
ABOUT THE GAME
Earthless' New Gameplay Trailer
Announced this summer via a Cinematic Trailer at the PC Gaming Show, Earthless is the latest project from us here at Blackbird Interactive — the studio behind games like Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Homeworld 3, and Minecraft Legends.
The game starts soon after humanity realizes the Sun is about to die, and we were wrong about the billions of years we all thought we had left in our galaxy. Now thousands of captains like you must take to the stars in search of a new planet to call home.
Explore ever-changing star maps, assemble an arsenal of cards and upgrades to your ship, make tough decisions that'll impact the morale and capabilities of your officers — and fight for the future of our species.
What others are saying about Earthless:
- "The right ideas are all there; Earthless's team seems to have worked out the star chart they need to put their ship on the correct course. All that's left now is to see it through." - PC Gamer
- "Maps are dinky enough to fit into the screen without a zoom function, but also busy and intricate in a way that, at its best, reminds me of Into The Breach." - Rock, Paper, Shotgun
- "The entire thing looks sublime, a fascinating blend of strategy and painstaking decisions." - GamesRadar
- "[Earthless is] one of the most exciting things I saw at Gamescom 2023." - TechRadar
👨🚀 CAPTAIN ACADEMY 👩🚀
PLAYING TIPS
When it launches on Steam Early Access in 2024, Earthless will present a mighty challenge to any Captain brave enough to embark on this treacherous voyage. Though the Next Fest demo's difficulty has been tuned to be more accessible, Earthless is still a roguelike that'll punish foolhardy and reckless Captains.
Here are three tips to help you survive your first encounters with the mysterious, alien Lusks.
1. Use Your Ship's Predictive AI
The most powerful tool in your arsenal isn't a Tactical Strike card. It's your ship's Predictive AI module that displays what your enemies will do on their next turn. Press TAB to engage this feature, and you'll see blue lines displaying where enemy ships will move, whether they'll attack you, and how much damage those attacks will deal.
But wait! There's more!
The Predictive AI can be used to see how enemies will react to your actions. For example, when moving your ship on the grid, hold TAB before selecting a square to see how enemies will respond. The same goes for playing cards! Try selecting a basic Missile Launch and hovering your mouse over an enemy within range to see if their next move will change based on if you attack them.
PRO TIP: about to take some damage from a Lusk Grunt and don't have any Shields? Try attacking them instead! Many Lusk units have an ability to replenish their shields when depleted. Using the Predictive Ship AI, you can see if one is about to attack you. Try targeting it with an attack card and keep holding TAB to see if the incoming damage will force the Lusk unit to change to a defense manoeuvre instead.
2. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Every time you complete three events / nodes on the Star Map, you unlock one of Earthless' most important — but easy to underestimate — features: recycling a card. This removes a card from your deck, which effectively increases your odds of drawing more important, powerful cards. You should be recycling as often as you can.
The recycle menu can be found by entering the Manufacturing Screen (the wrench and screwdriver icon on the bottom left of your Command Console). An indicator will tell you how many events / Star Map nodes you have to complete before Recycling is available.
Deckbuilder veterans will know this well, but removing unwanted cards is vital to building an unstoppable deck. There's a lot of nuance on how to choose which cards to discard, but it's typically a safe choice to remove the basic Missile Launch and Shields Up cards as you earn more powerful attack and defense cards.
3. Overheating is Bad News
Each time you move you generate Heat, and your ship can store a maximum of 4 Heat points. Once you're maxed out, you'll either need to end your turn or use a card like Vent Heat to reduce your Heat level so you can move again.
But be careful when running your engines hot. Acquiring more than 4 Heat will add Overheat cards to the top of your Draw Pile.
When you have an Overheat card in your hand, you'll take damage for every action you do until you spend 1 Energy to play that card. It can seriously disrupt your strategy, so always keep an eye on your heat and manage it effectively. This is especially important for the Clarke-class ship in the Next Fest demo, which has limited options for reducing Heat early on.
👨✈️ A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR 👨✈️
ORIGIN STORY
Hey everyone! My name is Hoi-Fung and I'm the Game Director for Earthless. Today is an incredible day for our small team of 24 who have been working so hard on Earthless over the past years.
Earthless was born from Blackbird Interactive's Skunkworks game jam program, where everyone in the studio teams up to pitch exciting new game ideas. In the case of Earthless (or Project Owl, as we call it internally) we were chosen to turn our idea into a prototype — with the ultimate dream of that prototype turning into a real game.
The first version of Earthless was made with hand-crafted physical cards that I stuck over top of old Magic: The Gathering cards. When Covid hit and playtesting in person wasn't an option, I ported Earthless over to Tabletop Simulator, where it continued to take shape until we eventually began developing it into a proper game. It's surreal that we've come so far and now people like you can play a small slice of Earthless during Next Fest.
There's no time to celebrate, yet, however. Everyone is laser focused on Earthless' 2024 Early Access launch. But I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for following us on this journey and trying out the game. If you like what you see, please wishlist Earthless and tell your friends about it. When talking about Earthless, we often say a Captain is nothing without their crew. That applies here, too: we're nothing without the support of players like you.
It's an honour, and we're so excited for what lies ahead.
- Hoi-Fung Ma, Game Director
🌠 BON VOYAGE 🌠
KEY CHANNELS
Be sure to follow us on these social channels to stay up to date with the latest news about Earthless and please consider wishlisting the game on Steam - it really helps 🙏
- Earthless' official Twitter
- Earthless' official Discord
- BBI's official Twitter
- BBI's official Discord
WISHLIST ON STEAM!