9 kinds of asteroid·6 hulls·7 materials to refine·no edge to the map·free in the browser
Welcome to forthecompany!
It's a free game and it runs in your browser. You get a ship with a laser bolted to the front of it and an asteroid belt that never runs out. Fly over to an asteroid, keep the laser on it until there's nothing left of it, refine what you brought back or drop it in a container for the shuttle, buy something better. Bigger ships fly drones. The nastier sectors have pirates. It also keeps mining while the tab is in the background.
“Routine survey and extraction of the assigned sector. Standard rates apply. Objectives are listed below; deviation is not required.”
No account, nothing to install. Mouse and keyboard, or touch on a tablet.
The map
The map is endless.
There is no edge to the map, and a fog of war hides everything you have not explored yet. Every sector comes out of a seed, a short text you can type in yourself, so a sector you like can be found again.
The asteroids rotate, take the colour of the sector's sky and crack open as you mine them. Volatile asteroids discharge if you mine them for too long: the ship is pushed back, waits about twenty seconds and goes back to mining on its own. They only show up in sectors that pay hazard rates.
Mining
Survey, mine, refine, or drop it in a container.
Every asteroid is made of one to three materials and a survey tells you which. Then the laser goes on, the ship orbits the asteroid and it cracks open where the laser hits. A hull with more than one laser mines more than one asteroid at once, each turret aiming on its own.
The hold is measured in cubic metres and a full hold stops the laser. Either refine what is aboard into something smaller and worth more, or drop a container and a shuttle from The Company comes and collects it. In the dangerous sectors pirates may get to the container first.
Drones and pirates
The big hulls fly drones. The dangerous sectors have raiders.
The Hopper and the Tender have a drone bay. Mining drones fly to the asteroids around the ship and mine them at the ship's own rate, two on one asteroid when nothing else is left, and survey drones read whatever the sensors have found. Anything off screen gets a mark on the screen edge, so the drones are never lost.
Sectors that pay hazard rates have raiders. They jump in outside the view, skim a container you left standing and leave with part of it. Close to the ship your own lasers turn on them, and you can build a turret station from refined plate and leave it next to your containers. The first station core can be placed too, with a storage bay the drones deliver to. That is the start of base building.
Nine asteroid types
Nine kinds, sixteen shapes of each, and not one of them drawn by hand. At first the kind of asteroid is just scenery. Once you have researched refining it starts to matter. A Crystalline is worth a lot and takes a while to get through. A Carbonaceous is worth less and falls apart in seconds.
The Shipyard
Six hulls, seven module slots, one power budget.
The hull decides what fits on it. Lasers, engines, sensors, hold, plating, drone bay and refinery each have five tiers, every tier draws power and the hull has a budget. Switch the refinery off mid-contract to power a third laser, or the other way round. The Shipyard is a fitting editor: build the whole loadout, see the power and the bill, pay once. Tier three and up need a blueprint, which is researched while you fly.
Each company builds its ships in its own design language, so you can tell whose ship it is at a glance.
The fleet
The Company's six hulls, four of them pictured
Surveyor
The one you are issued. Fine at everything.
Kestrel
Scout. Finds asteroids fast, mines them slowly.
Dray
Hauler. Bigger hold, in no hurry.
Ordinal
Excavator. Carries two mining lasers.
Four design languages
There are four design languages in the game, and a company sticks to one of them across all six of its hulls. The four above are The Company's; above them sit the Hopper, a heavy miner with three lasers and a bay for two drones, and the Tender, a carrier with a bay for four. Work for someone else and the whole fleet changes shape, not just the paint.
- Bulwark
- Trellis
- Monolith
- GantryThe Company
Contracts
One contract at a time.
A contract says what The Company wants, what it pays and how much standing it is worth. Standing is what unlocks hulls and discounts. Sign it and you are in that sector until the objective is met. Then a memo arrives with the figures, the credits land and the next contract is on the board.
The last contract has no end. A quota of 3,000 resources at 0.15 credits each, paid out when you request recall.
Skills and other employers
Skills stay with you. Employers do not.
Mining, movement, sensor radius, range, survey and refining level up by doing them, and every level takes 5 % off that upgrade's price, down to half. Within one contract you can buy eight of each upgrade, then the ship is maxed and the contract ends somewhere. Research keeps going while you are away.
Reach the top of an employer's ladder with every contract signed off and the other companies start posting work. Taking one of their offers starts you over: new ship, new livery, bottom of a new ladder. Skill levels and researched blueprints come with you.
How it plays
On a computer
Left click selects an asteroid, right click sends the ship over or puts the laser on it, and shift queues the next job up. There's an auto-mine that works through whatever you have found already and an auto-explore that goes and finds more.
On a tablet or phone
Tap where you want to go, long press an asteroid to mine it, pinch to zoom. Everything else sits on one bar of buttons: the ship, the modules, the pilot, the contract, the upgrades, the inventory and what you can build each open one window above it, and a button starts pulsing when there is something to do in there. Between contracts the rooms are one long strip that you swipe.
While you are away
The ship keeps mining in a background tab, and research keeps going even when the game is closed.
Play
Play it in the browser.
Free, no account, nothing to install. Or leave your email and I will write when there is something new.
Newsletter
Or follow along on YouTube.