A vast universe.
A journey at your own pace.

Let the journey begin

Begin near your own planet. Autopilot carries you through scenery and quiet space. Choose a slower pace to linger or cruise to go farther. No registration is required.

1. Watch on autopilot for a moment, then press P to pause.
2. Drag while paused to look around. Use the wheel or a two-finger pinch to frame the view.
3. Open Star Atlas with M and bookmark this moment.
4. Press P to resume, or choose a destination in the atlas.

Make it your journey

Try five free ships with different handling in the Hangar. Journey holds bookmarks, discoveries, home and letters. Settings holds language, sound, graphics and backups.

Keyboard and mouse

Space switches between autopilot and manual control. W/S pitch up/down; A/D turn left/right; Q/E roll left/right. Arrow keys also steer. Steering keys or a normal left-button drag take manual control.

Hold Shift for extra thrust and B to brake. F toggles coasting: thrust stops, but momentum and gravity remain. Press F again to restore thrust or Space to return to autopilot. Brake before tight turns; turning the nose does not instantly redirect momentum.

Touch and safe wandering

Drag one finger to take control and steer; while paused or docked, dragging looks around instead. Pinch with two fingers to change the field of view. Tap to reveal faded flight controls, and use the pause, autopilot, thrust and brake buttons.

Planets and stars have collision boundaries, rather than explorable ground. There is no surface landing. Rings and nebulae can be crossed. Gravity can bend or slow manual flight; return to autopilot if you feel lost.

Explore the Star Atlas

The atlas offers star seas, galaxies, celestial observing spots and three artistic historic-probe replicas. Choose somewhere to linger. Warp and wormhole are artistic travel presentations.

Seeds and coordinates generate repeatable places. Use X/Y/Z for a sector, or paste the full V2 coordinate for a precise position. Preserve world/version information; seeds and names alone cannot restore a camera viewpoint.

Keep the composition

Bookmark this moment in the atlas saves position and camera view. In Journey, return to that moment or copy its scenery link. Discovery entries revisit places; a viewpoint bookmark is the better choice for a particular composition.

Views vary by GPU, animation and time. Positions inside bodies may move to a safe boundary. Unpublished homes cannot be shared as accessible destinations.

Return and arrange

Visit Journey → Home. Edit its name, introduction, welcome, appearance and rings, then save the planet form.

Add a signal tower, docking station or garden, up to 36 landmarks. Use placement mode to move and rotate a preview, then save or cancel. Numeric X/Z controls offer another way to move buildings. Select a landmark to read its message, manage its signal or rest quietly. A docking station is a place to linger, not a fuel requirement.

Publish a snapshot

Your home starts private. Its public signal publishes the selected traveler name, planet information and decorations for visits even while you are offline.

Saving local edits does not update the public snapshot. Choose Update public planet when you want visitors to see the new version. Turning off the public signal closes public access. During a visit, use the return control to rejoin your previous route.

Visit and write

Follow a public planet link or choose a real public planet from the community. Read its welcome, look at its landmarks, and leave a short note if you wish. A planet note is different from the downloadable picture postcard.

Send with the button or Ctrl/⌘ + Enter. Notes wait privately for the owner; they become visible to visitors only after approval. Visiting does not require a live WebRTC connection.

Read, reply and recover

Journey → Letters collects incoming notes and sent notes with replies. Refresh the mail to check for new arrivals. Owners can approve a note and send one reply, or use the available favorite, delete, block and report actions.

If delivery is uncertain, keep the pending record and use Confirm and continue sending. The game first checks whether that note arrived. Removing the local record does not recall a delivered note, and composing another copy could create a duplicate.

Make a picture postcard

In the atlas, make a postcard from your actual view. Adjust words and presentation, preview, then download a PNG or share where supported.

Choose scenery only or include the information band and travel locator. The locator QR returns to a destination; it is not a private backup. An unpublished home does not become publicly visitable through a postcard.

Open a received image

In Journey, choose Open postcard image. Select the received picture; the game reads its locator on your device and shows a preview. Review the destination, then explicitly choose Travel through a wormhole. Selecting the file alone never starts travel.

Keep the original PNG when possible. Cropping, recompression or covering the locator can make it unreadable. If decoding fails, request the original image or use a scenery/planet link instead. Image decoding does not upload the picture.

Your star passport

Open the passport from Settings or Home to see your lasting guest callsign, origin and public fingerprint. An optional 3–8-letter English ID uses the same passport key; letter case is ignored. A new display name or ID does not move your home or mailbox.

Compare public fingerprints to recognize the same key. Session verification proves possession of that key, not a verified person or official status. If an ID claim has an unknown result, check registration before trying again.

Back up before you need it

Settings → Export journey saves identity, home, bookmarks and journey data as JSON. Export after important changes. Import journey restores valid backups; export your current journey before replacing it.

Backups contain your unencrypted planet-management private key. Keep them private; share postcards or visit links. An English ID cannot recover a lost key. There is no automatic cloud save or recovery across browsers, devices or cleared site data.

Receive or broadcast

Receive distant signals is optional and off by default. It queries real public planets and can bring occasional visit invitations during your journey; it does not broadcast your ship position. There are no invented travelers, AI chat partners or automatic translation.

Broadcast ship signal lets nearby online travelers discover your public traveler name and position. Journey’s directory distinguishes regional broadcasts, universe broadcasts and current direct companions. A directory entry is not proof of a working direct connection.

Share a stretch of sky

For live text and lights, both travelers must opt in to reception, fly within about 1,000 world units in a similar direction and speed for about ten seconds, and confirm readiness. Ship posture data may connect before conversation is ready.

Live communication uses WebRTC data channels. There is no voice or microphone access. Some networks cannot connect directly; there is no paid TURN fallback and cross-network success is not guaranteed. Disable broadcast to end live company. Hiding the page stops live matching and connections; actively rejoin when you return.

Language, sound and motion

Settings offers interface language, Auto/High/Balanced/Low power graphics and Reduce motion. Auto adapts to sustained load; a manual quality choice stays selected. Low power targets 30 FPS; it does not guarantee a particular device’s performance.

Sound starts only after you enable it. If playback fails, try the sound switch again after checking browser/site audio permissions. Reduce motion softens travel and interface changes; pause or use a slower pace whenever you prefer. Labeled buttons and keyboard controls provide alternatives to dragging.

When something goes wrong

If the view feels off, press R; if the interface is hidden, use H/C or Show interface. For lag or heat, choose Low power, reduce window size and pause. Keep your backup before clearing any browser data.

If another tab changed the save, export your current changes before refreshing. If a damaged save is reported, preserve/export it and import a known-good backup; do not repeatedly clear storage. Browser storage is local to the site and browser profile.

When the community is unavailable or its free quota is exhausted, keep flying offline; public visits, letters and live discovery may need to wait. Published planet information and messages are shared through the community service, while private backups remain yours. Report problems through About with browser/device, actions, coordinates and settings. Never attach a private backup.