Cosmic Armada

Cosmic Armada is a space combat and exploration game in which you pilot a ship, command a fleet and try to survive in a hostile galaxy. You can fight, mine, trade, craft, explore, complete missions and improve your fleet. Colonizing planets, moons and stations expands your domain and increases your tax revenue.

Game modes

The game has three modes: campaign, custom game and scenario. The campaign follows you as a refugee whose home planet has been conquered by the tyrannical Solar Empire. You and your fellow refugees must survive, retake your homeworld and take revenge. Each new campaign generates a different galaxy, and you must complete a series of tutorial and story missions to win and enter the high score list.

In custom games, you choose the factions in play and your archenemies, then try to conquer all their capitals in a newly generated galaxy. Scenario mode lets you play scenarios made with the map editor or downloaded from the workshop. Scenario creators can also build their own series of story missions.

Lead your fleet

One ship is not enough to withstand the galaxy’s dangers, which include the Solar Empire, the Hex AI, the alien Vurgak Empire and criminal organizations. You control your fleet’s lead ship directly, while the others follow it; fleet formations let you set how they behave. You can switch to another ship in the fleet, after which the others follow that ship instead.

You can buy ships at shipyards with money earned from missions or by selling mined, crafted or stolen goods. You can also board and capture enemy ships or derelicts. Each ship can be modified and repaired at mechanic shops, where you can buy or remove weapons, thrusters and modules. Destroyed ships sometimes drop equipment that you can pick up.

Colonies and resources

You begin with one small colony, so upgrading it and founding others is essential. Colonies can provide tax income, repair and refueling facilities, item storage, markets and shipyards. More and larger colonies can support a larger fleet, but you must pay your ships’ crews, so larger fleets need more income.

You build colony structures using resources bought from other factions or produced with factories and smelters. Mining lasers let your ship extract resources from asteroids; you can sell these resources or use them to manufacture more valuable items. Factories and smelters craft automatically when you choose an item and provide its ingredients from the colony inventory. Manufactured goods can be used to build structures or traded at markets across the galaxy.

Missions and piracy

Each colony’s HQ offers random missions for money in campaign, custom games and scenarios. The campaign also has its required tutorial and story missions, while scenarios can include creator-made story mission series.

You may turn to piracy to get what you need, including hunting bounties, boarding or stealing ships, stealing money and smuggling goods. Cloaking devices and powerful weapons are essential for those who choose to enter the underworld.

Map editor and modding

The built-in map editor lets you create scenarios and mods. You can make custom galaxies with new stars, planets, moons, stations and missions, among other content. Mods can change ships, weapons, thrusters, modules, fleets and factions, and each scenario can be combined with any number of mods.