Starheim

Starheim is a spaceship-piloting looter shooter MMO set in a universe based on Norse mythology. You fight NPC ships and other players, collect dropped loot and improve your ship. Combat takes place on a flat plane: ships and bullets are locked to it, letting you dodge incoming fire and warp around without managing movement up and down. Weapons do not use heat-seeking missiles, so you have to aim your ship at a target to hit it.

Ship combat and physics

Ships use physics-based thrust and momentum. Pushing forward accelerates your ship, and momentum carries it onward until you use reverse thrusters to slow down. Collisions can alter another player's movement or send their ship spinning. Asteroids also respond to physics: you can shoot them to send them at players or NPC enemies.

Every ship has a Tractor Beam that creates a gravity well in front of it. Use it to grab and carry asteroids or NPC ships, then launch an asteroid by shooting it. Boss fights are designed for parties of at least two players, whose members share experience.

Open PvP

Most of the world supports open PvP, with Peace and PK modes available. Enforcer ships guard busy areas such as upgrade centers and attack PKers on sight. Death is not highly punishing unless you have left items out of the bank.

Killing another player earns a PKer 10 PKPoints. At 30 or more PKPoints, the player becomes rednamed and can drop equipped modules on death.

Factions

You can create or join a faction with other players. Factions are intended to take part in faction-versus-faction PvP events, with followers of dark gods such as Loki pitted against the gods of order, such as Thor.

Ships and upgrades

You can build ships in several classes, each with a different focus:

• Fighters focus on speed.
• Destroyers focus on damage.
• Frigates focus on survivability.
• Artillery Cruisers focus on heavy weapons, such as a large railgun.
• Dreadnoughts balance damage and survivability, but are slower and larger targets.

You can buy or loot modules that add offensive or defensive capabilities and improve ship stats. Ships and modules have an upgrade system with stats that can reach Legendary, +9 and 2 Sockets. Those sockets hold Viking Runes, which grant stat increases or effects such as increased experience gains.

Elemental weapons and shields

Each weapon can switch between eight elements, changing both its projectile's appearance and its damage type. Nearly every ship has an element-based energy shield that must be depleted before you can damage its hull.

Elements can counter shields: hitting an Ice shield with Fire deals 50% more damage, while using a weapon countered by a shield, such as Lightning against an Earth shield, deals reduced damage. Using an opposing element against an NPC's shield also increases its drop rate by 50%.