Outer SpaceTurn-based · Multiplayer · 4X · Free
Outer Space Become Imperator
A galaxy that keeps turning while you sleep. Grow a home world into an interstellar empire, out-research and out-negotiate your rivals, and win the galactic vote for Imperator — or take the galaxy with your fleets.
No download. Free account. A few minutes a day is enough to play.
A strategy game you play over weeks
Outer Space is a classic turn-based 4X game — explore, expand, exploit, exterminate — played by many people in one shared galaxy. The difference is the clock: a turn is processed every hour of real time, day and night, whether you are logged in or not.
So you don't sit through an evening-long session. You log in a few times a day, look at what happened, set your construction and research queues, send fleets on their way and write to your neighbours. Then you get on with your life while the galaxy turns.
The result plays more like a long correspondence game than a frantic RTS: plans take days to unfold, and diplomacy with the humans around you matters as much as your economy.
What makes it interesting
Outer Space has been around since 2001 and has a deep, battle-tested rule set. Here is what sets it apart.
Win by election
Every six game days the empires of the galaxy vote, weighted by the size of their realms. Two thirds of the votes make you Imperator, with a production and research bonus. Keep the title and you can declare final victory. Conquest helps, but friends vote too.
A huge tech tree
More than 250 technologies across six tech levels, each improvable up to five times. At tech level 2 you commit to a path — Bionic, Human or Cyborg — that shapes everything you can research later.
Design your own ships
Combine hulls, control modules, FTL and sub-light engines, weapons, armour, shields, scanners and fuel tanks into your own designs. Speed, range and firepower are all trade-offs.
Planets that matter
Colonies need workers, food, energy and morale. Planets range from barren rock to Gaia worlds, can be terraformed, and hold strategic resources. Morale falls with distance from your capital, so sprawl has a cost.
Logistics, not just battles
Ships burn fuel every turn and refuel only at friendly planets. Scanner range decides what you can see. Combat is automatic when hostile fleets meet — the strategy is in getting the right ships to the right place.
Real diplomacy
Relations grow through pacts — passage, refuelling, shared research and production — and collapse when someone shoots. War simply means closing your space to someone's warships. Talk to the other commanders through in-game mail and public forums.
Research shapes your empire
- Queue research and let it run while you're away.
- Improving a technology makes everything built from it better.
- Choose a race at tech level 2: Bionic (biology), Human (research and energy) or Cyborg (industry).
- Late game: advanced hulls, exotic weapons, terraforming and Gaia worlds.
Build the fleet you need
- Scouts to explore, colony ships to settle, warships to defend your space.
- Every design shows its speed, range, attack, defence and cost before you build.
- Upgrade designs as new technology arrives.
- Give fleets multi-step orders: move, colonize, refuel, repeat.
Screens
The new browser client keeps the depth of the original PyGame client in a game-style interface. Click to enlarge.
The pace of a game
Everything in Outer Space is measured in turns, and each turn is one hour of game time.
Our server currently runs at double speed: a turn every 30 minutes, so a game day passes in 12 real hours.
Claim your star
Create an account, join an open galaxy and take your first turn in a few minutes.