The campaign: six galaxies

The campaign follows Earthforce from Earth orbit through the gates to the edge of the known universe: 49 missions in six regions. Each region opens with a story chapter, played in the game engine, and ends with harder missions and bosses. Missions you have cleared can be replayed at any time.

The star chart: the next mission, the flagship and the campaign progress.
The star chart: the next mission, the flagship and the campaign progress.

Earth Orbit

Milky Way · Sol. The Mandate followed the gate home. Earthforce holds the Starlink shell. Main enemy: Iron Mandate. Allies: Earthforce.

  1. First Light (Fleet clash, level 1): Mandate scouts are cutting into the Starlink shell. Launch from Starbase, learn your ship and break them.
  2. Starlink Down (Fleet clash, level 2): The Mandate is blinding Earth. Reboot the dark satellites, pull crews out of the debris and drive the raiders off.
  3. The Tanker Run (Last convoy, level 3): A Starship tanker must reach the orbital depot to refuel the fleet. Keep every gun off it.
  4. Shell Blitz (Blitz, level 3): Mandate drones keep jumping into the Starlink shell faster than we can count them. Thin them out before the next launch window closes.
  5. Hold Starbase (Starbase defense, level 4): The Mandate strikes Starbase itself. Hold the orbital yard through four waves.
  6. The Luna Yards (Hold the Station, level 5): The Mandate is jumping a raiding fleet onto the shipyards behind the Moon. The yards and their three shield emitters have to stand until the raid breaks. Watch the jump points: you will see each wave coming.

The Shattered Moons

Milky Way · the outer gate. Mandate siege lines guard the outer gates. Main enemy: Iron Mandate. Allies: Earthforce, Myrr Tidekin.

  1. Iron Picket (Capital siege, level 5): Three siege capitals anchor the blockade. Cripple their systems, then finish them.
  2. Gatekeepers (Gate control, level 6): Take the ancient crossing and hold it while the Mandate throws everything at you.
  3. Crater Trap (Ambush, level 6): A distress call pulled you into a crater field. The Mandate was waiting. Hold together until its warlord shows itself, then take it apart.
  4. Moonrun (Gauntlet, level 7): The siege line has a gap, and it closes in minutes. Punch through the blockade and reach the outer gate before the interceptors box you in.
  5. The Last Convoy (Last convoy, level 7): A refugee ark must cross the whole sector. Nothing touches it.
  6. Meridian Rising (Hold the Station, level 7): Meridian Station is half built and already worth a war. Mandate fleets are jumping in to burn it before it opens. Hold it wave by wave, and break the siege ship when it comes.
  7. The Iron Colossus (Boss hunt, level 8): The Mandate flagship anchors the gate. Destroy its turret pods to crack the armour.
  8. The Twin Wardens (Boss hunt, level 8): Two linked dreadnoughts hold the far side of the moons, a colossal field away. Only one can be hurt at a time, and each rebuilds the other. Kill them close together.

The Ion Tempest

Large Magellanic Cloud. A rogue hive has turned the storms into a nest. Main enemy: Verdant Choir. Allies: Elder Conclave, Earthforce.

  1. Storm Front (Fleet clash, level 9): The hive moves inside the storm. Burn a path through.
  2. Hive Tide (Against the tide, level 10): Four swarms are coming. Your capital has to be standing after the last one.
  3. The Queen’s Gambit (Fleet clash, level 11): A refugee signal from inside the hive. It might be a queen. It might be a trap.
  4. Brood Cull (Blitz, level 11): The hive is spawning faster than the storm can hide it. Cull the brood before it swarms the relays.
  5. Hive Spires (Station assault, level 12): Living spires breed fighters across the storm. Burn every one.
  6. The Court of Knives (Headhunt, level 12): A Varenn noble house is raiding the Magellanic relays to win favour at court. Its admirals are marked. Wound one and it runs for home, and the court will hear of it.
  7. The Eye Wall (Gauntlet, level 12): The only way to the Sleeper’s nest runs through the eye wall. Ride the lightning to the gate and do not stop.
  8. Storm Harbour (Hold the Station, level 12): Tempest Light, Earthforce’s first harbour outside the Milky Way, sits in the calm between two storms. The hive has found it. Swarms, bombers and boarders are coming through the storm lanes.
  9. The Sleeper (The sleeper, level 13): Something enormous nests in the eye of the storm. Wake it, then kill it.
  10. The Brood Carrier (Boss hunt, level 13): The hive mothership drifts deep in the storm, launching wing after wing. Burn out its bays and its hull opens.

The Titan Graveyard

Andromeda. Salvage clans fight over the bones of dead fleets. Main enemy: Veil Nomads. Allies: Varenn Regency, Earthforce.

  1. Salvage Rights (Last convoy, level 14): Escort a salvage ark through clan territory. They will not let it leave quietly.
  2. Ghost Fleet (Capital siege, level 15): Three phase cruisers hide among the wrecks. Hunt them — if you can tell which ships are real.
  3. Clan Heads (Headhunt, level 15): Clan captains are carving up the graveyard. Take them before they run home to rally the others. Wound one and it bolts.
  4. Hold the Crossing (Gate control, level 16): The clans want the graveyard gate. Take it first.
  5. Pyramid Fall (Capital siege, level 16): Three golden pyramid motherships hang over an Andromeda shipyard world. The Gilded Throne calls itself god here. Break their systems, then break the ships.
  6. Against the Tide (Against the tide, level 17): Every clan in the graveyard is coming for you at once.
  7. Bonepicker’s Trap (Ambush, level 17): The wreck you came to salvage was bait. Raiders pour out of every hull around you. Survive, then gut their warlord.
  8. The Sun Temples (Station assault, level 17): Orbital temples launch gliders over every world that will not kneel. Burn all of them and the slaves below go free.
  9. The Throne’s Reprisal (Hold the Station, level 17): The worlds freed from the Sun Temples raised a dock with Earthforce engineers. The Gilded Throne is jumping gliders, boarders and a pyramid siege ship in to make an example of it. Nobody kneels today.
  10. The Phantom Regent (Boss hunt, level 18): The clan lord never shows itself. Find the real one among the ghosts.
  11. The World Breaker (Boss hunt, level 18): A clan siege hulk is marching on our bastion across the graveyard. Wreck its engine blocks and kill it before its cannon gets in range.

The Fracture

Triangulum. The Concord guards what the gates were built to hold. Main enemy: Aurelian Concord. Allies: Elder Conclave, Earthforce.

  1. Refraction (Capital siege, level 19): Concord beam cruisers hold the rift. Break their lattice.
  2. The Broken Seal (Fleet clash, level 20): The seal is cracking. Hold the crossing against the fleet emerging from the rift.
  3. Prism Run (Gauntlet, level 20): The seal’s last gate opens and closes on its own. Cross the Concord beam lines while it is open.
  4. Trial by Moonlight (Fleet clash, level 21): The Covenant will not let a young race reach the seal. Their crescent cruisers test you from long range, half hidden. Beat them and they will fight beside you.
  5. Lattice Assault (Station assault, level 21): Crystal stations project the rift lattice. Shatter them before the flare season peaks.
  6. Concord Hunt (Headhunt, level 21): Four Concord arbiters keep the lattice in tune. Silence them before they slip back behind the seal.
  7. Sealwatch (Hold the Station, level 21): The station that watches the seal is all that stands between the Concord and the rift. Their lattice fleets jump in wave after wave. Keep the emitters up and the station breathing.
  8. The Mirror Hydra (Boss hunt, level 22): Its pylons make it untouchable. Its reflections make it many.

The Deep Veil

Beyond the Local Group. Beyond the last gate. Sensors lie here, and so do your eyes. Main enemy: Veil Nomads. Allies: Selene Covenant, Elder Conclave.

  1. The Void Maw (Boss hunt, level 23): A black hole that hunts. Feed it nothing — then strike when it gorges.
  2. Dark Harvest (Blitz, level 24): Something in the Veil feeds on wrecks. Feed it the enemy’s, fast, before it decides to feed on yours.
  3. Last Light (Against the tide, level 24): Hold the last lit beacon in the Veil while everything you fear comes for it.
  4. The Grand Armada (Fleet clash, level 24): Every clan fleet in the Veil has massed for one battle across a field twenty times the size of any before it. Break the armada, group by group.
  5. Meridian’s Last Stand (Hold the Station, level 24): The Unbound sends the Hollow through the gates to Meridian itself, where fourteen civilizations share one docking ring. Every wave jumps in closer to home. This is where the war is won or lost.
  6. The Unbound (Boss hunt, level 25): The thing behind the gate is awake. End the war here.

Bosses

  • The Gate Leviathan: A hive guardian that sheds its shell at half hull and spills its brood.
  • The Iron Colossus: Armoured while its four turret pods live. Its spinal lance cuts the whole field.
  • The Phantom Regent: Cloaks, ambushes and fills the field with decoys that look exactly like it.
  • The Mirror Hydra: Untouchable while its crystal pylons stand. Splits into copies as it weakens.
  • The Void Maw: A living black hole. It devours ships to heal and is only vulnerable when gorged.
  • The Unbound: What the gates were built to hold. Three phases, and the field itself collapses.
  • The Brood Carrier: A hive mothership. Four launch bays pour out fighters and keep it armoured until you burn them out.
  • The Twin Wardens: Two linked dreadnoughts. Only one can be hurt at a time, and a fallen twin is rebuilt unless its sibling dies quickly.
  • The World Breaker: A clan siege hulk marching on your station. Wreck its engine blocks to slow it before its cannon gets in range.

After the campaign, the Deep Space Atlas offers endless sectors that get harder and pay better, and civilization sagas tell short stories in which you fly another civilization’s flagship.