40 Fun Facts About Starbound

Which planet do giant tentacles destroy in Starbound's opening mission as the player escapes by ship?

Earth falls in the intro, wiping out billions of lives and most of the order the player is about to graduate into, whose members had gathered at its headquarters.

Which playable Starbound race has a Wild West culture and train-like starships?

Novakid joined the game only because pre-orders passed $500,000, the first stretch goal, and they are the one playable race never handed an artifact.

Which animals in Starbound work as mercenaries and follow a UFO-piloting pirate boss?

Penguins become hireable crew once Dreadwing is beaten: the Beakeasy bartender then sells dubloons, and one dubloon buys one mercenary for the ship.

On which earlier 2D sandbox game did Starbound's lead developer work as the main sprite artist?

Terraria was his job at Re-Logic until about January 2012, and reviewers such as IGN later compared Starbound's crafting, exploration and combat with it.

Which Starbound race is stuck in a medieval society and opens each sentence with a word of emotion?

Glitch are robots built by an unknown race to simulate organic society, but something went wrong and they never advanced past stone castles and farming villages.

Which crystal fuel, guarded on moons by an unkillable ghost, powers faster-than-light ship travel in Starbound?

Erchius comes in crystal and liquid form, and carrying either on a moon summons a ghost that no weapon can hurt and that hunts the player until they leave.

Which animal is the ship pet aboard every Human character's starter ship in Starbound?

Cat companions come only with Human ships, and the lead developer joked that this one could be the last in the universe after the homeworld's destruction.

What is the main currency of Starbound, earned from monsters, quests and rent-paying tenants?

Pixels are, in the game's lore, the fundamental material of the universe, which is why a 3D printer can reorganise them into almost any object.

Which London studio, a former publisher of Stardew Valley, developed the space sandbox game Starbound?

Chucklefish was founded in 2011 by Finn Brice, who announced Starbound just a year later, in February 2012.

Which handheld tool do Starbound players grab during the intro and keep upgrading to mine and place blocks?

The Matter Manipulator can be upgraded twelve times, gaining liquid collection, more mining power and a wider beam, so it stays the main mining tool all game.

Which tentacled creature the size of a small planet is the final boss of Starbound's main story?

The Ruin looks like a small planet, but on landing the ship's computer reports that the whole structure is in fact one giant living organism.

Which technique does Starbound use to build its planets, monsters and items so that every world is different?

Procedural generation means a planet's terrain, weather, gravity, plants and even the look and behaviour of its animals are assembled by the game's engine.

Which vehicles, added in Starbound's 1.3 update, are needed to reach asteroid fields and space stations?

Mechs are modular: players fit them with guns, shields and drills, and the body they choose sets how much energy and health the machine has.

On which PC storefront did Starbound launch as an early access beta, more than two years before version 1.0?

Steam hosted the beta from 4 December 2013, by which point pre-orders had already raised over $2,000,000 for the game.

On which console did Starbound finally launch in October 2024, eight years after its full release on PC?

Xbox One and Series X/S owners got the game on 24 October 2024, with controller support added, after a week-long public playtest that August.

Which human-founded aid organization is the player graduating into when disaster strikes in Starbound's intro?

The Terrene Protectorate gives every graduate a standard-issue tool for breaking down and placing materials, which is how the player comes to own one.

Which country's feudal era inspires the armor of Starbound's three-eyed, amphibious Hylotl?

Japan's influence shows in the hand-painted calligraphy and quiet paper-walled rooms of the underwater cities, which sit beside neon signs and dance clubs.

In which Starbound difficulty mode do characters never need to eat?

Casual characters still lose 10% of the money they carry when they die, even though the character creation menu promises no death penalties.

What is the name of the deadpan ship computer AI that briefs players on planets and missions in Starbound?

S.A.I.L. stands for Ship-based Artificial Intelligence Lattice, and it likes to follow useful advice with a dry compliment on the player's bravery.

Which throwable item lets Starbound players keep weakened monsters as companions?

A Capture Pod's light turns from blue to red when a catch succeeds, and throwing the filled pod again releases the creature wherever it lands.

Which former leader of the player's order, always seen seated, gives out Starbound's main story quests?

Esther Bright also once tried to catalogue every known bug in the universe, publishing the results in a book called It's Not a Bug, It's a Creature.

Which orphan, raised as a protégé by Starbound's main quest-giver, grew up to lead the villainous Occasus cult?

Asra Nox was found as a child after alien brigands destroyed her settlement, and that grudge drives her plan to erase every non-human race from the universe.

Which supreme leader in Starbound is really a propaganda figurehead invented by the ruling Miniknog?

Big Ape is a work of fiction, so the regime built a lethal mechanical version of him, which players fight as the boss of its stronghold.

Which winged god do Starbound's Avians worship, believing he stripped them of flight as a punishment?

Kluex's most devout followers are chosen by the priests to climb a tall tower and take a leap of faith, believing their spirit will fly free.

What kind of broken weapon do Starbound players pick up while fleeing in the intro and can later have restored?

Broadsword in hand, the player has to cut through a tentacle blocking the way to the ship, and those who keep the damaged blade can later upgrade it.

Which farm animal, hatched from eggs sold at Terramart, do Starbound players harvest for plant fibre?

Fluffalo show they are ready when their pelt turns a lighter brown, and elemental breeds exist too: fire, ice, poison and electric.

Which whistling monster of Starbound's starter planets turns aggressive and bites when players come near?

Poptop behaviour matches its in-game description, which says the creature hums beautifully to confuse its prey.

Which planet type, labelled Lush in the navigation menu, does every new Starbound character start on?

Garden planets orbit only gentle white stars, carry a low threat level and have the weakest monsters of any planet type.

Which object, placed in an enclosed room with a door and a light, summons a rent-paying tenant in Starbound?

A Colony Deed is sold at Frögg Furnishing, and satisfied tenants repay the cost with regular rent and sometimes by asking to join the ship's crew.

Which 2019 turn-based tactics game from Starbound's developer is set in the same universe?

Wargroove shares the setting closely enough that its races count as canon, and Starbound's plant-like Floran appear in it as one of the playable factions.

Which boss of Starbound's Ceremonial Hunting Caverns resembles a cross between a crab, a spider and a tick?

Ixodoom can live for more than 200 years, and a Floran tribe captured an especially old and huge one to keep in the caverns as the ultimate hunting trophy.

Which young Floran, champion of the grand hunt for years, joins the player after Starbound's second story mission?

Nuru was raised to be far less hostile than most Floran and hopes the race can grow smarter and more accepted while staying renowned fighters.

Which metal follows iron as the second tier of crafted weapons and armor in Starbound?

Tungsten ore turns up only on planets rated Moderate or Risky, and without it players cannot build the breathing pack that makes airless moons safe.

Which glowing red ore must Starbound players collect to repair the gate on their starter planet?

Core Fragments are needed 20 at a time for the early quest Getting Started, and the old mines on every starter world hold some without any deep digging.

Which toy must Starbound players craft for the shopkeeper Bernard before his ore shop will open?

A teddy bear, made at a spinning wheel, completes his quest The Lost Teddy: his cub Little Dipper has lost one, and Bernard cannot finish setting up shop until it is replaced.

Which profession names Starbound's 1.4 update, the fourth major content patch after version 1.0?

Bounty Hunter arrived in June 2019 and sent players after criminal gangs for the Peacekeepers, adding police stations, elemental monster variants and a new boss.

In which programming language is Starbound written, running on a custom engine built for the game?

C++ drives the custom engine, and the game left early access in July 2016 on Windows, OS X and Linux together.

Which American composer wrote Starbound's soundtrack, offered as a download in its pre-order tiers?

Curtis Schweitzer's music was promoted early: the studio's site ran a post about it in June 2012, a year and a half before the public beta began.

Which text-based music format lets Starbound players import real songs to perform on in-game instruments?

ABC notation songs can be shared and found online, and since instrument notes count as sound effects, muting the background music does not silence them.

Which two animals gave their names to Starbound's beta builds, paired with moods such as Enraged and Upbeat?

Koala and giraffe builds came in that order: Rampaging, the last of the first kind, gave way to Upbeat, and that second suffix lasted for the rest of the beta.