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Controls and Piloting - Version 1 vs Version 2
Aug 18, 2026, 03:22 AM
Initial version (2026-08-18)
Sep 21, 2026, 01:59 AM
Recorded both first-party statements about the P key, added the take-all and whisper controls, and updated the Steam Deck interface note
11Flying is the first thing you do in SpaceCraft, and the developer has aimed for controls that are intuitive to pick up without being simplistic. This page covers the flight and on-foot controls that have been confirmed, the information the piloting interface puts on screen, and the settings you can change. See Getting Started for the wider opening walkthrough.22Perspective44The game switches perspective by context. On foot, inside buildings and on planet surfaces, you play in first person. Flying a ship, the camera sits in third person. A first-person cockpit view was one of the most requested additions during development and the developer confirmed it had been added to the ship controls.66Flight Controls88InputActionMouseSteers the flight path, which is the direction the ship is heading rather than a free-look camera.WIncreases throttle.SDecreases throttle.ShiftEngages the after-burners. They get you somewhere faster but drain the battery, so they are not free speed.EEnters your ship when you are standing next to it, and docks when you are in range of a hangar.Number keysTrigger the skills granted by installed modules. Mining sits on 1 by default on the starting ship.1010Skills are tied to the modules fitted to your ship rather than to a character class, so which numbers do what depends on your loadout. See Ship Building.1111Taking off and docking both run an automatic sequence. Undocking flies you clear of the station before handing you full control, and flying into a hangar bay or pressing the interact key in range begins a piloted docking sequence that doubles as the transition into the station. See Space Stations.1313The Piloting Interface1515Once you are outside the hangar the flight HUD appears. Five elements were confirmed in the developer's walkthrough of the tutorial.1717ElementWhat it tells youSkill SlotsThe skills your installed modules provide. Not every module grants a skill, and some grant more than one.Thrust barHow hard the engines are being pushed. It is a throttle reading, not a speed reading.Hull barThe ship's health.Battery barDrains as you use skills and recharges automatically whenever the ship's solar panels are in direct sunlight.Mag-Plasma tankMagnetic-Plasma, the fuel consumed by Faster-Than-Light jumps.1919Flying near a planet adds two more readouts, altitude and planetary temperature, plus a compass tied to your radar skill that points toward nearby resource nodes. Nodes show as question marks until you get close enough to identify what they are. See Exploration and FTL Travel and Mining and Resources.2020Orientation Between Space and Planets2222Space has a single universal up and down so that you do not lose your bearings between systems. A planet has its own gravity, so the ship has to reorient as you descend. The transition runs through a buffer zone that rotates your up direction gradually rather than snapping it. Leaving a planet is smoother still, because the ship is already pointing at the sky.2424On Foot2626You leave the ship to move around stations and to gather some resources by hand. The Permits menu opens with P. Mining can be performed with left-click, an option added after demo feedback. Sprint or walk can be set as the first-person default in the settings.27+You leave the ship to move around stations and to gather some resources by hand. In the developer's pre-release walkthrough, P opened the Permits menu; the September 2026 Corporation preview describes P as the default key for the Corporation interface, so check the rebinding menu for where each screen lives in the current build. Mining can be performed with left-click, an option added after demo feedback. Sprint or walk can be set as the first-person default in the settings. Inside instance containers, R takes everything at once, and whispering another player, both added in Community Update #1, requires you to share a quadrant. See Corporations and Co-Op.2828Settings and Accessibility3030A batch of control and comfort options was added in response to demo feedback and applies to the live build.3232OptionNotesFull key rebindingEvery action can be remapped.Mouse sensitivityAdjustable.Invert Y-axisToggle.Default sprint or walkSets which one first-person movement uses by default.Screen shake and camera effectsCan be disabled.Field of viewAdjustable.UI scalingAdjustable. A known issue affects UI scaling at the Steam Deck resolution of 1280 by 800, particularly base interfaces.Control hintsNon-intrusive prompts for certain actions, with more added in the ship editor.33+OptionNotesFull key rebindingEvery action can be remapped.Mouse sensitivityAdjustable.Invert Y-axisToggle.Default sprint or walkSets which one first-person movement uses by default.Screen shake and camera effectsCan be disabled.Field of viewAdjustable.UI scalingAdjustable. Several interface problems at the Steam Deck resolution of 1280 by 800 were fixed in Community Update #1 on September 16, 2026.Control hintsNon-intrusive prompts for certain actions, with more added in the ship editor.3434Controller support is not available. The developer said its focus was a control scheme tailored to the keyboard-and-mouse audience and that controller support posed enough challenges to make it unlikely at earlier stages of development. Nothing published since has announced it. See System Requirements.3535Changing Region3737Region selection lives in the options menu and is also how you reach the offline experience: Options, then Change Region, then Offline Mode. See Solo Offline Mode.
