Starbound

Starbound PC is a 2D action-adventure sandbox RPG from Chucklefish, built around planetary exploration, crafting, platforming, building, and open-ended progression. The current Steam and GOG storefronts still use the original name Starbound; no verified rebrand or replacement edition is presented as the main PC game.

You begin as a newly appointed Protector whose home has been destroyed, leaving a damaged starship as your only route into the wider universe. From there, the game lets you pursue the story, establish colonies, collect creatures, or simply travel from planet to planet looking for useful materials and strange places.

Explore planets, mine resources, and decide what comes next

Starbound uses a side-scrolling 2D perspective for nearly every planet-side activity. You walk, jump, climb, dig through terrain, fight creatures, enter dungeons, inspect settlements, and harvest resources from layered environments that can extend well below the surface.

The central loop is flexible rather than strictly linear. You land on a world, search for ore and useful objects, craft better equipment, complete local quests, and return to your ship or the Outpost before choosing another destination.

Planet generation supplies the variety. Worlds can contain different major biomes, underground areas, villages, micro-dungeons, hostile creatures, abandoned structures, and unusual points of interest. The result is less about finishing one permanent map and more about building a personal route through a large procedural universe.

Combat supports swords, guns, bows, staffs, whips, shields, throwable items, and other weapons with different attack patterns. It is straightforward compared with a dedicated action RPG, but environmental hazards, enemy types, equipment quality, and movement abilities still matter when visiting more dangerous planets.

Progression connects the story, ship, gear, and colonies

Starbound separates several progression tracks instead of placing everything behind one character-level system. Story missions, armor progression, ship upgrades, and colony development each provide their own reasons to explore and improve your equipment.

The campaign follows the Terrene Protectorate and sends you toward clues, ancient locations, major dungeons, and boss encounters. Missions provide direction, but they do not remove the sandbox layer; you can pause the main arc to farm, build, trade, hunt for furniture, or search distant worlds.

Your starship acts as a mobile base and long-term project. You can decorate the ship, expand its interior, recruit crew members, and use it as the launch point for travel between planets. Ship advancement is tied to crew growth or alternative upgrade routes rather than only to conventional experience points.

Colonies give construction a practical purpose. Furnished rooms can attract tenants, and satisfied colonists may provide gifts or become ship crew. Crew roles include combat support, healing, engineering, and other utility functions, making a successful settlement useful beyond its appearance.

Building, creatures, and optional survival rules

The building system covers hundreds of materials and more than two thousand objects, according to the official game description. Players can create farms, workshops, homes, museums, themed settlements, underground bases, or elaborate ship interiors rather than being limited to a single prescribed base style.

Crafting is spread across multiple stations and categories. Better tables unlock more recipes, while new armor, weapons, tools, furniture, food, and utility items encourage repeated trips into caves, villages, dungeons, and hazardous environments.

Creature capture adds another collection and combat layer. Unique monsters can be captured and used as companions, while pet collars and dedicated stations provide additional ways to manage and support them.

Players can choose between Casual, Survival, and Hardcore character modes. Casual removes the need to eat, Survival adds hunger and item loss on death, and Hardcore uses permadeath. These are meaningful rule changes, not merely cosmetic difficulty labels.

What the current game includes

The paid base game contains the main sandbox, story campaign, procedural planets, races, ship systems, colony mechanics, creatures, dungeons, and multiplayer features. The Steam listing presents the Bounty Hunter Update as part of the available game content, including Peacekeeper stations, procedurally generated bounty quests, criminal hideouts, rare monster variants, and related equipment and furniture.

Starbound also includes seven playable races: Human, Apex, Avian, Floran, Glitch, Hylotl, and Novakid. Race selection changes the character’s visual identity, ship style, cultural context, and available customization, while the main progression systems remain shared.

The storefront currently lists the soundtrack as separate downloadable content. It does not present a conventional catalog of paid gameplay expansions or a season-pass structure, so players should treat the core game as a single paid purchase with optional soundtrack content.

There is no fixed campaign length that fully describes Starbound. The story missions offer a recognizable arc, but the actual play structure is a series of exploration, crafting, building, collection, colony, and mastery loops that can continue after the main objectives are complete.

PC features, multiplayer, and mod support

On Steam, Starbound lists single-player, online co-op, online PvP, cross-platform multiplayer, Steam Achievements, Steam Trading Cards, Steam Workshop, and Family Sharing. The official description also states that all content is available in online drop-in/drop-out co-op.

PC multiplayer can be played through hosted sessions or configurable dedicated-server setups. Players can explore, build, complete quests, manage colonies, and fight through the same sandbox together, although modded multiplayer requires compatible content and matching setups.

The PC version is designed primarily around keyboard and mouse input. Native controller support is not advertised among the current Steam features, so players seeking a gamepad-first experience should not assume console-style controls without configuring Steam Input or using a community solution.

Steam installation and updates require a Steam account, while the GOG edition is advertised as DRM-free and does not require GOG Galaxy. Steam Workshop provides an integrated way to browse and subscribe to mods, and the game is deliberately structured to support new races, planet types, items, dungeons, and quests.

Localization is limited on the current Steam listing to English interface and English full audio. The game is therefore best suited to players comfortable with English text, menus, quest instructions, and item descriptions.

Who Starbound is best for

Starbound is a strong fit for players who want a procedural space sandbox with more narrative direction than a purely abstract building game. It rewards curiosity, long-term projects, decorative experimentation, and the willingness to leave the main objective whenever another planet looks interesting.

It also suits groups that prefer cooperative construction and exploration over tightly choreographed multiplayer missions. If you enjoy making a shared base, collecting unusual furniture, recruiting crew, and comparing discoveries, the online co-op structure gives the sandbox a clear social purpose.

Players looking for demanding, precision-focused combat or a deeply reactive role-playing campaign may find Starbound less compelling. Its strongest systems are exploration, crafting, collecting, building, and progression planning rather than complex dialogue choices or highly technical fighting.

Similar PC games and genre alternatives

For a more combat-driven 2D sandbox with stronger boss progression, equipment specialization, and world-state changes, side-scrolling crafting adventures such as Terraria are the closest structural comparison, although Terraria places less emphasis on interplanetary travel and a formal story campaign.

Players who want a more vehicle-centered construction sandbox can look at sci-fi building games like TerraTech. TerraTech focuses on assembling machines from parts, while Starbound puts its building depth inside a character-driven exploration game with planets, colonies, quests, and ship interiors.

For first-person space exploration, trading, and planetary survival rather than 2D platforming, large-scale cosmic sandboxes such as No Man’s Sky provide a broader space-travel presentation, but Starbound remains more focused on tile-based construction, underground traversal, and handcrafted-style 2D interaction.

Starbound PC FAQ

Is Starbound still called Starbound on PC?

Yes. The current Steam and GOG storefronts list the game as Starbound. No verified renamed edition or replacement branding currently appears as the main PC product.

Is Starbound free to play?

No. Starbound is sold as a paid base game. The current storefront listing includes the main gameplay and the Bounty Hunter content, while the soundtrack is listed separately.

Does Starbound support online co-op?

Yes. The PC listing supports online co-op, online PvP, and cross-platform multiplayer. The official description presents co-op as drop-in/drop-out, allowing players to explore and build together.

Does Starbound have local split-screen multiplayer?

Local split-screen is not listed among the current Steam features. The verified PC multiplayer options are online sessions and dedicated-server play rather than couch co-op.

Can Starbound be modded on PC?

Yes. Steam Workshop support and the official game description both identify modding as a core PC feature. Community content can add or alter races, objects, quests, dungeons, planet types, and other systems, but multiplayer participants need compatible mod configurations.