Parallaxy gameplay guide
How to play Parallaxy
Begin in Helion after the Crossing from dying Origin. Establish footholds, investigate permanent ruins, restore each galaxy’s Anchor, and carry your Archive and culture through the seven-galaxy campaign.
The campaign loop
Settlement growth, discovery missions, faction choices, and Anchor restoration form one solo-completable campaign loop; optional Operations never gate it.
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Gather resources
Production facilities add Alloy, Crystal, and Fuel to this settlement over time. Those resources fund facilities, research, and ships. They can also be loaded as transport cargo.
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Build facilities
Choose open build pads, construct the facilities your plan needs, and upgrade completed facilities over time.
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Complete research
Build an operational Research Lab, then work through research nodes in prerequisite order to change the rules identified by their configured effects.
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Build a fleet
Use an operational Shipyard to build the ship families its current tier supports.
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Preview and launch
Choose an enabled mission, destination, and fleet, review its server-calculated route and timing, then launch while the settlement state still matches the preview.
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Establish another settlement
Meet the configured expansion requirements, choose a supported world and landing zone, and commit one Colony Vessel to the journey.
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Investigate permanent sites
Locate, survey, secure or supply, decode, and restore archaeological sites. Required evidence is transmitted on arrival even when an expedition loses ships or material rewards.
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Restore an Anchor and cross onward
Complete a galaxy’s main chain to attune its Beacon and open the next galaxy. Natural weekly windows or a personal six-hour Beacon window permit new cross-galaxy departures; local colony command continues while they are closed.
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Build an evidence record
The Archive keeps permanent reports, discoveries, story threads, evidence, and contacts. Four competing collapse hypotheses remain unresolved until your irreversible protocol choice at Palimpsest.
Progress follows recorded time
Active work is reconstructed from stored timestamps rather than from an open browser tab.
Settlement queues
Construction, research, and shipbuilding queues record start and completion times.
Resource production
Configured production catches up from elapsed time, subject to this settlement’s storage capacity.
Flights
Available fleet orders record departure, arrival, and—where applicable—return times. Refreshing or reconnecting lets the game reconcile each order from those times.
Move between settlement, planet, system, and galaxy
The game screen combines settlement command with planet, system, Galaxy Navigator, and Parallax Lens views.
Choose a view
Use the Settlement, Planet, System, and Galaxy controls to move from facility planning to a site, the wider system, or another unlocked galaxy without leaving the game screen.
Navigate the 3D views
Planet and System views provide orbit and zoom controls alongside drag, wheel or pinch, and keyboard input.
Keep playing without the 3D view
If the 3D view cannot start or loses its graphics context, the World Navigator still exposes galaxies, systems, sites, settlements, missions, Archive entries, and required actions as operable controls.