About This Game

START WITH NOTHING. MINE YOUR WAY UP.

Ore Bastards is a top-down space mining sandbox about starting with a fragile ship, an almost empty bank account, and one simple plan:

Get rich without getting blown apart.

Mine asteroids, haul ore to stations, trade resources, complete contracts, explore distant regions, fight pirates, and more.

Every expedition can lead to valuable deposits, abandoned wrecks, ambushes, distress signals, strange discoveries, or the piece of equipment that completely changes your ship.

MINE, TRADE, AND GROW

Extract different ores and crystals from asteroid fields across the galaxy.

Manage your limited cargo space, compare prices between stations, protect valuable resources in your station stash, and invest your profits in better ships, equipment, and more.

Some regions are relatively safe.

Others contain rare resources, stronger enemies, and opportunities worth risking everything for.

The farther you travel, the greater the danger and the potential reward.

BUILD YOUR OWN SHIP CONFIGURATION

Equip your ship with mining, battle, and missile turrets.

Install internal systems that improve your:

• Mining power

• Weapon damage

• Shields

• Engines

• Scanners

• Repair systems

• Cargo capacity

• And more

  

Ships, turrets, and internal systems use procedurally generated statistics, modifiers, and rarities.

A newly discovered item may increase your mining yield, improve your firepower, expand your cargo capacity, strengthen your shields, or push your ship toward an entirely different build.

There is no single perfect ship.

Speed, armor, shields, cargo space, mining efficiency, weapon range, damage, and many other attributes all compete for your limited equipment slots.

ACTIVATE POWERFUL SHIP ABILITIES

Some equipment grants active abilities that can change the outcome of an expedition.

Use abilities to:

• Overcharge your shields

• Push your engines beyond their normal limits

• Disable nearby enemies with an electromagnetic pulse

• Repair critical damage

• Boost your mining systems

• Overclock your turrets

• And more

The right ability used at the right moment can save your ship, your cargo, and possibly your questionable career choices.

EXPLORE A VAST GALAXY

Travel between sectors and regions using a three-layer navigation system:

• Galaxy Map

• Region Navigation

• Local Scanner

Discover:

• Stations

• Gates

• Mining zones

• Wreck sites

• Pirate activity

• Mission locations

• Unknown signals

• And more

Plot courses across the galaxy and use cruise travel to cover enormous distances within regions.

The map records the places you discover, allowing you to return to valuable mining areas, dangerous locations, mission targets, the wreck of your former ship, and other important discoveries.

FOLLOW UNKNOWN SIGNALS

Not every signal reveals itself immediately.

A distant contact may lead to:

• A rich ore field

• A crystal pocket

• A pirate stash

• An abandoned freighter

• A derelict ship

• A hidden pirate base

• A navigation beacon

• An escape pod

• A capital ship graveyard

• An anomalous structure

• An ambush

• Something that does not belong to any known human faction

• And more

Some discoveries provide valuable equipment, resources, or information.

Others reveal new locations, begin chains of events, or lure careless captains into a trap.

Every unknown signal is a reason to travel a little farther.

COMPLETE STATION CONTRACTS

Stations offer missions based on their purpose, location, and surrounding threats.

Take contracts involving:

• Ore deliveries

• Cargo transport

• Pirate hunting

• Station defense

• Miner escorts

• Salvage operations

• Prototype weapon testing

• Dangerous expeditions

• And more

Mission destinations can be tracked through Ship Info and displayed directly on the map.

Not every station offers every type of contract, so travelling between stations creates new opportunities.

FIGHT PIRATES AND PROTECT YOUR SHIP

Pirates may:

• Attack miners

• Defend valuable locations

• Occupy hidden bases

• Ambush travellers

• Hunt you across open space

• And more

Use specialized turret types, focus priority targets, manage your shields, repair damaged systems, and activate ship abilities during combat.

Mining turrets are designed to break asteroids efficiently.

Battle turrets are built to destroy ships.

Missile turrets provide heavy firepower against dangerous targets.

Choosing the right configuration is often more important than simply installing the most expensive equipment.

RESCUE SURVIVORS

You may discover escape pods and stranded survivors while exploring.

Rescued crew members can provide permanent bonuses to:

• Mining

• Combat

• Navigation

• Cargo management

• Repair systems

• And more

Each survivor has a name, profession, and personal history.

Bringing someone home may be more valuable than anything carried inside their escape pod.

LOSING A SHIP IS NOT THE END

Ore Bastards uses station-based saving and meaningful ship loss.

Every journey away from safety carries a real risk.

When your ship is destroyed, you may escape in a pod, transmit a distress signal, and wait for a rescue ship.

Returning safely does not restore everything you lost.

Your destroyed ship remains in space for a limited time, allowing you to return to the wreck and attempt to recover some of its equipment.

Failure costs you.

But failure can also become the beginning of another story.

A GALAXY THAT DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU

NPC miners continue working asteroid fields.

Pirates search for vulnerable targets.

Stations provide different services, equipment, missions, trading opportunities, and more.

Battles and encounters may begin without your involvement.

You are not the chosen savior of the universe.

You are another captain trying to survive, make money, and avoid becoming a permanent point of interest on somebody else's scanner.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN PATH

Become:

• An industrial miner

• A wandering trader

• A pirate hunter

• A deep-space explorer

• Or something entirely different

Build:

• A fast mining ship

• A heavily armored combat vessel

• A missile platform

• A cargo hauler

• A balanced multipurpose ship

• Or an unstable combination held together by spare parts and financial desperation

There is always another region to explore, another ship to discover, another fortune to claim, and another threat waiting in the dark.

SPACE NEEDS A SOUNDTRACK

And while you race from one adventure to another across the endless reaches of space, your OREAMP music player will always be ready to play the game's soundtrack.

Choose a track, skip forward, replay your favorites, and give every mining expedition, pirate battle, and long-distance journey the music it deserves.

Because exploring an endless galaxy in silence would be absolutely unacceptable.

KEY FEATURES

• Top-down space flight, mining, trading, exploration, and combat

• Multiple sectors and regions connected by a large navigation network

• Procedurally generated ships, turrets, internal systems, and item modifiers

• Mining, battle, and missile turret specializations

• Active ship abilities and extensive build customization

• Galaxy Map, Region Navigation, and Local Scanner

• Cruise travel across enormous distances

• Station missions and varied contract types

• Discoverable points of interest and unknown signal chains

• NPC miners, pirates, and dynamic encounters

• Crew rescue and permanent crew bonuses

• Meaningful ship loss, rescue, and wreck recovery

• Global station stash and cargo management

• Playable prologue and guided tutorial

• In-game Codex explaining major gameplay systems

• Integrated music player for long expeditions

• Multiple supported interface languages

• And more

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

AI-assisted tools were used in a limited capacity during development, in line with modern creative production workflows, to help create the game’s cover artwork and certain in-game illustrations.

All AI-assisted materials were manually reviewed, edited, refined, and adapted by our team before being included in the game or on the store page. These assets were not used in their original generated form.

The game does not use live generative AI during gameplay.