I'll start off by going over what the game is and a few of the basic controls (default controls). If you've already read or watched about these topics, then feel free to skip this section. Note that if you forget your keys, you can check them by holding K, or by pressing escape and then looking through the controls tab.

1.1: Gameplay basics
Fractured space is a space MOBA with multiple modes and a large variety of ships and customizations. Classes include healers, tanks, attack ships, utility ships, support ships, and more. Your job as a captain is to fly a ship into battle alongside your team, which typically consists of five peaple, against a team of five opponents. To win, you need to destroy the enemy base, which can be accomplished in different ways depending on the mode you're playing. In the first two modes, Conquest and Discovery, you capture mines in each of the two "lanes", Alpha and Beta, and capture a base known as "Gamma" at regular intervals. Capturing Gamma gives you a "Gamma buff", which gives boosts to damage, armor, speed, and capture rate. In the third mode, Rift, you fly around a single sector collecting materials for your "flagship", an AI-controlled ship that must be kept alive to win.

1.2: Movement
While in a match, you need to move your ship around the sector(s) to capture mines, station buffs, and enemy bases. How do I do that, you say? Fractured Space movement is actually slightly more complicated than your average MOBA, because there are three dimensions to move through, not just the usual two that you walk on. To start off, you need to know WASD: W moves you forwards, S moves you backwards, A turns your ship to the left, and D turns your ship to the right.

On top of that, you also have space for moving your ship up, control (ctrl) for moving your ship down, Q for moving your ship to the left, and E for moving your ship to the right. These last two controls might be a bit confusing, because there's already A and D to turn your ship left and right, respectively. Q and E are actually strafe controls, they are like W and S except for side-to-side movement.

One last note on movement (for now): when in combat, it is recommended to use multiple keys at once to maximize your unpredictability to your opponent. Ok! Now on to the next controls!

1.3: Special controls
The most important controls in the entire game, besides movement controls (actually, maybe more important), are tab and G. Tab displays the sector map, allowing you to click on a location to jump to it, and for keeping an eye on your teammates or enemies. G is your scope. When using long-range weapons, G gives you a highly-zoomed in view of the direction you're looking. It even bypasses your ship! How convenient. It is recommended to use the scope at any range beyond 20k kilometers.

Lastly, there's the team interaction keys. Also known as shift and F. Shift displays a chatwheel, which you then move your cursor to a specific phrase to have it input in chat. This will cause an audio alert to be heard by every teammate with their volume on. When targeting an enemy, press F to pay respects cause a "focus fire" icon to appear above them. You can also call for focus fire by pressing tab then right-clicking on the stat bar of the enemy you want focused.

Here I will explain some of the more obscure nuances and tactics of the game (for advanced tactics scroll down), from armor to asteroids. There's a high chance that if you picked this guide, what you're looking for is going to be in here. So keep reading, it'll probably be hidden a little.

2.1: Armor
This is arguably the single most important mechanic of the game, just under WASD hax which I'll explain later. Armor is made up of six sections, one each on the top and bottom of your ship, one each on the front and back, and one each on both sides. Armor on the back and bottom of a ship is generally weaker than other armor sections. These armor facings are important because of one reason: Armor decreases the damage of most weapons. I say "most" because there are weapons that bypass armor. Breaking the armor facing of an enemy ship will boost your damage a large amount, so try to always fire on broken armor if you can (sides of the ship that look like they are on fire are generally broken armor).

However, this also compicates things for you: you have armor too, and when your armor is broken, your ship's squishy innards are exposed. To prevent a quick death, make sure you rotate your armor when it begins to get low on a facing. Make sure an armor facing is not broken all the way through before beginning to rotate. This will make your lifespan much longer, allowing you to deal more damage and capture more points.

2.2: Asteroids
Aren't asteroids just an aesthetic, designed to make the game more realistic? Well, that's true, but they also serve another very important purpose that all solid structures serve: cover. You can hide behind stuff when you're low on health, giving you an opportuntity to jump to a safer location. Staying near asteroids and stations that you can hide behind is a good idea when you're being shot at. Especially with forward stations (fob's), found in Conquest and Discovery, hiding is important. When defending an allied fob, staying in the capture bubble while hiding is a good idea so that you can repair and continue fighting. When attacking an enemy fob, you need to stay behind cover to prevent the enemy team from focusing you too hard.

2.3: Focus fire
Another highly important part of team battles is focus fire. Your team and the enemy team are
both comprized of five people, and in a large fight, taking out enemy ships as quickly as possible is imperative to winning the fight. Make sure you know which ship your team is currently focusing on, and shoot at that ship too if you can. Note: if you can't, don't waste time shooting your weapons into space. Find an enemy ship you can shoot, and attack it until you die, they die, or you come in range of the focused ship.

Combat is affected to a significant extent by crew and implants. Together, they provide boosts to stats that you want to focus on, such as armor strength or capture rate. So I'll take the time here to explain some good ways to use crew, but since this topic is so diverse I implore you to find your own strategies and combinations.

3.1: Stats and what they mean
Note: unfortunately I don't use all the stat boosts, so some information might be missing or incomplete. I'll do my best.

Crew and implant stats boost a specific area of your ship's performance. Some examples are fire rate, damage reduction, and energy efficiency stat boosts. Some boosts are given in percentages, while others are given in flat amounts (I believe it's just hull strength that does it in flat amounts, however). A stat will boost exactly what it says it boosts, however there is still some ambiguity about what is what on a ship (devs...).

3.2: Min/maxxing
When building a ship crew, you usually want to min/max to get the best possible stats out of a certain criteria. For instance, Choosing as many defensive boosts as possible will give you a good tank, while putting only attack-increasing boosts in your crew will give you, unsurprisingly, an attack ship. But that's not all. You probably don't want to make your light ship into a tank, or your tank into a capper. Your crew should speak to your ship's best qualities, not its worst. There are exceptions to this rule, such as maneuvering boosts for tanks to grant some evasive power, but generally you want to try for the best stats you can possibly get.

Still thirsty for more Fractured Space knowledge? Then it's time for some more advanced tactics. I'll go over how to avoid damage in a much more complicated manner, and ways to time jumps and blinks to keep you out of trouble. So, without further ado, let's get started:

4.1: WASD hax
Despite the name, it's not actually WASD hax. It's WASDQEspacectrl hax...
But in all seriousness, WASD hax is a highly advanced way of avoiding damage. The principle behind it is to move so erratically and unconventionally that an enemy cannot properly aim their shots, which causes many misses. To perform WASD hax, you must be using at least three, if not four, movement axis at once. What I mean is this: say you're moving forwards, using W. To use WASD hax, you also need to use Q or E and space or ctrl and A or D all at once. With practice, you can choose the correct keys almost instinctually, which will further increase your dodge rate. You could even dodge smartguns if you're quick enough!

Disclaimer: WASD hax does not gauruntee survival, and the more enemies you have to dodge, the harder it is to perform this tactic successfully.

WASD hax becomes more and more successful the longer your range is from your opponent.

4.2: Jumping
Jumps increase your damage taken by 200%, to a grand total of 300% damage received while jumping. This means that you shouldn't jump while in combat (Note: this doesn't apply to blinks). If you do need to jump while enemies can shoot you, then you must do one of two things: one, get behind cover, or two, retreat. There are ships that can jump outside of these requirements, but they are niche and you'll probably be able to find the specific reason why they can just by playing them.

If you read all that, congratulations! It took a few hours to compile all of this (mostly from personal memory, hah), and I'm glad you wanted to check out my guide. I hope to update this with more information in the future, and keep the current information relevant. But for now, just have fun and keep... Spacing? Fracturing? Hmm...

Thank you!