OUT TO THE BLACK

Building structures in Out to the Black is the long-game side of the game. Combat is the moment-to-moment; mining is the income; structures are the assets. A pilot who never builds is a tourist. A pilot with a network of claimed asteroids in defensible positions is a power player whose presence shapes the sector around them.

Structures persist when you log off. They keep firing at intruders. They mark your faction's territory. They make the next session you start a richer one because you're returning to defended assets, not starting from scratch.

And — critically — structures are how you spend the materials you've been mining. Materials in your hold are a target on your back. Materials converted to a turret on an asteroid you own are an active defense that can't be looted.

The build flow is four steps:

1. Find an asteroid you want to build on. Tier 1 or higher (radius ≥ 25). The white-outlined arrow on the HUD points toward the largest unclaimed tier-5+ rock in your view — that's usually the right pick.
2. Cycle your weapon to harpoon (W until you see the harpoon icon), point at the rock, and fire (Space). The harpoon attaches with a rope.
3. The BUILD button on the HUD flashes green. Click it (or tap on touch). The Build Screen opens.
4. Select a structure. ANTI-AIR is currently the only built structure available. Confirm. The asteroid is now claimed by your faction. It tints to your faction's color.

The whole sequence takes about ten seconds if the asteroid is already in range. Most of the time is spent flying to the rock and lining up the harpoon shot.

Pro tip: Build on tier-5+ asteroids when possible. The number of structures you can stack on an asteroid equals its tier — a tier-5 rock holds 5 structures, a tier-9 holds 9. A claimed tier-9 covered in ANTI-AIR is a no-fly zone for enemies.

ANTI-AIR (currently shipping)

The ANTI-AIR turret is a rotating-barrel weapon platform mounted on a claimed asteroid. It scans a 180-degree arc, identifies non-friendly ships within range, and fires a dotted-line tracer beam at them. Damage is automatic; you don't aim it, and you don't have to be online for it to fire.

• Range — roughly 1000 units. Ships within range get tagged and shot at.
• Damage — modest per hit, but continuous. A single ANTI-AIR will steadily chip an enemy's shields. Three or four together can ruin a fly-through.
• Friend-or-foe — ANTI-AIR uses faction logic. It never fires on its own faction, ignores Outlaws who own structures on the same asteroid (rare), and fires on everything else.
• Health — turrets can be destroyed by bullets. Once destroyed, the structure is gone, the Command Point refunds, and if no structures remain the asteroid reverts to unclaimed.

Planned Structures (coming)

• BASE — central material storage and fuel conversion. The strategic hub of a claimed cluster.
• MINE — passive resource extraction from the host asteroid even when you're not present.
• FACTORY — produces drones and support ships that follow your fleet.
• FENCE — physical barriers between claimed rocks, blocking enemy approach lanes.
• SHIELD — energy field around a claimed asteroid, absorbing damage at fuel cost.

The roadmap publishes each new structure as it ships. Subscribe to the X / Twitter account or join the Discord for the latest.

Every structure costs 1 Command Point (CP) to build. CP is the cap on how many structures you can have built simultaneously. The mechanic prevents one mega-rich player from carpeting the galaxy with turrets — your fleet size is bounded by the levels you've actually earned.

• You start with 1 CP max. Enough for one structure.
• Every level point spent on the Command stat adds +1 CP max. A pilot with 10 Command Points can have 10 structures simultaneously.
• Destroying your own structures refunds the CP. You're not locked into a bad build location forever.
• Switching factions destroys ALL your structures. Every CP refunds, but you have to rebuild from scratch under your new colors.

Command is the stat you want to invest in if you're playing the territory game. A Concordium patrol leader with 15 Command Points and 15 ANTI-AIR turrets covering their home sector is genuinely difficult to break.

An asteroid is unclaimed, your faction's, or an enemy faction's. The build flow checks claim state and behaves differently in each case.

• Unclaimed asteroid. Anyone can build. First builder claims the rock for their faction. The asteroid tints to that faction's color.
• Your-faction asteroid. Your teammates can add structures (up to the asteroid's tier limit). You can too. Outlaws are exempt from this — see below.
• Enemy-faction asteroid. You see a MALFUNCTION message on the Build Screen. You cannot build. You CAN destroy the enemy's structures with bullets to free up the asteroid (when all structures are destroyed, the asteroid reverts to unclaimed and you can claim it yourself).
• Outlaw-claimed asteroid. Only the original builder can add more structures. Outlaws have no team-sharing — every claim is individual.

The asteroid's tier sets the max structure count. A tier-5 rock holds 5 structures total (across all claimants if you're in a non-Outlaw faction). A tier-11 holds 11. Once full, no one — even teammates — can add more.

Destroying all structures on a claimed asteroid reverts it to unclaimed. The asteroid is back in the unclaimed pool and anyone can re-harpoon it. This is the practical way to "take" enemy territory: blow up their turrets, then build your own.

To keep the galaxy from filling up with abandoned structures from inactive players, an automatic cleanup runs every 15 minutes. If a player has been offline for 24+ hours AND their ship was destroyed before they last disconnected, their structures are destroyed and their claimed asteroids revert to unclaimed.

This rule has two conditions and both must hold. Logging off with an alive ship is safe — your structures persist indefinitely. Dying right before logging off and then not coming back for a day frees your claims for other players to take.

Returning within 24 hours, even after a death, keeps your structures intact. The mechanic is designed to recover unused assets from truly inactive players, not to punish casual play schedules.

A few patterns experienced base-builders follow:

• Cluster, don't scatter. A single tier-7 asteroid with 7 ANTI-AIR turrets covers more space than 7 isolated tier-1 turrets across the galaxy. Density of fire matters more than coverage area.
• Claim chokepoints. The approaches to your home sector — the lanes enemies have to fly through to reach your mining circuit — are where turrets earn their materials back.
• Don't overbuild on tier-1. A tier-1 asteroid holds 1 structure, has minimal mass, and can be destroyed easily. Skip it. Build on tier-5+ where the asteroid itself is a physical defense.
• Mix Command into your stat build early. Each Command level pays for itself the moment you build the structure it unlocks. Don't max Health and Shield and then realize you have no CP to use materials on.
• Defend the asteroid, not just the turrets. Once an asteroid is claimed it can't fragment, but the structures on it CAN be destroyed individually. A pilot circling at long range can pick off turrets one by one. Patrol your own base.

• Mining & Economy — how to get the materials structures cost
• Leveling & Stats — where Command sits among the eight stats
• Factions — how each faction's playstyle interacts with territory
• Survival Tips