How the Game Works
Spectrum is a hidden-core space racing game. You forge ships powered by alien cores, you must read the daily conditions of what the cosmic elements will do, submit THRUST or DRIFT calls for each hidden core, and learn what your fleet is actually good at through repeated races. All Ships are good, they are just better in certain conditions.
Overview & First Session
The core loop: forge a mystery ship, read daily conditions, call commands, and learn from results.
What Spectrum Is
Ships are forged at the Eternal Forge on the alien base of Joambre. Each ship is created with hidden cores powered by cosmic elements. You know the class and visible stats, but not the actual element mix driving performance.
Each race day shows projected moves for Nova, Rolo, Telex, and Unik -- the cosmic elements that power every ship. Those conditions are the public signal you use before entering.
For every hidden core, choose THRUST if you expect that slot to benefit from a rise, or DRIFT if you expect it to benefit from a fall. With the right timing, ships channel their cosmic elements to travel faster than light.
Race outcomes teach you which ships are stable, which ships spike, and how accurate your command reads are over time. The Eternal Forge remembers every hull it creates.
How To Start
The current live flow is built around MetaMask/Coinbase Wallet on Base. If the chain is wrong, the app prompts you to switch.
Wayfarer costs 50 SPEC, Vanguard 80, and Titan 120. Start with one or two ships so you can learn the loop quickly before managing a larger fleet.
A race entry costs 1 plasma. If you are low, wait for ship-generated plasma or buy more from the Plasma page.
Wins matter, but repeat behavior matters more early on. Watch command accuracy, score patterns, and daily conditions together.
Ship Classes & Hidden Cores
Three hull archetypes, each with a different number of hidden cosmic cores. More cores means more to read; fewer cores means sharper mystery.
Classes And Hidden Cores
Broad and stable. Best for discovery because you get more core slots to read and more commands to place, more races to run. The workhorse of the Joambre fleet. Each core weight ranges from roughly 0.8% to 80%, with all four cores summing to exactly 100%.
Focused and dynamic. Usually a middle ground between readable and volatile. The one to have for pilots who balance instinct with calculation. Each core weight ranges from roughly 4% to 80%, with all three cores summing to exactly 100%.
Maximum mystery and sharper swings. Fewer slots means less visible structure and more all-or-nothing results. Titans stay concentrated by design -- each core weight ranges from roughly 20% to 80%, with both cores summing to exactly 100%.
Every ship is forged with hidden cores. Racing is the discovery process.
Conditions, Commands & Race Flow
Daily conditions are the public signal. THRUST means predict rise, DRIFT means predict fall. Every core slot must be submitted before entry.
Daily Conditions, THRUST, And DRIFT
Nova, Rolo, Telex and Unik each show an expected direction and projected move. Those numbers help you decide whether a hidden slot likely wants THRUST or DRIFT.
Use THRUST when you think the hidden element behind that slot benefits from an upward move in the current conditions.
Use DRIFT when you think the hidden element behind that slot benefits from a downward move in the current conditions.
The current build requires exactly one command per core slot before a ship can enter a race.
How A Race Flow Works
A ship cannot race in multiple active lobbies at once, and listed ships cannot be entered.
Plasma is your race-entry energy. Each entry uses one unit, regardless of ship class. Extra runs cost 2 or more plasma.
Once a lobby reaches 2 entrants, a 5 minute lock countdown begins. If it drops below 2, the countdown stops.
Score reflects both hidden ship performance and your command calls. Use repeated races to learn whether a ship is actually strong or just had one good run.
How To Win & Understand Your Ship
Two paths to the top, why early-season racing pays, and how cylinder composition rewards ship knowledge over time.
Two Paths To The Top
You can win in Spectrum two different ways. The first is a single huge run that tops the high-score board -- one race where everything clicks and your ship posts a score nobody else can match. The second is consistency: accumulate points across the entire season to top the leaderboard and standings. Both paths pay off, and they reward different playstyles.
In the early part of a season, rewards favor pilots who race the most. The leaderboard is wide open, and simply participating -- even without winning -- earns seasonal rewards. Pilots who get their ships into races early and often rise first. This is the window where volume matters more than precision.
As the season progresses, pilots who have learned their ship's approximate core composition gain an edge. You start to recognize which cosmic conditions suit your ship and which do not. As ships age, owners who understand their ship can channel extra plasma into runs when conditions are favorable -- dominating both the high-score board and the seasonal standings. Knowledge compounds: every race teaches you something about what your ship is actually good at.
Cylinders & Core Composition
Every ship's engine has 2, 3, or 4 cylinders (matching the ship class: Titan has 2, Vanguard has 3, Wayfarer has 4). At peak output, all engines produce 1000 kW regardless of class. The difference is how each cylinder responds to race conditions. Each cylinder is tied to a cosmic element, and that element's performance on race day determines how much power that cylinder contributes.
If a cylinder responds well to heat (Nova), your ship will perform better on days when Nova is forecast to rise. Run Ultra races on hot days and skip or limit Standard races on cold days. The same logic applies to every element: match your ship's cylinder strengths to the daily forecast and you will outperform pilots who race blindly.
Most ships have one cylinder type that outweighs the others. If you can identify a dominant cylinder type -- one that accounts for more than 66% of your ship's composition -- you have a clear advantage. A pilot who knows their dominant cylinder and races on favorable days will climb the season standings regardless of ship class or age (within limits). This is why repeated racing matters: you are reverse-engineering the engine through results.
Fleet Stats & Rewards
Your fleet page is the memory of the game. Ship-based standings determine seasonal rewards.
What Your Ship Stats Mean
Ship age is counted in seasons. Older ships generally produce less plasma and lower emissions than fresh ships.
This is the ship energy available for race entries, shown against the ship capacity. Ships regenerate plasma continuously over a rolling 24-hour cycle when below capacity. Overworked ships burn more plasma.
SPEC emission is the flat per-ship seasonal output shown on the fleet and marketplace screens. Guaranteed engagement reward.
Each ship has a rolling 24-hour run allowance. If the remaining count hits zero, that ship can wait for the window to roll forward or burn more plasma to run over the allowance.
What Progression Actually Tracks
Season rewards are determined per qualifying ship, not per pilot account. The important unit is how each ship performs over the season.
A ship needs enough races and points to matter. Strong one-off runs help, but repeated participation and accurate calls build a better season score.
Pilot boards are still useful for progression and bragging rights, while the ship leaderboard is the one tied to ship-centric reward standings.
Marketplace, Plasma & Salvage
SPEC flows from forging through racing, rewards, and trading. Every ship is an asset with race history and emission value.
Marketplace, Plasma, And Salvage
Listings expose class, age, race history, win rate, score history, plasma output, and emission rate so you can judge whether a ship fits your plan.
If a ship is on the marketplace, it is temporarily unavailable for race entry until the listing is cancelled or sold.
Salvaging permanently removes the ship and returns part of the forge cost.
Common Questions
Answers reflect the current playable behavior in the app.
Common Reasons Players Get Stuck
Common reasons are no plasma, the ship is already racing, the ship is listed, or the ship has no rolling 24h runs remaining.
If the lobby falls below 2 entrants before lock, the countdown is cancelled.
All Ships are good in the right conditions. Do not judge from one race. Compare repeated placements vs element conditions, look at scores, and command accuracy under different daily conditions.
Two Wayfarer's is the simplest starting point because it gives you the most slots to learn from.