Ostranauts Handbook

Ostranauts FAQ — Multiplayer, Platforms, Saves and Lore

✔ Last checked: 2026-08-04

The short version: single-player only, Steam only, saves in AppData\LocalLow, no landing on planets outside station maps, yes you can be a pirate, and Earth is gone in the backstory. Longer answers below.

Platform and tech

  • Multiplayer? No, and none announced.
  • Steam Deck / controller? Gamepad and Steam Deck support arrived in v0.15 (April 2026). Players report it functional; input quirks still get patched, so keep current.
  • Console or GOG? No console versions announced. We can’t verify a GOG listing — treat “Steam only” as the answer until shown otherwise.
  • Save location (Windows): C:\Users\<you>\AppData\LocalLow\Blue Bottle Games\Ostranauts\Saves — or in-game via Options → Files. Steam Cloud saves are supported since v0.15; the load UI warns if a cloud save is mid-download.
  • Performance? Long-running saves get heavy; a June 2026 patch (v0.15.1.2) shrank bloated save files. If you’re stuttering, see errors and fixes.

Gameplay reality checks

  • Can you land on planets? You visit surface and orbital station maps — 1.0 added Mars’s Tharsis Landing, Deimos’s Voltaire, Luna’s Jade Rabbit — but there’s no freeform atmospheric-landing gameplay. Travel is station to station; verified against 1.0 station list.
  • Can you be a pirate? Yes — piracy, boarding and (since v0.15) ship-to-ship weapons exist, with the Ceres conflict as the combat hotbed. The flip side: 1.0’s bounty system means someone can be paid to find you.
  • Multiple ships? Yes, including carrying a shuttle docked to a bigger ship. See ships.
  • What happened to Earth? The setting is a solar system cut off from a ravaged Earth — same universe as NEO Scavenger, generations later. The game drips lore through consoles, PDAs and plots like the Ceres Affair rather than exposition dumps.
  • Is there a wiki? Yes, the official one at ostranauts.wiki.gg — solid on systems, still catching up on 1.0 specifics. For “the game just changed” questions, our 1.0 changes page and patch tracker stay current.

New player? Start at the beginner guide.

FAQ

Is Ostranauts multiplayer?

No. Ostranauts is single-player only, and no multiplayer mode has been announced.

Is Ostranauts on console or GOG?

It's a PC game on Steam. No Xbox or PlayStation version has been announced, and we can't verify a GOG listing as of writing — Steam is the confirmed storefront.

Where are Ostranauts save files?

Windows: C:\Users\\AppData\LocalLow\Blue Bottle Games\Ostranauts\Saves. Or open Options in-game, click Files, then the button next to Saves/Settings.

Who made Ostranauts?

Developed by Blue Bottle Games (Dan Fedor, of NEO Scavenger fame) and published by Kitfox Games. Early Access from September 10, 2020; version 1.0 on August 3, 2026.

Are there aliens in Ostranauts?

No classic little-green-men aliens. There are, however, distinctly weird-fiction anomalies — rapidly growing meat, events where you 'feel watched' — that the game refuses to fully explain. We respect it.