Reading this guide is highly recomended if this is your first time entering this amazing and free online gaming world.

Before you read this guide go to http://subspace.legendzones.com/ and brush up on the basic controls (though they can be remapped now) and commands.

For tech help try the forums at http://alpha.bargeld.us/forum/viewforum.php?f=2.
For general beginner help and up-to-date links try subspace.legendzones.com

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The 10 Minute
Subspace Primer 
Act now; worry later.
From Einexile's Minefield 

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Keep It Simple
One of the first things you will notice is that other players seem to be using special weapons and powerups which go way beyond the basic controls of the game. Ignore these for now, and do not be intimidated by them. You do not need to learn these controls to enjoy the game. They are a lot of fun and will enhance your enjoyment, but for now--and for as long as you like--limit yourself to a few keys and just get used to space combat. If you have not played games such as Space War, Asteroids, or Solar Jetman, these basic controls will be very disorienting. This is not at all unusual. The following are your essential keys for today (you may remap these keys elsewhere if you want): 
the up arrow for thrust 
the down arrow for backwards thrust 
the left and right arrows for rotation 
the ctrl key to fire bullets 
the shift key to fire bombs 
the insert key, to warp 
ESC and F1, for options and help topics 
F2 to get a list of players in the zone 
F11 to toggle spectator mode 
Oldest Trick in the Book
An early warning, here. If someone tells you to type ?go followed by something else, don't do it. This is a trick pulled on newbies which sends them to a empty arena. If this happens to you, just type '?go' to return.

Your Teammates
Your teammates have yellow name tags and appear yellow on radar. Don't shoot at them. Everyone else will appear as blue, red, or purple. If you can't see name tags, hit ESC to bring up the options menu, F3 to turn them on, and ESC to go back to the game. You may need to do this twice. 

The Green Asteroids
The green dots on radar, which look like green asteroids onscreen, are good things to pick up. They will increase your ship's abilities at random, and do not need to be equipped. Get as many of these as possible; you'll need about 40 of them before your ship can hold its own in a fight. Don't be alarmed If you hear the "greening" sound effect without picking up a green. This represents your teammates sharing their greens with you. Nice of them, no? 

Why You Can't Warp
To warp, your ship must have full energy. Powerups drain energy. Check the right hand side of your screen to see if something is lit up. For now, don't worry about what's lit up, just shut it off before someone sends your skull flying through the window of your cockpit. The keys used for these items are HOME, END, SHIFT+HOME, and SHIFT+END. 

Why You Can't Control the Ship At All
If you have no control whatsoever over your ship, make sure it is actually your own ship you are looking at. There are bad powerups in the game which can shut down your ship for as long as 30 seconds, but if you see a ship flying around and fighting without your help, this is another player and you are stuck in spectator mode. Hit the F11 key to rejoin the game. If this consistently fails to work, you are either too badly lagged to play or you have entered a closed match. 

"Player Attached"
This means that a teammate has warped to your ship and is riding around on you as a gun turret. This is rude to do to a stranger without asking. Hit F7 to dump him off. 

How to Attach
You don't need to know this yet. If you can't stand not knowing, the F7 key also is the attach key. Use F2 to get a player list, PGUP and PGDN to select a player, and then hit F7 to hop on and F7 again to detach and fly on your own. You can only attach to teammates, and only after you have picked up a certain number of greens. 

Joining a freq
If you are asked to join a frequency, or "freq", enter the equals sign followed immediately by the number given to you. Note that unless you are in a safe zone this will reset your ship! Also, this may be a trick to put you on an empty frequency. If this happens, hit F11 to go into spectator mode, then F11 again to come out. The server should join you automatically to a frequency with some players on it. 

Learning the Game
Don't underestimate the offline help. In the main Subspace screen in Windows, under the Help menu, are a comprehensive set of control descriptions, a graphical "dictionary" of the game elements, and a very helpful offline tutorial. Taking an hour or so to go through these will familiarize you with the game much more quickly than trial and error. 

The Bad Guys
As in real life, players in online games are rude. Hiding behind a computer, passive aggressive types can be very obnoxious and often downright mean. Don't take it too personally; some of them are role playing, others are just assholes. Enjoy your new enemies, respond gracefully, and try as best as you can to blow them up. 

The Good Guys
Having said that, most of us who still play Subspace are very glad to see a new player getting involved and are likely to be very helpful if asked. The game allows for private arenas for training or closed matches and duels. (This is what the ?go command is for.) If you are downright confused or would like an experienced player to show you the ropes or take you through some maneuvers, just type "someone please help me" and hit enter. Another player is likely to respond, though things can get fairly busy in the game and it's not unimaginable that you'd be ignored. You could also try just asking your teammates. 

Chill
You're going to be killed at least 30 times before you make a single satisfying kill, or even an accidental. You may be killed 100 times before that happens. It takes about three weeks to really learn Subspace. For now, don't be self-conscious. Enjoy flying around, enjoy the scenery, turn up the speakers and revel in the carnage. Losing is half the fun. 

Never Ever Cheat
There are pages out there with various cheat programs, and there are bugs to exploit. Fortunately, those of us who run this game are very, very well organized. If you use a cheat program, we will know exactly what program it is, we will find out where you are connecting from, and we will ban you from over two dozen of the most popular and best run servers, permanently. We're here to have fun, but for those of us who take care of the zones it is often a lot of work. By mutual agreement we are not permitted to show any mercy to cheaters, and because of this there are literally hundreds of players who will probably never play on an active server again. Don't become one of them. Always do the right thing and no trouble will come to you. 

Welcome to the Game

