Mode guide
The campaign
Eleven missions shipped in Early Access. You play Aster, Commander of the Protectorate, running a mothership crew through a story with dialogue trees and choices that stick.
What's in it right now
The campaign casts you as Aster, Commander of the Protectorate, tasked with keeping humanity's access to interstellar travel from collapsing. Between missions you are on your mothership: recruiting specialist heroes, talking to crew, and making calls that the story remembers. Starlance's own comparison points are Mass Effect and Baldur's Gate, and the structure bears that out.
The full design described on the store page is much larger — 15 main story missions, 10 hero loyalty missions and 15 side story arcs, with multiple endings. Most of that is 1.0 work. What you can play today is the 11 missions on the roadmap.
Can I play other factions in the campaign?
No — not in Early Access. The campaign is Protectorate-only. "Will the Grell be playable in the campaign?" is one of the most persistent questions on the Steam boards, and the published roadmap does not currently commit to additional campaign factions before 1.0. The 1.0 column lists "Complete Campaign", "Multiple Endings", "Companions" and a customisable ship layer, but not other playable factions.
If you want to play Grell, Legion or Xol, that happens in skirmish, Galactic War and versus.
Is the campaign worth playing first?
If you are new to the game, yes. It is the only place that teaches you the Protectorate and the hero system with no clock and no opponent. Eleven missions is a real amount of content — it is just not the whole story, and it ends where Early Access ends.
If you bought ZeroSpace specifically for a finished single-player campaign, that is the case where waiting for 1.0 is the right call. Our verdict on that trade-off →
What's coming to the campaign
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| 11 missions | Shipped |
| Full meta progression | Shipped |
| Faction reputation | In progress |
| Save and load | Coming soon |
| Character relationships | Coming soon |
| Complete campaign | Planned for 1.0 |
| Multiple endings | Planned for 1.0 |
| Companions | Planned for 1.0 |
| Customisable ship layer | Planned for 1.0 |
| New Game+ | Post-launch |
Frequently asked
Questions people actually ask about this, pulled from the Steam discussion boards and search data.
How many campaign missions does ZeroSpace have?
11 in Early Access, per the official roadmap. The complete campaign planned for 1.0 is much larger — the store page describes 15 main story missions, 10 hero loyalty missions and 15 side story arcs.
Can I save mid-campaign?
Campaign save and load is listed as "coming soon" on the official roadmap, meaning it was not a shipped Early Access feature. Check the current build before committing to a long session.
Which faction do you play in the campaign?
The Protectorate, as Commander Aster. No other faction is playable in the Early Access campaign.
Do campaign choices actually matter?
The campaign is built around dialogue trees and choices that shape the outcome, with multiple endings listed as a 1.0 feature. Meta progression and faction reputation systems sit on top of that.