Helixteus 3
Download size: 46.3 MB (browser version)
Construct and upgrade buildings to produce resources. Explore and mine caves to find treasure. Send ships to other planets to fight enemies and get more building space. Look out for tile features (volcanoes, auroras...) to boost resource production..
Conquer star systems, galaxies, and eventually entire universes, all procedurally generated, and fill them with buildings and megastructures to make as much money as possible.
Features:
- Many different types of resources: minerals, energy, science, materials, metals, even atoms and elementary particles
- Procedurally generated celestial objects (COs) with various properties: planets, gas giants, stars, galaxies, clusters, universes
- Various activities you can do to progress: mining, cave exploration (action roguelike), planet conquest battles (RPG)
- 19 infinitely upgradable buildings
- 6 megastructures whose costs and production may depend on the CO's characteristics
- Tile features: craters, auroras, volcanoes, lakes, caves
- A science tree that progressively unlocks gameplay features
- Different types of overlays/filters to help you find COs of interest
- Tools to help you navigate through the thousands of COs scattered all over the place: bookmarks, annotations, browsing history
- 2 prestige layers (universes, dimensions)
- Unlimited offline progress
List of shortcuts not shown in-game:
- Ctrl S: save game manually
- Hold Q while hovering over a planet: insta-conquer planet (of course, this will be removed later)
- Hold H/A/D/C/E (in battle): show HP/attack/defense/accuracy/evade of all ships and enemies
- -/=: zoom out/in
- Holding Alt before pressing Shift (to select buildings of the same type) only selects those under the influence of a CBD
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/gDHcDA3
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Alpha v0.30 progress report13 days ago
- Alpha v0.29.2a & b release notesFeb 11, 2025
- Alpha v0.29.2 release notesDec 30, 2023
- Alpha v0.29.1 release notesDec 19, 2023
- Alpha v0.29 release notesDec 13, 2023
- Alpha v0.28.2 release notesOct 17, 2023
- Alpha v0.28.1 release notesOct 15, 2023
- Alpha v0.28 release notesSep 30, 2023
Comments
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need more research!
welp i just lost my save file to a bug so going back to a galaxy that dosent exist anymore completely soft locks your game. can you fix this?
Also it kicked me down 100 levels for some reason.
(EDIT): the science button and the bookmark buttons aren't working just wanted to point that out.
Beat the game in 2 days.
interesting things to note.
Atom manipulation is overpowered. game gets boring too fast at the end game with entering Universes. nothing to do with galaxy's feels more like a click and enter.
things i think would personally improve the game.
fixing atom manipulation and making it a mid game item (i still like how it is now its just too overpowered). end game is too boring with the last basic thing to do is to grow and grow which is not bad its just when you do it enough it gets repetitive. add more buildings and options like atom manipulator galaxy (personally game breaker but none the less awesome). exploration is good but becomes really annoying (if your on browser especially) with the lag when opening a 11k stars galaxy (which is understandable for the lag). research panel is to bland and to easy i can zoom pass all research. that's basically the basics of what in my opinion should be changed.
great game just needs fine tuning. hit me up if you want some cool ideas for the game.
(EDIT): add a way to change the entire cluster into a specific task such as with galaxy's.
how do i explain this game in one comment?
I don't know actually. this game is unique with its own sense of style and balance even tho its a very slow updating game it still brings charm to its self by showing how and what i space game can be if done right.
i have been off and on 3~ years and for a very long time this is one the Top 5 best space games (in my opinion) to exist today. if it wasn't for the creator and sole developer making this game (same person) then this game wouldn't exist.
To start off this all my opinion don't take it to heart. I love space exploration, the mining, and the fighting in this game!
the things i don't like is the lack of progression, space tech.
but for a sole person making this game out-ways tho bads and makes this game something that can be much more then this now.
SO i love this game (even if i cant get my downloads working haha) its a fun unique game that has a LOT of potential to be more keep going bro.
Thanks for your comment! Can you elaborate when you say "lack of progression"?
um idk uhhhhh probably not enough items ig? idk i wrote that like really late at night so.
Amazing game. I'm assuming this is still in development considering some of the textures seem polished(love those ones by the way, very easy to tell apart while zoomed out but also hold up zoomed in) while the gemstone pickaxe also exists, but despite that I haven't encountered any game-breaking bugs. I haven't even had it for 24 hours yet, so it may just be that I haven't played long enough. All I've found for bugs is that op cursor doesn't work on browser for me(very sad), and if you zoom in on the green part of a ship's flight path you can see that the green segment is in reality shaking violently. I've only seen the second one once, though, in galaxy view, and if the second one is your next priority to fix you're either incredible at coding or horrible at bug finding.
also sorry for the long comment, especially if it came off as negative anywhere. I am in love with this game so far.
Hey, thanks for your feedback! I have been aware of the green segment shaking bug for a long time, but it's a low priority bug (I have a habit of letting them linger for a while)
Good work apple. good work
Great to see that this is still worked on, love this game! IMO it's ready for steam EA.
There's a bug where the game screen will go black and need to be restarted if left in the background for a while (on windows), though I don't know how to reproduce it consistently.
There's plenty to say about balance, underutilized features and missing endgame contents (or midgame sometimes, would be nice to have starlifters :D ). But maybe it's too early for that kind of feedback? Let me know if you're interested.
Hey, thanks for your feedback! Don't hesitate to say what you have in mind for balance, ideas etc. It's never too early!
Here goes!
Balance:
- ships+spaceport passive XP are OP, I never lost a battle. Maybe enemies should scale way higher so that good systems take a bit of work.
- overclocks: underpowered IMO. Maybe with other tiers that would work at larger scales? (planet / terraformed planet / system / galaxy / cluster)
- solar panels: never used them, by the time I get to high luminosity systems there's no point
- manual mining: the mantle and core only yielding stone is disappointing ; yields in general are too low to make this useful except at the very beginning (maybe an infinite research item to improve them? or some kind of rare bonuses)
Underutilized features:
- rovers: it's good they're not mandatory (not everyone will enjoy driving one around) but they don't have much appeal for now. I'm not sure that simply scaling up the current rewards would fix it. Maybe some more unique bonuses? For example a temporary boost to energy/minerals that would take them way above the storage limit, then quickly decay back to the limit.
- many atoms seem useless, except as a source for particles (and that's tedious). Wild suggestion: have some unique buildings generate "quests" to use them (e.g. provide some amount of elements X, Y Z and get some nice reward for it).
Things that work:
- cellulose: it can be a total pain to gather enough, and that's kind of a good thing. It introduces variation and above all gives a reason to explore more systems and find those precious synthesizers.
- progression rate: a tad easy at times, but it's great to never feel entirely stalled.
Things I'd like to see:
- star lifters: saw that concept in an Isaac Arthur video ; it's a megastructure that leeches off matter from a star. It would yield mostly hydrogen but also trace amounts of all elements present in the system.
- display lifetime production of buildings, especially for boring/mining/atmosphere extraction
- more mid-game contents (I didn't start a new dimension so can't really speak about endgame): once one can easily kill galaxies, there isn't much to do with the resources. Maybe some (very very expensive) way to send some aid to one's other universes?
- more incentives for prestige: maybe have some objectives that are visible but impossible to reach in base universe or dimension? I dunno, like cluster-level terastructures requiring vast amounts of exotic materials (I could see such a building *slowly* converting every galaxy into the same type of gigastructure)
- more unique buildings + tiers, to make exploration even more worthwhile
Thank you! Your "wild" idea of using atoms for activating unique buildings is actually very interesting, I'll keep that in mind for a future update.
tbh i dont know how you only have 2 ships instead of 4.
and I cannot destroy a CBS(by pressing X)，but others megastructures can be destroyed normally
I make a planetkiller , while I wanna shot down a planet that terraformed ,something went wrong. while I press the "Fire"，It did show me "successfully destroyed planet", but I got noting even rocks. those planet haven't been terraformed could "Fire" as normal
Interesting, I'll look into that bug (and the CBS one too)
I love how skyhooks are not included because of how unbalanced they are, cheap, effective and cost reducing lol
How do I upgrade buildings?
Hover over a building, then press F
Thx
found another bug/glitch, even if materials are at 0 you can still sell for half value
others are waiting longer on different games so this is amazing pace!
hey apple, I've found a bug, some of the screens that open for example, finished combat screens, are refusing to close, some of them work if you hit esc, but the combat screen wont budge, I'm currently playing on web mode trying the game out. otherwise i think its a neat concept from all the preview i see here! keep up the good work!
new visual bug spotted, when on a planet and moving your cursor green artifacting can be seen, doesn't effect game play though.
That's weird, can you open the browser console (press F12 -> click Console tab) and see if there are any error messages when the bug happens?
yea sure thing, I’ll check it out the next time I’m on, little bit busy today.
i couldn't find any error messages when i checked
Okay that's a little annoying lol
little update on the bug issue, it seems to only be the visual bug stays around, I haven't had any issues with the combat screens any longer. It could still be an issue but like a start of game issue, now that I'm later in the game the issue has dissolved completely speaking about the combat screen bug btw.
I scrolled in so much that the game broke and I had to download it again or else it wouldn't work properly. 10/10, would play again
ok mr hello
it took me a week to complete the entire game, the game was satisfying, with current knowledge I could do a speedrun and complete the game in one day 🛫🛫🪐🪐🪐🪐🪐
Hello! I dont know if theres a way to exit the game in the main menu but theres no quit button so you just have to force quit from itch io or close the window. Also how long are you planning to develop this game or are you going to make a Helixteus 4?
Hey, currently I don't see why it would be necessary to add a button to exit the game, because on Web you can just close the tab, and on the standalone there's already a close button in the window running the game, unless you're playing fullscreen (is that your case?).
I'm planning to develop this game on my own pace (which is admittedly very slow) with no set release date. I don't currently plan to make Helixteus 4.
Hi! Thanks for your fast response! Yes i play on fullscreen and maybe you could just add a press esc to quit thing. Also for what i have played the game is great! Good job and keep it up!
Okay I'll do that, thanks for your feedback!
found a bug where drill terraform doesn't work in the slightest.
I'm aware of that bug, closing and re-opening the game should fix it for now.
Cool. thought I did that first but I might have just went to menu and reloaded instead of a full hard re-open. works. ( in case anyone else has this problem Press ctrl+shift+R, after the next auto save cycle) (don't be like me and forget how to do basic trouble shoots. )
Ps. thanks for being so responsive.
A year ago 一年前
Is the game has a new update?游戏有新的更新吗？
No update yet, but I'm working on it bit by bit.
Check the game's Github if you want to see if progress is being made: https://github.com/Apple0726/helixteus-3
It's a really neat game and concept, it just doesn't function properly. Half the time it doesn't even load.
I would love more details, playing on browser or standalone? What do you mean by "doesn't function properly"?
I play standalone, as the browser is even more buggy. I'm sure the game is good, but there's very few tutorials. And, like I said, a good chunk of the time when I load my save, it just stays on a black screen. Also, at least to me, it seems a tad grindy.
Oh okay, thanks for your feedback!
Hi Apple is the game still being worked on?
Yep! It's still being worked on, but I admit it's been very slow lately. But I'll most likely pick up speed in the near future, it's been a while since the last update after all!
Okay, thx, I just really want new updates!
Hi Apple :3
I kinda found a bug in the place where you speed up the travels of a ship. When I wanted to use coal, (and a lot of it, probably 6 million) it would not speed it up a single second. This was travelling from a galaxy which was very close to where I was.
Just wanted to let you know :3.
Keep up the good work!
apple I need help exporting my mod to helixteus
I'm on Mac BTW so idk I did the pickaxe tutorial and I don't know how to get it from Godot to helix
hey apple is the game still being worked on ??
honestly I have been playing almost everyday and I have so much fun and I even been inspired to do some modding in the game but I was wondering if the game is still getting updates or are you working on something else ??
Hello, glad you're having fun! The game will still get updates, it's just the general lack of motivation recently.
so happy to hear that, idk how to help with motivation though hope you get motivated again. :)
also I might start a YouTube series on it btw
another bug:
on one of the menus(i forgot which one) zooming in too much will set zoom to 0 breaking your save and the current helixteus program
bug report:
you can buy any unlockable mega structure as long as you have the resources(you don't have to unlock it)
if you double click when buying a mega structure you can buy it multiple times as long as you keep double clicking
what commands can you use? I'm just curious.
Here's the list: https://github.com/Apple0726/helixteus-3/blob/master/commands.txt
thanks!
is the game still on ? I don't have discord so idk
Also, the same old design flaw still exists: in extremely high DM galaxies in extremely high G universes, extremely large planets spawn (up to T's of km in diameter), and they completely blot out the screen. In addition, these galaxies have systems with only gas giants, meaning there is no way to "colonize" them or even build a shipyard to conquer the rest of the cluster.
Another weird but non-critical bug: when digging all the way to the core, the resulting volcano will become 1x1 ash tile - unless the digging spot is surrounded by mineral extractors, in which case both the volcano and the surrounding ash field spawn correctly.
Crashed the game, I placed a building then deleted it quickly.. the building ghosted and then I tried deleting the ghost and then it crashed.
Weird bug in galaxy view: when enabling the color scale to look for high luminosity stars, after entering a system and returning to the galaxy view, the scale is broken. The max point (red color) is changed to a lower value so that a good part of the galaxy is red now, without any indication of something changing (i.e. I don't see the undo-custom-values arrow). Switching to a different view and back kinda fixes the problem but is annoying to do after looking at each system.
I haven't tested if the other views are affected, too. I never encountered similar bug in cluster view.
Yeah I'm aware of that too, will try to come up with a fix
quick question how do you get the small s of stone very quickly? I need it to build the giga structures to hold more power so i can then destroy a galaxy which will give me big S of stone.
I think planetkillers should give you enough stone for those.
I am having a wierd bug where all the Boring machines don't mine and are stuck at a depth and don't mine any resources..
A few of the terraformed planets are stuck at depth 0. I dont know if this is a bug with 30 fps or my system. (My system: MacOS, MacBook Air (M2, 2022), 16 GB ram)
edit: switched to 60 fps, didnt fix it.. it could also be from me switching windows to chat on discord.
edit 2: ok I've fixed it, restarting the game fixes it kinda, it gives me the depth and stone i would've got except from the terraformed mining planets.
Alright, got to planetkillers... this bug is annoying but its possible to work around with good RNG (a lot of good mineral extractors, a few good dyson spheres and a broken planetkiller)
Hey i have an issue with binary and larger systems. I can't put a Dyson Sphere on the smaller stars and I think a fix to this would to place the smaller stars layer over the bigger star
Sometimes the hitbox is REALLY wierd, like the hitbox for the small star was to the right of the star and barely usable. But yeah this became an issue for me aswell.
Yeah I'm aware of these issues. I think the most simple way to address both of them is to have a separate UI for stars, so you don't have to click on the stars themselves. I'll see what I can do for the next update!
are greenhouses permanite becuase i can't delete the three i placed
No, it's a bug
Thanks for the info, also i think it would be a good idea to add a upgrade all command like using control and f to upgrade every single one of this building because it gets tedious to go to all systems and place buildings
Love this game! Is there a way to load up multiple subatomic particle farms or atom manipulators the way you can for glass/rock plants?
No, because for atom manipulators/subatomics you have many different recipes, as opposed to glass/rock plants that only have 1.
hmmmm
i wonder why the volcano hard to be spawn....
too op for terraforming i guess
1.Enemies killed by the flame damage of the bomb during the battle may stay on the field.
2.When entering a new universe for the first time, the home planet is translucent, but the color will become normal when re-entering the universe.