Video Game / Star Traders: Frontiers

Star Traders: Frontiers is space-faring Indie Game developed by Trese Brothers and released for the PC on Steam in 2018. In a futuristic science fiction setting, the player takes command of a starship and seeks to earn their fortune among the stars by performing any one of a wide variety of occupations, from the titular space trading and patrolling shipping lanes to less reputable professions such as smuggling or piracy. In addition, the player can take missions from the various factions that control worlds throughout the galaxy, both side quests and story content. While doing this, the player must manage their crew and ship, which can be fully customized to suit whatever profession or play style they prefer.

While the combat in Star Traders is turn-based, it features a dynamic evolving universe that changes with the passage of time. Time passes with actions the player takes, which eventually close off the availability of certain story content and open up new potential story chains. Thus the player must carefully manage their game time to complete the most content in the shortest amount of time and prioritize which missions are more important to complete.

---

Tropes used include:

• Aborted Arc: If you rescue the incapacitated Aldo Bastiel and deliver him to Zette Faen, she says she'll contact you if she manages to save him. Nothing ever comes of this.
• Absent Aliens: Downplayed. While the Horde of Alien Locusts variety are present in the Terrox and Jyeeta Xeno, there are various sentient races mentioned in the lore; justified, given that they are stated to either be extinct, or left behind when humanity embarked on the Exodus.
  • Even there, most of the Terrox varieties, and all of the Narvidians present in Templar Battleforce are not present. At launch, there were only Terrox Hunters. Scitterlings were added in a later update.
• Abusive Precursors: The Narividians, created by the long dead Xarth. Their influence and subversion of the FTL comm network built by the Planetary Guild directly led to the enslavement of the Guild and the Guild War that destroyed the Galactic Core. To a lesser extent, the Alfaan, who created the Xeno to fight the Xarth, though unlike the Narvidians, who are extremely intelligent, the Xeno are more like wild animals. Hungry, semi-organic and vicious animals.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Computers and some degree of automated electronic devices are legal, but Shalun Law forbids machines that can do things without human supervision, i.e. no autonomous drones, no self running factories, no AI, etc. This is largely because of the Narvidians, AI aliens that destroyed the Galactic Core.

"No man shall build such a device that allows a machine to communicate with another machine [free from the hand of man]."

-Shalun Law, from the Book of Ardok-Adron Shalun, passage 14, Verse II.

• Alliance Meter: One of the most critical aspects of the game is your standing with the various factions throughout the galaxy. If your standing is low with a faction, their ships will attack you on sight, contacts will not give you missions, and you won't be able to use their base facilities. There's also "Personal Reputation" with Contacts, gained from doing missions or selling Intel, which allows you to use their better services.
• All There in the Manual: The game has a rich backstory, with a universe developed over the course of 4 games. Much of it is documented in a PDF file conveniently linked in game.
  • Alternatively, much of the lore can also be found on the wiki.
• Always Chaotic Evil: The dreaded Xeno attack any human, in space or planetside, never negotiate, and always fight to the death. Why they do so is unknown in-universe. The Alfaan, a long dead race of energy beings, created them as weapons against their rivals, and when they vanished, the Xeno continued to spread across the galaxy unchecked.
• Ambadassador: It's perfectly possible (if impractical) to train your Captain or one of your officers to be a Diplomat or Merchant with other combat-related jobs.
• Anyone Can Die: On higher difficulties, anyone on your ship can die, including officers and your Captain. Even contacts can die, whether due to old age, scheming rivals, or salvaging mishaps.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: No matter how many crewmen are on your ship, you can only take 4 into a crew battle.
• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Melee weapons are still very much prominent even in the futuristic setting with space travel as well as well-developed and effective ranged weaponry, justified by cultural traditions. There are several jobs that specialise in melee combat.
• Arms Dealer: One possible contact the player can encounter is a Weapons Dealer, who will sell you high quality infantry weapons and gear to be used in crew combat. Retired Duelists can serve a similar function.
• Auto-Save: The game saves everything the player does automatically, though back up save files are available on lower difficulty levels.
• Badass Army: One of the worse results when salvaging results in your ship being boarded by an elite paramilitary group, who are likely much higher level than you. Downplayed, though, as they likely don't have the best equipment, compared to what you've gained from aforementioned salvaging.
  • Zendu Templar also count, though you don't encounter any in gameplay. Justified due to their Genetic Memory, which Brokstrom describes as "centuries of muscle memory" for combat.
• Badass Crew: Provided they live long enough to level up significantly, your own crew can become this, with a wide range of skills to account for any dangerous situation.
• Badass Normal: Xeno Hunters and exo-scouts are normal people who specialize in hunting feared Xenos.
• The Battlestar: Aside from your compartment slots, nothing's stopping you from equipping both fighters and ship-mounted weapons. All default carrier designs come with some weapons, though most aren't particularly well equipped. Jyeeta ships, especially the Jyeeta Juggernaut, count as well.
• Behavioral Conditioning: Gestalt Technologists can offer this service to remove certain negative behavior traits from your crew, provided the contact has enough influence, and you have the funds and Personal Rep to pay for it. It's also mentioned that the Gestalt as a whole undergo this, to prevent them from leaking the secrets of their order to outsiders.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Faen family from the opening story are a backstabbing mess. When Valencia is framed for the bombing of the Highwind Orbital Station, her brother Erik and aunt Zette scheme to turn the resulting Duel of Assassins to their own advantage, while letting her die "for the good of the family." Even worse, play through Valencia's storyline and you'll learn that one of them (which one is random) was the one responsible for the bombing!
• Black Market: Smuggler-type contacts will allow you to gain access to one, where it's quite handy for not only selling illegal goods, but bypassing any reputation damage from a Trade War/Trade Ban.
• Black Market Produce: Subtly implied by game mechanics — high-value Luxury Rations both have a lower Legality rating than other foodstuffs and require a Trading Permit to buy and sell, meaning that in some uncommon circumstances your only option is to trade them on the Black Market. Less luxurious foodstuffs, by contrast, can be bought and sold damn near anywhere (providing you can access the market in the first place).
• Boarding Party: At close range, ships can launch boarders against each other to kill enemy crewmen and sabotage subsystems. Some crew talents enable boarding at longer ranges. With carrier components, you can use a shuttle craft to launch a boarding party at any distance, albeit taking multiple turns like any craft attack.
• Bold Explorer: One character class is the Explorer, which specializes in maximizing rewards found from exploring uninhabited Wild Zones and in mitigating the threat from Xeno encounters in space. Exo-Scouts and Xeno Hunters are also useful for dealing with any ground threats your crew may encounter in the wild.
• Boring, but Practical: Trading. It's the simplest and most straight-forward of all the tasks you can do in the game, but it is quite profitable with the right ship and crew talents.
  • Certain types of mission-running, specifically the ones that involve carrying passengers or special cargo to a destination, are also simple and profitable (in both credits and reputation), even if they take a while.
• Bounty Hunter: One of the game's many occupations. This one involves hunting down targets wanted by the various factions. Usually requires a prison cell installed on your ship and an Edict from a faction allowing you to carry out Writs of Execution.
  • Factions that you are hostile to will also send bounty hunters after you.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: You can bribe ships to peacefully let you go on your way without reporting you, thus avoiding combat and potential reputation loss. Also possible in passing some mission steps, though this usually requires a Diplomacy/Charisma check as well.
• Cast from Hit Points: The Blade Dancer's "Forbidden Edge" talent gives them considerable buffs, as well as causing an also-considerable level of bleeding. And since it's considered a buff, you can't remove the bleeding with debuff-removing talents.
  • Various Ship combat talents involve considerable buffs that inflict crew and/or component damage, such as Reactor Overclocking.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: Traveling through space is as simple as clicking on your destinations. Though this subverted in universe. Traveling in a ship that uses a Void Engine can lead to all sorts of nasty effects, such as radiation and heavy metal poisoning, in addition to slowing or even stopping some bodily functions. This is why so many spacers consume spice regularly. In addition to its intoxicating effects, it can help the body process and deal with the ravages of space travel. On the bright side, the Void Engine messing with human metabolism means that spacers can often live for centuries, unless they die violently first.
• Character Customization: At the start of the game, the player can pick a pre-made template to be their captain or create their own, in which they can customize appearance, skill sets, and occupations. The ship's crew and officers can be customized as well.
• City of Spies: Syndicate Rychart is an entire faction generally focused on spying and subterfuge.
• Class and Level System: Regular crew have a single class and level up in that, picking up abilities along the way. Officers can mix-and-match from up to three classes, with varying levels of synergy.
• Collector of the Strange: One of the places where Xeno Artifacts have demand is Luxury Population zones: it can be presumed that it is this sort of character that produces said demand.
  • Contacts can also have the "Collector" trait, which means that they will allow you to recruit Scavenger crew from them, as well as providing Salvage Rumors.
• Combat Medic: One of the possible jobs. In addition to providing useful healing, they also gain skill with Pistols and have a number of talents dealing with afflicting Bio-Poison or reducing the enemy's resistance to it.
• Command Roster: Your Captain, as well as your Officers.
• Continuing is Painful: Losing a battle doesn't necessarily result in game over, but it can leave you with ship full of critically injured and low morale crewmen, along with damage that will ground your ship for weeks of game time.
• Corrupt Quartermaster: Averted. The Quartermaster job is excellent at ensuring that your crew stay in-line. Their final talent, "Second Shadow", even allows them to prevent the death of a crewmember.
• Cool Ship: Many different ships are available, from traders to war ships.
• Cool Sword: The one-of-a-kind de Rivesh blade, as well as the Circin Cutter. The former is obtained as a potential quest reward, the latter from defeating a legendary Bounty Hunter, Troy "The Blade" Circin, in crew combat.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Your crewmen can only select one job, so don't expect them to be good at anything else.
• Critical Hit: Two different kinds exist: standard Criticals, and "Crippling" hits. In crew combat, only the former is present (although Talents that inflict debuffs are referred to as "Crippling"). In ship combat, the latter will apply one of two debuffs to an enemy if it hits, with both the chance and debuff depending on the weapon. If both of those debuffs are present when a Crippling Hit is scored, then the third, "prime" debuff, is applied.
  • Talents exist in both combats to buff the percentage chance of scoring criticals.
• Cult: Of the Alien-Worshipping variety. Xeno cults exist, though they are almost universally maligned^note  Word of God states that Rychart have more cults than the other factions, much to the chagrin of their leadership.. Part of the Jyeeta era involves hunting down such cults that are inhibiting the effort to fight the xeno. The "Buried Demons" lategame era is centered around investigating rumors of Arbiter Brokstrom's involvement with the enigmatic and greatly-feared Gux cult.
  • Crew with the "Other Fascination" trait gain morale when encountering a Xeno ship, instead of everyone else who loses it. You can also encounter contacts with similar tendencies, though Xenologists are the most prone to it, as you might expect.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: Many talents exist that apply this, both in ship and crew combat.
• Decadent Court: The competition between the factions, which are all at least ostensibly aristocrats, ranges from minor trade wars to political sabotage to all out Duels of Assassins and Solar Wars.
• Determined Doctor: Doctors have access to a talent that allows them to prevent an otherwise-fatal wound. Especially useful on higher difficulties where Permadeath is present.
• Dirty Coward / Lovable Coward: Surrendering can actually be a viable tactic to avoid combat, with the benefit of avoiding time and money lost repairing the resulting ship damage. If you have an empty cargo hold, or trade permit with pirates from a faction you are on reasonably on good terms with, and surrender to them, they will let you go on your way. Likewise, surrendering to bounty hunters or military ships from friendly factions will be fine as long as you are not carrying contraband cargo. The only penalty is a morale loss.
  • You can exploit this with the bounty hunter Draiv Solregard - run away from him enough times, and he'll call off the warrant, though you won't get the Experience reward that you would from beating him in ship combat.
• Disaster Scavengers: During the Crimson Pox Era, pirates are more likely to carry the medical supplies you'll need to help resolve the crisis, presumably having stolen them off legitimate traders in hopes of exploiting the ongoing crisis for profit.
• The Dreaded: Xenos are sufficiently feared in the Star Traders universe that merely encountering one of their ships triggers an automatic morale hit to your crew.
• Early Game Hell: The game is absolutely brutal at the start, particularly on hard difficulty where permadeath applies. Your starting ship is badly underpowered and generally inefficient at whatever task you want to use it for, while your low-level crew don't have the skills required to pass the game's constant skill checks with any degree of consistency. Expect to take constant ship, crew, and morale damage while merely traveling through space as a result. Furthermore, your lack of standing and trade permits also means you won't be able to access the game's high end cargo at any place other then indie worlds.
• Easy Logistics: Fuel needs to be periodically replenished, but that's about it. You don't have to worry about other things like provisions or ammunition.
• Enforced Cold War: Downplayed with Shalun Law; it isn't actively provoking tensions, but it creates a series of ritualized legal conflicts between factions that avoid actual all-out war. One of the worst you can get is a Duel of Assassins, which is a formalized series of lethal bounty hunts mediated by a neutral party, before open season is declared on you for destabilizing galactic society. The closest that comes to all out war is a Solar War, which sees Star Traders hired to attack military targets.
• An Entrepreneur Is You: For most playstyles, a large amount of income will come from selling cargo (whether legal or otherwise), and even for others (such as Scavenger), you'll end up with cargo that you may as well sell anyways.
• Escort Mission: Some missions involve escorting a VIP to their destination. Requires a passenger compartment on your ship. Since they're safe onboard your ship, this is perhaps one of the least annoying examples of the trope.
  • In fact, the very first mission you get (even though it's optional) is to escort Arbiter Estelle Brokstrom to Prince Faen's court.
• Evil Pays Better: In the Faen storyline, saving Valencia Faen saves an innocent woman from a conspiracy, but it means passing up the chance to get one of two excellent contacts.
• Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: The hypergates that connect the Quadrants.
• Explosions in Space: Missile and Torpedo weapons are perfectly viable, and are shown displaying explosions when they hit. Missile weapons can even inflict the "Secondary Explosions" Crippling Effect. If you destroy a ship instead of disabling it, while the text states that their "hull ruptures", the graphics show it exploding.
• Fantastic Racism: As the nine Factions are often political rivals and have cultural differences, this can sometimes be seen, especially between Clans and Syndicates.
• Feudal Future: The title of Prince or Princess is given to a star system's ruler and inherited by their successor. Clans tend to have successors that are biological relations of the Prince, while the Syndicate Princes tend to adopt the best candidates they can find and designate their successors. In addition, the rulers of smaller settlements in the same system are given the titles of Dukes and Barons and expected to provide taxes and troops for the FDF.
  • Even Smugglers have Smuggler Princes/Princesses. One story vignette involves helping a smuggler you're friendly with ascend to that criminal royalty.
• Feuding Families: The initial storyline is about the conflict between the Faen and Char families. Princess Aetaan Char has accused Valencia Faen of bombing the Highwind Orbital Station, and the situation is developing toward a Duel of Assassins. Her father, Prince Calagan Faen, is fighting to protect her, while a couple of other family members are plotting their own agendas related to the upcoming Duel.
• Fiction 500: Per the official wiki, one credit represents a truly fantastic sum of money, much more than most gravs^note Members of the general population who live planetside across the galaxy will ever see in their lifetime. Minimum starting pay for a standard ship's crew is twenty credits a month per person. Star Traders routinely handle cargoes and contracts worth thousands of credits each. A fully upgraded top-of-the-line Cool Starship owned by a particularly successful Star Trader can represent an investment of millions of credits, which itself may only be a fraction of their total assets.
• Fictional Geneva Conventions: Shalun Law includes rules limiting the scope of violence and war, and ensuring that in no case will Star Traders be prevented from landing on a planet (though they might not be allowed to refuel or access medical services).
• Find the Cure!: One of the late-game global events involves a previously-unknown disease reaching pandemic proportions and rapidly spreading across the galaxy. Your Star Trader can volunteer their services to help find a cure.
• Fight Like a Card Player: Downplayed. You don't play cards, instead drawing randomly from a selection of five cards in Patrolling, Blockading, Spying, Salvaging, and Exploring. Almost every job has a talent that can manipulate these cards in one of those activities, such as re-drawing or outright removing dangerous cards.
• Final Death Mode: Playing the game on hard difficulty or above activates permadeath, meaning your campaign is over if your captain ever dies.
• Friend in the Black Market: The only way to get to a black market on a particular world is to have a contact who's got access.
• Frontier Doctor: Downplayed, as only zones with a sufficient Economy rating will have medical services available - but justified, given that there's only no medical service for Star Traders - their doctors are likely busy healing their own populace, and Spacers have unique biological needs thanks to living in the presence of a Void Engine.
  • Doctor crew have a talent available that lets them become this, which allows you to gain Reputation with the local Faction equal to a portion of your ship's Medical Rating (which requires dedicated components), so long as said Medical Rating is higher than the zone's Economy.
• Future Food Is Artificial: Though natural foodstuffs like Grain are available as trade goods, Synthetic Food tends to be cheaper by the ton (and thus presumably more accessible to the masses).
• Geek: Crew and Contacts have the "Device Freak" and "Techno Addict" traits, respectively.
  • Device Freak allows the crewmember to equip a second piece of Specialist Equipment (so long as they're an Officer or the Captain.)
  • Techno Addict means that the Contact will pay 10% more for Intel, as well as offering Salvage Rumors regardless of what Contact Type they are.
• Genetic Memory: The Zendu have this unique ability. Used as justification for the Templars' status as a Badass Army, and the Arbiters' being judges.
• Global Currency: Credits are the standard currency of the Star Traders.
• Grand Theft Prototype: One of the optional missions with a plot involves stealing the plans for a prototype "Golta Scanner", which allows for greatly enhanced Spying. Amusingly, the mission is still available even after the game reaches a point where the tech is widely distributed.
• Guest-Star Party Member: When fighting the Jyeeta Scourge a Templar Captain joins the crew combat. Despite being injured and fighting at less capacity he's still many times more powerful than the average crew member.
• Healing Vat: One of the Rare Trade Goods is Kloxian Medical Bays - the icon indicates them to be this.
• Hero of Another Story: The Zendu Templar order is a major factor in maintaining the Star Trader setting's relative peace and stability, but outside of one late-game event chain you never interact with them as a faction, never encounter their ships, and can only access the same basic services on their planets that are available at any other with no faction contacts. Their story is, in fact, told in their own game, Templar Battleforce.
• He Who Fights Monsters: The Xeno Hunter job includes Intimidate as one of the skills it increases, and some of its talents involve replacing a card with one that allows you to fight xeno.
• Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: The Hyperwarp is another dimension that is rife with dangerous energy currents and used for inter-quadrant travel. In addition to the normal time dilation effects being magnified, failure to navigate safely can lead to the ship and crew being damaged by cascading energy surges.
• Impartial Purpose-Driven Faction: Zendu Arbiters have a reputation for incorruptibility, with the equivalent of several lifetimes of memories and conditioning allowing them to serve as highly perceptive and impartial advisors, mediators, and judges. The one your character meets in-story, though, zigzags the trope, as while you can't sway her judgement in the dispute that kicks off the plot, she's disillusioned with the broader political situation and has a vision for the Arbiters becoming more than mere enforcers of the status quo.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: High-Tech Industrial and Orbital^note  Orbital zones are also manufacturing facilities zones are one of the places that can have a demand for Xeno Artifacts.
• In Harm's Way: Xenos are among the most dangerous opponents one can face. Xeno Hunters make a living at it and have an ability that allows them to go out and find more xenos to fight.
• Infinite Stock For Sale: Zig-Zagged. While Faction holdings are an aversion, having limited stock of any item they produce, Contacts that provide crew equipment (weapons, armor, and Specialist Equipment) will have an unlimited amount.
• Interface Spoiler:
  • The "Unlocks" menu, accessible from the main menu, shows achievements and their rewards - about half of the achievements involve plot-related story vignettes.
  • The game's image on the Steam store page shows Jyeeta Xeno.
• Intrepid Merchant: This can be you, if you choose to carry goods between quadrants and maybe Explore or Salvage to pick up the good stuff.
• It's Up to You: Sometimes played straight, sometimes averted. The Coalition will form, and the Pox and Jyeeta will be defeated whether or not you're the one to do it. On the other hand, if you want to stop the plot against Estelle, you're going to have to personally solve the relevant mission for her.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Ships with interrogation chambers can play rough with prisoners to get some Intel. So can Zealots with the Rough Interrogation talent, though in the latter case, the target's faction tends to object.
• Justice by Other Legal Means: When a Duel of Assassins kicks off, everyone in both factions is fair game for the other party's death warrants, and both sides will take full advantage of this to settle old scores that are too costly, too time-consuming, or otherwise ineligible for standard arbitration. The guilty party in the Faen-Char conflict deliberately provoked one, taking advantage of the old family rivalry to advance their own personal agenda.
• Kill It with Fire: Xeno Hunters specialize in dealing Plasma damage, and reducing an enemy's resistance to it.
  • The Plas-Burn Booster Specialist Equipment adds plasma damage to any weapon equipped by the person with it.
• Knight Templar: Faction Zealots, as well as Zendu Templar, although the latter group is not encountered ingame, only mentioned.
• Knockback: While not present in ship combat, several talents exist for combat-focused crew and officers that allow them to push enemies back (or pull them forward) in slots. Almost every single attack that Jyeeta use applies it.
• Knowledge Broker:
  • You can sell Intel (earned from various methods, namely Spying), usually related to ongoing Conflicts, to various contacts; although it's more useful for gaining Personal Reputation with, and increasing the Influence of, the Contact that buys it.
  • Various Contacts will also offer to sell Rumors as a service. Having higher Rep with the Contact, as well as them having more Influence, will allow you to learn of the Rumors earlier.
• Lawful Stupid: You can exploit this with the Military Officer's "Stiff Salute" talent, which will instantly end a ship encounter with a hostile Military Officer or Zealot, albeit with minor Rep loss.
• Level-Locked Loot: The most valuable trade goods are effectively soft-locked, inasmuch as you need to both acquire a series of trading permits (with higher grades unlocking more valuable goods) and find worlds with lax enough planetary regulations to buy and sell them legally. Downplayed inasmuch as any Star Trader with money, influence, and the right connections can either purchase whatever permits they need or simply go through the Black Market.
• Liberty Over Prosperity: "Indies" are typically very poor (evidenced by both them requiring a smaller bribe, as well as offering smaller Tribute, although their worlds, with low Trade Law (especially Indie Tradeways) and no Trade Permit requirement can make them function as an alternative to a Black Market if you haven't built up the necessary Contact relations yet. An officer can even discuss this when you enter orbit over an Indie holding:
  [officer name]: "Indies have freedom... freedom from prosperity."
• Lightning Gun: "Lance"-type weapons fit this trope, as they blast the target with heavily electrically charged beams of energetic plasma, with the attack animation showing bolts of electricity dancing along the beam.
• Lost Technology: Downplayed. Despite the Exodus, the opening of the Hyperwarp gates has led to the re-distribution of technology, and the fact that so long as the local infrastructure is a sufficient level, any Starport can construct any ship, and with other levels, the same goes for ship components.
  • In a straight example, some of the best weapons/armor/specialist equipment in the game can be acquired through salvaging abandoned orbitals, especially Derelict Space Hives, which are specifically stated to be "from an ancient era".
• Magical Accessory: Specialist Equipment, which can only be equipped on Officers or the Captain, but can provide considerable boosts, whether to base stats, combat effectiveness, or piloting skill. Justified due to it taking the form of ammunition, bionic implants, headsets, etc.
• Midair Repair: Wing Tech crew gain access to a talent that lets them perform this.
• The Migration: Why the game is subtitled "Frontiers". The backstory of the game involves the various Factions performing one to the Quadrants, after the devastation of the Guild War.
• Mildly Military: Star Traders can "earn" (read: purchase) ranks in their chosen faction's military, but in practice they answer to no chain of command and are free to accept or decline missions at their leisure. There's nothing stopping you from holding commissions from multiple factions (even if they're fighting one another), or even actively working against your ostensible benefactor's interests (though they can and will eventually start revoking privileges).
• Morale Mechanic: Keeping your crew morale up is critically important. Crewmen with low morale may desert the ship on your next port stop. If the entire crew morale sinks too low, there could be a mutiny.
  • In crew combat, crew with excessively low morale are likely to suffer a Morale Break, which results in effectively a wasted turn. Obviously, Xeno deal very large amounts of it, though there are also crew talents that can damage or heal it.
• Mr. Fixit: High level mechanics and engineers can repair ship damage in battle or in the immediate aftermath of one. Wing Techs are this for small craft.
• The Mutiny: Your crew may mutiny against you if their morale is too low. Various crew occupations have talents that can end a mutiny and mitigate the consequences.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Terrox and later Jyeeta Xeno.
• No Ending: Short of your character being killed while playing with permadeath enabled, there really isn't any official ending to the game. It just goes on endlessly.
• No Healthcare in the Apocalypse: Downplayed; during the Crimson Pox Era, worlds which produce medicines may suffer periodic shortages presumably because local demand for their own worlds is outstripping available supplies.
• Obstructive Code of Conduct: Shalun Law is invoked frequently to explain both limits on your character (no FTL communications, Star Traders are restricted to starports and unexplored wilderness zones only) and the lack of certain changes to the wider setting (the different factions are barred from conquering or settling new planets). Blatant violations would presumably be punished by everyone else ganging up on the offender along with a massive beatdown from the Templars, but the existence of black markets dealing in otherwise-contraband xeno artifacts (among other things) seems to be quietly tolerated by everyone, and some missions involve your team having to bend the letter of the law to accomplish your objectives.
• The Older Immortal: While all Star Traders are mostly immortal, Draiv Solregard is stated to have been a bounty hunter from before the Exodus. For reference, not too long into a run, after the Early Coalition era ends, will come the Third Century Era - meaning it's been 300 years since the Hyperwarp Gates opened up, let alone how long it's been since the Exodus took place (at least another 200 more).
• One-Hit Kill: Snipers gain access to the "One-Shot" talent, which requires Stealth Mode to use, consumes more Initiative than they're likely to have, but deals massive amounts of damage, likely inflicting this on any human enemies, and with the right debuffs, even Xeno may fall to it.
• Optional Boss: The various Bounty Hunter story vignettes count as this - they're all quite strong; you can bribe or run away from them, but defeating them nets good rewards, such as the Circin Cutter carried by Troy "The Blade" Circin.
• Organ Drops: The Explorer's "Macabre Harvest" talent allows you to gain Xeno Artifacts after a successful crew combat with xeno. Given OrganicTechnology below, the "Dredge Artifacts" talent that allows harvest in a similar manner from Xeno ships also qualifies.
• Organic Technology: The Xeno ships are semi-organic, as are the Xeno themselves. Their ships are more grown than constructed.
  • Word of God states that a Void Engine is a downplayed version of this, where a prokaryotic xeno organism is used along with Water-Fuel to power the ship, in addition to supplying heat and plasma to the engines.
• Overdrive: Present both outside and inside of ship combat.
  • When you make a ship encounter, there are the "Skip Off the Void" and "Flash Charge" talents, which burn fuel and cause damage to your engine, to allow you to instantly escape combat and start at a closer range, respectively.
  • During combat, there are several talents among these lines, but the most straight is "Reactor Overclocking", which gives you 2 extra RP (Reactor Points), at the cost of doing crew and component damage for a few turns.
• The Pardon: Various contacts will offer these, which will absolve all negative rep with their faction, but usually for a very hefty price, depending on how negative the reputation is. Coalition contacts have the power to arrange a pardon with anyone, but only once per faction.
• Perilous Power Source: The Void Reactor, which powers the ship and provides the FTL travel within a Quadrant, is known to cause various issues with human biology, from radiation sickness and heavy metal poisoning to the slowing or halting of biological systems, including impairing the immune system and temporarily inducing sterility.
• The Plague: The crimson pox era. The goal is to get the plague score to 100 (which results in a cure), by completing missions for Chaesin Doctor Kaera Gouldbern.
• Planetville: Enforced. Planets have a maximum of two available landing zones, and in settled zones Star Traders are explicitly restricted to a small area around the local spaceport set up to cater to their business and needs.
• Power Source: A starship's Void Reactor runs on tritium-oxide fuel^note  Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen that has two neutrons, which gives it an atomic mass of 3, hence the name, though in-universe it's usually just referred to as "Water-Fuel". This trope comes into play when it's stated that spacers believe that drinking the fuel is what allows them to live their long lives and otherwise withstand the forces at play within the void. Though, they're careful to only drink the human-refined form, and not the naturally-occurring variety from various gas giants or asteroids, as they believe that to cause madness and illness.
• Prestige Class: Officers and the Captain can train in three separate jobs, as opposed to the one that the rest of the crew train in.
• Prisoner Exchange: One of the missions you can get involves taking a prisoner to a planet from a different faction to facilitate one of these.
• Professional Killer: The Assassin and Bounty Hunter jobs. To be able to perform missions involving this, you will need at least a level one Edict with a Faction (not to be confused with Military Rank).
• Protection Racket: You can demand that non-hostile ships you encounter in space offer you "tribute" which effectively functions as a reverse bribe, though this also has a chance to reduce Rep with the ship's faction.
• Proud Merchant Race: Clan Moklumnue is largely comprised of legal merchants and focuses on building trade networks, as opposed to the blatantly criminal De Valtos Syndicate.
• Proud Warrior Race: Steel Song Clan, to the point where in some cases, such as facing bounty hunters from their faction, you are not allowed to bribe them at all.
• Random Encounters:
  • You can run into all sorts of ships while you are traveling in the void, from peaceful traders and explorers to deadly pirates and the dreaded Xeno races.
  • Encounters when exploring, patrolling, etc. are random, though you can mitigate the risk through various crew talents that allow you to reroll or outright remove risk cards.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking:
  • Downplayed. You can make your captain and officers into elite warriors, but it's not required to increase your Military Rank with your chosen faction(s).
  • Played straight with the Military Officer and Commander jobs: Military Officer increases Pistols skill as it's leveled up, and while Commander does not, both jobs have very effective combat talents.
• Really 700 Years Old: It's stated in-game that the effects of a starship's Void Engine (and according to most spacers, drinking its fuel) can enable Star Trader captains to live for centuries. You can even witness your contacts die of old age, and your character will be no worse for wear.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over:
  • The primary two colors in Syndicate Rychart's flag are black and red. Not coincidentally, they're the faction most associated with skulduggery and subterfuge.
  • While they're more of a maroon color, Terrox Heavy Cruisers also qualify. As with all xenos, they're implacably hostile to all human life.
• Relationship Values: Your Reputation is tracked not only with each faction, but also with individual contacts. It's entirely possible to be locked out of a contact's services because, while they may personally like you, their faction as a whole hates your guts (or vice-versa).
• Retired Badass:
  • While various contacts are "retired" forms of certain professions, the two that play this trope the straightest are the Retired Duelist and Retired Xeno Hunter.
  • One of the outcomes of the "Call of the Strong" minor plotline results in the captured stormtrooper becoming a Weapons Dealer.
• Revenge: The justice system of Shalun Law is referred to as "retribution justice." There's no central system of law enforcement; instead, if a member of a faction has been wronged by another faction and the wrongdoer refuses to offer restitution, they can seek retribution through a Duel of Assassins, where both sides take out death warrants against those on the other side who have wronged them.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Hunna revolutionaries frequently engage in acts of terrorism on Faction holdings. Though oddly, the event where you witness such an attack will only occur once in any given run.
• Rousing Speech: A talent for the Commander occupation is "Loyalty Rousing", which enables the character to give a rousing speech after a victorious battle that increases crew morale. This is a very effective way to offset morale loss that was inflicted during battle
• Run the Gauntlet: Some events may require you to perform two Crew Combats in a row. Notably, salvaging has a risk card involving double combat against pirates, and one against Xeno.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Crewmen with low morale may desert your ship at port stops, especially if you land on a planet controlled by their native faction. Certain crew occupations, such as quartermaster, have talents that help reduce the risk of desertion.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Snubbers (the in-universe term for shotguns) are most useful in the first and second ranks, and can't be fired from the fourth position.
• Skill Point Reset: You can retrain a character's skills for a fee, though their jobs can't be retrained this way. When you promote a crewmember to officer, their skills and all but one job rank are reset, allowing you to rebuild them mostly from scratch.
• Sniping the Cockpit: If an enemy ship no longer has enough crew with a Pilot skill pool sufficient to man their ship, the combat instantly ends. Same thing happens if the Captain dies.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: The Cadar and the Steel Song, perpetual rivals. Cadar Syndicate leans more towards soldiers and is known for their naval prowess and elite special forces, while the Steel Song Clan lean towards Warrior, favoring assassins and bladed combat. A similar comparison could be made between Alta Mesa and Thulun, except with spacecraft instead of ground troops.
• Space Fighter: Three types of small craft exist: Interdictors, which can be used for defense but also have access to attack runs; Bombers, which are exclusively for attack runs; and Shuttles, which allow you to launch Boarding attacks from any range.
• Space People: Star Traders and their crews effectively give up their planetside lives for the opportunity to adventure among the stars. Not only does the nature of the job itself mean they spend most of their (unnaturally extended) lives in space, but Shalun Law restricts their contact with "gravs" to a small area immediately surrounding the spaceport.
• Space Pirates:
  • A frequently encountered threat throughout the galaxy. The vast majority of them are actually privateers; if you're friendly with their faction, they're more likely to pass you by than board you (if you have a trade permit with their faction, you can even let them board you with no repercussions), and fighting them is liable to piss off the otherwise legal factions. You can also be one yourself.
  • On the individual level, "Pirate" is a possible profession for your crew members. Their talents focus naturally focus on maximizing plunder and helping you dispose of it.
• Space Station: Orbital stations are one of the types of Faction holding, and have unique production and demand. There are also abandoned orbitals that you can perform Salvage operations at.
• Spice of Life: Spice in its various forms is a valuable trade commodity, although you'll need a Trade Permit in addition to finding a world with suitable Trade Law (or a Black Market, to bypass both). Notably, there are two different Rare Trade Goods about spice: Bexian Spice Tea and Travor Spice Wax.
• Spies In a Van: You can Spy in the orbit of any faction holdings, effectively becoming Spies In A Ship.
• Spy Versus Spy: One of the possible conflicts that can occur between two factions is a Spy War.
• Standard Starship Scuffle: 1 vs 1 ship battles are a major aspect of the game's core mechanics.
• The Stateless: Indie ships have no membership in any faction, which means no legal protection or rights. The Hunna might object if you destroy captured indie ships, but nobody else will care. Robbing them or salvaging those you destroy in battle won't even get that.
• Status Buff: Several buffing abilities exist in crew and ship combat.
• Status-Buff Dispel: Notably, buff-removing is only present in crew combat; in ship combat, you can only remove the effects of Crippling Hits with various talents.
• Status Infliction Attack:
  • In ship combat, inflicting a debuff requires that a ship weapon hits during the combat phase - likewise, Craft-based debuffs also require that their weapons hit.
  • In crew combat, most debuffs also require that a weapon hits, though there are some that hit automatically. Buffs are a mixed bag, with some requiring a weapon hit to buff yourself, or some being automatically applied.
• Starfish Aliens: While Terrox Xeno are vaguely humanoid in their Hunters, the Scitterlings are squat quadrupeds. Notably, neither of them have eyes.
  • Jyeeta Xeno are giant snake-like things with sharp-tipped tails; the colloquial term for them in-universe is "void slugs".
• Straight for the Commander: Downplayed. Killing an enemy ship's captain causes an immediate end to combat, but they'll generally be the last one to fight your Boarding Party, so you'll need to launch several attacks. However, the Assassin's final unlocked Talent (at Assassin level 15), "Gut the Leadership", enables them to deal damage directly to the enemy Captain^note 30 + Stealth Skill if there aren't any officers to take the blow.
• Sub System Damage: In space combat, various systems such as engines, internal shielding, and weapons can be damaged and be disabled. Loss of certain systems, such as flight control, results in losing the battle.
• Sword and Gun: Pistol users can carry a blade in their off hand. Bodyguards specialize in this combo.
• The Syndicate: De Valtos syndicate could be considered this, as a more shady counterpart to Clan Moklumnue.
• Taking You with Me: The Avengent, a Templar battle vessel, was losing to a Jyeeta carrier. So they rammed the carrier, causing both ships to crash into the atmosphere. The captain of the Avengent managed to bring his ship down partly intact. His crew died, but he survived, and the ship's vital cargo remained in Templar hands until he could destroy the Jyeeta Hive Queen.
• Techno Wreckage: Abandoned Orbitals, where you can perform Salvage operations.
• Timed Mission: Downplayed: ostensibly, all missions have a time limit, but this usually just results in a reduction of pay if you are overdue.
  • Played straight with Abandoned Orbital (or Orbital Construction) rumors, as you only have the duration of the rumor to perform a salvaging operation there, which is problematic if you first learn of the rumor and are several jumps away.
• Turn-Based Combat: All battles in the game are turn-based.
• Universal Driver's Licence: Averted. Each kind of small craft pilot specializes in a different kind of craft: Wing Leaders fly fighters, Wing Bombers fly bombers, and Wing Commandos and Saboteurs fly assault shuttles. Unless you're an officer who takes ranks in multiple pilot classes, you only fly one kind of craft.
• Up Through the Ranks: If you have a vacancy for an officer position, you can promote a crewman to officer.
• Venturous Smuggler: Can be encountered in space, though they're usually passive. You can also play one yourself, which is a handy way of selling otherwise-illegal goods, or trading in Trade Wars/Trade Bans without incurring Faction rep loss.
• The War to End All Wars: The Guild War, which almost wiped out humanity and left hundreds of worlds barren, leading to the Exodus.
• We Buy Anything: Downplayed. Faction holdings will buy any item from you, though only zones that have a demand for it will give a profitable price.
  • There's also the matter of trade law, where goods with a Legality rating less than the zone's Trade Law rating are unable to be traded. Of course, you can still trade in a Black Market.
• Wild Card: All Star Traders, including yourself, count as this, being independent actors who are contracted by factions for various purposes.
• Word of God: The developers are extremely active in their community, often answering questions about the game mechanics, lore, and planned expansions.