Project Stardust Modes

Project Stardust modes change what a useful ship and a useful fight look like. An elimination that matters in Deathmatch can be a poor trade in Fleet Battle. Long-range pressure that controls an Attack and Defend lane may do little if it abandons a Domination point. Read the objective before spawning, then shape your route, target order, and retreat condition around it.

Community references consistently describe four core formats: Deathmatch, Fleet Battle, Attack and Defend, and Domination. Exact score targets, timers, map availability, objective health, and capture behavior can change. Trust the current lobby and on-screen objective indicators whenever they disagree with an older explanation.

Community corroborated — checked September 12, 2026: Deathmatch is documented around eliminations, Fleet Battle around value-weighted ship losses, Attack and Defend around destructible objectives, and Domination around capture control. Use those as strategic models and confirm the live match rules before committing a valuable hull.

Read the match before choosing a ship

At the selection screen, identify the mode and map. Then ask whether the team needs range, durable presence, rotation speed, interception, fighter pressure, or an anchor for a narrow lane. Avoid choosing solely by tier. A large slow ship is powerful only if it reaches a relevant position and can leave before focused fire destroys it.

Inspect team distribution after spawning. A balanced opening keeps mutual support without putting every hull in one crowded approach. If a flank is empty, decide whether you can observe and delay safely rather than trying to defeat the entire enemy side alone.

Set a retreat trigger before contact. Losing shields, exhausting a key weapon cycle, seeing several enemies turn toward you, or losing the escape lane are clearer signals than waiting for critical health.

Deathmatch: value clean eliminations

Community documentation describes Deathmatch as a straightforward elimination contest, with each kill contributing to the team total. Under that model, survival matters because every unnecessary death gives the opponent progress. Confirm the current score display for the exact target.

Focus damaged or isolated ships that your team can actually finish. Spreading damage across many retreating targets can create impressive numbers without securing the result. Do not chase one low-health ship so far that you leave support and become the next elimination.

Use the Deathmatch guide for opening formation, focus fire, disengagement, and target selection.

Fleet Battle: understand ship value

Community references describe Fleet Battle scoring as dependent on the destroyed ship’s health or value, so larger hulls can affect the score more heavily. The live scoreboard must confirm how the current version expresses this rule.

That changes both target priority and risk. Concentrating fire on a valuable exposed ship may swing the match, but trading several ships to reach it can still lose. Pilots of capital ships must avoid unsupported pushes; pilots of smaller ships should not assume their survival is irrelevant.

The Fleet Battle guide explains value trades, screening, focus calls, and how to protect a high-value hull without becoming passive.

Attack and Defend: control access to objectives

Attack and Defend gives the attackers destructible objectives and asks defenders to preserve them until the match condition is met. Community map references describe different objective layouts, including a single objective on Shipyard and sequential objectives on Requiem, but verify the current markers and order in the live round.

Attackers need a route that delivers sustained pressure rather than scattered individual rushes. Clear defensive screens, force attention away from the objective, and arrive with enough surviving weapons to matter. Defenders should use cover and overlapping fields without stacking so tightly that one attack reaches everyone.

The Attack and Defend guide covers both sides, objective timing, lane control, and recovery after a position falls.

Domination: presence must become control

Domination revolves around capture areas. Community pages describe maps with three points and some layouts with a single point; the current HUD is the authority. Entering a circle is not enough if the ship immediately dies or cannot prevent a recap.

Fast ships can rotate and contest, durable ships can hold presence, and ranged ships can punish approaches, but every role must remain connected to the point. Watch capture state and enemy approach lanes. Leave early enough to reinforce the next threatened area rather than reacting after it changes hands.

The Domination guide explains capture weight, contesting, rotations, and how to avoid useless fights away from the objective.

Turn weapon ranges into team zones

Arrange ships so their effective areas overlap. Long-range pressure should cover the path a teammate must hold. Point defense should protect likely missile or fighter targets. Brawlers need an approach screened by cover or allied attention. Carriers should keep travel distance manageable and avoid routing wings through concentrated defenses.

Do not stack hulls directly on each other. Congestion blocks turns, traps retreats, and makes the group an easy focus target. Separation with overlapping support is stronger than either a pile or a collection of isolated ships.

Use weapon types to identify each ship’s contribution and maps to adapt the zones to current geometry.

Communicate without a long briefing

Short information is enough: target, lane, objective, incoming missiles or fighters, and retreat. Mark or name the ship the team can finish. Tell allies when a flank collapses or an objective is uncontested. Avoid filling chat with arguments after the moment has passed.

If formal communication is limited, movement still signals intent. Spawn near a complementary teammate, hold a supporting angle, and turn out before you drag enemies into an ally’s retreat path. A carrier protecting a capital ship or a point-defense hull screening a group can coordinate through position.

Mode mistakes that cost matches

The universal mistake is fighting where the objective does not benefit. Deathmatch punishes donating eliminations. Fleet Battle punishes careless loss of high-value hulls. Attack and Defend punishes damage that never reaches or protects the objective. Domination punishes winning a distant duel while capture progress changes elsewhere.

Other common failures include spawning a specialized ship with no plan, pursuing past support, firing missiles into ready coverage, leaving a carrier exposed, and turning a spinal ship so late that it cannot align. Each problem begins before the first shot and can be corrected by a better opening route.

Post-match review by mode

In Deathmatch, count avoidable deaths and missed finishing opportunities. In Fleet Battle, identify the most important value trade. In Attack and Defend, note when access to the objective opened or closed. In Domination, compare your position with capture changes.

Then ask whether the ship choice helped that job. A low personal score can still include valuable screening or denial, while high raw damage can be strategically empty. Use the result screen as evidence, but pair it with what happened around the objective.

Change one decision in the next round: a safer opening, earlier rotation, closer escort, different target, or earlier retreat. Mode knowledge becomes reliable when it changes where you are and what you protect, not just how you describe the rules.