I recently had the fortune of playtesting MoonShot Games Wildgate. The description I’ve heard for this game is “Sea of Thieves but in Space”. After spending a fun packed weekend raiding through the galaxy, I can tell you this game is much faster than Sea of Thieves. It’s a refreshing take on space combat that rewards cohesive teamwork. In this article I will give you a rundown of the game’s mechanics and learning curve so you can get straight to blasting ships in the future.

Core Gameplay Loop

A game of Wildgate begins with five ships that each have four crew members. The objective is to eliminate all other ships or escape with the Artifact on board. Every ship starts with default weapons and utility. Loot can be gained via the various PvE objectives available. Be careful though, opponent pirates could be lurking to steal your loot or strike your ship whilst you’ve left it anchored.

Different Characters

The varying characters are not the central focus of PvP strength (this isn’t a hero shooter). They do however, possess unique traits that can make specific Prospector’s much more effective at certain playstyles.

Mophs is a high-risk high reward Prospector. His Camouflage and Wings skills make him effective at stealing loot or causing chaos in an enemy ship. His Camouflage ability does take the place of the grappling tether used to traverse space more quickly. Combine this with his reduced HP and he can easily get hung out to dry if you carelessly fly at enemies.

Venture is an efficient scout and loot specialist. His added regeneration and teleport reload let’s him solo most PvE areas and loot faster than the other prospectors.

Sammo is the essential ship defender. His abilities are pretty self-explanatory. He is the most effective “stat stick” for defensive PvP.

Ion is a bit of a quirky prospector. His melee focus allows him to break windows, turrets, and augments from enemy ships. This makes him a powerful saboteur without the use of abilities. Because of this he can double up on some of the strongest PvP abilities without a need for utility.

Sal can be an anchor for any crew. He is useful for rapid repairs and has the extra tankiness to handle intruders. His “Salvage” mechanic also lets your crew enjoy a little gambling as well.

Different Ships

The Bastion is the defensive specialty ship. It boasts the highest base HP as well as starting with a security system that alarms when an intruder is on the ship. The Hunter is the starter ship, and it feels like it. I would consider it the worst ship from a health, layout, and security perspective. Its saving grace is having three frontal cannons which can hypothetically outgun other ships. Unfortunately, due to the layout a single boarding pirate can sabotage two of these cannons and the pilot simultaneously

The Privateer was my personal favorite during the playtest. With two cannons on the rear, two covering the left, right, and frontal positions of the ship you are almost always able to barrage an opponent ship. With a skilled pilot it’s possible to get the angle for three cannons to fire at the same ship.

The Scout is built for mobility. It is an effective ship if your team is focused on boarding and avoiding ship shootouts. If you take a western duel, you’ll likely lose to any other ship. But, if your goal is to play around third partying, the Scout can be a menacing choice.

PvE + Looting

The PvE portion of the game is really about bolstering your ships capabilities. The rarity of loot that can be found in a PvE area can be scouted via scanning with your ship’s Probes. Typically, the better the loot the more difficult and time consuming the area will be. Once you complete the PvE area a loot room will open. The best loot comes from two distinct locations. The first is the Vault which requires a key that can be randomly found in other loot rooms. The Vault only contains one item but from my experience it is exclusively a legendary item. (I have only ever seen two legendary items in the same match after twenty hours of gameplay.) The legendary items are extremely powerful. The other best loot area is where the Artifact is in the Monolith. This area contains a ton of loot and usually a legendary item. Keep in mind for both of these areas the server is notified when the PvE combat has begun, and they are not quick to finish. It’s typical that other players will attack your ship or attempt to steal the loot once you’ve finished the PvE area.

Artifact

The Artifact is the other way to win in WildGate. After thirty minutes a portal will open that allows the ship which holds the Artifact to extract. The Artifact is stored in the Monolith which typically rests inside a Chaos Storm. You can either teleport into the Monolith via the ring gates or by finding storm immunity and flying directly to it. Once the Artifact is discovered it is marked for the entire map. You can’t recall your ship while holding the Artifact which makes it very difficult to steal from an enemy ship. When the Artifact is on board your ship will consume double the amount of ice to heal in exchange for twice the normal healing amount. Using ice has a thirty second cooldown which makes this a powerful bump in survivability. The downside is that the whole server will be hunting you down if the escape portal is close to opening.

Pirating Tips & Tricks

At any moment there are more jobs to do than four crew members can manage. This is particularly true when fighting one or multiple ships. So do be careful that some of your crew members are defending the ship. Sending three members to board the enemy ship can bear fruit but is often too risky. Instead, the one or two members of your crew that want to specialize in boarding should have specific goals in mind. These are the most effective methods of sabotage that I found while playing.

Taking Down Shields/Emergency Stop

In every cockpit there is an emergency stop button that can be pressed to turn off a ship’s engines. You can also pull down the shields via the pilot seat to give your ship’s cannon’s an opportunity to deal large amounts of damage. You can even drive an enemy ship away or into something to disengage or cause damage. Collisions break a large portion of a ship's shields which take time to regenerate.

Overloading the Reactor

Each ship has a Reactor which is where Ice is used to heal the ship. Enemy pirates can overload the Reactor which will burn the ship and slowly tick down its health. The overload must be shut off, which makes it an area to defend after the overload has been initiated.

Stealing Valuable Ship Upgrades/Cannons

If you’ve scouted that a ship has stronger cannons or augments than you, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to run scared. You can often pull off a robbery mid fight that will turn the tides. This is also a reason to not get too close to enemy ships if you are much stronger than them. It’s a lot easier to defend against robberies when you keep distance and all four crew members on your ship.

Turbines can be found in loot rooms and are an excellent tool for boarding/stealing from other ships. If your ship enters the range of an enemy ship they are notified. The Turbine allows you to stealthily approach an enemy ship as a solo pirate. I have also used the Turbine to pick off the loot of a PvE area that an enemy crew has just completed. The Turbine can outpace any ship which makes it a useful tool for getting onboard to hit the emergency stop while chasing an enemy ship.

When boarding an enemy ship, the Shield Wall can buy you enough time to overload their reactor or bring down their shields.

To add a small excerpt of gameplay this was my favorite play of the playtest. For context, the enemy ship has the Artifact and is circling the gate which is about to open. In a desperate attempt to win the game myself and two of my crew members boarded their ship. One of us overloaded the reactor, the other steered the ship away from the gate, and I stole the Lost Artifact.

Conclusion

Wildgate is on my list of most exciting upcoming multiplayer games. It’s got that spark that kept my friends and I saying “just one more game” until it’s three in the morning. There’s a lot of different viable playstyles to explore. Hopefully this article has given you an understanding of the gameplay loop and some inspiration for devious acts of piracy. See you out in space!