What is Influence?
Facts checked 25 Oct 2026
Influence is a space strategy game you play in your web browser. You command crews in a shared asteroid belt, extract resources, process them into more advanced items, and trade with other players in an economy that never pauses.
The setting
Influence takes place in Adalia, a far-off star system ringed by an asteroid belt of 250,000 asteroids. Each one has its own size, its own mix of resources, and its own orbit. Because the asteroids really do move, the distances between them change over time, and so does how easy it is to travel or ship goods from one to another.
The people of Adalia are descended from the passengers of the Arvad, a generation ship that carried colonists from our own Solar System. Some of the game's crewmates come straight from the Arvad, complete with the jobs they held on board. Others, the Adalians, were born in the new system. Our Lore section tells their story in more detail.
What you actually do
Influence is about industry and trade. Almost everything you do feeds into a production chain that starts with raw materials and ends with finished goods:
- Command Crews: A crew has one to five crewmates. Each can be a Miner, Engineer, Scientist, Merchant, or Pilot, and their classes and traits make the crew better at some jobs than others. You can run more than one crew at a time.
- Prospect and Mine: Core samples show you what lies just beneath the surface; Extractors get it for you.
- Build and Produce: Warehouses store your goods. Refineries, Bioreactors, Factories, and Shipyards turn raw materials into fuel, food, parts, and even ships.
- Trade: Players buy and sell at marketplaces run by other players, using the in-game currency, SWAY.
- Move Things: Goods travel across an asteroid's surface by hopper, or between asteroids by ship. Shipping between asteroids means planning around orbits, propellant, cargo space, and flight times.
- Work with Others: You can do everything yourself, or specialise in one part of a production chain and rely on other players for the rest. Many players join organisations to tackle bigger projects together.
How it feels to play
Actions in Influence take real time. You plan some work, set your crew going, and come back later to see the results, a bit like tending a garden. There is no set amount you have to play each day.
There is also no single way to win. Influence is a sandbox: you set your own goals. You might supply a busy local market, build a dependable production chain, run a haulage service, or help develop a whole settlement.
What it costs
There are three ways to start out in the game: two buy a crew of your own in the game's Store, and the third lets you hire one first.
- Buy a Starter Pack: Each pack includes several crewmates plus allowances to lease your first lots and construct your first buildings on Adalia Prime, the belt's largest asteroid. The packs are designed for crews starting there; a starter pack crew can be recruited on another asteroid, but it won't get the lot leases, building materials, or food resupply. The game's guided starter missions, Your Foothold in Adalia, are open to new crews on any asteroid. A starter pack on Adalia Prime makes the early ones easier, but it's easy to get stuck there: Adalia Prime's resources are so plentiful they sell for very little, and once you've put up a few buildings, moving your crew to a richer asteroid is hard work. Our guide Where to start explains the choice.
- Recruit a Single Crewmate: A new crewmate costs about $5, and one crewmate is enough to form a crew and start playing. Crewmates are recruited at a Habitat, so you choose where to start before you recruit: first the asteroid, then a Habitat on it. You can only recruit at a Habitat whose owner allows new recruits there, so not every Habitat will be open to you. Our guide Starter packs and your first crewmates helps you choose its class. You'll also need to buy some SWAY, as a single crewmate doesn't come with food or building materials (see Your first SWAY).
- Hire an Academy Tutor Crew: Not ready to buy anything yet? The Academy's Training Ground lets you hire a tutor crew by the day on adalia.exchange, for a few SWAY, and practise the basics first. This needs a browser wallet of your own, such as Ready X or Braavos, because it doesn't work with an Influence Account yet. This may not suit players who aren't comfortable using the blockchain. See Creating a Starknet wallet. You'll also need some SWAY in that wallet, to pay for the hire and for your crew's food.
You don't need to buy an asteroid whichever way you start. Once you are up and running, expect ongoing costs such as food for your crew, lease renewals, and materials. Our guide Starter packs and your first crewmates goes through the options.
Join the community
You won't be alone out there. Influence has a vibrant, active community of players already colonising Adalia: building settlements, running markets, and working together on bigger projects. The best place to meet them is the official Influence Discord, and the Academy strongly recommends joining. Experienced players there are glad to answer questions and offer their advice and experience to cadets, and a quick question can save you hours of trial and error in your first days.
Do I need to know about blockchains?
No. Behind the scenes, Influence keeps its records on Starknet, a blockchain network. A blockchain is a permanent, public record of who owns what and everything that has happened, with copies kept by many computers around the world, so once something is recorded it can't be quietly changed or deleted. That is why the crews, ships, and asteroids you own are truly yours, and why community sites like this Academy can show them. The game has no way to ban players or close accounts.
You never have to deal with any of that directly. Sign in with an Influence Account, using Google or an email address, buy a little SWAY by card in the game's Store, and play. The small fee on each action can be paid from your SWAY, so there is no exchange to join, no wallet app to install, and no other currency to buy. Our guide Your first SWAY shows you how.
If you already use blockchain apps, you can sign in with a Starknet wallet such as Ready X or Braavos instead. See Creating a Starknet wallet.
What isn't in the game yet
You may read older articles describing combat between players, technology research, or skill trees. These are planned for the future but are not part of the game today. Everything in the Academy's guides describes the game as it is now.