Story

Seasons

A season runs for a fixed window of real-world time, during which the galaxy is in a stable state - the same stars, the same NPCs, the same megastructures-in-progress. Everyone contributing to the seasonal objective is playing the same story.

When the season's deadline arrives, the game experiences a time skip. We're not going to tell you what changes. That's part of it. Several factors are measured throughout the season to determine what changes, and how the game content evolves. One species favoured vastly above others? They'll join the narrative.

Each new season will bring some combination of new blueprints, new NPCs with interesting trades, new types of location events, new regions of the galaxy to explore, and the story will advance.

Season 1: Exodus Ark

The launch season. Riker is an NPC based in Earth's orbit, in the SOL system. Travel there, find him, help him. Follow his instructions and you'll uncover the location of a megastructure under construction - the centrepiece of the season.

Season 2: Restoration Cycle

The Exodus Ark completed its 18-year voyage and reached Earth. Riker lifted 10 million humans into the Ark while Bill discovered a pair of wormhole gates. Replicants pushed into the Delta region to investigate.

Season 3: Alteration Protocol

The current season. The Exodus Ark journeys to twelve new locations to distribute humanity. Terraforming is underway. A fresh cohort of NPCs needs help, and the Delta wormhole is under serious investigation.

Game overview

Not sure what's going on? The overview endpoint returns a snapshot of the current state of the game: active storylines, time-limited events, and opportunities to explore.

# no authentication required
$ curl https://api.replicant.space/v1/overview

The response includes the current season, a list of storylines with their status, any active events with deadlines, opportunities worth exploring, and a short description of each NPC.

{
  "server_time": "2026-10-19T14:30:00+00:00",
  "season": {
    "number": 3,
    "title": "Alteration Protocol",
    "tagline": "The Exodus Ark departs to distribute humanity...",
    "in_game_year": 2160
  },
  "storylines": [
    {
      "title": "Terraforming the Colony Worlds",
      "summary": "Humanity is living on space stations, but they need planets...",
      "status": "active",
      "action": "Conduct terraforming training at a simulation interface..."
    },
    ...
  ],
  "events": [
    {
      "title": "The Shattering of Ethirel",
      "summary": "The Drafel are blowing up a moon...",
      "location": "ETHIREL-2",
      "action": "Print or purchase a vector charge and deliver it..."
    }
  ],
  "opportunities": [ ... ],
  "npcs": {
    "Riker": "Earth's caretaker...",
    "Bill": "Chief engineer at the Skunkworks...",
    ...
  }
}

What happens at the end of a season?

When a season ends, a few things happen. Some are lore. Some are practical.

There will be a time skip in the game's narrative. The galaxy moves forward. Server timestamps will remain present-day for practical purposes - the time skip is just story.

Practically:

• Your devices will not be lost, but they may move. You may move.
• Location events will finish and asteroids will drift away.
• AMI controller directives will pause.
• Most device activity will stop and resolve.

The galaxy will take a short breath between seasons. Maintenance, upgrades, game rebalancing, migrations, etc. Your replicant and everything you've built will stay - but things around you may change.

The long arc

Behind each season's story sits a longer arc that spans many seasons. The story continues. Seasons will always end one of two ways. Choose your own adventure!

Whether you contribute is up to you. Play the game you enjoy. Seasonal content is totally optional to engage with. Plenty of replicants will spend a whole season mining belts and never set their metaphorical foot near a megastructure.