History VideoGame / Starbound

* FaithHeelTurn: In-game, the Avian priest and soldier castes are fanatic worshippers of Culex, who (supposedly) forbids space travel and demands mortal sacrifices. So if you manage to gain their loyalty to the point that they want to join ''you'', meaning they'll join on your spaceship, they will effectively turn their back on their religion to help their new friend.

''[[http://playstarbound.com Starbound]]'' is a WideOpenSandbox Scifi Adventure game. [[invoked]][[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] a Classic Mac game that lets you conquer planets to get more ships and destroy opposing races, nor with a ''Manga/LuckyStar'' [[Fanfic/{{Starbound}} fic]] aiming to parody ''Videogame/{{EarthBound|1994}}''.

''[[http://playstarbound.com Starbound]]'' is a WideOpenSandbox Scifi Adventure game. [[invoked]][[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] a Classic Mac game that lets you conquer planets to get more ships and destroy opposing races, nor with a ''Manga/LuckyStar'' [[Fanfic/Starbound fic]] aiming to parody ''Videogame/{{EarthBound|1994}}''.

''[[http://playstarbound.com/ Starbound]]'' is a WideOpenSandbox Scifi Adventure game. [[invoked]][[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] a Classic Mac game that lets you conquer planets to get more ships and destroy opposing races, nor with a ''Manga/LuckyStar'' fic aiming to parody ''Videogame/{{EarthBound|1994}}''.

Players may choose one of the playable races for their characters: [[LaResistance the Apex]], [[DefectorFromDecadence the Avians]], [[CloudCuckoolander the Humans]], [[SmallNameBigEgo the Hylotl]], [[AxCrazy the Floran]], [[CulturalRebel the Glitch]], or [[AttentionDeficitOohShiny the Novakid]]. Each race has a bit of lore attached to it and will tie in to the primary storyline.

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler: The Guardians of the Ancient Vaults.]] Unlike the other bosses in the game, they are somewhat randomly generated, which means their difficulty can range from very manageable to several magnitudes harder than the final boss.

* BrutalBonusLevel: Finishing the game allows you to trade certain items with a certain NPC for keys, which unlock portals to the [[spoiler: Ancient Vaults, A randomly generated area, of one of four themes, with all enemies [[LevelScaling as powerful as they can possibly be.]] Reaching the end pits you against a procedurally generated boss, that depending on the moves it has, can either be an AntiClimaxBoss or a [[BonusBoss truly vicious killing machine that utterly eclipses the danger of The Ruin itself.]] ]]

-->"Very heavy, usseful in a trap."

''[[http://playstarbound.com/ Starbound]]'' is a WideOpenSandbox Scifi Adventure game. [[invoked]][[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] a Classic Mac game that lets you conquer planets to get more ships and destroy opposing races, nor with a ''Manga/LuckyStar'' fic aiming to parody ''Videogame/{{EarthBound}}''.

* JustAStupidAccent: There's a [[http://starbounder.org/Asuterosaberu_DX high-end sword]] whose name appears to have been transcribed from Japanese... but it's actually the English words "astro saber" transliterated to Japanese and right back again. In case you're curious,アステロサーベル is closest the Japanese writing system can get to spelling "astro saber".

* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: In some versions, the default password for a server is "Swordfish"

** You can find villages of wooden houses on Scorched and Volcanic planets, where the local weather includes ''rain of fire''. The houses will inevitably catch fire, furniture pops loose when their base blocks are destroyed... and the villagers will accuse ''you'' of stealing and turn hostile, due to the game's programming. Never mind building wooden houses on a fiery planet, why do they think you're responsible for the weather? (It does make sense for the medieval Glitch, though.)

* BlatantLies: Many of the codexes you can find in the game are very blatant propaganda pieces that directly contradict the things you see in the game, contradict other codexes, or even contradict ''themselves''. A notable example is the hylotl codex "A Treatise on the Floran" which is basically a TheReasonYouSuck speech against the entire floran race, calling them out on every crime they ever committed against the hylotl, then ends with a very half-hearted sounding "we definitely forgive them."

* TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight: When analyzing the Geometric Screen, the Floran PC claims "Floran read words good. Sssay 'ssstab a meatman'. Huh.", which many players will probably dismiss as them just seeing what they want to, considering how... eccentric they can be regarding stabbing. However, doing the same with a Glitch PC will have them say "Analysis. This display appears to read 'stab a meatman' in binary. How unusual."[[note]]"Stab a meatman" in binary is 0101001101110100011000010110001000100000011000010010000001101101011001010110000101110100011011010110000101101110.[[/note]]

* {{Dystopia}}: In the Apex society, ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' meets ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' under the rule of Big Ape and the Ministry of Knowledge. Their furniture includes all kinds of cameras and propaganda posters. (Most of which are memes.)

* EarthThatWas: Humanity is driven away from the planet by a destructive EldritchAbomination, with the survivors stranded and drifting through space. It's implied that Earth has essentially been destroyed.

** The Broken Broadsword is the very first weapon you receive. It's entirely likely you sold it the moment you got a better weapon. [[spoiler:If so, you just threw away any chance of getting the Protector's Broadsword, one of the most powerful melee weapons in the game. The game in no way indicates that it's worth keeping, other than a vague description that states "A very nice sword in very poor condition." The game is still perfectly playable without it, but you'll still be kicking yourself in the foot for not hanging on to it.]]
** The Ancient Alphabet codex is tauntingly available in the Treasured Trophies shop, but to get it you need to trade two halves of a "translation wheel," the collection of which is a fairly opaque process. [[spoiler: They're stored in chests in the Erchius Mining Facility and Miniknog Stronghold missions. To access them, you first must locate the hidden doors they're locked behind, and then you must track down the two hidden triggers to open the doors. Nothing in the game suggests that you need to search those specific missions, nor which of the many, many incidental switches, consoles, and valves scattered around those missions are the triggers that open the doors. You just have to scour every corner of every mission to see if there is a door, and then painstakingly flip every switch and activate every console and then go back to the door to see if one of the lights has lit up.]]

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: One of the items you can find is a ''Starbound'' arcade game. The description: "A Starbound arcade machine. How meta." Floran characters will even say they got an achievement for "sssmashing fourth wall".

* MadnessMantra: "Floran know one thing - ssstab, ssstab, ssstab."

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: For the majority of the playable races, the player character themselves have taken to space precisely because they got sick of their race's xenophobia in one way or another. The exceptions are humans (who lost their home planet and didn't have a choice), Hylotl (an inversion who seek to spread their ways of enlightenment across the stars), and possibly Novakids (who are described as mostly only doing things [[ItAmusedMe because why not]].)

* {{Precursors}}: Seems to be of the [[NeglectfulPrecursors neglectful]] variety, having left behind lots of strange things like dimensional gateways and at least one eldritch abomination. They also technologically uplifted the Avians without bothering to uplift them socially (resulting in a sacrifice-happy theocracy with spaceships and guns) and seeded countless artificial starter civilizations across the galaxy, almost all of which destroyed themselves when they became powerful enough to do so. (The only exception, The Glitch, unintentionally avoided this thanks to an accidental programming error that trapped them in MedievalStasis.)

* RogueDrone: PC Glitches are Glitches who have become self-aware, causing them to be cut off from the rest of the Glitch collective and branded a heretic.

* ColonyDrop: If you're on a planet that has an asteroid field nearby, sometimes you will either get tiny meteors raining down or a ''REALLY'' big meteor that falls anywhere on the planet. Doubles as JumpScare if said meteor ends up falling on your face.'

-->'''Floran Village Watchman''': (to a player [[PutDownYourGunAndStepAway with a drawn weapon]]) ''"Floran no like sstabbing when others do it."''

-->'''Floran Prisoner''': (seeing the player) ''"'''Flesssh.'''"''

-->'''Floran PC:''' ''This music make Floran want to ssstab! But so do most thingsss''

--> "[[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry Bragging]]. [[CulturalPosturing Glitch furniture lasts up to ten times longer than that of your species]]."

* MayIncaTec: The Avians buildings and technology strongly resembles Aztec and Mayan structures.

-->'''Floran NPC''': "If monkey roar, Floran call Green Guard!"

** There is also a fishing minigame and a focil extraction minigame for those that want to complete the [[CollectionSidequest colections]].

-->'''Floran NPC''': "Robot and Floran friends." [[note]] The robotic Glitch are inedible so they're the only race the Florans don't see as a potential meal. [[/note]]

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[[caption-width-right:350:[[WideOpenSandbox The universe is waiting.]]]]