Fuel

Ships in Estelar Online burn fuel (deuterium) to go into warp. Normal flight, on impulse and afterburner, costs nothing: without fuel you can still fly, you just can’t warp. You buy fuel at station pumps, make it by refining water ice, or get it for free from community missions, and the emergency tow makes sure nobody gets stuck in the middle of nowhere.

The tank

Each ship class has its own tank. The Multipurpose, the starter ship, holds 100 units; the other classes have bigger or smaller tanks (see the Tank column in the class comparison). Your fuel level shows on the HUD and in the station’s MARKET tab.

Each ship keeps its own fuel: when you switch ships at the garage, the tank of the one that stays behind is left as it was. A newly bought ship comes with a full tank.

Consumption

Situation	Cost
Normal flight (impulse and afterburner)	nothing
Warp (within a system or between systems)	0.5 per second of warp
Departure of an interstellar warp	10 all at once, on departure
Matches (race, arena and others) and idle mode (tour)	nothing

With the Multipurpose’s tank full, you can stay in warp for about 200 seconds. That’s plenty: within a system, most trips take seconds, and a warp to the neighboring star takes about 3 minutes.

If you run out of fuel in the middle of a warp, the ship drops out wherever it is. An interstellar warp won’t even start if there isn’t enough for the departure.

Station pumps

Every station has a fuel pump, in the Refuel row of the MARKET tab. The REFUEL button fills the tank, or puts in as much as your credits can pay for.

The price is 3 ¢ per unit near the Sun and goes up 3% for every light-year of distance, up to 2.5 times the base price (from 50 light-years on). Fuel is cheap in the center and expensive on the frontier.

Where	Price per unit
Solar System	3 ¢
20 light-years from the Sun	4.8 ¢
50 light-years or more	7.5 ¢

Example: filling 60 units in the Solar System costs 180 ¢; at 20 light-years, 288 ¢.

Ice refinery

If you mine, you can make your own fuel. In the Refine water ice row of the MARKET tab, the REFINE button turns the water ice in your hold into fuel:

each ton of ice becomes 8 fuel;
the refinery charges 5 ¢ per ton refined.

The refinery only uses as much ice as fits in the tank. Example: with 40 fuel in a 100 tank, you’re missing 60; it refines 7.5 t of ice, charges 38 ¢ and leaves the rest of the ice in the hold. Buying at a Solar System pump, the same 60 would cost 180 ¢.

Water ice comes from asteroid fields and from landing sites on icy worlds; see Ores.

Emergency tow

Out of fuel and far from everything? Call the emergency tow: in the [Esc] menu (or the mobile menu), the EMERGENCY TOW button. It takes your ship to your respawn point (your base, or the last station or kiosk where you saved your point), with the cargo, without any of the losses of dying.

It’s free once a day.
After the daily free one, it costs 250 ¢.
It only works in flight (not on foot) and out of combat.

The tow doesn’t fill your tank: when you arrive, refuel or refine.

Remote refueling

The Galactic Citizen gets two extra conveniences, with no discount on the price:

REFUEL HERE, in the [Esc] menu: buys fuel from anywhere, at the pump price of the system you’re in.
Free tow with no daily limit.

Fuel without spending credits

There’s always a way back without paying:

community missions give fuel every day;
refining ice you mined yourself only costs the refinery fee;
the daily free tow takes you back to your respawn point.