Welcome to Space Station 13! This is a 2D game that takes place on a space station. It looks very basic, but the game is very complex. Almost every mob is player controlled! There are many different servers with their own style of playing. I hope this guide helps you learn how to play this amazing game!

Getting Started

Rules

Every server has their own set of Rules. You MUST read all of the server rules before you start playing. If you don't you could get banned.

Setting up a character

In the lobby screen select "Setup Character" and a page will open allowing you to customize your character and set your jobs.

Descriptions of what everything does in the table below:

Name Of The Button:	What it does:
Name	Lets you change the name of your character. Many servers want your name to be realistic, but not based off something popular, which includes this server. If you press (®) the name will be randomized.
Always Pick Random Name	Lets you chose if your character's name will be randomized each round.
Physical Information	Lets you chose your character's age, skin color, whether your character needs glasses, and body type. If you press (®) the settings will be randomized.
Age	Lets you change the age of your character. This DOES NOT change the look of your character. It's just for roleplaying.
Gender	Lets you change your character's gender between male and female.
Ethnicity	Lets you change your body colour.
Body Type	Lets you change your character's body type - Underweight, Average or Overweight. ((Unknown if it could change the look of the character))
Poor Eyesight	Lets you decide if your character requires glasses in order to see correctly or not.
Be Xenomorph	If selected it allows you to spawn as an alien when the round has started if you observe.
Be Xenomorph Queen	If selected it allows you to spawn as an alien queen when the round starts.
Be Survivor	Allows you to have a chance at spawning as a survivor when the round starts if you are readied up.
Be Responder	Allows you to become a responder during a distress signal.
Be Predator	Allows you to spawn as a predator when the round starts. You must be whitelisted to play as a predator!
Be WO Commander	Allows you be spawn as the commander when the map Whiskey Outpost starts. You must be whitelisted to play as a commander!
Set Marine Role Preferences	Allows you to pick what role you play when the round starts. I recommend that you set Squad Marine as HIGH when you play your first few rounds.
Marine Gear	Lets you choose your underwear, undershirt, backpack type and your custom loadout for your character.
Custom Loadout	Lets you pick items like berets and cigars to spawn with at the start of the round.
Ui Customization	Changes the look of your in game interface.
Custom UI	While not listed directly in the setup, this changes the color and transparency of the UI. White UI is recommended.
Hair	Lets you change your hair type and colour.
Facial Hair	Lets you change your facial hair type and colour.
Eyes	Lets you change your eye colour.
Citizenship	Lets you change the citizenship from where you come from. This is only for roleplaying.
Religion	Lets you change your character's religion. This is only for roleplaying.
Corporate Relationship	Allows you to set your character's relationship to Weyland-Yutani. This is only for roleplaying.
Preferred Squad	Allows you to set your character's preferred squad (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta or None). This increases the chance of being spawned in that squad. Squad Marines always join the character's preferred squad.
Character Records	Allows you to edit your medical, employment, and security records. This is only for roleplaying.
Character Description	Lets you describe your character's physical description in a more in-depth form. This happens if a character is examined.
Play Admin Midis	If enabled you will hear sounds that admins play during the round.
Play Lobby Music	If enabled you will hear the lobby music while you're in the lobby.
Ghost Ears	Lets you chose to hear all sounds or /say dialogue in the round or only sounds near you while you're a ghost.
Ghost Sight	Lets you chose to see all the certain actions (Like Bob gasps! or /me actions) in the round or only the /me actions while you're a ghost.
Ghost Radio	Lets you chose between hearing all the radio chatter or only the radio chatter of the people near you while you're a ghost.
Ghost Hivemind	Lets you chose between hearing all the Hivemind chatter or only the Hivemind chatter of the aliens near you while you're a ghost.

Joining a Round

If a round hasn't started yet you can select "Ready Up" and you'll spawn in when the round starts.

If you join in the middle of the round and want to play as a marine you select "Join the USCM" . When you select "Join the USCM" you'll get a list of roles you can play. Select one and you'll spawn in.

If you join in the middle of the round and want to play as an alien select "Join the Hive" . When you select "Join the Hive" you'll need to wait until a larva bursts for you to play.

In the Game

The Tabs

On the top right side of your screen you will see the tabs for the game.

Descriptions of what each tab does can be found in the table below:

Name Of The Button:	What it does:
Text	Hides the tabs and shows the game's logs instead.
Info	Shows the tabs on the top right corner instead of the game logs.
Wiki	Opens the Colonial Marines wiki in your internet browser.
Forum	Opens the Colonial Marines forum in your internet browser.
Rules	Opens the rules thread on the Colonial Marines forum..
Changelog	Opens the changelog.
Donate	Allows you to donate money to the sever.
Status	Shows the status of your character.
Lobby	Shows the how many players are ready and how long until the round starts.
Admin	Allows you to send an Ahelp and see the online staff.
Ghost	Allows you to become a ghost and do many things as a ghost. (Note you will only see the Ghost tab if you are dead.)
IC	Shows you what you can currently do "In Character"
OOC	Shows you what you can do "Out of Character"
Preferences	Allows you to enable and disable many different preferences.

Marine Interface

This is the human interface in CM.

Green Highlighted Area

You can collapse and close the clothes menu on the left with this icon:

Interface:	What it does:
	This is the headgear slot, you place hats and helmets here to wear them.
	This is the eyewear slot, you place glasses, welding goggles and other optical gear here.
	This is the mask slot, you place gas masks, coifs and cigars here.
	This is the ear slot, you place radio headsets here.
	This is the jumpsuit slot, you place your marine, medical or engineering uniform here.
	This is the exosuit slot, you place marine armour, jackets and space suits here.
	This is the hand wear slot, you place latex gloves, insulated gloves and squad gloves here.
	This is the foot wear slot, you place combat boots and business shoes here.
	This is the exosuit storage slot, you will commonly place weapons here to store them for while you are out of combat.
	This is the identification card slot, you place your Id (Identification card) here.
	This is the belt slot, you place belts and rigs here.
	This is the back slot, you place backpacks and satchels here.

Red Highlighted Area

Interface:	What it does:
	These are your characters hands, you use these to pick up items by clicking on them. Your active hand, will be highlighted this means anything you pick up will go to this hand. To switch hands either double click on the other hand, use middle mouse button or press X if you have hotkeys toggled on.

Orange Highlighted Area

Interface:	What it does:
	These are your characters pockets, you use these to store small items or pouches on your character.

Pink Highlighted Area

Interface:	What it does:
	This is the toggle rail flashlight button, when pressed it will toggle the rail light on your gun if you have one attached.
	This is the use unique action button, you can use this to pump a shotgun or clear a round in the chamber of your rifle or to light the flamethrower so that it can be used.
	This is the eject magazine button, you eject the magazine in the gun you are holding in your active hand if you press it.
	This is the activate weapon attachment button, once clicked it will toggle any underslung on the gun in your active hand or it will toggle the scope of the gun in your active hand (If applicable). This is also how you switch to reloading the attachment, remember to switch back to normal ammo after reloading attachment.
	This is the toggle burst fire button, once clicked it will toggle burst fire on the gun in your current active hand (If applicable).

Purple Highlighted Area

Interface:	What it does:
	This is the toggle movement button, when pressed it will toggle you to run/walk.
	This is the intent wheel, The green square in the top left is help intent, the blue square to the right is disarm intent, the yellow square below disarm intent is the grab intent and finally the red intent is harm intent. You can cycle through these intents using 1-4 with hotkey mode toggled on.
	This is the aiming target, which allows you to click on different parts of the body to aim for.
	This is the resist button, press this when you are on fire to stop, drop and roll or if you in a nest you can press it to start breaking out.
	This is the drop button, once clicked it will drop any item in your active hand.
	This is the throw button, press this when you want to throw what's in your active hand. To throw just click the throw button then click on a tile. You can also catch things if you throw toggled on.
	This is the toggle firing mode button, press this and you'll toggle between normal firing and aimed firing. Aimed firing means if you click on someone you'll aim at them instead of firing, this then pops up with more options where you can allow them to pickup items and move about.

Yellow Highlighted Area

Interface:	What it does:
	This is the squad leader locator, the arrow points to where the squad leader is so you can always stay with them.
	This is the internals button, when pressed it will toggle the between the use of internals, aka on or off. To use internals hold an oxygen tank and then equip a mask, after this toggle internals on.
	This is the the icon that shows the state of your characters health, from green with a 100% bar indicates healthy status, which is full health to crit indicates critical status, that being, almost dead.
	This is the hunger meter for your character, it will display how hungry you are by the colour. If you're full it'll disappear, if you're hungry it will be coloured orange and grey if you ate too much.

Cyan Highlighted Area

Interface:	What it does:
	This section is for toggle state buttons, when pressed they will toggle the state of the item they are depicting, for example the armour box when clicked will toggle the armour light on or off.

Alien Interface

This is the alien interface.

Figure 1

Interface:	What it does:
	These are your xenomorph hands, you use these to pick up face huggers by clicking on them To switch hands either double click on the other hand, use middle mouse button or press X if you have hotkeys toggled on.

Figure 2

Interface:	What it does:
	This is the resist button, to use the resist button click on it. The uses of the resist button for xenos is limited to putting yourself out when set ablaze, if the flames do not go out keep resisting to stop drop and roll to extinguish the flames.

Figure 3

Interface:	What it does:
File:Hunt-Stalk button.png	This is the hunt/stalk button, when pressed it will toggle between Hunt (Which is running mode) and Stalk (Which makes your xenomorph walk) in the Hunters case when Stalk is the active movement choice they will be partially invisible.
	This is the intent wheel, the green intent is help and allows you to nuzzle other xenos to get them up faster after being stunned, blue intent is disarm and when this is active you'll attempt to tackle any mob you click on.Yellow intent is grab, this allows you to grab mobs and move them. Red intent is harm, when active you'll slash any mob you click on. Note that you can use hotkeys to cycle through intents.
	This is the aiming target, which allows you to click on different parts of the body to aim for when you attack something/someone.
	This is the drop button, once clicked it will drop the faehugger in your active hand.
	This is the throw button, press this when you want to throw what's in your active hand. To throw just click the throw button then click on a tile. Note that the xeno throw distance is about 1-2 tiles, unless you're a carrier in which case they have an ability to launch huggers vast distances using shift click or middle mouse button.

Figure 4

Interface:	What it does:
	This is the plasma meter, it shows how much plasma you have left in a visual form, aka if the meter is full of blue your plasma is full. To get a more accurate reading of how much plasma you have go to the status tab and it'll be displayed there.
	This is the queen locator, normally there is an arrow pointing to which way the queen is so you can always help her, when she is in need. When the Queen dies or isn't in-game there won't be an arrow there due to there being no queen. Note that when you are playing as the queen an arrow will not appear like in Figure 4.
	This is your health meter,then green empties as you take damage, note that currently the xeno players health is full. To get a more accurate representation of your health, you can find a numbered amount of health in the status tab.
	Clicking this will toggle on and off your ability to see in the dark as a xenomorph, useful when looking for light sources from marines.

Figure 5

Note all of these are xeno abilities of which are detailed on each xenomorph castes page here.

Interface:	What it does:
Regurgitate	To devour, drag target with one hand then click yourself. Beware the devoured will be dissolved in 5 minutes and regurgitating them doesn't reset the timer. If the devoured is armed with a knife, they can cut their way out from the inside, leading to you being gibbed.
Grow Ovipositor	Grows an ovipositor from which the queen begins to passively create eggs from. Costs 700 plasma.
Screech	A wide area of effect stun, screeches upon activation. Costs 250 plasma.
Emit Pheromones	Emit one of the three Pheromones. It is advised to emit the pheromone that are not already being emitted, as pheromones don't stack. Costs 30 plasma to emit and then drains plasma while active.

Figure 6

Interface:	What it does:
Plasma and Health Indicator	Visual indicator of the level of plasma and health a xeno has.

Figure 7

Interface:	What it does:
Mature Xeno Icon	Visual indicator that the xeno is at the mature level in the upgrade system.

Figure 8

Interface:	What it does:
Elite Xeno Icon	Visual indicator that the xeno is at the elite level in the upgrade system.

Figure 9

Interface:	What it does:
Ancient Xeno Icon	Visual indicator that the xeno is at the ancient level in the upgrade system.

How To Play

Movement- You move your character around with the ARROW KEYS. Alternately if you press the tab key you can enable hot keys which allows you to walk with WASD.

Interacting with People and Objects- The game mostly involves using the mouse. You can pick up objects by clicking on them and they'll go into your hand. To set them down, find a table to set them on or use drop on your hud. You can also throw objects using throw on your hud. You can grab people and certain objects with your grab intent. You can also hurt people using your harm intent. Advanced interactions can be learnt at the FAQ page.

How to Speak-

This is the chat bar for SS13

This will be below your game. If it doesn't say "Say" then click on the button that says "chat" on the right side. type your message after "Say" to talk. Alternatively, with hotkeys on you can press T to talk instead.

Communication

As a Marine or Alien you can communicate locally (Locally as in yo can see them on screen) by the use of 'Say' verb. (which you can type out manually or you can press T in hotkey mode to bring up a chat pop up window to type what you want to say.)

To contact Marines or Aliens over a long distance you can use a radio key after "Say" verb even the hivemind functions similarly to a radio. Here is a list of radio keys:

Radio Channel:	Key for the channel:
Command	:v
Military Police	:p
Requisitions	:u
Medical	:m
Engineering	:e
Your squad's channel (combat headset) or Common channel (non-combat headset)	;
Alpha Squad (command headset)	:q
Bravo Squad (command headset)	:b
Charlie Squad (command headset)	:c
Delta Squad (command headset)	:d
ERT comms	:h
Alien hivemind	:a
Hellhound hivemind	:

Hotkeys

To toggle hotkey mode on/off press the tab button. Below is a list of hotkeys which can make your everyday round of SS13 that much easier.

What it does:	Hotkey:
Forward	W
Left	A
Backwards	S
Right	D
Drop	Q
Equip	E
Throw	R
Say "	T
Swap Hands	X
Activate Held Object	Z/Y
Help Intent	1
Disarm intent	2
Grab Intent	3
Harm Intent	4

More Information

There are more guides to help you start your first few rounds in Colonial Marines.

The Marine Quickstart Guide and the Xeno Quickstart Guide are very helpful.

List of other guides