Press kit

Centuries from now, the stars are open because of the rifts: natural folds in space that link one star to the next. Nobody built them, and nobody knows what did. Through them, Tau Ceti and Deneb are the same day's work.

Rift Haul puts you in the cab. You're an independent hauler in a Rust Runner, owing nobody, buying cheap at one port and selling where it's needed, or taking the contracts nobody else will fly. There are no background supply chains behind you. The goods move because pilots move them, and when nobody hauls, the systems go without.

It's working-class space: the long hop, the clock, a port's lights coming up after a run through the dark. Four factions pull at the lanes. The Core Authority keeps the inner systems orderly and well-supplied. The Free Traders Union wants open lanes and a fair price. The Frontier Collective prospects out at the edge, and the Syndicate deals in what polite markets won't list. Earn their reputation to open their docks and markets, and decide how close to the trouble you fly.

At the end of every lane is the Rift: a vast, luminous fracture beyond charted space, a seam of light across the sky. Pirates hide in its glare. The Reavers come out of it. Nobody docks there.

Every charted star is a real one. Pilots compete, undercut and grudge each other, and when it does come to a fight, combat is stylised and turn-based. You start as a Drifter. The ones who get rich on the lanes are called Rift Barons.

Rift Haul is free to play in your browser, with an original score by Calliope. The beta runs on Sirius, a permanent world that never resets, so your beta progress carries into launch and whatever you build there lasts.

Developed by Azorius. Press and contact: support@rifthaul.com