Everything in STRATUM starts with mining. Walk up to a resource node — a tree, an ore seam, an herb patch, a crystal formation — and left-click it. That's it. Every hit gives you a raw material, some gold, and (usually) a small amount of pending STRM.
| Node | Yields | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tree | wood | Common everywhere there's green ground |
| Ore seam | ore | Denser near rocky/volcanic terrain |
| Herb patch | herb | Needed for armor and a few tools |
| Crystal | crystal | Rarest, gates the best gear tier |
Most nodes take a couple of hits to fully deplete — you'll see it change state as you work it. A depleted node isn't gone forever: the planet regrows it on its own after a while. Nothing here is a quarry you can empty out — it's a world you settle.
A bare-handed swing gets you the least of everything: least yield per hit, slowest pace. Every tool tier you unlock — flint → copper → iron → steel — mines more per swing, and never less than what you had before. This is the real progression curve in STRATUM: better tools aren't a side quest, they're the whole economic engine. See Crafting below for exactly how to get them.
Crafting doesn't compete with mining — it feeds it. Press C to open the craft panel. Every recipe shows exactly what it costs and what tool tier unlocks it; a recipe you can't afford or haven't unlocked yet is dimmed, not hidden, so you always know what's coming next.
The top card in the craft panel is always your next tool tier. Paying its cost raises your tool tier permanently and immediately increases how much every future swing yields. There's no reason to delay one you can afford.
Below tools, recipes turn raw materials into weapons (more attack) and armor (less damage taken) across four tiers matching the tool ladder. Better gear makes fighting safer and faster, which matters once you're relying on monster kills for extra income too.
Holding Shift while clicking a recipe crafts as many as you can currently afford in a single request, instead of clicking the same card over and over. Same total cost, same total output, just less clicking.
The SALVAGE MODE toggle at the top of the craft panel lists everything crafted you're currently holding. Clicking one breaks it back down for roughly half its original materials back — not a full refund, but enough that trying a different gear path never feels like a dead loss.
Left-click open, unclaimed ground to stake it — it costs a small amount of whatever material matches that terrain (dirt, grass, stone, and so on all cost something different). Once it's yours, it's yours permanently. There is no decay, no upkeep, and nobody — ever — can take a claim from you. Right-click your own claimed land to release it back to the frontier if you no longer want it; that's the only way a claim ever changes hands.
Claiming land isn't required to mine or fight, but structures, shops, and parcel deeds all need your own claimed ground under them.
Almost everything that earns you something pays in both at once:
Mining, crafting, and fighting all pay a small amount of pending STRM per action. There's no cap on how much you can accrue by playing.
STRM isn't only something you claim off-world — you can spend pending STRM directly, right now, two ways:
The SHIP TO EARTH button sends some or all of your pending STRM toward the colony's overall mission. A shipment of 50 or more STRM at once announces itself to every other player on the map — a real, visible milestone.
Own an idle structure? Shift-click it to instantly finish whatever it's still producing, for STRM, instead of waiting out the timer. A plain click still just collects whatever has already finished.
Most of whatever you spend this way is permanently destroyed, not recycled — that's deliberate. It's what keeps STRM meaning something instead of only ever going up.
Creatures roam every map with real AI — they notice you, chase, and hit back. Left-click one in range to strike. Kills grant XP, gold, and STRM, and your level climbs as you fight. Better gear (see Crafting) makes this safer and faster.
Press I to see what you can build on your own claimed land. A structure quietly produces a resource over time even while you're off doing something else — check back later, or Structure Rush it (see Spending STRM) to finish it instantly.
Connect a wallet from the HUD to link your address and read your real on-chain balance. The CLAIM STRM button turns your pending balance into a real settlement request.
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| WASD | Walk |
| LMB | Strike / harvest / build / claim |
| Shift+LMB | Batch-craft a recipe, or rush an owned structure |
| RMB | Release a claim you own |
| 1–0 | Select build material |
| M | World map |
| T | Travel between maps |
| C | Craft (and salvage) |
| I | Idle structures |
| P | Parcel deeds |
| K | Wardrobe |
| L | Leaderboard |
| + / − | Zoom |
On a phone or tablet, one MENU button in the corner reaches every panel above — the keybinds are a desktop shortcut, not a requirement.