Closed Beta has ended - Open Beta is beginning
2026-10-17
Invite codes are no longer needed. The beta runs until 17 November, closed-beta empires carry on, and anyone who reaches their reward line earns the Beta Veteran badge.
Hydrogen Line's closed beta ends at 17:30 GMT on Saturday 17 October, and the open beta starts at the same moment. From then on, anyone can sign up at hydrogenlinegame.com without an invite code. All times in this post are GMT.
Thank you, closed beta testers
A small group of you played through the invite-only stage, and most of the last round of patch notes came from your reports: the 18-step tutorial, the Guides tab, cheaper Colony Ships, the single spare-energy number in the top bar and the fix for the resource bar vanishing on phones. Thank you for putting up with the rough edges, and for being willing to start again.
Everyone starts fresh
We've reset every empire and wiped all progress from the closed beta, so the open beta begins on a level start. Closed-beta testers start again from a single planet, the same as everyone joining today. We think that's the fairest way to open the doors: nobody begins with a head start.
The open beta runs until 17 November
The open beta ends at 17:30 GMT on Tuesday 17 November. The official launch follows it, and that's when the first full universe opens and everyone starts fresh again. We'll post the launch date here once it's fixed. The Beta universe stays open afterwards for the people who played it, but no new players can join, and play there stops counting towards achievements.
The beta reward
Reach your beta reward line in total points and you earn the Beta Veteran badge, which you keep after launch, plus 500 tokens that arrive in your wallet on launch day. The line is 7,500 points for anyone who joins by 17:30 GMT on 18 October. It's lower the later you join, because you have less time: about 4,800 points if you join on 24 October and about 2,100 on 1 November, and never under 500. Settings shows your line.
Size protection is on
While you have under 30,000 points, nobody with more than 5 times your points can attack you or send probes at you. From 30,000 to 100,000 points the limit is 20 times, and from 100,000 points there's no protection. Attacking a player who is too big to attack you back drops your own protection for 48 hours. Players who haven't signed in for 7 days are Dormant and have no protection. The Starmap marks planets you can't attack as PROTECTED.
The Frontier Charter is free until the beta ends
Every player can join the Frontier Charter for free during the beta. It's optional and mostly saves time: for example, you can line up 3 more items behind the one in progress in each queue. Every account also gets free tokens each week to try profile looks, a name change or the Broker. Those beta tokens are cleared at launch.
First Signal is on sale for the beta only
We don't expect anyone to buy it but if you want to support the project and you are enjoying it the First Signal is a supporter pack will be available for £12.99, sold during the beta and never again. It has the First Signal badge, an animated First Signal frame, The Listener portrait, the Ghost Fleet banner, the Signal Orange colour and the Listening World planet portrait, plus 1,000 tokens held for you until launch day. You can add Frontier Charter months at a discount (1 month £5.25, 2 months £9.75, 3 months £12.50), used from launch day in any one universe. During the beta the pack is looks only, because its tokens and Charter months start working on launch day. You'll find it on the Tokens page in the game and on your universe list on the website. If none of its tokens or Charter time have been used, you can have a full refund within 14 days.
Bring a friend
Invite links still work. A friend who signs up from yours is added to both your Friends lists.
It's still a beta
Things will break. The game plays best on a computer, though phones work. There are two of us making Hydrogen Line, so we fix things in batches and post patch notes here each time. Tell us what breaks on Discord at hydrogenlinegame.com/discord or through the Contact page.