Does Stars Reach Have PvP? The Answer in Build 8.7.2

What the studio has actually said, in date order

Older pages on this site, and other guides, called Stars Reach PvP 'completely opt-in' as if it were a live feature. That was premature. The official overview describes planet laws that could make a world 'a PvP-enabled den of pirates, or a safe zone roleplay haven', but that describes a governance system, not a toggle you can use in the game today. Here is the record, oldest first:

What other players can do to you today

Without weapons, the ways other players can affect you come through the world itself. In March 2025, before Early Access, the official FAQ asked 'Can other players grief you by carving away all the land around your base?' and answered: 'Currently, yes.' The defences it gave were to surround your homestead with other homesteads, or to settle on a world with a planetary government and build where its zoning laws protect you. 'If you build on the frontier, well…it's wild and wooly out there.'

Early Access put that to the test. The longest gameplay thread on the Steam forum, 'Emergent Griefing: Unconstrained Voxel Terraforming is Being Used as Weaponized Non-Consent PvP' (93 replies), is a player's account of being sealed in by changed terrain, with no way out except dying. Other players argued over whether such cases were deliberate or accidental. One pointed out that dumping mining tailings down a hill can bury someone's home without intent. In the separate 'Griefing' thread, Raph Koster wrote in March 2026 that 'there are land protections at the planet level, the town zoning level, and the individual homestead level', and that 'the larger protective areas do require someone to claim the planet or the land.' In playtesting he had seen the opposite problem, with claimed planets locked down so that nobody could mine.

In short, the risks today are terrain pushed into your plot, access to your build being dug out or filled in, and a governed planet's rules limiting what you can mine, farm or cut. Your character can't be killed by another player's weapon. Even when the 8.4.0 Corruption attack came to Haven, the enemies were creatures.

How to protect your homestead and yourself, step by step

These steps rely only on features in the 8.7.2 build notes, plus the official FAQ's settling advice.

1. Check your terrain shield. 8.7.0 added an invisible shield that covers the edge of your homestead in any empty cell and stops material flowing in. 8.7.2 turned shields on by default for every homestead and zoning lot. If you had turned yours off before 8.7.2, the notes warn it may have been switched back on. Either way, confirm the setting at the Homestead control unit.
2. Settle on a governed stable planet, not the frontier. The FAQ's advice is to build where a planetary government's zoning laws apply. Never build on wild wormhole or adventure worlds: 8.4.3 removed their GovBots because those worlds are not available all the time.
3. Cluster with friends. The FAQ's other defence is to surround your homestead with others so nobody can get close to what you want to protect. 8.6.0 parties make it easier to coordinate (/party invite, /party list).
4. Read the GovBot before you commit. Since 8.7.0 its first screen shows every visitor the mayor, population, edicts and any restrictions beyond 'Anyone'. If a mayor has limited farming or xyloslicing to citizens or licence holders (possible from GovBot level 10), ask for a licence rather than working around it.
5. Arrive safely. 8.7.2 added a terrain shield around the starter portals on planets, so arrival points can no longer be buried. 8.5.0 stopped climbing and grappling from clipping you into terrain, which removed many 'trapped in a tunnel' deaths.
6. Deal with people, not just terrain. 8.4.0 added block and ignore in the Profile tab and on chat lines. Report bugs and exploits through the official support ticket system, which Raph Koster pointed players to on 20 August 2026.

How PvP is meant to work when it arrives

The design hasn't changed since 2024. PvP is a property of places, not of characters. A group that governs a planet writes its laws, and one of those laws is whether players may fight there. The overview describes the range from 'PvP-enabled den of pirates' to 'safe zone roleplay haven'. Raph Koster's statements add two planned layers on top: guild warfare and a three-way faction system. He has said PvP will be optional.

Almost everything else is unpublished, and we won't fill the gaps. The build notes and official posts say nothing about loot rules on death (including whether there would be full loot), how factions would be chosen, how a guild war is declared, or when any of it ships. The ProductLift roadmap items Raph Koster linked on 10 October are about creature combat, not player combat.

Combat itself is still being rebuilt, and any future PvP will use it. 8.7.0 brought back basic creature melee. The 10 October post lists creature tactics, damage-type resistances and a new Healix special called Sanctuary as the next combat work. Players in the same thread describe the current loop as 'bullet hell with 2 abilities'. The combat page covers what exists now.

Governance is where players compete today

With no player combat, competition between players happens over who governs a world and what its rules allow. The official FAQ describes claiming: a ClaimBot starts a series of tasks, several groups can try at once, and the first to finish all tasks wins. A planet can be lost through abandonment, when its wormhole gate closes, or through overthrow, when a democratic government's leaders are voted out.

The live build adds real controls. 8.7.0 gives mayors separate planet-wide settings for farming and xyloslicing once a GovBot reaches level 10, each open to everyone, citizens, licensed citizens or the mayor alone. Mayors can grant licences to individual citizens. At a fireside on 19 September a player summed up Raph Koster's framing on Steam: a government can choose to be 'libertarian' or more like a homeowners' association.

The next step is elections. Raph Koster's 10 October post says this system is in internal testing: elections every 14 days, the candidate with the most valid votes wins, one vote per account, a week of citizenship before you can vote, and recent logins required to vote or stand. A one-time reset at rollout would remove inactive mayors, and a petition queue for permission requests is planned. Until those ship, the mayor you find on a planet is the mayor you get. Choosing where to settle (see the planets and housing guides) is the most important decision you make about other players.