Controls and Keybinds

The game's key bindings can be modified in the Keybindings section of the options menu.

Ship Controls

Controls and keys that can be used when you are piloting a ship from a cockpit/control room.

Use the mouse wheel (if you have one) to zoom in and out in the piloting view.
Use R to cycle between firing turrets and beam emitters (if your ship has both).
Use . (period) to toggle ammo conservation (weapons won't fire if the cursor is outside their firing arc) and , (comma) to toggle between volley and barrage fire modes (volley fires each weapon sequentially and barrage fires every weapon as soon as it can next fire).
Use C to toggle the cargo scoop on and off.
Use T to toggle travel drive on and off (note that the ship has to initially charge it's drives before the travel drive starts).
Hold the LMB to orientate the ship towards the cursor for as long as it is pressed. You can also hold A or D to strafe left and right respectively.
For ships with special system modules (Todi drives/Ogre MRLS/Repair bots) you can press the 1 through 5 number keys to activate the system in each slot.
Use F to exit the dialog you last entered (system map, ship control, etc) and return to crew mode.
Use M to toggle the system map display.
Press Shift to toggle docking mode.
When correctly aligned in docking mode use X to securely dock to the docking target.
When you want to undock, press Z to undock from the vessel/station your ship is docked to.

Controls and keys that can be used when you are controlling your character inside a ship or station.

The WASD keys move your character around inside the ship.
When holding the RMB you can aim at the cursor with your weapon or simply look towards the cursor if you're not using a weapon. If using a repair gun this brings up a tooltip displaying stats of the module your cursor is over
Holding the LMB when holding a fire extinguisher or repair gun uses that tool on the area your cursor is over (if your cursor is within the tool's range).
The F key activates the module you are closest to if it can be activated, examples are: cockpits/control rooms, airlocks, cargo bays and trade rooms. Note that in cargo bay dialogs you cannot swap gear or activate blueprints with right click, instead it transfers the item to the other container.
The E key brings up the character inventory (you can right-click to swap an equipment piece or activate a blueprint in this dialog).
By default the middle mouse button commands your crew member(s), to do so either click on their portrait on the right hand crew bar whilst in crew mode and press the crew command key/button over a damaged module, a fire, a cockpit you want them to control or just somewhere you want them to go. It is recommended you change this if you do not have a mouse or have a mouse with no middle mouse button or mouse wheel.

These controls can be used either when controlling a ship or controlling your character.

These controls can be used only in the ship designer, most other controls will not function in the designer.

Pressing LMB will select or place a module at the cursor.
Pressing RMB will delete a module under the cursor
- Holding shift while having an item selected will use the item as a "eraser" brush, deleting multiple items at a time under it.
The WASD keys will move the camera around.
The Q and E keys, or the mouse wheel will rotate the currently selected module.

Hold shift while creating or loading a game to enable.

Pressing the Delete key will bring up a ghost of any profile of ship you have made, you can then use the Mouse wheel to cycle through the profiles, LMB will then place that ship as a hostile.
- Holding down shift while placing the ship will spawn the ship empty of all crew and teleport you inside it.
Pressing the Fn keys 2-12 should spawn assorted enemy ships, except for one ally one among them.
Pressing the End key will spawn a shock wave effect
Pressing the Insert key will spawn a large autocannon bullet, holding the button spawns a stream of them.
Pressing the "V" key will allow a non-fixed camera view for both interior and exterior ship views
While in the map screen, pressing "E" will teleport you to the sector.(Warning, it may teleport you inside an asteroid, causing instant destruction of your ship.)
Pressing the "C" key while interior view will cause a monster spawner to spawn at cursor location.
Pressing the "N" key in the inventory spawns random items. (May change each patch.)
Pressing the "N" key in the research screen gives you 1000000 credits.
Pressing the "N" key in the skill screens gives you one mastery point.
Pressing the "P" key in any interior will render that interior into a PNG file in the "DUMPS" folder. (Warning, may lag/freeze/crash the game.)
Pressing the "home" key while using the console of a ship will render it's "bot" layer in the "DUMPS" folder. (Warning, it does save damage as well.)
Pressing the "\" key will freeze time.