Vermillion Online vs Albion Online

The short answer

Albion Online is a fantasy sandbox MMO, free to play since 2019 with an optional Premium membership. It runs on PC, Mac, Linux and mobile with cross-play, and has separate servers for the Americas, Asia and Europe. Its newest expansion, Dragonfire, arrived in September 2026. Its core idea is simple: you are what you wear, nearly every item is crafted by players, and the best resources sit in zones where you can lose everything you carry.

Vermillion Online runs on that same loop: gather in dangerous space, haul it home, sell on a local market, lose it all if you're caught. The difference is that instead of a weapon and armour set, your gear is a spaceship, and you build it block by block. Vermillion is a small, early, free playtest on Mac and Windows, one EU server, with possible wipes.

The loop is the same

If you've played Albion, you know the feeling: a full bag of tier 7 hide in a red zone and a ganker on the minimap. Vermillion is built to produce that moment.

• Better resources further out. Ferrite and Cuprite near home, Bauxite from High security outward, Titanite only in Low security, Iridium only in Lawless.
• Local markets. Each station has its own order book with escrow and a 2% tax. There's no global inventory, so price gaps between stations are real and hauling pays.
• Real loss. A destroyed ship loses half its cargo, and the rest spills into the wreck for anyone. A dead character drops a body bag with everything carried, half destroyed.
• Crafting matters. Ore is refined, refined materials are crafted into parts, parts are fabricated into ships.
• A floor to come back to. Albion has free starter gear and cheap sets. Vermillion has a free Rookie Ship.

Where it's different: your gear is a ship you design

In Albion, the build is a choice of weapon, armour pieces and mount. In Vermillion, the build is the whole ship. The Ship Designer at a station uses 1 m blocks: 68 armour shapes in 5 materials plus about 140 functional parts. Engines, thrusters, cannons, radar and mining lasers are assemblies made of parts. A cannon is a firing piece plus barrels, clips, autoloaders, gauge increasers and recoil absorbers, with a gauge between 12 and 300 mm. Bigger assemblies are stronger and cost mass, heat and space.

You can test-fly a design straight from the designer before spending anything. If it's slow to turn, you'll feel it, because thrust comes from where you placed the thrusters.

Where it's different: combat is flown and per block

Albion fights are about abilities, cooldowns and positioning from a top-down view. Vermillion fights are flown. Newtonian flight on six axes, flight assist you can switch off, guns you aim. Shells are simulated projectiles that chew through blocks until their penetration runs out, and destroyed blocks split hulls into drifting fragments. Losing a thruster changes how you fly.

Ships can carry gunners, so one hull can be a small crew's shared gear, and everyone aboard dies with it.

Gathering is scouting

In Albion you read the minimap and the zone population. In Vermillion you read signatures. You only see what your sensors detect. Thrust, heat, guns and radar raise your signature, and asteroids hide you. Pulse radar reveals hidden ore fields and pirate sites, but every pilot in range hears the ping as a bearing. Jackpot fields are announced to the whole server by sector, which works a lot like a high-tier resource spawn drawing a crowd.

PvE is there too: pirate patrols, solo hideouts with three waves and a boss, group strongholds and raids on mining fields. Bounties range from 18,000 cr for a Pirate Skiff to 250,000 cr for a Pirate Captain, times 1.5 in Lawless space.

What Albion does better

• A full, mature game with years of content, guild warfare, territories and castles.
• Mobile and cross-play. You can gather on your phone and fight on your PC.
• Three regional servers and a large population at all hours.
• Very low hardware needs.

Vermillion has no territory, no guild wars and one EU server. Parties and companies exist, but company wars don't yet. The population today is a handful of pilots per session.

Common questions

Who should play which

Stay with Albion Online if you want a big, finished full-loot sandbox you can play anywhere, including your phone. Try Vermillion Online if you like Albion's risk loop and would rather do it in space, flying a ship you built and lost yourself. It's early, and the first prices on every station's order book are still up for grabs.

See also: Vermillion vs EVE Online, games like EVE Online and what a player-driven space MMO is.