Vermillion Online vs Dual Universe

At a glance

If you're here because DU closed

Novaquark delisted Dual Universe on 25 July 2025 and turned off the official servers on 27 August 2025. That ended one of the few real attempts at a single-shard world where everything was built by players: ships, bases, whole cities. People put years into it. If that was you, we get why "Dual Universe alternative" is a frustrating search. Nothing does everything it tried to do.

So here's a straight answer about what Vermillion Online covers and what it doesn't, so you don't waste an evening.

What carries over from Dual Universe

• One shared world. Everyone plays on the same server, with the same rules. No instances. Our world is far smaller than DU's: 19 sectors, about 200 km across.
• Ships you design yourself. Every ship is player-designed or a stock design built from the same blocks.
• A player economy. Each station has an order book with buy and sell orders, escrow, a 2% tax and price history. Items exist where they are, so goods have to be hauled. Courier contracts with collateral let other players haul for you.
• Mining that matters. Lasers dig real craters, ore sits in coloured veins, and plain rock gives nothing. Better ore is in more dangerous space.
• Risk-graded PvP. Safer space near the start, open space further out.

What Vermillion doesn't have

Better to say this up front. Vermillion Online has no planets to land on, no territory, no player-built stations or bases, and no scripting. There's one star system. We won't pretend otherwise. If those were the heart of DU for you, a myDU community server is closer to what you lost.

Building: voxels vs blocks with insides

DU's building was its signature. Voxels down to 25 cm, smooth shapes, elements placed inside, Lua scripts on control units. Some of the best-looking player ships in any game came from it.

Vermillion builds differently. You place 1 m blocks in a Ship Designer at a station: 68 armour shapes (slopes, corners, tapers, plates, rounded shells) in Steel, Aluminium, Titanium, Iridium composite and Glass, plus about 140 functional and structural parts. Shapes are coarser than DU's voxels. The depth is in the systems instead. An engine is a core plus cylinders plus coolers. A radar is a core plus emitters plus a dish. A cannon is a firing piece plus barrels, clips, autoloaders, gauge increasers and recoil absorbers, with a gauge from 12 to 300 mm. Bigger assemblies give more performance and cost mass, heat and space. You can test-fly a design from the designer before you spend anything.

Flight and combat feel different

In DU, combat ran through target locks and weapon stats. Vermillion is flown by hand. Flight is Newtonian on six axes, and thrust comes from where you put the thrusters, so a badly balanced ship flies badly. There's no speed cap; most ships end up between 150 and 300 m/s.

Shells are simulated projectiles that dig through blocks until penetration runs out. Damage is per block, and destroyed blocks split a ship into drifting pieces. You can also leave your seat: walk your ship with magnet boots, go out on EVA with a jetpack, and board and repair.

Sensors are part of the fight. Ships give off a signature from thrust, heat, guns and radar, asteroids hide you, and firing your radar lets everyone in range hear the ping as a bearing.

Security and loss

Vermillion's map has four tiers: Secure (1 sector, no damage), High security (6 sectors, attacks land but police destroy the attacker after 20 seconds), Low security (9 sectors, no police) and Lawless (3 sectors, no rules). Titanite only spawns in Low security, Iridium only in Lawless.

It's full loot. A destroyed ship loses half its cargo, and the rest spills into the wreck for anyone. The hulk can be salvaged. Everyone aboard dies, and characters drop body bags. You get a free Rookie Ship back every time, so a bad loss never locks you out.

Where Dual Universe was better, and still is on myDU

• Building freedom. 25 cm voxels and Lua scripting are in a different league for detail and automation.
• Planets and bases. Landing, mining planets, building on the ground. We're space only.
• Territory and organisations. Owning land and running an org with real assets.
• Scale. DU's universe was huge. Ours is one compact map.
• Your own server. myDU lets you keep a world and its rules under your control.

Who should try what

If you were a builder first and a pilot second, start with myDU. It's the real thing, and community servers exist.

If you were the one hauling, trading, mining in risky space or flying PvP, Vermillion is worth a free download. The order book will feel familiar. The fights will feel more hands-on.

One honest warning either way: we're an early playtest on one EU server, with a small player count and possible wipes. Come in expecting to help shape it, not to find a finished game. We'd especially like DU veterans' feedback on Discord, because you've seen what goes wrong in player-run worlds.

Dual Universe questions

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