What is Astra?

That makes Astra unusual, because most of Aniimo keeps other people out of sight. Other players are visible only when you are grouped in the same party, inside the main city, or within camp and RV areas. Multiplayer is activity-based rather than a persistently shared open world, and the game is built primarily as a solo experience. So for a player who has not grouped with anyone, Astra is the one place strangers exist at all.

That gives the city a practical job. It is where you meet other players before an activity rather than during one: trading Aniimo, grouping for bosses, raising friendship levels with people you run into again. If you need a second body for one of the Sanctum puzzle dungeons that demands a minimum party size of two, a crowded hub is where you find one. Voice chat is in the game, including open-world voice chat, so a conversation in Astra does not need to stop when you both leave.

Where else you run into people

Astra is the central hub, not the only shared ground. RV parks are designated shared social zones: you park alongside other players, visit their RVs, rest, and decorate camping platforms. Open-world settlements and RV campsites also show you other Pathfinders along with their trailers, since each Pathfinder's recreational vehicle doubles as a headquarters and a multiplayer social space.

The rest is invitation-only. You can invite friends into your world, visit each other's Homelands, and enter another player's personal home plot through a co-op invite. Astra costs you nothing and asks nobody's permission, which is the difference.

Not settled: Astra is named as the central hub, but whether it is the only city where unparried players become visible to each other is not settled.