Torps are best fired in rapid succession and we've fired another into the hull of the v2.2.x family of features with Update #58. Bringing custom keybindings online, we've knocked off the last feature of the family. With all of the major feature work finished, we'll be working quickly to wrap up the next era while the engineering team gets a head start on the v2.3.x features! Check out the full EA Dev Roadmap for details on all the areas we are working on, but we've included the tattered remains of the v2.2.x family below.



When offered the option to Surrender in advance of a ship combat, the prompt title and the description now give some advance warning as to what you can expect. This is based on the captain type, Faction, their Rep, your Rank and all the other factors taken into account -- but you can see when you are likely to be just searched, looted, thrown in prison or even executed.

From the main menu, pop open the keybindings screen to modify the game's keybindings. There are two sets -- common/map and combat. So you can bind the same keys to different functions between these two screens (space to navigate but also to end turn in combat, as an example). Adding custom keybindings has prompted us to add a few more hotkeys but we are aware of a few places were more will be helpful and we will keep working to add more and of course will include them here for customization. Thanks to everyone posting requests for these!



Contact offering military and specialist gear now offer a 3rd tier of gear in their service ladder. Each offer 4 new types of gear for purchase. You can see these new offerings without reaching the tier's requirements, so take a look! Some exciting and very different items are included.

There will be on-going work to keep balancing out crew combat for many more updates, especially as we add new Jobs and Talents. With Update #58, we've adjusted a rule about low Piercing versus higher Deflection. If the target's Deflection is twice the Piercing value, an extra 25% chance to avoid Piercing hit is added. This helps to level out weapons like blades and pistols that do not have the best piercing value and requires more active buffing to punch through armor unless you have a weapon like a Sniper, Snubber or HMG built for it.

For the Merchants and Smugglers alike -- the demand set for Electronic Components has been expanding to include more zone types. Check Resource Types on the wiki for more quick details!

- Added Custom Keybinding support for all screens and combat
- Ship Combat 'Surrender' option now includes intel about what enemy Captain will do (Search, Loot, Imprison)
- Contacts now offer a 3rd service tier for gear
- Added 8 new types of level 3 gear for officers and captain
- Arbiter immediately converts to UC Faction (no delay for later stage games)
- Crew combat balance shift -- if Deflection is more than twice Piercing, reduced change to Pierce by 25%
- Fixed repeat damage from relanding with Gravity Sickness and Worldsick Trait
- New Crew barks for Worldsick and Gravity Sickness
- Rebalanced Supply and Demand curves for 'Electronic Components' trade resource
- Fixed range change issues in ship combat and successful use of Blood Game cancels Escape
- Fixed issue in crew combat where viewing crew member status removed Move / Refocus / Default Attack Talents
- Fixed issues in Ship Combat victory -- dumping cargo miscounts, sorting in conscription
- Fixed up pager in crew combat Talents list
- Fixed bug where Init penalty was carrying over between completely separate crew combats

Update #57 brings the wrecking ball into the v2.2.x family of the Dev Roadmap. We've knocked out two major goals in a single strike, introduced a metric ton of new content, exciting new Talents, advanced the Era track and slain a host of bugs. It's a classic Thursday morning release!

Have at 'em! En guard! If you like updates, leave a review and tell a friend about Star Traders: Frontiers!

We're now more than half of the way through the v2.2.x family with one more big story drop coming an the customizable hotkeys (which Cory is already building) on its way. Then, we're on to the most exciting of all dev families -- the v2.3.x! Check the full EA Dev Roadmap for details and our studio's ideas about Relentless Updates.




Prize Ship Talents are both the first Rank 15 Talents in the game as well as very exciting new ways to gain access to ships, Rep and piles of credits. However, by the laws of the Star Trader charter, you cannot simply take any other captain's ship. You must claim the ship as a prize during a retribution justice Conflict -- a Solar War, Trade War or Spy War.

As Prize Ship Talents launch, the Zealot, Military Officer and Pirate have each gained one. Each allows the character to claim an enemy ship during victory IF there is a landing zone of the opposing faction in the same quadrant. That is, if Zenrin and Moklumnue are in a Spy War and you defeat a Zenrin Spy Captain in battle, you may claim that ship as your own at the prize court if and only if there is a Moklumnue landing zone in the quadrant.

These Talents will send you hunting out Quadrants that share systems of the two warring factions and haunting their systems in patrol and blockade maneuvers to find the right ship at the right time. But the pay off can be immense, capturing ships upgraded by the enemy captains. You'll have to pay a hefty fee to the prize court for towing and docking, so seek out larger ships to really rake in the profits.

Of course, as the capture of an enemy ship is a blow in the conflict, you'll gain your faction a large Conflict Score boost with every strike.



Check the in-game text for other rules about what types of Captains you can target specifically by Conflict type, such as during a Trade War a prize court will only accept a claim on a Merchant, Smuggler or Pirate ship.



We won't go into depth on the new Era much here, other than it directly follows the Second Founding. For those captains who have not started this era, Arbiter Brokstrom puts out the call for talents captains, and any captain may rejoin her storyline, even if you did not in the early eras. She and a number of other Contacts are also joining in the new Faction that you can start to rep up with, even if it is weak in its early stages.

Check the Rumor List for full details on the Era and all of its effects across the game. While the Arbiter's time sensitive missions are now available for the Era, we've got a few more story arcs that will fill in the rest of the era on the coming soon list. As with all eras, we will keep expanding and deepening their impacts and storylines even as we move on to the next big one!

- Added major story Era: Early Coalition Era
- Check the Rumors List for the Era's details and all impacts of the first years of the UC
- Major impacts on mission types, rumor creation, conflicts between factions, contact actions
- During Early Coalition Era, Powerful "Coalition Liaison" Contacts continue to spawn
- Arbiter now switches her Faction at start of Coalition, Arbiter's storylines results in gained UC Rep
- Arbiter puts out the call for Star Traders at start of Coalition, any Captain can pick up her storyline again
- Additional Early Coalition storylines arriving soon
- First Rank 15 Talents - Prize Ship Talents!
- New Talent: Murderous Tribute - Violently seize Conflict Prizes (Pirate)
- New Talent: Fanatical Court - Seize Conflict Prizes with corrupt judgements (Zealot)
- New Talent: Military Tribunal - Seize Conflict Prizes with a bold military case (Military Officer)
- Reduced Permits available from Smuggler Prince to Grade 3
- Increased Permits available from High Prince to Grade 4
- Spice Runner Contact now always offers Black Market, no longer Trait-reliant
- Fixed issues with Calagan Faen's overlapping Traits for new games
- Improved character animations in regards to face, hat, eyewear
- Fixed issue with Call of the Strong's peronsal objectives hanging around
- Performance tuning and increased simulation cycles for Contact and Faction AI/Conflict/Rumors
- Hyperwarp Jumps are now slightly faster but more dangerous when failed
- Fixed some bugs with Conflict displays in Preamble
- New "Faction Militant" Contact Type added to Contact simulator
- Fixed bugs with installing Ship Components on heavily damaged ships
- Fixed labeling and Reputation loss logging bugs for Trade Wars in certain Exchanges
- Fixed bug that allowed Talents to be used with wrong weapons
- Fixed issue with new Contacts appearing without Talent activation

Update #56 launches with critical balance improvements as well as interface improvements. We're continuing the work on ship component rebalance and additions as well from Update #55.

We've updated the HUD to replace the disabled Orbit button with the Land button. If you've recently landed on a landing zone and return to orbit or the map, you can use the Land button to return to that zone immediately without any cost of time, fuel or use of Talents or Traits. You can still click through the long way (click the system on the map, click land) but the Land button is a quick shortcut for you and helps also indicate when you are still on a landing zone even when browsing the map. Note that by moving or using any orbital operation like Spying indicates that your ship has left the landing zone and the Land button will disable.

We've also updated the HUD to replace the generic Status button with a Ship button which takes you to your ship status.



With the release of ELDER, Initiative has become the currency of the realm and those buffs and debuffs that modify it grew greatly in power. Due to the fact that Initiative bonuses are not rolled but simply added to the Initiative roll, they are even more powerful. This update reduces the values for most buffs and debuffs that increase or reduce Initiative.

An example of the changes is that Frontline Brave which is buffs the entire team used to grant +4 Initiative now grants +2 to every team member.

We've fixed a number of other small issues with purging buffs and debuffs.

Thanks to all of our captains for playing, posting feedback, sharing the game and posting reviews!

- Rebalanced all Buffs and Debuffs that adjust Initiative (reduced both Initiative bonuses and penalties)
- Orbit button switches to Land when you can return to landing zone (no fuel, time, talents)
- Replaced main "Status" button with "Ship" button
- Rebalancing cost of ship component installation
- New Ship Components: Reinforced Barracks 4 and 6, Cargo Hold 4
- Fixed issue where some Buff effects were carrying over between crew combats
- Fixed issue with Unfaltering Ire Talent failing to remove enemy Buffs
- Fixed issue with a few debuffs that could not be removed by Talents like Cleansing Purge

Update #55 kicks off a big weekend with a bang. As we are grinding on some much larger projects in the background, this update contains a ton of really important balancing, some foundation work for future features and changes, bug fixes and new content. A lot of changes here so check those patch notes!

We've started a major project of ship component rebalancing with this release. We've tweaked some important components like the Sensory Array, changes a ton of component installation prices and added some new Barracks and Cargo spaces.

Also, the Starport upgrade screen defaults to the "all" filter to help players who are missing the point that any component of one size can be replaced with a component of the same size, regardless of type.

Any Contact with the Negotiator Trait now hires out Merchants. Another great Contact Trait you need to know before it will start working for you, so be sure to pick up some Talents to help with that.

There will be on-going balancing with the Sniper for a while. This release tweaks the One Shot attack to require Stealth mode but not cancel it. Also, we've fixed a bug that was preventing other abilities, like Roaring Barrels, from properly purging Stealth Buffs. You can now knock targets out of Stealth mode! Finally, there was a bug that was keeping enemy snipers from firing from the second rank .. watch out, they've got firing clearance once again.

There is a ton of other good stuff in this release, tweaking and fixing Conflicts, improving economic curves, strengthening the Second Founding Era, boosting some Rumors and fixing reported story bugs.

If you like updates, please leave a review!

- Sniper Talent "One Shot" requires Stealth Mode but no longer cancels it
- Fixed bug where Talents that purge enemy debuffs were not removing Stealth buffs
- Fixed bug where enemy Sniper would not fire from 2nd rank
- Contacts with Negotiator Trait will hire Merchant crew or officers
- Improved sorting of ship talents and weapons in ship combat
- Improved grip and trigger placement for heavy pistol
- Resolved issues with Ship Victory and Spy Wars
- Improved impacts for Solar Wars before Second Founding
- Fixed issue with Solar Atlas ignoring planet-type economy modifiers
- Rebalanced Demand Curves for Biomass, Scrap and basic Fuels
- Increased the impact of Pirates and Blockade Planet Rumors
- Increased the impact of Zone Surplus and Shortage Rumors
- Starport upgrade now defaults to "ALL" filter instead of "EXACT"
- Rebalancing cost of ship component installation
- New Ship Components: Reinforced Barracks 4 and 6, Cargo Hold 4
- Rebalanced Sensor Array Ship Component
- Fixed misprint bugs in combat log around Piercing %
- Fixed story issues with crossed Faen missions, added more Captain's logs about Faen storyline
- Additional fixes for memory bugs and crashes

Today's update is a quick follow-up to the Field of Fire update yesterday which fixes a few bugs, makes a few balance adjustments and adds new hotkeys in preparation for the coming customizable hotkeys.

Enemy snipers were causing some crashes if they took certain Talents. Also, sometimes the Eagle Eye Talent was crashing for players. Both are now fixed! If you had a combat team stuck at the start of a fight, you can go into battle but beware that means there is an enemy sniper in their ranks!

You can now use 1, 2, 3 and all the way up to 9, 0 to activate weapons or talents in ship combat. With q, w, e switching between Move, Weapons and Talents you can now do almost your entire turn without a mouse (enter to submit orders).

Finally two balance tweaks -- Staggering Fire now takes 1.5X the weapon's initiative and we've fixed one of the mid-level Lances for ships that was just out of balance.

- Sniper's Staggering Hit now costs 1.5X Initiative of weapon, gains +10% Critical
- Fixed crash at start of crew combat for some enemy snipers, crash with Eagle Eye
- Added hotkey access for Ship Combat weapons and talents (1-0 keys)
- Fixed balance issues with HX-2 Lance ship weapon

Update #53 lands with an all new Job, new types of Talents, exciting new weapon rules, improved enemy AI and a pile of UI quality of life improvements. It's a big one and there will be big ones to follow! The v2.2.x family of development is churning out some major improvements now that we've cleared the v2.1.x hurdles.

First, a huge thanks to all of our KickStarter backers, Patreons and every captain who has left a review on the game. You are all helping make this possible!

Sniper is the first new Job released during EA and adds a new level of tactics and build choices to the Rifle-based combatant. Specializing in Stealth, massive Piercing %, and single-shot abilities, the Sniper prefers to take a target out in a single hit from the 4th position. Snipers may live much of their life in Initiative Penalty, so their shots will ring out at a staccato rhythm.

Sniper's also introduce a brand new type of Talent -- the On Initiative Debuff. Once a round when Initiative is rolled, one On Init Buff or Debuff will activate from each team. Snipers bring one of these automatic debuff to the field of battle. More Jobs will gain On Initiative Debuffs down the line, but this is a great start in deepening the decision matrix around what On Init Talents to invest in!



Improving the tactics of Rifle-based combat also requires additional rules for the major weapon variations -- Sniper Rifles and Snubbers. New position limitations have been added for both, preventing the sniper from firing from up close and the snubber from firing from far away. In short -- regardless of your Talents a Snubber can never fire from the 4th position and a Sniper Rifle can never fire from the first position, unless that crew member is the last surviving crew. While this will have little impact on most builds, it helps reinforce the position from which theses weapons are best used.



Now that we've reached the v2.2.x family, we have a long list of UI improvements that we are coming back around to finishing. We've added more details to the Talent detail area describing its specific rules, about how crew and ship combat buffs and debuffs work, and any weapon limitations impact on the Talent's abilities.

We've also been fixing issues with mousewheel scrolling not working as expected. We've started this process with the System Atlas, Contacts, Missions, Factions and Rumors list.

In prep for customized keybindings, we've been adding more and fixing issues with them.

Any filter that involves Stars is now using OR logic, allow you to see both the red and yellow starred contacts quickly.



- Added new specialist Job: Sniper! Backline, take cover and one-shot!
- 10 new Talents, many new combinations for Rifle Skilled combatants, new Stealth Talents
- New Talent Type "On Initiative Debuff" drops a debuff on the enemy at start of turn
- Most "On Init" Talents adjusted to have 3 Turn Duration to their Buffs/Debuffs
- Snipers can be recruited from Contacts: Erik Faen, Weapons Smuggler, Court Assassin
- New Contact Trait "Ruthless" spurns all peaceful missions and hires out Snipers
- New limitation on Sniper Rifle Weapons -- cannot be fired from the front rank unless last crew alive
- New limitation on Snubber Weapons -- cannot be fired from the 4th rank ever
- Improved enemy crew combat AI's thinking about changing positions
- Fixed issue with enemy crew combat AI cheating when it comes to moving Pinned
- Star filters for Contacts, Crew List and Atlas all function on an "OR" rule
- Added useful details to Talent leveling screen about each Talent type
- Added personal objective in regards to Valencia being aboard your ship
- Fixed Mass inconsistencies for Medium sized Torpedoes and Plasma Cannons
- Fixed scrolling issues with screens with multiple panels, weapon/armor/gear screens
- Fixed crashes in "Undisclosed Location" mission
- Skip Off the Void no longer grants an XP to crew upon use
- Escape key closes game menu

Update #52 arrives with a big expansion for the Contact's who sell Weapons, Armor and Gear. A flood of 21 new and expensive high tech gear has hit the galactic tradeways and can be purchased from your Fixers, Weapons Dealers and other Contacts in the trade.

For any players who have seen certain game assets replaced by black boxes after multi-hour play sessions, that is now fixed in this update. Apologies for the issue!

We're excited to add a community requested "hat" type of e-goggles to the game, giving a character a engineering flair. As they are work on the forehead, they can't be swapped with other hats, but you can have an eyepatch.



While in the past this has been a limited, flat list of items for sale these offers have now been converted into services with Rep and Influence minimums like all other services. Now sales of this high-end equipment is split into two major levels for each type. If you don't quality for the second tier, you can look buy not buy. For those who have impressed their contact enough to reach the second tier, some new and exciting weapon types are available.

This includes a new Otrike Heavy Pistol which packs a massive punch but costs a full 8 Initiative. Some other unique and powerful weapons are included, the Absolution Snubber and the Vigeur Longblade. With the expansion into new and exciting weapon types, we're adding new visuals as well!

You can see that this is a foundation built to be expanded. With 2 levels in, we will be adding more soon! Also, this clearly means we need filtering and comparison capabilities in those tables -- we'll be working on adding them as well.

A big thanks to everyone posting feedback, reviews and telling friends about STF! We couldn't do it without you.

- Added new character hat type: e-goggles
- Contact sales of weapon/armor/gear now split into service levels like all other services
- Contacts sell weapon/armor/gear at different levels - now tiered into 2 levels with more coming
- Rebalanced, repriced and reclassified existing weapon/armor/gear
- Added 7 new Level 5 Weapons sold by contacts
- Added 4 new Level 5 Armors sold by contacts
- Added 10 new Level 1 and 2 types of gear sold by contacts
- Gear selling contacts now either sell military gear or other types of gear
- New visuals for heavy pistols and longblades
- Purchase of weapon/armor/gear from Contact burns 2 Personal Reputation
- Fixed issue maintaining current inventory counts for weapons/armor/gear while buying and selling
- Story missions are clearly marked in mission offer list
- Fixed bug allow dump from Cargo > Stash Locations screen causing bad cargo
- Fixed cargo button function while in crew list
- Additional fixes for memory bugs

The dust is settling off the ELDER update. With Update #51, we're wrapping up a stability patch to fix issues, prevent crashes and resolve some problems with very high and low cards before leap into another major forward sprint.

With Update #51, we've improved some of the card-based mini games within the game to better handle extremely high and low cards. They were skipping traits, XP and some additional dice penalties that are now in play.

Game Over was crashing on the regular in Update #50, that is now fixed. We've also fixed a few memory bugs that may help players with certain hardware configuration who were experiencing crashes.

Thanks to all of our captains sharing the game or leaving a review. A big welcome to all the new captains who joined last week during the sale.

- Fixed Game Over crashes
- Fixed issue with Cards greater than +5 or less than -5 not triggering Trait mutation
- Fixed issues with very high score cards not granting XP or Bonus XP
- Fixed issues with very low score cards not dice penalties for rolls
- Fixed typos and memory bugs

The dust is settling off the ELDER update. With Update #51, we're wrapping up a stability patch to fix issues, prevent crashes and resolve some problems with very high and low cards before leap into another major forward sprint.

With Update #51, we've improved some of the card-based mini games within the game to better handle extremely high and low cards. They were skipping traits, XP and some additional dice penalties that are now in play.

Game Over was crashing on the regular in Update #50, that is now fixed. We've also fixed a few memory bugs that may help players with certain hardware configuration who were experiencing crashes.

Thanks to all of our captains sharing the game or leaving a review. A big welcome to all the new captains who joined last week during the sale.

- Fixed Game Over crashes
- Fixed issue with Cards greater than +5 or less than -5 not triggering Trait mutation
- Fixed issues with very high score cards not granting XP or Bonus XP
- Fixed issues with very low score cards not dice penalties for rolls
- Fixed typos and memory bugs

We've been burning the void engine hot to bring the latest and greatest updates to the galaxy. Update #50 resolves a big problem with the new story content, fixes Weapon Locker A5, and balances out a number of things across Talents, Crew Combat and contact services. The real Milestone ELDER Update was #47, but #50 just sounds important :D

Accidentally, Erik Faen was left in a state where he only wanted to talk to us developers. He was happy to spin his plots with Cory and I, but shy in the real world. Thanks to all the players who reported him, his story is now available. You can talk with him directly after dropping off the Arbiter at the Faen court the second time.

We've also fixed a set of other story bugs in the Undisclosed Location mission that were tripping some players up. Also, if you ran into the boss and he refused to attack -- that's fixed now!

Is now worth the money!



Among the Talents that help you avoid battle, Skip Off the Void is the most general and powerful, in that it does not care what type of enemy Captain you are facing. We've added one new limitation and one new cost to SOtV today to help keep it balanced within the list of Talents like Forged Signatures and Stiff Salute. Skip now burns Water-Fuel equal to a Hyperwarp jump, which is essentially what you are doing to escape combat. If you lack the fuel, the Talent cannot be used. In addition, Skip cannot be used if your Hyperwarp Drive component is damaged beyond 60%. It basically requires a functioning HW Drive to make the dangerous, short-ranged jump.

There will be on-going balance to the crew combat meta for a long time. With this update, we've toned down the overpowered Devastating Charge to cause 50% Stun instead of the madness of 75% Stun. Also, we fixed an issue where you could get to Initiative Penalty by using the Refocus (skip my turn) Talent which didn't seem fair.

- Fixed a story bug that was preventing Erik Faen's storyline from starting
- Fixed new ship component: Weapons Locker A5 provides Goliath-class weaponry
- Skip Off the Void cannot be used with a damaged Hyperwarp Drive (over 60% dmg) and burns HW Jump's worth of Fuel
- Can no longer achieve Initiative Penalty from using Refocus Talent
- Rebalanced Influence and Rep minimums for some higher level Contact services
- Reduced Stun on Swordsman's Devastating Charge to 50%
- Fixed issue with Patrol, Blockade and Spy accidents that could sometimes leave crew at 0 HP
- Fixed issue with Faen story arc boss not attacking sometimes, fixed crash with AOE attack
- Improved messages and HUD updates for bad Hyperwarp Jumps
- Fixed rendering issues with thumbs for some skin and weapon combinations
- Improved memory usage and eliminated out of memory crashes