Update #114 brings a big package of improvements across the game. From further story deadline changes to big improvements in crew selection for combat to vastly improved captain's log entries for the death of contacts -- so much of these big improvements are coming right out of the player forums and from suggestions of our veteran captains. Thanks to everyone posting suggestions and feedback as well as, of course, telling a friend and leaving a review!


With this update, we've continued to improve the story deadlines throughout the game in two important ways. First, we've now made the deadline for the Arbiter's storyline visible. She lets you know in her conversations that she will eventually have to make the call for amendments, regardless of how much additional support you can help her gather, and now she is up front about the timeline for that call.

Second, we've added more places where your decisive action in the storylines extends different story timers as well as giving a 25% bump to the impact your actions have on the story deadlines. Therefore, as you become involved with each Prince in the Arbiter's storyline, or make major progress on any of the Faen arcs, these actions keep you engaged with the storyline and you get additional time the more you stay engaged. These timer extensions provide the freedom to do other things between the major story events, but also the deadline demands you don't stray too far off or forget your important character's missions, else they move on without you.


With this update, we've improved some Talents, rebalanced some others and changed important cool downs for some big ones.

Smuggler's Dubious Nod has become Dubious Handshake and now includes a chance to learn a new Rumor. Swordsman's Balanced Blade has had its buff extended from 2 to 3, giving it a +50% in overall value to match the recent Initiative cost change. Slashing Retreat has dropped the part of its buff that increased your Armor Piercing.

Finally, in perhaps the most important change for higher level captains -- Skip Off the Void and Flash Charge have both had their cool downs extended to 9 weeks, up from 3 weeks.


We've defaulted the sorting for crew combat selection to be the highest level fighters first. This prevents your captain and officers from appearing at the top, even if they really aren't the ones who should be going into battle! Second, the "prefers slot 2" detail is now readily available directly in their crew details box, helping you make choices quickly.

We've also fixed some bugs around Assassins, smoke bombs, and other characters not strongly preferring slot 1 when they should.

And of course, lots of other stuff too! Check the full release notes below for everything.

- Increased the impact of decisive action events in the story that extend story event deadlines
- Personal Objective for Arbiter's rallying of unionist support now includes a visible deadline
- Increased number of points throughout Faen and Arbiter storyline where taking action to participate extends deadlines
- Smuggler's Talent "Dubious Nod" renamed to "Dubious Handshake" now includes chance to learn a Rumor
- Navigator's "Skip off the Void" and "Flash Charge" cool downs extended to 9 weeks
- Increased duration of Swordsman's "Balanced Blade" buff by +1 Turns, remove buff to Armor Piercing for "Slashing Retreat"
- Preferred position is now included in each character's box when picking for crew combat
- Improved default sorting of crew when picking for crew combat -- highest level fighters first
- Improved calculation of preferred position in crew combat, fixed bug with Assassins not appearing front row
- Captain's log about death of a contact now includes type, faction, location, Influence and Personal Rep
- Increased impact of high Contact Influence on ability to avoid death by old age
- Rebalanced Alta Mesa's faction Trait matrix, less Gravity Sickness, more better Traits
- Fixed issue where Richness and Explorer Rating had swapped effects
- Improved consistency of labels and detail presentation in new template screens
- Clarified Talents that reduce Rep loss in Missions and some card game Talents
- Fixed issue with selling Rare Trade Goods event log
- Improved hover performance on quadrant and galaxy map
- Rebalanced component damage during Orbital Ops to include Quadrant Danger
- Improved Salvage Bay Bonuses for all 4 levels
- Improves Trait Mutation logic in Orbital Ops cards
- Increased Water-Fuel costs in Orbital Ops during Radiation and Ion Storms
- Fixed many typos - thanks for feedback!

Update #113 rolls out a brand new faction-specific ship, a new rank 15 Talents for Navigators and delivers on a ton of suggestions from the Steam community -- story improvements, UI fixes, Talent balance and more. If you're enjoying the updates, improvements, new content -- please tell a friend and leave a review!


Speed and striking power are quintessential to the Steel Song combat tactics and their new faction-specific ship, the Zartar Fang, delivers on both. Weighing in at that M2400 range, the Fang rolls off the starport assembly line with a Weapons Locker A4, Armored Officer Suites and a Scout Bridge. While its base weapon systems may need an upgrade, this mid-range attack cruiser is deadly at first flight.

The Hyperwarp Navigator Job picks up a rank 15 Talent with this new update -- Flash Charge. A companion to Skip Off the Void, Flash Charge allows the use of the Hyperwarp Drive in the opposite direction -- straight at the enemy! With a short-burst, a heavy dose of fuel and 5-15% Damage, you can drop straight into Range 4 or even 3 with an enemy. For those targets you can't allow the chance to Escape or if your craft is built to unleash hell from Range 3, Flash Charge is ready to bring you in close -- fast.

Your chances to reach Range 3 over 4 are based on a Void Engine Agility contest between the two ships.

Calagan Faen's arc has improved with his Prime Pilgrimage mission now giving an introduction to the High Prince or Princess of his faction. All the more reason to get involved with the Faen.

We've fixed some balance issues in the run of fights through the bloodsport story, making sure that they are living up to their storied difficulty.

A huge thanks to all the players posting suggestions, UI requests and more to the boards. You'lre helping us constantly improve!

Any mission that modifies the Influence of a Contact now shows not only the change to their Influence but their final score as well. No more need to dig around the Contact list to find it.

During ship encounters, you can now hover over the cargo tray to see your cargo. While you could always switch to the Ship Report tab, this tooltip has more detail and is faster -- helping you make wiser surrender / loot / inspection decisions.

The E-Suture Talent has had its Initiative cost reduced to 12, making it a competitive choice again.

You can now see the full rules for Edict / Permit / Rank loss in the Contact offers. There were some undocumented rules about the effect of going into negative Rep. Obviously, once you go negative, the faction will start to strip away any and all Edicts / Permits / Ranks with each new transgression.

Enemy ships are now using the class name of the ship ("Zartar Fang") instead of the captain's profession ("Bounty Hunter Ship").

Finally, we've updated the Hyperwarp Jump screen so that its button position matches Navigate from the main map.

- New Steel Song faction-specific ship "Zartar Fang" (Mass 2400 mid-range attack cruiser, 5 Officer, 6 mediums)
- Added new Hyperwarp Navigator rank 15 Talent "Flash Charge" -- short-burst HW jump starts combat at range 3 or 4
- Improved progression of enemy challenge level in bloodsport vignette
- Improved Calgan Faen's story missions -- Prime Pilgrimage gives Introduction to High Prince / Princess
- Further clarified Edict, Rank and Permit rules -- if you go into negative Rep, you stand to lose any grade of these faction benefits for continuing to cross the faction
- All mission steps that modify Influence for a Contact now include the Contact's new Influence score as well as the change amount
- Reduced Initiative cost of Combat Medic's "E-Suture" to 12
- During Ship Encounter, hover over cargo tray to see what is in your cargo hold in tooltip -- make faster decisions
- Enemy ships now use ship type names ("Galtak Heavylift" or "Solar Predator") instead of captain profession name ("Military Officer Ship")
- Stashes created as rewards from Orbital Salvage are more likely to be within the same quad
- Improved Damage range on Otrike Longrange Sniper Rifle
- Fixed bug causing enemy combatant officers to have one less Talent than expected
- Matched Hyperwarp Jump screen layout to be consistent with other Navigation actions
- Prevented hovers in crew and ship combat from appearing while actions are running
- Improved tooltips in card minigames

As always, thanks to everyone playing, posting, telling a friend and leaving a review! Cory and I appreciate your feedback, especially with quickly finding and fixing bugs.

This hotfix addresses a few bugs introduced in the #112 Razor's Edge update. First -- there was an odd case where a story mission might set your money to $0 instead of giving you $10,000 right at the beginning of the game. Rough!

Eryn Razor now has a small Personal Rep requirement (20) before she lets you in on her big wager in the bloodsport storyline.

We've further improved the starting Contact's selector to avoid Char's faction, but have to temper this with saying -- depending on the map seed, its still possible that there will be Char-faction Contacts. Its far less likely now.

And oh the shame -- we fixed one place where Rychart was terribly mispelled ;)

- Fixed bug where sometimes story would set your credits to $0 in the early game
- Added minor Reputation requirement before Eryn Razor will opt you into her bloodsport offer
- Further improved new game selector to avoid starting Contacts in Char's faction
- Fixed Orbital Salvage card "Major Setbacks" causing too much Influence loss
- Fixed places where Rychart was spelled Rycart -- the shame!

We're glad to be back! After 10 days without updates, we've got the big one you deserve. New storyline, new encounter and Rep improvements, new enemy AI smarts, new starting contacts and so much more. It's packed full of the good stuff -- including lots of suggestions from right here on the Steam boards -- so be sure to review the full patch notes at the bottom!

Here's Update #112!

If you've reached the 3rd Century Era, keep your eye out for a new story vignette invitation -- from one Eryn Razor. I won't spoil the story of the new "Bloodsport" narrative, it is a highly challenging and late-game story arc that will put your crew combatants to the test. It also has the potential for tie ins from multiple other storylines and makes available some mighty new unique story rewards.

In other story news, we've added some more delays between late game Eras to slow them down a bit. We've increased the turn at which story vignettes start joining the game which will reduce the crowded feeling that can happen early in the story. And, we've fixed the issue where the Highwind Case story objective would sit as "Coming Soon" for a long time -- now it keeps its deadline correct even as your actions may extend it.


We've fine tuned and improved the balance and rate of ship encounters in the void with Update #112. Overall, ship encounter rates have been reduced about 10% with special attention paid to some types of Rumors that were spiking it beyond normal levels. This fine tuning also includes more targeted encounter types, such as more Bounty Hunters once your Rep falls below -45 with a faction. We're excited to keep tuning this rule set and these rates.


With this update, we've pushed more nuance into the rules about Rep loss when you defeat an enemy ship. The potential Rep you stand to lose is based on the enemy type and descends the farther away from lawful the captain is, the scale being: Military Officer > Merchant > Zealot > Bounty Hunter > Explorer > Spy > Smuggler > Pirate.

We've also improved all of the descriptive text about Rep loss and gain in ship combat victory to help clarify the reasons behind such changes.

If you happen to be facing a Pirate while carrying a Permit 2 of the Pirate's faction, we've improved the title of the Surrender option to be clear -- "Protected by Permit" as such a Pirate will not loot a licensed trader of their faction.


We've rebuilt the enemy AI's logic for picking crew combat Talents for individuals and for their team. This has made crew combat more competitive, fun and pushed our testing teams to use more of the systems. Swordsman, Pistoleer, Soldier, Assassin, Spy, Sniper are all improved, and if it goes well, we will dig into the other combat Jobs next to hone the knife.

This also includes fixing issues where AI crew were not carrying Snubbers in the front row.

Also, we've fixed a bug that could sometimes duplicate your crew and improved the heavy armor options in Weapons Locker A4 and A5 to make sure they are competitive.

Open up more options during captain creation, we've introduced two new starting Contacts -- the Ex-Merc and the Gestalt Explorer. Each plays to different play styles, but between them they offer Combat Medic recruits, Zealot recruits, Trait Conditioning, combat armor, exploration missions and sabotage missions. A mighty new pair to add to your set!

We've also made a few tweaks to other Contact's special recruits -- Spice Tenders now hire Pirates and Diplomatic Counsels offer Quartermasters.

Finally, we've changed the new game rules to prevent any of your starting Contacts from appearing in Aetaan Char's faction. For those captains getting involved in the Faen story arc, these Contacts soon lost their value as Effective Rep plummeted.

Story
- Added new story vignette: 'Bloodsport' narrative, new unique story rewards and challenges
- New story vignette starts sometime after 3rd Century starts and has potential for tie ins to multiple other storylines
- Added some additional delay between late-game Era starts
- Increase turn at which story vignettes start to add to game
- Improved tutorial instructions on first escort mission about the use of saving Talents in missions to guarantee success
- Resolved story bug where you decided to tell Calagan of a plot, but no option was present
- Fixed story bug causing "Highwind Case" story objective to get stuck "Coming Soon" for a while before triggering

Encounters and Rep
- Ship Encounters: overall reduced encounter rates by 10%
- Ship Encounters: improved and fine tuned effects of Quadrant Rumors on ship encounters
- Ship Encounters: more quadrant faction Bounty Hunters will appear if you are criminal status (-40 Rep)
- Ship Victory: Rep loss with faction now depends on enemy type of ship (Military Officer > Merchant > Zealot > Bounty Hunter > Explorer > Spy > Smuggler > Pirate)
- Ship Victory: improved descriptive text for all Rep loss within ship victory, added custom explanation per enemy type
- Improved description of Surrender option for Pirates when you carry Trade Permit 2 or higher, "Protected by Permit"
- Improved enemy ship builder AI's ship weaponry selection

Enemy Crew Combatants
- Rebuilt AI that builds enemy crew combatants -- Swordsman, Pistoleer, Soldier, Assassin, Spy, Sniper all far more dangerous at picking Talents as individuals and across the team
- Fixed bug preventing enemy crew combatants from picking up Snubbers in the front row
- Fixed bug that sometimes allowed members of your crew to appear twice in crew combat selection
- Improved Heavy Armor option in Weapons Locker A4 and A5

Starting Contacts
- Added new starting Contact: Gestalt Explorer (hires Combat Medic, Trait Conditioning, exploration missions)
- Added new starting Contact: Ex-Merc (hires Zealots, sells Combat Armor, saboteur missions)
- Contact Recruit changes -- Spice Tender now recruits Pirates, Diplomatic Counsel recruits Quartermasters
- Starting Contacts in distant quads no longer appear in Aetaan Char's faction

Talent Adjustments
- Swordsman Talent "Balanced Blade" now requires 1.5x Weapon's Initiative to use for powerful buff
- Fixed description of Talent "Unrivaled Patch" to include the character's Repair Skill (in total, 20% + Skill)
- Prize Ship Talents are displayed even if you cannot afford the court fees
- Renamed Pirate's "Faked Signature" Talent to "Blackheart Fraud" and Spies "Faked Signature" Talent to "Counterfeit Identity"

And More
- Zone services now include time taken in their event log ("Paid $500, took 2 days")
- Selling Intel to a Contact now takes 1 Turn
- Increased duration of Time Lost card during any type of orbital operation
- Fixed bug occasionally causing Rep displays to become incorrect after selling Intel
- Fixed bug preventing crew combat debuffs from playing their SFX
- Fixed bug causing Blackheart starting Contact to be locked behind Faction Defender instead of Privateer
- Fixed bug with character hand positions not matching snubbers or sniper rifles sometimes
- Fixed bug with save slots sometimes displaying the wrong weapon in Load Captain screens
- Fixed mismatches in ship descriptions between starting and maximum crew, now listed both if different -- "24 starting crew (30 max)"
- Improved size and style of Skip All button in story scenes
- Improved sizing of tooltip over Date in the HUDs
- Improved text in tooltips, descriptive text for some Talents, spacing in UI

Update #111 fills out the massive ship weapon category, adding 5 new large slot weapons. It also increases your Rank and Edict impact on ship encounters, reveals all of the dice roll details during travel and fixes lingering issues with Orbital Salvage.

Due to some travel schedule and planned build server maintenance, this will be the last update for about 10 days. We know that's a long black out for updates, but we promise that when the time comes, there will be a very large and very lovely update!

With Update #111, the starports across the galaxy have expanded their line up of big guns. Where there was only the Retribution Gravcannon before to mount on your Large Slots, we've added 5 new impressive weapons to help pound the enemy into either bits (gravcannon) or submission (plasma cannon). There Large Slot weapons don't come cheap and they all require 4 AP to fire, but they are levels 5 to 7 and are devastators.

We've also made some tweaks to Mass ratings for weapons -- reducing Large Gravcannons to 600 and Medium Plasma Cannons to 300.

All ship weapons are a little more difficult to find now. Buying new ship weapons now requires at least 4 Military Rating and all the way up to 9 for the largest and most complex weapons platforms.

In ship encounters, higher grades of Military Ranks and Edicts can now gain you additional positive points. Your Ranks have always gained you positive points with Military Officers, but now any Rank 5 or higher gains double the bonus. The same goes for Bounty Hunters at Edict 4 or higher. Carrying Rank and Edicts bear many advantages, but this new set helps your standing with the faction echo better throughout the galaxy.


If you hover over an event log for a travel or landing save -- such as Pilot, Doctor, Command -- you can now see the exact dice your crew and ship generated as well as the dice rolled by the opposition. These extra details can help you narrow down the cases in which the right solution is a saving Talent or when you have enough Skill Pool to reliably pass. Also, they can help you notice spikes in difficulty due to quadrant danger, Rumors or Conflicts.

We also fixed a bug that was causing Retrain to become unavailable if you accessed an orbital ops and then tried to return to the planet. And we fixed a couple of Orbital Salvage that weren't working correctly or were display incorrect results, even though they were doing the right thing.

- Added all strong and standard dice rolls to event log tooltips while traveling
- In ship encounters, Military Officers give more clout to Rank 5+ and Bounty Hunters give more clout to Edict 4+
- Added 3 new large Plasma Cannons (level 5, 6 and 7) -- massive crippling damage for 4 RP shots
- Added 2 new large Gravcannons (level 5 and 6), slightly improved Crit % and Damage for Level Large Gravcannon
- Minimum Military Rating requirements added to all ship weapon installs (ranging from 4 to 9 by size and type)
- Fixed mass on Medium Plasma Cannons to 300M, reduced Mass on Large Gravcannons to 600
- Fixed bug preventing Talent Retraining after using an orbital op but not leaving planet
- Fixed mismatched faction in description of Orbital Salvage cards "Hunted", "Military Patrol", "Pirate Ambush"
- Fixed "Influence Conflict" card drawn in Orbital Salvage not having an effect

Update #110 comes after a weekend break and delivers on new content, balance tweaks and new achievement rewards. We've included a new faction specific ship, new starting profession, new starting contact and some improvements to Talent rules. Enjoy! Thanks to all of our players leaving reviews and telling friends about Star Traders: Frontiers -- Cory and I thank you.

Update #110 adds a new faction-specific ship to the Zenrin fleet: the Arcanum Freighter. This new freighter is a lightly armored, long-haul cargo transport that excels at safe and efficient operation. Built in the tough and focused Zenrin-style, it comes with multiple reinforced components, a barracks ready to hold its full 30 crew and an impressive 135 base cargo capacity.

As usual, the AI hasn't been given access to this ship, but will in future updates.

We had some great requests from within the community this week for new unlockable content -- specifically the starting profession Commander and a starting Contact who can hire out Pirates. We're excited to deliver both and to send big thanks to all the community members sending in suggestions! The "Faction Defender" achievement now unlocks Commander and the "Privateer" achievement now unlocks a new Contact type, Blackheart.

Of course, Blackhearts -- retired privateers -- will appear in new games and be generated in all games regardless of the achievement, they're just locked as a starting option. They're very useful in their ability to deliver variety -- offering low grade Ranks, Edicts and Permits as well as Pirate recruits and Combat Armor for sale.


With this release, we've made some changes to the rules for a few Talents to help improve their utility, limit unfair use and fix bugs.

In Black Market Talents, we've renamed "Word in the Hall" to "Underground Whispers" and made it an active Talent. Now, it removes a risk card and replaces it with a friendly Rumor card. It won't help you get into the market, but it can sure help you dodge that Confiscate card! Second, we've fixed the issues with Illicit Notoriety that were preventing it from working on some of the cards that granted you access to the markets. Finally, the Threatening Entry card -- an Intimidate check to gain entry to the black market -- now has the chance to boost you up to a access level 3, as if you had a rank 3 permit.

Second, we've improved the ruleset around "Strict Search" and "Rigorous Search". Both now cannot be used more than twice in a single encounter with a Smuggler. However, in both cases, the Talent is more likely to uncover hidden cargo, even in the case where the enemy cargo hold seems full.

Finally, "Bold Statements" now gives Rep to the correct Faction for Trade Bans.

There will be a long road of small tweaks to orbital salvage balance until its a perfectly tuned system. In this release, we've downgraded the max of the credit reward cards you could score. You can still get the big bonuses from Traits, Talents and Components, so rely on those to get big credit hauls. Second, we've tweaked the Trait mutation paths throughout the system, more fairly applying new traits in both negative and positive events.

- Achievement "Faction Defender" now unlocks new starting Profession: Commander
- Achievement "Privateer" now unlocks new starting Contact: Blackheart
- New Contact type "Blackheart" is a retired privateer, recruits pirates, offers low level rank/permit/edict and sells armor appears in all games
- New Zenrin faction-specific ship "Arcanum Freighter" (Mass 5000, 5 Officer, 135 Cargo)
- Arbiter's Story Missions "Seating an Emissary" and "United Defense Force" no longer canceled at end of era in which they originate
- Black Market Card "Threatening Entry" improved to allow access level 1 to 3
- Fixed issue preventing Talent "Illicit Notoriety" from sometimes not adding +1 access level to Black Market access
- Changed Talent "Word in the Market" to replace a risk card with a Learn Rumor card in Black Market, also renamed "Underground Whispers"
- Fixed issue with "Bold Statement" Talent giving Rep bonus to the wrong faction
- Fixed balance issues with "Strict Search" and "Rigorous Search" - can only be used twice, more likely to turn up hidden cargo in Smugglers
- Fixed issue with boarding right before some ship combat victory conditions creating incorrect game score
- Reduced Orbital Salvage credit rewards for good and rare cards
- Rebalanced Orbital Salvage Trait mutations for Crew Danger, Fatal Accident and Rich Salvage

Thanks to all of the captains who helped us make last weeks sale a success and welcome to the thousands of new captains who have stepped on the bridge and are now sailing the Frontier!

Last week, we made the decision to avoid posting news items for updates that would have bumped the big Update 108: Major Milestone RELIC off the top of the list. With the sale now concluded, we're publishing a final hotfix for Salvage operations as well as the following news item that is a roll-up of all the updates and hotfixes we did during the last week.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/335620/announcements/detail/1691556695839699697

Here is the full detailed release notes on Update #109 as well:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/335620/discussions/0/1734341526176895258/

With this hotfix update now out (v2.4.9) we will resume regular updates with new features and content. This update includes the last fixes to reported crashes and card issues in Orbital Salvage and we are now looking down the roadmap to more exciting items -- fighters/carriers, more xeno types, more Jobs and just more.

Thanks to everyone leaving a review, especially if you enjoy the update schedule.

- Salvage operation add or remove Trait cards are more clear about their result if no Trait was modified
- Fixed Salvage card (Pirate Hideout, Xeno Assault) that were not delivering promised stash of goods on victory
- Fixed issue preventing moving between Salvage and other orbital ops screens seamlessly
- Fixed bug causing Xeno to carry odd cargo (Fighter Components) under certain Rumor situations
- Fixed crashes with Scavenger "Patchwork" Talent
- Fixed bug preventing "Specialty Acquisitions" achievement from unlocking
- Fixed odd Javat ghost ship with 0 crew that automatically lost battles

- Fixed Salvage Bay components not improving Orbital Salvage credit rewards
- Fixed crashes with "Relic Gear" card in early game
- Fixed bug with Thrown Wrench Talent firing Cascading Destruction ability instead
- Fixed all reported crashes

- New Ship: Sword Cutter (3400M and $800K!) by Cadar Syndicate
- Contacts now sell level 7 Weapons -- added 7 new crew weapons to the game
- Credit cost of buying Salvage Rumors from Contacts increased by +20%
- Improved option to use a local Contact's Influence when attempting to complete a mission (gets 100% Influence Strong Dice!)
- Improved unique weapons granted by story arcs
- Fixed issue where game ignored low UI scaling % on smaller screens
- Added more card art for orbital operations and salvage
- Fixed bugs with some weapons recovered by Salvaging having duplicate stats
- Fixed issues with Orbital Salvage card formatting
- Fixed reported crashes in Orbital Salvage

- Fixed bug preventing Contacts from selling weapons, armor or gear
- Fixed bug showing some unlearned Talents as being on cool down at start of game
- Fixed mislabel of some "Salvage" Talents as "Victory" type
- Improved sorting of Contacts in new game template
- Improved EVA Deck and Salvage Bay upgrades

The major milestone RELIC ushers in a completely new style of play, profession and a new major system -- Salvaging at Orbitals. While Salvaging shares some cross-over with other orbital ops (Spying, Blockading, Patrolling) it is the extreme high risk and high reward variation. In addition, Salvaging operations are tied directly to fickle Rumors, so the chance to swoop in and make a credit ... or lose a few crew ... does not last forever.

Salvage operations are not for the faint of heart. But the dangers match the possible bounty offered. From big credit rewards ($5K to $80K), to high value mission offers, to relic gear (45 new gear added), specialist weapons (12 new weapons added) or armor (6 new armor added) the rewards are premium. But so are the potential disasters from double-stacked xeno fights, negative Trait mutations, massive Reputation loss, death of Contacts in the quadrant, punishing ship damage or even the terrible double-stacked fatality card.

No, not for the faint of heart at all. This one's for the scrappers, the gamblers, those tough enough to survive.


As we shared when the game launched, this is just the beginning. Star Traders: Frontiers is already a massive game but we have plans to keep expanding it as we've shared in our development roadmap and the RELIC milestone is the first major delivery on that roadmap. It officially ushers in the v2.4.x family which is going to be a big one -- just check out Salvage below!


Unlike other orbital opportunities, salvage sites can only be found where there are certain Rumors -- Derelict Space Hive, Abandoned Military Station, Abandoned Medical Station, Orbital Construction, Orbital Disaster. These 5 new rumors open up 5 distinct versions of the Salvage mini-game, each with a set of unique risk and reward cards. Looking for weapons -- you'll only find them on military stations. Some of the most valuable specialist gear around can be found on abandoned medical stations, but so can a lot of other bad things.

To be a successful Scavenger, you'll need to travel the stars, chasing the Rumors. And it will be important to have a crew capable of picking up on rumors on the crackling wires or over the spice plate.

To help Scavengers focus your efforts, Contacts like Salvage Broker, Retired Exo-Scout, Hunna Lieutenant, Spice Runner and Retired Explorer or any Contact with the Techno-Addict Trait. These Contacts all offer a new service, allowing you to pay to learn Salvage Rumors specifically. Their connections into the galactic network help them connect you with valuable salvage opportunities -- though it won't be cheap!

More than just limited by location, Salvage is also always on a timeline. The orbital construction project is sure to finish sooner or later and the crumbling wreck of a space hive your crew are risking their necks to pick apart is sure to eventually drop into the atmo and disappear forever. The high-value rewards available during Salvage are paired with very nasty risks but are also available only for a specific window. If you want to rummage that wreck, you will have to focus down while it lasts.


If you're going salvaging, you will want to hire those who are skilled at picking over wrecks -- Scavengers. This new Job packs 13 exciting Talents that mix Salvage, Explorer and Doctor. Every thing exists in some form of decay and a Scavenger knows how to patch it up or rip it apart to get the best value. The Scavenger is adept at picking over the decaying bones of orbital wrecks and at foraging the wilderness.

If you want to plunge head first into crawling over a trash-heap salvage sites, Scavenger is now available as the newest starting profession, but it requires the "De Rivesh Legacy" unlock.

The Scavenger Job is not the only one getting in on the fun. 10 new Salvage Talents have been added across the Crew Dog, Gunner, Electronics Tech, Mechanic, Engineer, Pirate and Smuggler Jobs. We've provided all the options to build out a salvage-specific crew.

Salvage Bays, EVA Decks and all the ship and crew protection modules from standard orbital operations all take action in salvage operations, helping to boost rewards and protect your team in this extreme risk environments. We've provided all the options you need to build out a perfect scavenger ship.

Now available at high rated shipyards, the new Warhammer and Behemoth ship engines are both built around the venerable battle-pattern Void reactor core. Depending on size, these engines are capable of generating 9 or 10 Reactor Points per turn. As a trade off, they guzzle fuel like a snob crew dog when the chilled spice beer is on the captain's tab.

The rare variant, called a Behemoth engine, is over-engineered to an extreme and packs more internal armor and shielding than some ships. Both of these engines are tuned for combat, providing an emphasis on combat performance and soak pools.

Major Milestone "RELIC"
- Added all new profession, way of life, path to play: Orbital Salvage is a high-risk and high-reward job of extracting valuables from derelict orbital wrecks
- Added 5 new Rumors: Derelict Space Hive, Abandoned Military Station, Abandoned Medical Station, Orbital Construction, Orbital Disaster
- New Scavenger Job includes 14 new Talents, mixing Orbital Salvage, Exploration, Doctor and Boarding Victory abilities
- Contacts Salvage Broker, Fixer, Smuggler now offer Scavenger Job recruits
- Added 10 new Orbital Salvage Talents across Crew Dog, Gunner, Electronics Tech, Mechanic, Engineer, Pirate and Smuggler Jobs
- Added 45 new pieces of Gear that can be recovered during orbital salvage -- military, medical, relics up to level 8
- Added 12 new crew Weapons that can be recovered during orbital salvage
- Added 6 new crew Armors that can be recovered during orbital salvage
- New Traits "Crafty" and "Hazard High" increases bonuses and Morale during Orbital Salvage, "Vulture" Trait also increases salvage profits
- New Contact Service "Learn Salvage Rumor" allows you to specifically pay Contacts to learn about salvage opportunities
- Contacts Salvage Broker, Retired Exo-Scout, Hunna Lieutenant, Spice Runner, Retired Explorer all offer Learn Salvage Rumor
- Any Contact with "Techno-Addict" Trait will also offer Learn Salvage Rumor
- Added new Contact Trait "Collector" -- these Contacts will recruits Scavengers
- Salvage Broker Contact now available as a Starting Contact
- Achievement "De Rivesh Legacy" now unlocks new starting Profession: Scavenger
- During Orbital Disaster or Orbital Construction rumors, Engineers are available to recruit in the Spice Hall
- Cooldowns for all Talents that increase rewards in Exploration, Patrol, Spy and Blockade extended to 6 weeks instead of 3 weeks
- Added 9 new Awards for Salvage, Recovering Relics and Discovering Rare Trade Good Stashes
- Added 3 new Steam Achievements / Unlocks

Other Additions
- Added 7 new Ship Engines with 10 RP for hulls M7000 and above
- Added 7 new Ship Engines with 9 RP for hulls M2400 to M6000
- Spice Trader Contacts now offer Smugglers for recruit
- Enemy AI now uses faction-specific ships: Crimson Defender, Aegis Freighter, Royale Gladius, Corsair Interceptor, Tiberian Highliner
- Corrected Faction for Crimson Defender to be Rychart
- Contact Links improved with new rules that prioritize high Influence and provide counters moves to block Rumors
- Increased Influence gained and lost by Contacts interacting with Rumors
- Increased Influence gained by completing missions for Contacts
- Increased Water-Fuel costs for Radiation Storm and Ion Storm Rumors
- Crew no longer abandon ship in Templar Faction zones or when Starport is 3 or less
- Fixed bug where Cargo Missions were not properly showing Permit requirements for cargo
- Fixed bug where "Running Guns" mission would still be successful even if you fought and lost to scavengers

We deployed a hotfix this evening with the following fixes --

v2.4.3
- Fixed bug preventing Contacts from selling weapons, armor or gear
- Fixed bug showing some unlearned Talents as being on cool down at start of game
- Fixed mislabel of some "Salvage" Talents as "Victory" type
- Improved sorting of Contacts in new game template
- Improved EVA Deck and Salvage Bay upgrades


Because we want the RELIC news item to stay at the top of the list during the sale, we've decided to embed Update #109 here into this same news item. We've also started a forum post with the same content.

With this update, we've introduced a new exciting Cadar warship -- the Sword Cutter. The Sword Cutter is a purpose-built attack craft, designed to be used by elite military units and for landings in infested systems. The construction of the Sword Cutter spares no expense including a top of the line armored Warhammer class void reactor and battle ready Combat Hyperwarp Drive. Designed to fight at range 3 and 4, the Sword Cutter is a ship built to blast through multiple opponents. Having the highest hull points, best engine and optimized drives is not cheap and the Sword Cutter is the most expensive ship in the 3400 mass category and holds 5 officers.

Also, Contacts hate to be outdone by Orbital Salvage and have now made level 7 weapons available for sale. The credit cost for Learning Salvage Rumors has increased by about 20%. The other costs -- Personal Rep and Influence minimum have remain unchanged.

When completing a mission, it is now an even stronger option to rely on the Influence of a strong, local Contact. You now get there full Influence score as strong dice, which can be pretty overwhelming if they have high Influence.

For those players on Mac OS with a 13" screen and 1440x900 resolution, we've patched the game's UI scaling to better work for you. Set the scaling to 60% or 70% and restart -- you should be all set.

And, we fixed Salvage bugs, added more art, tweaked descriptions and balance.

- New Ship: Sword Cutter (3400M and $800K!) by Cadar Syndicate
- Contacts now sell level 7 Weapons -- added 7 new crew weapons to the game
- Credit cost of buying Salvage Rumors from Contacts increased by +20%
- Improved option to use a local Contact's Influence when attempting to complete a mission (gets 100% Influence Strong Dice!)
- Improved unique weapons granted by story arcs
- Fixed issue where game ignored low UI scaling % on smaller screens
- Added more card art for orbital operations and salvage
- Fixed bugs with some weapons recovered by Salvaging having duplicate stats
- Fixed issues with Orbital Salvage card formatting
- Fixed reported crashes in Orbital Salvage

In a concerted effort to keep this update as our top news item this week, I'm adding tonight's hotfix details to the end of the news item.

v2.4.7 - 10/10/2018
- Fixed Salvage Bay components not improving Orbital Salvage credit rewards
- Fixed crashes with "Relic Gear" card in early game
- Fixed bug with Thrown Wrench Talent firing Cascading Destruction ability instead
- Fixed reported crashes in Orbital Salvage
- Fixed issues with card scores and title formatting

Update #107 breaks new ground on different ways to start your captain's career with both new starting professions and a new impressive starting ship. This is also the final update before the Orbital Salvage release to kick off v2.4.x, so we're hard to work beefing up and adding components, new ships, and prepping the interlocking systems across the game. Stay tuned -- v2.4.x will be here very soon.


We've expanded the possible playstyles and starts for your new captain by adding two new Starting Professions: Diplomat and Assassin. They are locked behind the "Nikolai's Freedom" and "Vatborn Monster" unlocks, respectively, but each allow you to try out a captain in an even more focused role -- that of a mission-running negotiator and that of a purely melee-combat focused Captain.

From where, we do expect to add some of the upcoming Jobs as new Starting Professions. Both Scavenger and Xeno Hunter have the right ring for profession material!

Update #107 drops four new large hulls! Two new faction-specific ships and two unlockable ships are ready to sail. As always, we have not turned these new hulls over to the AI yet, and will not do so until we've had some time to watch how they are used in live play.

The Rychart Crimson Defender (6000M) is a heavily armored combat craft designed for long range ops and battle. The Moklumnue Aegis Freighter (8000M) excels at long range hauls and is a backbone ship in the faction's trading network. To ensure the goods arrive safely, it comes well appointed with defensive weaponry.

Behind the "Hunter's Bane" achievement, you can now pick a new and exciting option for your Ship A priority during captain creation -- the 7000M Delga Megalift. Boasting 7 officer potential and a beastly build, this ship gives you a unique and powerful start without the need to swap out for a long time. To sustain the cost of this new hull, Ship Priority A has gone up to $595K, which means a little extra starting cash for any other A ship option.

Finally, the "Coalition Founder" achievement unlocks a new ship for sale -- the Horizon Highliner at 6000M. Built for versatility and flexibility in many roles, the Horizon excels in operations, mercantile business and, if built properly, in war as well.


A series of enhancements are coming to the orbital operations components as we prepare for the orbital salvage expansion. First up, EVA Decks and Salvage Bays join the mix in order to increase salvage rewards from picking over destroyed enemy ships. Of course, they'll have a role to play in orbital salvage very soon as well.

All of the Exploration, Orbital and Protection Components have had their Mass reduced by 15% to help them fit better into a wider variety of ships that may want to focus on these types of tasks. In addition, a number of these protective components have had Shielding and Armor added to help them protect the ship in more situations than only orbital operations. A few extra points of Armor and Shield can help free up other components that may have been previously dedicated to soaking defenses and help ships be even more versatile in their roles.

While there have always been XP bonuses given to your crew for achieve awards (and unlocks), they are now properly logged within the event. You'll see the standard XP icon next to the event and if you hover over it, you can see the exact amount of XP you've gained. This means that if your captain is leading a patrol-and-fight ship, that you'll get sizeable XP bumps as you cross the different award thresholds (ship battles 10/25/50 or patrol 25/50/100) regardless of your difficulty.

- Achievement "Nikolai's Freedom" now unlocks new starting Profession: Diplomat
- Achievement "Vatborn Monster" now unlocks new starting Profession: Assassin
- Achievement "Hunter's Bane" now unlocks new starting Ship: Degla Megalift (7000 Mass)
- New unlockable starting Professions and Ships increase options for new games and playstyles
- Achievement "Coalition Founder" now unlocks Ship for Sale: Horizon Highliner (6000 Mass)
- New Moklumnue Faction Ship: Aegis Freighter (8000 Mass)
- New Rychart Faction Ship: Crimson Defender (6000 Mass)
- New Ship Components: EVA Decks, Salvage Bays, Reinforced Barracks 3, Shielded Barracks 4
- Improved 'Mesa Radiate-Seal' Component now adds Shielding, other Seals add +1 Armor
- Improved Hull Plating and Radiation Array Components now add Ship Shielding
- Improved Hull Coating and Mesh/Weave Components now add Ship Armor
- Reduced Mass costs for Exploration, Orbital and Protection Components by 15%
- New Xeno ship subtype with +200 Cargo Hold Size
- Event log for achieving awards and achievements now includes details about the granted XP bonuses
- All risk cards at -5 score or below are now marked in a gold border for better recognition
- Buffed 'Radiation Storm' Cards in Orbital Operations (Spy, Patrol, Blockade)
- Fixes crashes with Ship Combat
- Increased install times on some ship components

Update #106 rolls out a terrifying new class of missions, exciting tweaks to the Reputation rules when fighting Pirates and Smugglers and 2 new unlockable starting Contacts.

While we've been working on this update, we're also nearly done with the major Orbital Salvage expansion from the v2.4.x family of the roadmap. It's heading into testing and gold plating next week and should not be long before it and the new Scavenger Job drop!

We're thankful to our awesome community for continued suggestions and feedback. If you're enjoying our approach to game dev, please be sure to tell a friend and leave a review.


To hunt the xeno is to court death itself, or it has been said. With Update #106, we've rolled out a new class of missions -- those going directly after xeno ships and spores on the ground. These missions are high risk and high reward and are offered by Retired Xeno Hunters and any Contact with a Trait in the following dubious list: Xeno Hunter, Cult Leader or Researcher.

Be sure to check your weapons lockers, repair your ship, and upgrade your torpedoes before taking on such missions. The pay may be good, but death always wants a second date.

For those captain types seen as enemies by the local faction who is in control of the quadrant -- Smugglers and Pirates -- you can now gain Reputation with the local faction for defeating them in ship combat. Therefore, defeating Rychart Pirate in a Cadar quadrant will earn you a Reputation bonus with Cadar. The faction in control of the space appreciates your striking back against criminal elements working in their void, even if their faction who the Pirates and Smugglers pledge loyalty to do not.

Patrol is the act of defending a system against aggressive enemy ships, chasing down pirates and catching smugglers. The act of Patrolling to catch Pirates and Smugglers just got a little better -- if you fight all the way to victory. These same bonuses are applied to enemy ships defeated in Patrol, Blockade, Spying and even Missions if the conditions are met (foreign pirate / smuggler).


Two more of the unlocks have now been filled in with exciting rewards -- starting Contacts who can recruit out Spies and Military Officers. The FDF Commander and Ex-Spy are perfect Contacts for certain professions and playstyles looking to pick up experts in these areas quickly. Thanks @Seswatha and @JimmysTheBestCop for making these specific suggestions.

With this release, we've tweaked the Doctor Job -- which is not a close combat specialist -- to increase the Initiative on their single crew combat heal Talent to 10. We've also fixed a class of story bugs causing some duplicate events and fixed a edge case that was preventing passenger pick up missions from accepting and allowing you to sequence multiple passenger missions.

- Defeating a Pirate or Smuggler who does not match the Quadrant Faction grants a small Reputation bonus with the Quadrant's Faction
- Added 2 new missions to hunt xeno ships or xeno crew combat -- high risk, high reward
- Retired Xeno Hunter Contact now offers xeno hunting missions
- Any Contact with Xeno Hunter, Cult Leader or Researcher Traits may offer xeno hunting missions
- Achievement "Covert Operative" now unlocks starting Contact Ex-Spy, who recruits Spies
- Achievement "Call of the Strong" now unlocks starting Contact FDF Commander, who recruits Military Officers
- New unlockable starting Contacts increase options for new games
- Increased Doctor's "Field Surgery" Talent initiative cost to 10
- Fixed story bugs causing occasional duplication of something (two boss fights, etc)
- Fixing edge case where passenger mission would incorrect refuse to accept due to lack of cabins
- Fixed click patterns that could cause Black Market screen to freeze