Update #155 completes the adds the fourth and final legendary bounty hunters in the v2.5.x family. We've also improved the ship comparison report to be more directly helpful and easier to read, rebalanced Water-Fuel Reclamation component and added a second level Javat-only version of the component. We've clarified rules for both Trade War Conflict and Civil Unrest in the game and fixed a pile of community reported issues and suggestions.

We're on stride, hitting an update every 3 days for the month of May with 6 new story arcs added in the last 30 days. If you're enjoying the pace of updates, features, and new content please leave a review and tell a friend about Star Traders: Frontiers!

A Bounty Hunter who has been operating since the pre Exodus period, Draiv Solregard is two centuries ancient but just as deadly and ruthless as ever. Unlike the other hunters, if a contact sends him after you, he will come bearing a capture warrant for your arrest and imprisonment. Be careful if you cross him, you might die regretting it!


This ^^ looks bad ... with Update #155, we've changed what numbers are being compared in the ship report. Now, instead of comparing their accuracy vs. your accuracy, we're comparing their accuracy vs. your defense so that you can get a much clearer view of whether or not they'll hit you and if you have a chance to hit them. We've also updated the fonts in the ship report to be red (outclassed by enemy) and gold (outclass your enemy) to help make them clear with just a glance.


Improvements to the Water-Fuel Reclamation Tank component and a second tier 2 version of the component are going to make these both of high interest to those captains who travel far and jump often. Both components now include small Navigation bonuses, as well as larger fuel storage(+18 and +32) as well as more significant reductions to jump cost (-5 and -12). You can only install a Water-Fuel Reclamation 2 system at a Javat starport, so be sure to stay friendly with this industrious clan.

We've added rules clarification to the Civil Unrest confirmation that Tactics saving Talents do not have an effect during these attempts to reach Contacts. Also, we've clarified the Trade War Conflict tooltip to be clear that selling goods to a faction who made them doesn't incur Rep penalty (selling Mok goods at a Mok Exchange does not incur penalty with Rychart if they are in a Trade War).

We've resolved an issue reported by some Steam players that certain Rifle or Pistol attack Talents could be incorrectly used with the wrong weapon types. We've changed some of the dialog and characters in the Werewolf story to better match the KickStarter backer's vision.

And, there was an issue where when you hired an Exo-Scout under Xeno Spores Rumor, they'd morph into a doctor. No more!

If you enjoy the updates, content, stories and fixes please leave a review!

- Added new Bounty Hunter story vignette - determined and ancient hunter "Draiv Solregard" comes hunting with a Capture Warrant
- Finished the 4th legendary Bounty Hunter to be added in v2.5.x dev roadmap family -- many thanks to the KickStarter backers!
- Adjusted ship comparison in Encounter and in ship combat tooltip to compare attack vs. defense (not attack vs. attack), improved fonts for clarity
- Rebalanced Water-Fuel Reclamation Tank to include small +Nav bonus, reduce Jump Cost by -5, +18 Fuel
- Added Javat-only Water-Fuel Reclamation Tank 2, more Electronic/Nav, -12 Jump Cost, +32 Fuel
- Clarified rules for Trade War in Conflict tooltips -- no Reputation loss for trading of cargo manufactured by a faction at that faction's own Exchange
- Clarified rules for "Civil Unrest" -- Tactics saving Talents do not apply here, fixed bug with Rep loss
- Fixed bug in Talent Manifest causing Skip Off the Void not to show
- Fixed issue with Valencia's story where results could be crossed (left, but then joins your ship)
- Fixed reported issues with "Werewolf" Bounty Hunter story
- Fixed engine placement for some ships
- Fixed issue allowing some rifle or pistol attacks to be used with the wrong type of weapon
- Chased out the Doctors hiding as Exo-Scouts in the Spice Hall during "Xeno Spores" rumors and let the real Exo-Scouts in

With Update #154, we're rolling out the fifth new story since we got going on the v2.5.x family in the development roadmap. The third legendary bounty hunter can now come to call. We've also added a Rumor link to recruit Exo-Scouts in the spice hall, enabled the Retreat option alongside Acknowledge, better linked your ship's Radiation Resistance components help against Ion and Radiation storms, bumped the Palace Interceptor out of the AI's hands in the early game and fixed a ton of reported community issues.

It's another night, another packed update! If you're enjoying the updates, new content, new features and more please share the game with a friend and leave a review!


With Update #154, a third unique story Bounty Hunter may be sent after you by an enemy Contact. Working to Steel Song, the legendary Werewolf won't take a bribe so you're going to have to find another way out of trouble of face him and his gang of hunters in deadly crew combat. This new danger also comes along with an opportunity to score new unique story reward armor.

We've got one of more Bounty Hunter vignette planned in the v2.5.x family before we move on to some of the larger arcs that are brewing and then into the first of the two Eras.

Word of xeno spores raining down on a system is now enough to draw Exo-Scouts into the spice hall. During the "Xeno Spores" system rumor, you can recruit these hunters, anti-xeno fighters and expert explorers.


The components on your ship that grant Radiation Resistance now block are better linked to blocking damage from Ion Storm and Radiation Storm Rumors. A ship decked with better Rad Res will be better able to prevent both component damage as well as crew health damage.

We're always working to improve the difficulty balance of the frontier and to ensure that we're giving meaningful choice and challenge. We've bumped the Pirates who were flying Palace Interceptors into a higher level slot so that they don't appear so early in the game and also reduced the rating on an orbital ops Distress Signal card to -3.

With this update, we've ensured that "Retreat" is an available option next to "Acknowledge". While Acknowledge will gain you Rep and Rep across Alliances, it could also cause Rep loss (M. Officer + Solar War) which harmed some players looking to stay peaceful with everyone. This new change helps give you as a captain more choice where needed.

We've cleaned up a bunch of community reported issues this release. Thanks to everyone posting and helping us improve the game. If you happen into a Rychart spice hall during a mission, you'll now get their special 90 max Morale rule. The longstanding bugs with Callous Justice quest log are now fixed -- it will go away at the right time and should not appear randomly where it was showing up badly. The Zealot's "Retribution Justice" now properly goes into cool down when used in a Mission context and we've fixed the case where two cross Rumors (Trade Blockade and Xeno Fleet) could create xeno faction, human, military officers! What does it even mean!?

- Added new Bounty Hunter story vignette - barbaric assassin the "Werewolf" comes hunting with a Death Warrant
- New unique story reward and armor available
- Exo-Scouts are now recruitable at spice hall during system-wide "Xeno Spores" rumors
- When meeting a friendly ship in the void, Acknowledge as well as Retreat are now options -- skip Rep gain avoid Rep loss through Conflicts with Retreat
- Radiation Resistance from ship components reduces ship and crew damage during Radiation and Ion Storms
- Adjusted Orbital Ops Distress Signal card to be a -3 due to depth of possible negative results
- Adjusted enemy AI's hull availability to remove the Palace Interceptor from the early game (too hard)
- Finishing missions in a Rychart spice hall now include the Rychart bonus to max morale (90 instead of standard 80)
- Fixed incorrect description listing "Passenger Suites" as luxury accommodations, instead adding it correctly to "Luxury Suites"
- Fixed bug preventing Zealot's "Retribution Justice" Talent from going into cool down when activated from a Mission
- Fixed bug with crossing Xeno Fleet and Trade Blockade Rumors causing xeno Military Officers to appear
- Fixed two bugs with "Callous Justice" personal objective -- once where it stayed around too long, once it appeared without reason

With Update #153, we've rolled out a new way to specialize as a mission-running captain with the full Luxury Passenger experience, added another blast of storyteller tales to the spice hall and further improved the standard AI and xeno AI in preparation for the upcoming release of carriers and craft. We've also include another big round of balance improvements for craft, this time focusing on the Pilot and Electronics Skill Pools of craft, as well as Interdictors attack flight plans. Of course, there is always more -- so check the full release notes for every detail.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and new content, please leave a review and tell a friend!


The on-going May 2019 community challenge "Small Ship to Prize Ship" will be wrapping up in the next week. If you haven't had a chance to see if you can run a Juror or other tiny ship all the way up to taking a 8000 or 9000 Mass ship over with a Prize Ship Talent, get in on this one now! Post your glorious victories. The June challenge will be posted soon!


Your passengers can now travel in luxury across the galaxy. The two luxury offerings -- the medium slot Luxury Cabin (1 spot) and the large slot Luxury Suite (3 spots) -- offer this splendor and comfort to your passengers. Whenever a passenger comes aboard during a mission, they fill up your luxury space first and promptly add +15% profit to every step for the rest of the mission. Based on the length of the mission (Diplomat Tours!) this can be a significant improvement in profits, especially as it stacks with Talents. If your luxury space is fully, the passenger may grumble a bit but they will take a standard cabin and grant no pay bonus.

To be a luxury passenger liner takes additional dedication of larger ship slots, this isn't as simple as just upgrading your existing passenger cabins. But, for those mission runners criss-crossing the galaxy with passengers, pilgrims and spies this can be a huge profit booster.

Teaching the AI to build a good ship, a good crew, to pick the right Talents, to allocate the right component upgrades -- this has been an on-going process throughout all of 2019. And then for the last two months, we've been mixing the craft requirements into the same soup. This update addresses some issues we've been seeing with the AI in general as well as with those AI trying to build effective carriers. The AI is now better at planning out its final Ship Skill Pools (Pilot, Electronics, etc) to ensure it is well staffed but not over staffed and that it can make space for additional specialist crew. This has a critical impact on its future ability to correct snag wing specialist pilots and will have an impact in the more short term by allowing the AI to better pick other specialists like Mechanics, Pirates and others to join the crew.

The on-going rounds of AI upgrades may seem cyclical, but we're making improvements, watching the metrics, measuring, replanning and then making another round. We've also spent a lot of time tuning exactly *how* smart the AI ship builder should be given the game date and the game difficulty settings.

And, *shudder* once again, the xeno ship builder got a boost in smarts. Same components, new strains of logic.

Another big round of stories of legendary captains has been injected into the spice hall Storyteller Trait tonight. This covers the last of the stories from the KickStarter "Join the Lore" reward, except two more that will manifest as famous Bounty Hunters -- coming soon!


Much like a capital ship, if a wing specialist pilot has the Skill to match their craft, they gain a bonus. If they exceed the Skill Pool of their craft, they are losing out on some potential bonus. Every point of Pilot Skill matched between craft and wing pilot grants a +2% chance to evade. With this update, we've increased the Pilot maximum for all Interdictors, increasing the option for higher level pilots or dual Job pilots to shine. We've done the same to Bomber's Electronics, as each matched point there adds +2% chance to hit the enemy capital ship.

In the end analysis, it has come out that Interdictor attack plans were weak. To help balance this out, we've improved the power of the debuffs they deliver. They already had high Crippling Effect chance which means you could possibly land 2 debuffs in a single go. Finally, we modified Interdictor rocket weapons to cause Void Damage now, taking some of the Standard Damage and shifting it over for each weapon.

We've balanced the price and install time of large slot and small slot Fuel Bays as well as increasing the fuel bonus on all types of Hangars and Launch Bays.


We've improved the rules for Trait mutation during conscripting enemy crew from a defeated ship. The variety of possible negative Traits that can spawn is more larger and far more exciting, now giving enough variance to have really bad, just bad and even lucky conscription events.

In this, we've also clarified the rules of Malcontent, making it clear that the crew will rise up against the captain in any Mutiny regardless of their own personal Morale.

- Luxury Cabins / Luxury Suites now increase entire mission payment by 15% if a luxury bunk is open when passenger comes aboard
- Enemy AI improves planning of Ship Skill Pool %s as difficulty increases and game progresses
- Enemy Xeno ship builder AI makes better choices to focus builds (same components, smarter choices)
- Added 8 new tales of legendary captains to spice hall Storyteller Trait (thanks KickStarter backers!)
- Improved negative Trait mutation options when conscripting enemy crew, added more variety and fun Traits
- Clarified rules for Trait "Malcontent" -- always joins Mutiny regardless of personal Morale
- Improved power of Interdictor debuffs to make their lower damage attack runs more viable, also very high Crippling Effect changes
- Shifted Interdictor rocket's damage from standard damage to void damage, up to 40 to 80 points
- Increased the Pilot Skill Pool for all Interdictors -- higher Pilot on wing specialist crew member results in better dodge %
- Increased the Electronics Skill Pool for all Bombers -- higher Electronics on wing specialist crew member results in better hit chance %
- Increased fuel bonuses for Launch Bays and Hangars
- Rebalanced prices for small slot and large slot Fuel Tanks, improved Alta Mesa Reinforced Fuel Pod (+2 Fuel, +1 Armor)
- Improved team composition for Troy "The Blade" Circin -- more likely to be a good setup
- Added new names to the name generator (thanks @For_Science!)
- Fixed location bug with Plague Era mission "Research Protection"

With Update #152, we've expanded the legends and stories told by your Storyteller characters, improved the power of the Diplomat's "Smooth" Trait, made a significant fix to bombers and interdictors flight plans which increases their power, shared the wealth a bit with different ship combat buffs helping to hit small craft, tweaked the balance on a wide array of ship components, and fixed a pile of player reported issues.


When your crew with "Storyteller" Trait get going, they can tell some amazing tales. With this update, we've added another large set of legendary stories, all thanks to our KickStarter backers who chose to "Join the Lore." We have one more large set to add to close out the KickStarter reward tier completely and then we'll work on adding more related to story characters, eras and history of the frontiers.

The exact rules of Storyteller Trait are now included in its text, showing that it has a 30% + Charisma chance to fire on each visit to the spice hall.

The "Smooth" Trait for Diplomats now gives a powerful starting bonus to all Introductions as well as discounting the price by 15%. Now adding +20 Personal Rep with every Introduction, this Trait makes it easy for Diplomats to make friends and to ensure those friends are willing to offer at least starting services right out of the gate. Notably as well, in many cases this means introduced Contacts will offer 2 Missions at a time.


With Update #152, we checked into a recent captain's report that Hullbuster wasn't adding its bonus Damage correctly and were surprise to see it was true. Having been bumped during the early round of fixes for carriers and craft, your wing pilot's flight plan Talents weren't correctly adding either bonus Damage or Critical %! This is a huge bump to some flight plan Talents more than others, but is another power level raise for your carriers.

On the other side, we've added a bonus % to hit craft to a number of capital ship Talents including Coordinated Fire and Broadside. Bombardment's debuff now reduces chance to hit craft as well, helping to give cover for your bombers.

Finally, we've fixed a set of bugs that could cause crashes when a craft was destroyed or in the case when the Wing Tech's "Recovery Pod" Talent fired.

With well over 500 ship components, there are always more small tweaks and improvements to make. With this update, we've differntiated medium slot Adv. Mass Dampeners (now boosting Ship Ops and Nav) from Mass Reducers (still boosting Ship Ops and Electronics). We've straightened out some issues with the price of medium slot Fuel Tanks and tweaked Basic Medical Bay, Medical Bay. Balanced Combat Medical Clinic (removed Armor) and Advanced Medical Bay.

- Added new set of tales of legendary captains to spice hall Storyteller Trait
- Diplomat's "Smooth" Trait now adds a +16 Personal Reputation bonus with any Introductions
- Fixed significant craft attack Talent bug preventing bonus damage from Talents like "Hull Buster" from being applied (more boom boom!)
- Added a -10% Chance to Hit Craft to "Bombardment" Debuff, added +10% Chance to Hit Craft to "Coordinated Fire" Buff and +20% Chance to Hit Craft to "Broadside" buff
- Clarified "Storyteller" Trait with rules for 30% + Charisma chance to increase Morale at spice hall
- Balanced prices of Basic Medical Bay, Medical Bay. Balanced Combat Medical Clinic (removed Armor) and Advanced Medical Bay
- Improved price spread and minimum install requirements for medium slot Fuel Tanks
- Differentiated Skill bonuses between medium slot Adv. Mass Dampeners (Ship Ops, Nav) and Mass Reducers (Ship Ops, Electronics)
- Fixed bug with Xeno Hunter "Exalted Hunter" firing twice or sometimes firing on prisoner missions
- Fixed confusing language in Interdictor defensive launch Talents
- Fixed bug causing crash with the use of "Recovery Pod" Talent when craft was destroyed
- Fixed faction in "Military Sweepers" card in orbital salvage
- Fixed "Major Setback" card in orbital salvage to ensure it reduces Contact Influence
- Fixed bug where craft buffs were printing '0 Turns' duration to the combat log incorrectly

With Update #151, we're excited to add the newest Rumor to the galaxy -- the Academy Graduation -- as well as dropping all new and terrifying tier 3 Terrox xeno ship builds. Beyond that, we've further empowered the Quartermaster Job, improve the Spice Festival Rumor, enhanced Tactics Skill impact on Civil Unrest, allowed multiple desertion Talents to fire at once and rebalanced, fixed and improved a whole pile of other things based on the community feedback. It's a momentary break from new stories as we march toward releases of some larger story arcs.

If you're enjoy the pace of new content, new features and improvements all for free, please consider telling a friend or leaving an update.


On grav worlds, academy graduations are constant but every now and again an especially large and especially well-trained waves passes through the academies. These culminate in an Academy Graduation Rumor which leaves a zone flush with skilled recruits. The most notable bonus is that some of these grads would be willing to take up life as a spacer and so you can find Doctors, Quartermasters, Military Officers, Wing Leaders, Wing Techs and Engineers from the spice hall, all willing to sign on with a captain.

As the graduations are also a great cause for celebration, the spice hall gains +2 Spice rating during such a series of events and all recruits -- from the hall or contacts -- gain +1 bonus levels.

Especially early on as you are seeking to fill out a crew with specialist recruits, this Rumor can be a great boon to fill empty bunks without needing to invest in a wide network of Contacts.

In addition to adding the Academy Grad Rumor, we've also improved the Spice Festival Rumor so that the Spice rating of the zone jumps to 7 at a minimum during such a celebration. In final Rumor news, we've increased the impact that high Tactics Skill can have on avoiding fights during Civil Unrest.

Congats to all the grads out there this weekend!


With Update #151, we've opened another "next level" for Terrox xeno ships, releasing a wave of new and high level components to their more powerful ships. While these components won't be factored in below level 20, they allow xeno ship builder at higher levels to better focus and produce even more challenging ship combats. The changes also allow Terrox to change their build strategy to take advantage of the Electronics meta depending on their ship and engine setup. We've also tuned the AI and the ship builder for more deadly results at all levels.

Interest in Quatermasters is at an all time high lol. Buy stock now! With this update, we've improved their availability to recruit from Contacts by allowing Prison Wardens to recruit them. We've also added Spy recruits to the Court Seer Contact type.

In addition, Quartermasters have now joined the rare ranks of Jobs that have 3 saving Talents -- gaining "Baleful Grimace" to be able to put down Intimidation save failures.

For a long time, the Zealot and Quartermaster Jobs have had Talents to prevent desertion. But only one of these Talents could fire at a time, leaving your precious crew always at risk if more than one decided to jump ship. With this update, we've allowed more than one Talent to fire -- up to 5 if you have them all ready -- to prevent desertion. Notably, this would rapidly raise the salary rates across your crew, but there are more options now to pin down crew members and bribe them to stay.

We also tweaked some ship components, added some lines of missing dialog to the Valencia Faen story arc, tweaked the Xeno Ruins and Pinned Smuggler story cards to only appear after the 5 year mark, and fixed many other player-reported or player-suggested things. Check the full release notes below!

- Added next tier components for Terrox xeno, making late game xeno ships more challenging
- Improved xeno AI for ship building and combat
- Added new zone Rumor "Academy Graduation" - especially large and well-trained class graduating across multiple academies
- During "Academy Graduation" Rumor, +1 level to recruits, +2 Spice Rating
- During "Academy Graduation" Rumor can recruit Doctors, Quartermasters, Military Officers, Wing Leaders, Wing Techs and Engineers from the hall
- Added new rank 1 Talent for Quartermaster "Baleful Grimace" prevents Intimidation failures
- Quartermasters join the rare ranks with Hyperwarp Navigators of Jobs with 3 saving Talents
- Added new recruits to Contacts -- Prison Warden Contact now recruits Quartermasters, Court Seers now recruit Spies
- Improved Spice Festival Rumor to increase Spice rating to 7, spice never runs out
- Improved rules for Talents like Zealot "Unbending Law" to allow multiple desertion prevention Talents to run
- Improved story dialog in Valencia's Faen's storyline to make movement of events more clear
- Increased ability of Tactics Skill to help avoid violent confrontations during Civil Unrest Rumor
- Rebalanced install time for Armored Bulkhead components 1 thru 5
- Prevented unique story cards in mini-games from appearing too early in captain's career
- Fixed issue with starport repair detail screen showing that repairs will take "no time"
- Fixed issue where sometimes indie zones could show services incorrectly disabled in star atlas
- Improved description of Prize Ship Talents

With Update #150, we're rolling out the fourth new story since we entered the v2.5.x development roadmap family, as well as new art, a major improvement to craft attack plans, a major improvement to how starport repair handles craft, new combat log entries for crew deaths and death saves, some component improvements, a new way to get a Quartermaster recruit and a huge pile of community-driven bug fixes.

It's another day, another update full of goodies! If you enjoy the relentless pace of new content, new improvements and seeing what you suggested make its way into the game, please tell a friend and leave a review to help Cory and I keep it up!

Most recently, we added a storyline that could result from a unique card in Explorer mini-game. Now we've added a storyline that can be triggered by hitting a unique card in the Patrol or Blockade mini-game whenever a "Trade Blockade" Rumor is active. Trade Blockades are especially profitable opportunities for smugglers, but with the system so full of naval vessels trying to keep anyone landing with marketable goods, it is also a very risky time. Sometimes a Smuggler just needs a hand!

With Update #150, we've increased the pace of both Shuttles, Bombers and Interdictors as they finish their flight plans. Previously, after making their attack or boarding run, craft would take an entire turn to retreat to the space near their own capital ship. Then, they would spend an entire turn landing. The swifter flight plans change combines these two turns into one -- on the turn after making their attack run or boarding, the craft will return to their capital ship and land in a single Turn. It's a 20% increase in speed and your ability to deliver crushing blows to your enemy with your craft!


Before Update #150, when you went to repair a craft, its damage, time and cost were all tucked under the Hangar in which it was docked. This led to some confusing values and when combined with a bug about repair time and cost, made for a real mess. With Update #150, we've split craft out into their own rows so that their individual cost is very clear. This also allows you to separately repair the hangar, launch bay or craft if you have limited time or budget. Finally, we fixed a bug with the repair times of craft that were making them additive instead of only using the longest repair time, and therefore making repair times far too long.

Craft will cost both less time and credits to maintain and now it should be very clear what you're paying for. We also fixed a bug with discount Talents that could result in a situation where the starport refused to take your money or repair anything.


We're always working to add more character to the card mini-games and with this update we've added 4 new art boards to make the explorer and orbital ops mini-game cards stick out more -- covering cards like Lost, Smuggler Cache, and Rare Trade Discovery.


All fatal wounds are now logged directly into your ship combat log. Those that are prevented by Death Saves are marked with the Death Save and those that result in a final death are also include. We're conitnuing to work on improving the availability of the captain's intel on this screen and in the log and this is another great step forward. A big thanks to the players suggesting it.

Quartermaster recruit availability keeps coming up! We're working on improving it, and we're looking across the entire game to do so. With this update, we've added QMs to the list of possible crew or officers that can be rescued from a Distress Signal card in any of the orbital operations.

We've also improved the stats and cost of the Alta Mesa fuel components and fixed a bug that allowed them to count as cargo holds.

If you're looking for a Micro Launch Bay, it now appears in the small craft filter in starport correctly.

And so many other smaller items, see the full list below!

- "Smuggler Escort" unique card story vignette can now appear in orbital Patrol Blockade during a "Trade Blockade" Rumor
- Risky opportunity to rake in big profits and make a new black market friend
- Added 4 new art boards for wide variety of card rewards -- time lost, smuggler cache, rare trade goods cache, story cards
- Major bomber and interdictor improvement - all attack flight plans are 1 Turn faster, craft now retreat & land in the same turn
- Improved starport repair list to include a separate row for any damaged craft so that its cost is clearly separate from hangar/launch bay
- Improved combat log for small craft death saving Talent "Recovery Pod"
- Added death save and death of any crew during ship combat directly to the combat log for easiest checking
- Increased fuel allocation and price of Alta Mesa Reinforced Fuel Tank and Reinforced Fuel Pod
- Added Quartermaster to the type of crew or officers who can be rescued from orbital ops "Distress Signal" card
- Fixed issue allowing Alta Mesa Fuel Pod and Fuel Tank to count as cargo holds
- Fixed issue with craft buffing Talents causing Interdictors to stay out longer, fixed bug with Mechanic's "Peak Reactor Burn"
- Fixed issues allowing Wing Tech "Hangar Triage" Talent to repair craft more than described
- Fixed disconnect with Repair discounts in starport that could lead to inability to repair in very niche cases
- Fixed bug with starport repair times for craft causing sum of repair time as opposed to taking longest
- Fixed "Craft" filter in starport replace component to ensure "Micro Launch Bay" is visible
- Fixed bug where Xeno Hunter "Macabre Harvest" could used after defeating Troy 'The Blade' Circin
- Fixed incorrect flag with universal pardons you can't afford
- Fixed bug allowing Indie contact to be created during Orbital Salvage
- Fixed missing SFX for Wing Commando's "Knife Work" Talent
- Fixed placement of some ship combat UI elements on large screens

Update #149 comes hot on the heels of #148 and issues in the final set of changes to the base Jobs that have been in planning and testing for a while now. In addition to Navs gaining some Command, both Gunners and Navs have gained a new saving Talent as well. We've improved the ease of finding the "Xeno Ruins" story, rebalanced new ship component, improved details on 2 crew combat Talents that nuke enemy Morale and fixed a host of community reported issues.

Thanks to everyone for sharing feedback, posting suggestions and bugs! If you're enjoying the game and the relentless pace of updates, we hope you will take a moment to post a review!


We've moved quickly after Update #148 to finish the remaining rebalances to the base Jobs that were planned. With Gunners gaining a pool of Tactics over Ship Ops, they've helped add additional attack and range change dice to every ship in the galaxy. Now, with Update #149, we're finishing this sweep by splitting the Hyperwarp Navigators Tactics Skill into Command and Tactics. With Command taking their secondary Skill slot, Navs are now more helpful in defense and escape during ship combat while still retaining some value in range change and attack. Of course, their actual Navigation Skill plays a larger role if the ship is at long range in every type of maneuver.

On the bridge of a ship, your hyperwarp navigators often work together as a team, plotting and pathfinding through the void. They carry an important burden -- keeping the entire ship on course -- and it is especially heavy when they are called on to navigate a hyperwarp gate. And so, the voice and opinions of a Navigator are respected among the crew as everyone knows that their lives are in their hands at some point during the journey. And so, Command fits as a perfect secondary Skill for the Navs.


The final additions in this rebalance are two new Talents -- a Tactics saving Talent for your Gunners at rank 1 and a Command saving Talent for your Hyperwarp Navigators at rank 11. These new Talents provide new options for covering these critical Skill saves with protective Talents. The new "Bullseye Certainty" is the first saving Talent for Gunners, helping them fill a more rounded out role within the ship and the rank 11 "Pathfinder's Lead" makes Navigators one of the most unique and highly demanded Jobs in having a whooping 3 saving Talents.

All of the changes to the Gunner and Navigator Jobs have some subtle impacts to the ship combat meta which will play out in the following weeks. Excited to hear everyone's feedback about these changes to the ability to get Tactics and Command dice pool through standard crew.


We've fixed two issues with crew combat Talent descriptions missing an important clause that they nuke enemy Morale. Both Commander's Scorn and the Combat Medic's Toxin Terror were missing these clauses. They reduce the target's Morale by 10 + Intimidate or 10 + Doctor respectively.

We've adjusted the Xeno Ruins story to be easier to find, now allowing it to also turn up during wilderness zone "Discovery" Rumors as well as the quadrant-wide "Artifact Finds".

The Plague Ward component was a bit OP and has been re-tuned with changes to its Medical Rating, cost and jump cost.

Wrapping up some late arrival craft bugs, we've fixed an issue with how Interdictor Buffs were being wrongly applied to the ship instead of launched craft as well as resolving an issue where certain enemy AI types refused to shoot at craft. This new round of fixes is bringing us much closer to the carrier AI being released.

We've also fixed bugs with Slippery Trader, Winning Compromise and Loyalty Rousing.

- "Xeno Ruins" explorer unique card story vignette can now appear during "Discovery" wilderness zone rumor as well as quadrant "Artifact Find"
- Rebuilt Hyperwarp Navigator Skill progression to add Command as a secondary Skill and bump Tactics to tertiary -- more valuable in defense and escape
- Added new Command Saving Talent for Hyperwarp Navigators at rank 11
- Added new Tactics Saving Talent for Gunners at rank 1
- Tweaked progression of Tactics for Gunner Job to start slower
- Adjusted price, medical rating and jump cost of "Plague Ward" component
- Added important missing description to Combat Medic's "Toxin Terror" and Commander's "Scorn" both cause (10+Skill) Morale Loss
- Fixed bug preventing enemy ship from firing on small craft with certain weapon types
- Fixed issue with "Tip of the Spear" and "Screening Swarm" causing the buffs to be transferred to the capital ship instead of craft
- Fixed bug preventing "Winning Compromise" and other price increasing Talents from firing reliably
- Fixed bug with Commander's "Loyalty Rousing" Talent causing it to heal more Morale than described
- Fixed bug allowing Smuggler's "Slippery Trade" to fire even if Rep loss was 0
- Fixed bug preventing credits display from updating immediately upon selling a ship in Dry Dock
- Fixed missing skill listing in Spice Hall Recruit

With Update #148, we've rolled out another new way for storylines to filter into the sandbox of Star Traders: Frontiers. Now with storylines capable of coming out of specialized and unique card draws, we've cracked open a whole new frontier. In addition, we've made a major shake up to the Gunner Job by introducing Tactics as a secondary Skill, improved the power of bombers weaponry and added new ship components. Along with the new ship components, we've rolled out the first Era-locked ship component. Another new frontier ready to be explored, ship components are ready to be unlocked by story events and Eras.

This is another big one with a lot of exciting twists so check out the full release notes below. If you're enjoying the pace of updates, new content and new stories (3 stories, 3 updates back to back!) please leave a review and tell a friend.

One of the biggest exciting changes in Update #148 is the ability for story cards to appear in the card mini-games. The first example of this is in Explorer where a "Artifact Find" Rumor at the quadrant level can cause a chance for a story card, "Xeno Ruins" to appear within the hand. If you draw the card, it will open up a new storyline, new story rewards and the chance to meet a mysterious character. The storyline comes with potentially 2 unique gear rewards, both at level 6 and the high risk challenges to earn it.

Now that the system is in place for story cards to appear in certain circumstances, we're eagerly eyeing Spy, Patrol, Blockade and even Black Market for the next round of story arcs.


With Update #148, we've made a significant change to the Gunner Job. Long relegated to Gunnery and Ship Ops, Gunners now bring Tactics to the table as their secondary Skill and push Ship Ops down to tertiary.

Immediately, this may mean that some ships and crews may need to consider how to make up for the lost Ship Ops Skill, but as Jobs like Electronics, Mechanic, Wing Tech, and Quartermaster all provide it this is the less impactful part of the change. In order to balance this best for starting ships, the first 2 ranks of E-Tech Job has reduced a point of Electronics (4 instead of 5 now) for Ship Ops (2 instead of 1 now).

More importantly, Gunners now bring both additional bonuses in Standard Dice to both ship combat accuracy and ship combat range change. Gunners now join Jobs like Military Officer, Hyerpwarp Navigator, Pilot, Commander and others who can all help build up this critical Skill pool. In total, for the ship meta this change empowers attackers and puts more pressure on full defensive builds.

Across the board, bomber craft have gained additional minimum Standard Damage for their bombs as well as a 5-10% increase in Crippling Effect chance. This was a request made by the AI in training ;)

Time for more boom!


This starting ship received a small change around its weapons build out and saw a weapon dropped for a Fuel Tank. It now boasts some amazing off-the-starport-deck fuel range to better match its description.


The first ship component to be directly linked to an Era, the Plague Ward is a specialized advanced medical ward with bonus shielding and the ability to keep a quarantined prisoner. Now that we have finished the work to enhance the ship component system and the AI ship builder to respect story-triggered ship components, we're going to be rolling out a lot more of these. Future components will be linked to eras, storylines and even provided as rewards to storylines.

We've added 2 new faction specific Mass Reducer 4 options with this release -- a Pilot focused one from Alta Mesa and an Electronics focused on from Thulun. If you have the bank roll, these will be interesting options in the later game.

In addition, we've made some price changes to the high end Sensor Arrays.

Finally, the Accuracy % bonuses for Targeting Matrix have been raised slightly to help meet with Gunners increase in Tactics.

- Added new Exploration story vignette - Xeno Ruins story card can appear in Exploration when a quadrant-wide "Artifact Find" Rumor is on
- Risky opportunity to rake in big profits and make new allies
- Includes two new pieces of unique story reward gear
- New unique card-game storylines can now be started from any card game under special circumstances -- more coming!
- Rebuilt Gunner Job Skill progression to add Tactics as secondary Skill and bump Ship Ops to tertiary -- more valuable in combat but need other Ship Ops sources
- Tweaked Electronics Tech rank 1 and 2 to have 4 Electronics and 2 Ship Ops helping low level crew staff ships better
- Clarified Gunner's Talent "Disarming Sabotage" to clearly stated "disables highest level enemy weapon"
- Increased base Damage and Crippling Chance % of all Bomber attacks
- Added new "Plague Ward" ship component which becomes available during the Plague Era -- high medical, bonus shielding and holds 1 prisoner
- Enhanced story and era system will now be releasing new technology, ship components and craft based on story events regularly
- Added new Thulun and Alta Mesa variations on Mass Reducer 4 -- slightly more mass reduction, bonus Electronics/Pilot
- Increased Accuracy % bonus for Targeting Matrix 2, 3 and 4
- Increased price of high end Sensor Arrays
- Modified "Frontier Liner" starting ship to have more balanced weapon set and additional Fuel Tank
- Craft type filtering in starport (bomber, shuttle interdictor) now works as 'OR'
- Added final captain's log entry with reason for captain's death
- Fixed price of Advanced Medical Clinic

Update #147 continues to release new and unique story bounty hunters onto the galaxy as well as improving balance, rules and logging across the game. For those aggressive captains making enemies, beware as a new famous assassin may come calling with your death warrant in hand. A huge thanks to everyone posting suggestions and issues -- this release includes a huge package of community-driven enhancements.

With Update #147, a second unique story Bounty Hunter may be sent after you by an enemy Contact. We've adjusted the rules on how, when and which Contacts can afford story bounty hunters with this release, simultaneously expanding and limiting the scope. We've restricted the type of Contacts who can hire such Hunters to those with a higher power position, so you won't see a Spicetender hiring Troy 'The Blade' Circin. On the other hand, we've improved the proc gen rules that allow these story Hunters to be hired, so you are more likely to see them in your games as we understand they were not appearing promptly for some captains.

While I won't go into it any farther, the famous bladesman and assassin, Troy 'The Blade' Circin is now on the list of story Hunters who can be hired to exact deadly retribution justice. He comes along with an opportunity at unique story reward weapon.


We fixed a few bugs in the Talent Manifest and also added a new section dedicated to Travel and Hyperwarp that includes Meteor, Ion and Radiation storms, landing Talents and Jump Talents. We've got a great list of suggestions from players on this front and will keep working to add more here!

With Update #147 we've made some important changes to how looters handle your surrender in ship combat. There are 4 notable cases -- you've surrendered to a looter and are (1) covered by a Trade Alliance, (2) covered by your own Trade Permit, (3) have loot to steal or (4) have an empty cargo hold. Each case is now handled separately and has better weighted results. Surrendering with under a Trade Alliance or with a Permit results in far less Morale loss while surrendering with an empty cargo hold results in more as the frustrated looters take some of their anger out on your crew.

A few important changes to crew combat have bee included in Update #147. Fortitude has always played a large role in damage soak, reducing incoming damage by 50% of your Fortitude as a %. So, 20 Fortitude chopped 10% off all incoming damage. Now, if an attack is Piercing, your Fortitude reduction is cut down to 25%, so in the example you'd only reduce damage by 5%. Then of course, Armor is added to that to get the final soak %.

We've fixed Sniper Talent "Bullet Trace" to make it clear that it removes enemy buffs. Now it looks even more appealing :D

All Sniper Rifles have gained a small bump in Piercing %.


Unfortunately these Talents were broken recently. Now, they are all working again as of this release, including Talents like "Close Observation".

On the Contact front, we've increased the chance to learn Contact Traits if you have more than 100 Personal Rep with a Contact. That close of a relationship, it is hard to hide anything.

If a Contact has no more Introductions to give, a note has been added specifically stating that. Also, UC Contacts no longer offer the Prime Pilgrimage Mission in error.

We've fixed a ton of other things -- so check out the release notes for every detail. A huge thanks to everyone posting :D Some of these fixes are from threads in late 2018, so we're "cleaning up" as they say.

If you enjoy the updates and the new content, please tell a friend and leave a review.

- Added new Bounty Hunter story vignette - the famous assassin Troy 'The Blade' Circin comes hunting with a Death Warrant
- New unique story reward and weapon available
- Removed proc gen conditions that reduce chances Contact would send story Bounty Hunter (instead of standard BH)
- Adjusted rules so that only more powerful Contacts can afford to send story Bounty Hunters (no Spicetenders, etc)
- Added "Travel and Hyperwarp" section to the Talent Manifest with a quick look at these Talent types
- Surrendering to Pirates (looting) without cargo causes more Morale loss, surrendering with Trade Permit or Trade Alliance less
- Corrected text formatter for Sniper's "Bullet Trace" Talent to clearly indicate that it removes enemy Buffs
- Further increased Piercing % of all Sniper Rifles
- Piercing hits now reduce Fortitude reduction to damage to 25% Fortitude (instead of 50% Fortitude)
- Applied same strict sorting rules to Talents displayed in Ship Encounter, Draw and Victory to ensure does not change as they are used
- Increased chance to learn Contact Trait once your Personal Rep with a Contact goes above 100
- Fixed bug with "Close Observation" and other Contact Trait discovery Talents
- When a Contact can offer no more Introductions this fact is added to their service offering
- Coalition Contacts will no longer give "Coalition Pilgrimage" mission in error
- Ensured best ops ship component (Mechi-Reaper, Multi-Signal Array etc) is always used first in ops card games
- Fixed bugs with Soldier Job at rank 29 and 30
- Fixed bug allowing Talents that increase price to run on story missions offered at $0
- Fixed bug allowing Templar Pirates to appear during Orbital Salvage operations
- Fixed bug with E-Tech's "Signature Jammer" Talent sometimes firing when no Rep to reduce
- Fixed bug preventing proper mousewheel scrolling in New Ship, New Craft and Drydock screens
- Fixed story bug where Kaewall and Torca conversation would occur even if their mission is canceled

Update #146 starts to walk the path of the v2.5.x family of the development roadmap -- it will be story heavy, bringing all sorts of new tales, vignettes and Eras to the frontier. With Update #146, we've added new character faces, a new type of vignette focusing on an enemy Contact and their bounty hunters, improved the standard behavior of enemy Contacts who send bounty hunters, rebalanced Talents and Contact rules, made some quality of life changes to all card game operations and fixed some bugs to boot.

If you're enjoying the updates, please leave a review and tell a friend!


With Update #146, we've added two new female faces to your crew roster. You can see them above in our animation environment, getting ready to be loaded into the game.


The new Aurelius Hunter vignette launches with #146 and lays out a model for future Bounty Hunter stories to overlay on top of the existing Contact and Hunter simulation.

First, we've improved the visibility of the spice hall news entries when a Contact does send a Bounty Hunter after you. These are now visible galaxy-wide, regardless of the quadrant you and the Contact are in.

Second, it is possible that a Contact who hates you will hire out your Death Warrant to a famed Bounty Hunter! Beware of the heir to the Aurelius bloodline of Hunters, she may come knocking holding a death warrant with your name on it.

While only Aureilus Hunter has been added at this time, this new type of story vignette opens up a bright (and dangerous) future for Contacts to be able to send other famed hunters after you to gain their revenge.

With Update #146, we've modified both the Bio-Poison and Smoke Bomb grenades to allow use from slot 2, making them better in line with other grenades a more versatile for their high Initiative cost.

We've improved the missions to faction Prime worlds when they are assigned by another High Prince. We've also improved the logging about Contacts who are angered by your hostile missions, in addition to those directly affected.


We've made a few nice changes in Update #146. First up, a strict sorting is now applied to the Talent list in all card game ops, including Explorer, Salvage, etc. This means that Talent list will never suddenly re-order when you finish using one of the stacks.

Second, Hyperwarp Jumps now include a short blurb about the readiness of your Navigation and Hyperwarp Jump efficiency Talents. You can see -- right before making the jump -- if you're covered.

We've fixed a few issues with the new Talent Summary screen, fixed a bug that prevented Captain from training as a Wing Tech, and fixed a loophole that allowed you to escape hostile story military captains using the Stiff Salute Talent -- that was never intended!

Thanks to everyone for leaving a review.

- Added 2 new character faces
- Added new Bounty Hunter story vignette - heir to the Aurelius bloodline comes hunting with a Death Warrant
- New unique Bounty Hunter storylines can start when Contacts with negative Rep send bounty hunters (instead of standard BH)
- Improved visibility of Contacts sending standard BHs after your Captain, now always visible in any Spice Hall News, regardless of quadrant
- Rebalanced Combat Medic "Bio-Poison Grenade" and Assassin "Smoke Bomb" to be used at slot 1 or 2
- Improved Mission type of diplomatic envoy to faction Prime world when given from a High Prince or Princess
- Improved display of Contacts angered by your actions during missions
- Improved faction of recruits for any United Coalition Contacts -- recruits are now of the local faction
- Prevented any re-ordering of Talents between runs of card games (Explorer, Black Market, Orbital Ops)
- Hyperwarp Jump now includes notice of readiness of Navigation Skill Save Talent as well as HW efficiency Talents
- Fixed issue where "Stiff Salute" could be used to dodge story Bounty Hunters
- Fixed issue where "Flash Charge" Talent was counted as "Skip Off the Void" in Talent Summary
- Fixed issue that prevented Captain from training in the Wing Tech Job