Patch 0.2.80 is here
This Early Access update adds three new ships, new achievements, more Arena music, expanded settings, a pause-menu music player, new Doctrines and Modifiers, and larger leaderboards.
Update Highlights
Three New Ships
- Carrier Tender - A support-focused ship with passive drones, a piercing alternate weapon, Command Pulse, and Carrier Barrage.
- Comet Raider - A fast returning-blade fighter built around the Comet Boomerang, Comet Return, and Comet Storm.
- Lumen Strider - A fragile high-speed Hardlight ship that leaves a damaging Hardlight Wake as it moves.
New Achievements and Settings
More Steam achievements, expanded keybinding options, additional audio settings, improved controller navigation, and configurable Arena Target Lock controls.
New Doctrines, Utilities and Modifiers
Arena progression now has a clearer split between core Doctrines, Pilot Utilities, and Modifiers.
The current Doctrines are:
- Hull Fracture
- Static Charge
- Cryo Fusion
- Echo Fold
- Munitions Reserve ( New )
- Kinetic Rebound ( New )
Each Doctrine can now support up to three Modifiers, with shared and Doctrine-specific options to shape your build.
Re-roll button added to re-roll your upgrade/doctrine options at the cost of CNDR. This allows you to target specific powerful builds. The cost scales exponentially so use it carefully.
Utility upgrades
- Pilot Utilities
New Utility upgrades include Fortune Array for better rarity rolls, Vector Thrust for increased movement speed, Precision Matrix for increased critical chance, Execution Core for increased critical damage, Aegis Capacitor for larger shields, and Hull Reinforcement for stronger hull integrity. - Combat Utilities
Reflexive Aegis reflects perfectly timed shield activations toward enemies, Concussive Wave creates an on-hit blast, Twin Impact repeats on-hit effects, Magnetized Scrap Beam increases XP pickup range, Event Horizon pulls Arena XP toward you, Phase Reserve increases dash capacity and distance, and Hull Vamparism can restore hull after kills. - Hull-specific Utilities
Doctrine Link makes Carrier Tender shots apply active Doctrines, Expanded Cutter Orbit moves Glaive Runner's cutters farther out, Hardlight Extension lengthens Lumen Strider's Hardlight Wake, and Trace Surge Amplifier extends its outward ripple.
New Music and Music Player
New Arena music has been added to the game.
The pause menu now includes a Music Player with:
- Play and pause controls
- Previous and next track
- Volume adjustment
- Music scrubbing and track progress
New HUD and Controls
The Arena HUD has been refreshed with larger, clearer resource displays and improved readability during combat.
Controller and menu controls have also been improved, including better Options navigation and expanded binding support.
Top 100 Leaderboards
Arena leaderboards now show the top 100 players.
Rankings are separated into:
- Weekly
- Monthly
- All-Time
The Arena mode screen now displays the available leaderboard periods together, with rank changes for Versus.
Arena Changelog
Balance and Progression
- Enemies now begin with more health, but their health scaling is slower across later rounds.
- Round 2 enemies now begin with less health, damage, and spawn speed.
- Starling's Blast Wave travels farther, expands faster, and uses a clearer cannon blast sound.
- Colossus encounters have clearer laser patterns, more movement, and less crowded final shard lanes.
- Shooting the Colossus from inside its outer ring now guarantees a critical hit.
- Static Charge now starts with one chain, with additional links determined by Chain Lightning rarity and level.
- Munitions Reserve has been reworked into a five-level Doctrine with hull-specific rewards.
- Nanite Patches now refill shields when your hull is already full.
- Enemy damage has been reduced by 25%.
- Carrier drone fire now reaches 30% farther.
- Movement no longer contributes to score.
Arena, Party and Versus Changes
- Party and Versus movement is smoother at high ping and better at recovering from network corrections.
- Target Lock is now fully rebindable and defaults to F on keyboard and RB on controller.
- Arena Use now defaults to E so it does not conflict with Target Lock.
- The ship selection is now alphabetical.
- Loadout navigation now wraps correctly through the options.
- Shield Mode is now press-to-toggle, with a new Utility upgrade for perfectly timed activations.
Bug Fixes and Performance
- Lower-rarity Modifier offers can no longer weaken a stronger Modifier you already own.
- Glaive cutters now reliably return to reserve when their projectiles disappear.
- Standalone Versus now refreshes expired Steam authentication and resumes matchmaking.
- Party hosts can only launch enabled hulls.
- Party Versus remains inside the Party lobby until the host starts the match.
- Opponent hull and shield bars no longer appear during Versus.
- Upgrade cards no longer show misleading rounded values or register accidental repeat clicks.
- Alternate fire can no longer become stuck after selecting an upgrade.
- Heavy fights now create less fragment clutter to improve performance.
- Colossus now always drops an Ascendant upgrade, allowing progression beyond normal level caps. This is a seperate level modifier and does not count toward the cap if you get it before actually being fully capped.
Known Issues
- Party/Versus join and host workflow is a bit buggy. ( We are working to have this resolved before next weeks patch )
- Strong builds with extremely high projectile count lowers FPS
Thank You for Joining Us
Early Access marks the beginning of the next stage for Stellar Odyssey.
We will continue improving Arena and building toward the Persistent Online Universe with your feedback. Thank you for playing, reporting issues, and helping us shape what comes next.