As our first patch since the Early Access launch, this update delivers a major shader-compilation rework to reduce in-game stutter and GPU temperatures, resolves several prominent crashes, and fixes frozen reward screens. On the balance side, we’ve tuned critical builds to keep late-game maps challenging, balanced several augments, and adjusted how Field Weapons receive upgrades. Additionally, all three of 'Relentless' Ironhide's (players' first accessible ship and loadout) default augments have been updated to make the NUE more friendly and fair, as we've received several reports that the ship was underperforming dramatically compared to the Nova Lance.
Thank you, Commanders, for all your feedback and support. Most of today's fixes are in direct response to the reports we've received, and we'll continue to monitor discussions for additional feedback!
Performance & Optimizations
Reworked first-launch shader compilation. Shaders now compile up front via a dedicated process that the game waits for before the main menu loads, rather than during gameplay. This should significantly reduce in-game stutter, frame drops, and GPU overheating that some players experienced, especially right after an update. (We also bumped the shader cache version and removed the old placeholder loading screen.)
Improved performance by reducing select texture sizes.
Improved performance during high-level fleet encounters by spreading large enemy support waves over multiple frames instead of spawning them all at once.
Content
Field Weapons no longer roll targeting range-based upgrades; instead, they draw new radius-based equivalents.
Improved lighting on the Starmap so your ship is easier to see in darker sections.
The leaderboard now includes an 11th entry to show the user's high score relative to the global top 10.
Balance Changes
Critical Stacks reworked. Now triggers on Critical Hits instead of every hit, with larger gains per stack (up to +16% Critical Chance per crit) and a 5-stack cap, making it a snowball pick for crit-focused builds.
Critical Support capped. Now capped at 10 stacks, limiting its bonus to +300% Critical Damage per magazine to control late-game scaling.
Combat Catalyst now stacks both Damage and Fire Rate on each kill (was Fire Rate only), with longer duration and an 8-stack cap. Your shots hit harder when you chain kills rather than just firing faster.
Emergency Protocol's damage reduction per Plating stack now scales with augment level (3% to 8% per stack), so a fully-invested Ironhide can reach up to 80% damage reduction at max stacks, up from the flat 30% it gave at every level.
Aggressive Burn's damage resistance while using Afterburners now scales from 30% to 55% across levels.
Recycled Ammo's chance to refund a fired round has been substantially increased (15% to 40% by augment level, up from 5% to 10%), a solid DPS gain that pairs well with reset-on-reload augments like Belt Fed and Repeated Rounds.
Nuclear Warheads now spawn a Radiation Cloud once every 5 kills instead of on every kill, preventing screen-clog when missiles wipe out clusters of enemies.
Radiation Rounds now creates a Radiation Cloud once every 5 kills instead of on every kill, preventing pierce and AoE shots from spamming overlapping clouds.
Fallout Zone Radiation Clouds now grow larger with each augment level, so leveling the augment meaningfully expands its area of effect.
Defense Protocol now works correctly with Field Weapons, using a scaling targeting distance and firing at the nearest enemy in range instead of a random one.
Red Line now damages the player rather than modifying their health. This means it will now trigger augments that are "On Damage Taken". Additionally, it now affects the player's shield rather than their health.
Dodge, Health Resistance, and Shield Resistance are now capped at 75%.
Reduced Crit Chance received from upgrades by 50%.
Fixes
Implemented a potential fix for an issue in which players could get stuck on reward screens with no option other than to skip the reward.
Fixed a crash that could occur when uploading a score to the leaderboard.
Fixed a crash that could occur when an enemy or boss died while one of its abilities was still active.
Fixed a crash related to Field Weapons.
Fixed reward screens (Upgrade, Augment, Weapon Select) sometimes becoming unresponsive to mouse and keyboard input after a confirmation pop-up.
Fixed Max Weapon Slot skills (Reinforced Frame, Master Loadout) not granting extra slots.
Fixed the Field Range skill not scaling past level 5; it now increases range with each point invested.
Fixed Swarm Missile and Rail Gun’s unlock conditions not triggering correctly.
Fixed Volatile Proximity's unlock condition not triggering correctly.
Fixed floating combat numbers overlapping: shield-regen and healing now use the same "lanes" system as damage numbers, and rapid damage ticks no longer stack on top of each other.
Fixed the Gravity Well map modifier drifting out of position and expiring early; wells now stay in place for the full encounter.
Fixed Ancient Battlefield mines expiring too quickly; they now last longer.
Fixed the gamepad not working as intended during Narrative Events.
Fixed the Solar Flare map modifier sending repeated notifications.
Fixed the Perfect Form skill not granting increased damage and being removed whenever any damage was taken, not just on hull damage. Its tooltip also didn't reflect that it would only stack 20 times.
Fixed Perfect Form and Precision Overload applying buffs while on the Starmap.
Fixed several Hungry Field issues: Hull dropping sharply during warps, boss starts, or stack updates; Hull being reduced on map transitions; and health upgrades being applied twice.
Fixed a critical-hit double-dip where "% of damage dealt", and "on crit" procs (Plasma damage-over-time, Ammo Explosion, Chain Reaction, and others) could re-roll critical hits and snowball into runaway, multi-million damage on high-crit builds.
Fixed Red Line dealing damage to the player while in the Star Map or while warping. It now deactivates on warp.