Vectorfall · build 25531895 · published
Pilots, Version 0.8.0 replaces the fixed ships and legacy Module system with custom Fleet builds. Choose your weapons, fit your own Core Abilities and recover equipment worth planning an expedition around. That change reaches well beyond the hangar. Missions, crafting, merchants and progression now work around the new equipment system, with more reasons to explore and considerably more things to tow through hostile fire. First, some necessary bad news.
Your first launch of v0.8.0 resets your existing progression. The old progression cannot carry over into the new systems. This clears Pilot progress, ships, inventory, currencies, cards, discoveries, commissions, training progress and local reward records. It also clears suspended expeditions and training sessions. Your controls, audio, display, accessibility and privacy settings stay intact. You keep your earned Steam achievements. When Steam connects, the game restores supported achievements locally; you can claim their current in-game rewards once on your fresh profile. A notice explains the reset on launch. This happens once, and subsequent launches keep your new progress.
The six predefined ships have retired. Every Fleet slot now holds a custom ship with its own name, equipment and Core Ability.
Start with one ship. Unlock additional slots at Pilot levels 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25, up to six ships.
Every ship starts with six equipment slots: Weapon, Shield, Reactor, Propulsion, System and Ability.
Equipment uses physical copies. Fitting the same weapon across several ships requires several weapons.
Deployment and hangar refitting are free. An empty Weapon slot supplies a basic fallback weapon; an empty Ability slot supplies no Core Ability.
Hot Swap between surviving ships on a six-second cooldown. If your active ship goes down, the next surviving ship takes over automatically with brief arrival protection.
Reserve ships retain their hull, shields, energy and ability cooldowns. Swapping won't refill them, and destroyed ships stay out for the rest of that expedition.
Losing the Fleet ends the run and costs your unbanked cargo, but your ships and previously owned fitted equipment return to the hangar.
I recommend keeping them intact anyway.
Experience now belongs to your Pilot, with a level cap of 25.
Vector Shift, Aegis Projector, Phase Veil, Zeroing Shunt, Breach Plating and Mosquito Screen now exist as equipment.
Fit whichever ability suits a ship's role.
Each physical ability item has its own Ability Matrix and receives the full allowance for your Pilot level: one point per level after the first, up to 24. Spending points on one copy doesn't reduce another's allowance.
Two copies of the same ability can therefore support different builds. Allocations follow the item, hangar respecs are free, and Fleet handoff effects work with manual swaps and automatic replacements.
Equipment items and socketed mods replace legacy Modules. Families offer different base strengths, affix pools and roll ranges, so choosing a shield involves more than finding the largest number.
T1: One affix, no mod sockets.
T2: Two affixes, one socket.
T3: Three affixes, two sockets.
T4 Legendary: Four affixes, three sockets and a compatible legendary effect.
T4+ Prototype: Named equipment with four fixed affixes, three sockets and unique effects with deliberate tradeoffs.
T5 Black Market: Named endgame equipment with five fixed affixes, four sockets and signature effects without deliberate negative stat tradeoffs.
There's no fitting-point budget restricting high-tier gear. T1–T4 affixes support rerolling; named T4+ and T5 equipment keeps its fixed stats and effects.
Build around six weapon classes: projectile, scatter, rail, beam, flame and rocket.
Continuous beams and flames follow your aim while draining energy, rockets have faster travel, and tier-specific visuals distinguish your equipment in combat.
Legendary effects can make beams chain between enemies, split projectiles into seeking shots or leave burning ground behind flame attacks. Socketed mods can add further interacting effects.
Mods have their own families and compatibility requirements, with tiers up to T4+. T4 mods carry legendary effects; named T4+ mods use fixed stats. There are no T5 mods.
Installed mods stay with their host item when you move it between ships or return it to inventory. Updated fitting screens show ownership, compatibility and sockets, with mod-adjusted stats in gold.
Enemy roles, missions and sectors now contribute different equipment pools. Mods drop more often than equipment items, while higher Empowerment improves your chances of better loot. T4 and T4+ can still appear at E0. T5 comes exclusively from the Black Market exchange. Expedition loot stays in pending cargo until successful extraction. That includes Signal Source rewards and merchant equipment, even purchases made with permanent credits. Paying for something doesn't make your cargo hold indestructible. The Item Library records discovered families, affix pools and acquisition sources, including sector and Empowerment information. Collection now separates cards, items, booster packs and legendary effects. Module Dust is gone. Crafting uses credits and owned equipment; expedition scrap still funds run purchases and converts into credits when you extract.
Salvage, Reroll and Forge now support equipment and mods. Salvage returns credits for T1–T4 gear. Salvaging T4 also extracts one consumable copy of its legendary effect into your library. Salvaging a host returns its installed mods intact; salvage those separately to extract their effects. T4+ and T5 cannot be salvaged. Reroll retains Lock, Cycle and Value controls. Keep an affix, change its type or reroll its number without losing installed mods, legendary effects or Matrix allocations. Fixed T4+/T5 gear cannot be rerolled. Forge combines five separate pieces of the same tier and kind. Mix equipment families and slots if you wish, but don't mix items with mods.
Five T1 produce T2, with a possible T3 bonus.
Five T2 produce T3, with a possible T4 legendary bonus.
Five T3 plus a stored effect produce T4 with that effect.
Five T3 with a generated effect produce T4, with a possible named T4+ Prototype bonus.
Input family counts determine normal output odds. Stored effects restrict the result to compatible input families, cost less than generating an effect and consume one library copy. Eligible recipes let you invest extra credits to raise the bonus-tier chance from 5% to 30%. There is no five-T4 upgrade recipe or T5 Forge output. Previews show costs, consumed gear, returned mods and probabilities. Equipment locks protect items you intend to keep.
The old pre-run card selection now has two separate jobs. Power Cards improve your ship during an expedition through post-mission selections. Six default families cover damage, firing speed, movement and strafe, shield regeneration, maximum shields and energy regeneration. Unlocking a higher-rarity version upgrades that default family's available card without changing its selection chance. Build up to four custom presets with up to six distinct unlocked cards each. Your selected preset joins the Default Pool, and each three-card offer includes at least one eligible custom card when available. Rarity doesn't weight selection; cards can appear again and stack. Once you own enough compatible custom cards, custom presets require six cards to launch. Default Pool Only remains an option. Sector Modifiers are consumable pre-launch cards that change enemies, sector conditions or loot opportunities. Equip up to four copies, including duplicates. Booster packs contain both types. Duplicate Power Cards become credits; duplicate Sector Modifiers remain usable copies.
Blue Drift, Toxic Wrecks, Radiation Halo and Solar Forge are available immediately. Matching Empowerment levels share the same baseline difficulty, while each sector keeps its own hazards, encounters and loot. Reach full local stability, defeat the Commander and extract successfully to unlock E1–E10 together for that sector. Choose what your Fleet can handle. The menu will permit optimism; the sector won't account for it.
The expanded roster includes close-range Breachers, ramming Chargers, Rail Snipers, sweeping Beam Cutters, flame skirmishers and missile frigates, alongside drones, mine tenders and artillery. Veteran, elite and Empowered encounters combine attackers with support craft that shield allies, drain resources or protect priority targets. Movement and formations reflect those roles. Destructible objectives have clearer silhouettes and smaller health pools. Protected structures show their locked state, while a pulsing outer ring identifies structures you can currently destroy. Applicable burns, splash, chains and residue now contribute to objective damage.
Network Hijack replaces Data Extraction and Signal Hack. Follow five connected circles, staying inside each for three seconds to charge it. Leaving drains unfinished charge; completed circles stay complete. Charging happens automatically while you fight. Enemies can't contest the nodes, and completing the fifth finishes the mission without a final upload timer or cleanup requirement. Existing missions also have new mechanics:
Strongpoint Defence: Protect a charging beacon, destroy suppressing siege carriers and tow dropped power cells into the beacon to accelerate charging.
Convoy Control: Escort a shielded ship and destroy interdiction emitters blocking its route.
Reactor Sabotage: Choose your generator targets. Destroying weapons stops attacks; destroying containment releases dangerous pulses. Remove every generator to expose the core.
Six new combat missions join the rotation:
Breach Recovery: Break open a containment cage and tow its Black Box to safety.
Convoy Interception: Disable transports and recover two released cargo containers.
Siege Breaker: Flank shielded guns or destroy their shield feeds before unlocking the command node.
Payload Delivery: Tow a device through debris into its receiving zone.
Ordnance Disposal: Lure homing charges into protected ammunition stores, or destroy their shield feeds, before attacking the battery.
Target Designation: Mark an installation for artillery, then leave the blast area before impact.
Towed cargo collides with debris and must physically enter its delivery zone. Your ship arriving alone is an incomplete delivery. Mission progress, including attached cargo, survives suspension. These encounters award normal rewards and Power Card offers, and count towards commissions and Threat.
Sector maps have fewer optional signals, giving landmarks more room. Discovering an optional encounter reveals its identity without a scan; main-path signals still require scanning. Signal Sources now offer playable encounters and choices. Repair surviving Fleet ships at an abandoned dock, help a stranded courier or reactivate a defence drone for the expedition. Elsewhere, you can negotiate salvage rights, recover useful navigation data or intercept tumbling cargo before it escapes the recovery boundary. Unstable cargo holds let you risk unsecured salvage for another compartment. Suspicious distress calls may lead to an ambush. The adjective was available before you committed. Recovered goods still need extraction.
Each sector has three named merchants with distinct stock and appearances. Every expedition guarantees one merchant signal away from the main path. Tier 1 merchants appear from E0, Tier 2 from E3 and Tier 3 Black Market traders from E6. Higher Empowerment increases the chance of encountering Tier 3 traders. Dock at their trade vessels for equipment, mods, booster packs and repairs. Trade Commissions replace daily and weekly contracts. Each merchant offers four commissions per sector cycle, and you can hold four active commissions across all sectors. Accept jobs while docked, then track them and claim completed rewards from Flight. Commissions have no daily or weekly expiry, and qualifying progress survives Fleet loss. Individual commission rewards go directly into permanent credits or inventory.
Four sector Trade Sigils replace the old personal merchant sigils. Complete all twelve commissions from a sector's merchants, then collect its sigil from any merchant there. You must extract with the sigil before spending it. If you lose it, the completed cycle remains ready for another collection attempt. Banking a sigil starts a new commission cycle. Surplus sigils remain yours. The Black Market's Trade Network tracks your progress, while the T5 Exchange displays eleven named T5 items. Each costs one banked sigil from every sector, with no credit charge. Each named item permits one purchase. Move it between ships as needed; outfitting the entire Fleet with duplicate copies isn't an option.
Signal Spin keeps its twelve-hour free spin and one-token extra spins, with current equipment and mod rewards up to T4+. T5 remains outside the pool. Your first Commander completion and successful extraction at each sector/Empowerment combination awards a Signal Token, including E0: 44 first-clear rewards in total. Player Threat now accounts for combat performance and expedition outcomes. Eligible combat earns Threat even on failed runs, while damage taken reduces those earnings within a limit. Commander completion and extraction add a completion award and eligible loot-based Threat. Early extraction keeps your loot and adjusted combat earnings but grants no loot bonus to Threat. Failing an expedition your Fleet substantially outclasses can cause a separate Threat loss. Rival Network reconstructions now use custom builds with core equipment, affixes, signature effects and Ability Matrices. Simplified reconstructions exclude socketed mods and temporary Power Cards. Echo challenges, Black Box recovery, extraction rivalry and Nemesis encounters remain, with current equipment rewards. Rankings separate career Threat, banked haul scores and per-sector E10 Commander times.
Eleven training programmes now teach the current systems using temporary equipment and currencies. First completion of Basic awards two booster packs, a T1 Twin Pulse and a T1 Accelerator Coil mod. Each other programme awards one booster pack on first completion. Finish all eleven to choose a T3 weapon with three rolled affixes and two empty sockets. The active achievement catalogue now contains 50 achievements, including 13 additions, with updated requirements, rewards and icons. Menus have revised layouts and clearer equipment comparisons. Inventory and Collection lists load asynchronously, transitions respond better after expeditions, and reduced background work improves long-session menu performance. Weapon effects and particles also finish naturally behind mission reward screens instead of freezing at mission completion.
Good luck, Pilots.