UPDATE 1.3.0 – Laser Array

Welcome, Astroneers! As promised, we've got a new Major Update building on the big changes we started to introduce to the game in the Voidbreak Update back in September. We've added a new co-op Offensive that features a BIG LASER, as well as the ability to use Voice Chat with your Squad!

Add to that a spooky log-in reward for October, a new fashion contest, changes to get rid of Gear breaking, and bringing back past community events, so there is plenty to cover. Let’s get into it.

STATE OF THE GAME

If you just joined us, we want to make sure you understand how much of the game has changed since the early access launch in June. There are several new Landing Sites granting access to explore most Regions of the planet Tephra, dozens of new pieces of Gear, and new features like matchmaking for Squads. Today’s update also completes our first wave of Voidbreak Offensives, a new type of Expedition introduced in our previous update built to offer some challenge and structured gameplay!

We know that the game at launch didn’t land with players the way we wanted, and we have made big strides to push towards a new direction. Thank you so much to all of the players who have jumped in and given us thoughtful and honest feedback.

That being said, the Laser Array Update builds off the foundations laid by the Voidbreak Update, like deprecating the Gear breaking feature and adding Voice Chat, a HIGHLY requested feature. We hope these changes will encourage players to collaborate more and maybe take some extra risks. Matchmake into Squads and make some friends! (Or don’t, voice chat is completely optional) On top of that, we've also added another Voidbreak Offensive: Laser Array!

I wanted to address this right up front here. Voidbreak Offensives aren't meant to be the sole focus of the game. We would like to think that they add to the experience, giving players some repeatable and interesting things to do in between Free Roam Expeditions down to the planet. We're still working on big changes coming to Free Roam that we think you'll be excited about and will go a long way toward making all of these pieces fit together. Expect to see another big update before the end of the year. We're also going to continue iterating on Voidbreak Offensives based on your feedback.

NEW VOIDBREAK OFFENSIVE: LASER ARRAY

That Void Mass of pure corruption must be destroyed! If left unchecked, the Void will quickly spread in this Region. It’s up to you and your Squad to deploy to Tephra, assemble the BFL (Bilateral Fusion Laser), and fire it directly into the source of the corruption. There might even be some good stuff worth salvaging inside that Void Mass. Pretty simple, right?! What could possibly go wrong?

There are some fun new mechanics in this Offensive, so make sure to share your feedback with us about how they are feeling!!!

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"IDENTITY CRISIS" COMMUNITY CHALLENGE

For the first time, we're tying a Community Challenge to a Voidbreak Offensive. Astroneers are being tasked with finding the Backpacks of fallen crewmates and recovering their ID badges trapped inside the Void Mass. It's only right to identify these fallen Astroneers so we can commemorate their sacrifices.

The Challenge 

Successfully crack open the Void Mass with the help of the Laser Array and retrieve as many Lost IDs from Lost Backpacks as possible. Turn them in on the station, where each one contributes one point toward the Community Goal. It's also possible to find Lost Backpacks during Free Roam Expeditions, so be on the lookout!

There are some nice rewards for all who participate, so make sure you turn in at least a few Lost IDs.

• Start Date: Today! October 7th, 2026.
• End Date: Sunday, October 18th, 2026. Ending at midnight PDT.

Open the DAD menu and under Objectives, look for the Event tab to track progress.

The Rewards 

The more progress everyone makes toward completing the Community Challenge, the more reward tiers will be unlocked for all participating Astroneers! Please note that it can take a few minutes after reaching a milestone for the reward to show in your Inbox.

• Tier 1 at 20% of the Goal – Dronecore Hat
• Tier 2 at 50% of the Goal – Piping Hot Palette
• Tier 3 at 100% of the Goal – Laser Gazer Visor

Repeatable Stretch Goal Rewards: All participants will be granted a Voidbreaker's Pack each time a stretch goal is reached. This pack includes: 5x Fire Canisters, 5x SPA Water Canisters, and 25 Credits.

Lost Backpacks 

The Laser Array Voidbreak Offensive isn't the only place you can find Lost Backpacks. During Free Roam, you might also be able to find Lost Backpacks out in the wild, similar to how you can find Baubles. Lost Backpacks will be sticking around even after the Community Challenge ends, so you'll be able to sell Lost IDs for a few Bytes, and retrieving Lost IDs will also give you a few Credits every time, as an extra renewable source of Credits for the game.

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VOICE CHAT

Some of the earliest feedback we got for the game was suggesting that we add Voice Chat for players to be able to communicate in-game without the need for third-party apps. We agree wholeheartedly that co-op games like ours shine the most when communication with your squadmates can happen seamlessly, so we're excited to finally bring this feature to the game with this update!

This should match what you expect of your average Voice Chat in other games. It's not proximity based; you only hear players you invite to your Squad. You can freely adjust the input device, volume, and push-to-talk settings.

It's been tricky to add this to the game. We needed to do our research to ensure we did it right. We still know there are plenty of players out there who prefer to avoid voice comms in games or have concerns about what they might run into with voice chat on. These are legitimate concerns, so here's how we're tackling them. 

Opt-In / Opt-Out

For starters, Voice Chat is completely optional and will always be something you can freely choose to enable or disable. Disabling Voice Chat means you don't use it, and you don't hear other players who do use it.

If you do enable Voice Chat, you now have the option to use the Comms Wheel (used for Pings and Emotes) to quickly mute all other players. You can also go to the Social tab in the DAD menu to manually mute a specific player. Just like it is with blocked players, muted players will be kept track of in the Social menu.

Keeping it Safe

Our first and top concern with adding Voice Chat to the game was ensuring that we'd be able to keep our players safe. We've done our due diligence in implementing industry standard best practices to help with moderation and identifying bad actors in Voice Chat. That said, using the in-game reporting tools will always be the strongest option in your tool set. We'll keep a close eye on your feedback following this release.

New Emotes

Voice Chat only comes into use with other Astroneers in your Squad, so we've sent you all a new free Emote via your Inbox to help with this (added by default for new players). The Emote is called "Join my Squad?" and lets you hold out a sign to let those around you know that you're looking for squadmates.

There's also the new Speak Easy Set of Emotes available in the EXO Outlet, grouping up some new and old Emotes that are most useful for communicating with your Squad.

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NO MORE BROKEN GEAR

That's right! As of this update, your Gear doesn't break anymore! Your Backpack slots won't get damaged either. Now, whatever Nozzles, Mods, or equippable Gear you craft will stick around no matter how badly you get knocked around. However, you can still lose any resources or consumables in your inventory if you fail an Expedition. You can also still drop Gear and lose it if you leave it behind, though it's hard to do that by accident.

In its first iteration, Gear breaking was meant to add a level of risk to your Expeditions in STARSEEKER. There should be consequences to failing, so having Gear break made sense at the time and also played into the game economy as something to channel the resources you gather into repairing your Gear.

With the game's current direction, this no longer makes sense, as it can keep you from wanting to venture into riskier challenges like those in Voidbreak Offensives. It could also lead to unwanted consequences with players losing Gear over things beyond their control, like connection issues, despite our efforts to avoid that. 

Economy Changes

Gear no longer breaking has knock-on effects on the game economy. We teased these changes recently on a livestream and some wondered what resource gathering would be good for if you're no longer having to repair your Gear. Resources are still good for crafting consumables and Gadgets, but we're also making adjustments. 

Gear crafting recipes now require more resources across the board. With these changes, crafting Gear has become a long-term investment, so it's more of a milestone. For existing players, you have nothing to worry about; you'll keep the Gear you've already crafted. Your broken Gear items aren't going anywhere either, and you still have the option to repair them until our next update. 

And this isn't the end to the economy changes we're working on. Once we add the updates to Free Roam that we've been talking about, there will be further adjustments that will make all recent changes to the game better fit together. More info on that soon! 

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REPRISED COMMUNITY CHALLENGES

We've been asked before whether past Community Challenges would be returning to the game, and as we prepare to invite new Astroneers aboard the station, it's a great time to do just that! In the coming weeks, we'll be bringing back the State of Flux and Pulp Friction Community Challenges!

These are the same Community Challenges as you remember them, though any bugs that we identified previously will have been ironed out. It's a good way for any newer players who missed out to get to experience these events, and we have a couple of additions for those of you looking to replay these challenges. 

New Rewards

In addition to being another opportunity to earn the original cosmetic rewards for these challenges, we've added two new cosmetic rewards to each Community Challenge!

We're also experimenting with asking for more personal contributions in order to unlock these rewards. Nothing crazy, though, just enough to help incentivize more participation. These changes might inform how we set up future Community Challenges. The old rewards are all locked behind only personal contributions, while the new rewards require personal contributions and community-wide milestones.

Past Progress

Both the State of Flux and Pulp Friction Community Challenges have their own associated Mission chains. If you've completed these Missions before, then you won't have to do them again. Your progress is being carried over. You'll also notice that the Flux Drive will be reset during the reprised State of Flux event.

Open the DAD menu and under Objectives, look for the Event tab to track progress.

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FASHION SEEKERS: SPOOKY EDITION

What better way to celebrate the spooky season than with a fashion contest! Starting today and ending October 18th, submissions are open for your best and spookiest customized Astroneer suits! We have cool cosmetic rewards for all who participate, and a rare special cosmetic prize for the winners!

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FASHION SEEKERS CONTEST 

Log-In for your FREE Carrot Rage Mask!

We've also got a special treat to help you celebrate the spooky month! Make sure to log in to STARSEEKER before the end of October (Pacific Time) to receive the free Carrot Rage Mask in your Inbox! This cosmetic item is the perfect thing to spook your squadmates in the dead of night. Now get creative with your spacesuit fashion!

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PATCH 1.3.0 – IMPROVEMENTS AND BUG FIXES

Adding Voice Chat, the Laser Array Voidbreak Offensive, its many new features, and the Identity Crisis Community Challenge represents the bulk of the work that went into this update. We still have more work to do in our next update to tackle improvements to matchmaking, fine tune Voidbreak Offensives, and overhaul the game economy, just to name a few priorities, so plenty more to come!

That said, this update also has a lot of bug fixes and other improvements worth calling out. Here are the highlights:

Balance Changes  

• Reduced movement penalties for jumping, swimming, and gliding while carrying heavy items.
• Increased mid-air control to help with making adjustments during jumping and platforming obstacles. Mid-air control is also possible now when letting go of a wall you’ve been climbing or clinging to.

Improvements 

• Added a new subtab under "Objectives" in the DAD menu that shows a list of your tracked objectives. From this menu, you can choose to individually untrack any item. This provides the convenience of managing what is currently being tracked without needing to remember and go to all the different places where an objective can be tracked (i.e. Missions, Stickerbook, Data Logs, Printer, Events).
• Added DLSS frame generation as an option for PCs with compatible GPUs (RTX40xx and newer) to enable frame interpolation. This helps with smoothening frames but also increases input latency. This option can be enabled and disabled in the Visuals tab of the Settings options.
• • Developer Note: This feature was actually added in the previous update; we just missed adding it to the patch notes.

Bug Fixes

General:

• AG-18208 – Fixed an issue preventing movement keys from being rebinded to other keys for mouse & keyboard controls.
• • Developer Note: Additionally, most other inputs can now be unassigned and reassigned as desired.
• AG-19720 – Fixed an issue that excluded the Space Ball Blueprint from being available with Felix’s offerings in the Clowder Emporium.
• AG-6299 – Fixed an issue that would allow players to pick up and stow single-use Gadgets after throwing and activating them.
• AG-19840 – Fixed an issue with the Reset to Default option in the Settings Input tab unintentionally also resetting the controls of all inputs to default, not just the highlighted one.
• AG-19371 – Fixed an issue where changing the controller button binding for the Let Go action wouldn’t reset when trying to restore controls to default.
• AG-19487 – Fixed an issue preventing Nintendo Switch 2 Squad leaders from being able to invite other players to late join an Expedition that has already started.
• AG-18633 – Fixed a graphical issue causing the Snagvine tendrils not to render visibly when latched onto players underwater.
• AG-19234 – Fixed an issue that would occasionally cause the Bog Hound howl sound effect to not play.
• AG-19210 – Fixed an issue that would prevent the matchmaking music from playing for non-Squad leaders on the launch screen.
• AG-19773 – Fixed an issue where the ensign you need to sedate in the tutorial could prematurely exit sedation, blocking tutorial completion.
• AG-19108 – Fixed some graphical issues on the model of the Scrap item.
• Fixed multiple crash instances.

Expeditions:

• AG-19319 – Fixed an issue that could cause the Comms Relay Parts to fall through the floor and terrain in the Uplink Voidbreak Offensive.
• • Developer Note: If you do run into this issue again, please let us know by sending a bug report: starseekersupport@systemera.net
• AG-19558 – Fixed an issue that was displaying a placeholder "You Died" message upon failing the Core Retrieval Voidbreak Offensive.
• • Developer Note: We know a few of you actually liked it this way, but this was never intended to go live in the game. Hopefully it gave you a few laughs!
• AG-19554 – Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Voidlings to spawn embedded inside the terrain.
• AG-19556 – Fixed an issue that would make Enraged Shroomlings fail to resume attacking players after said players exited a downed state during the Core Retrieval Voidbreak Offensive.
• AG-18313 – Fixed an issue in the Field Ops: Drilling where the EXO Drill Rover would occasionally stop moving until terrain in front of it was deformed.
• AG-19831 – Fixed an issue in the Field Ops: Drilling where creatures would continue to attack the EXO Drill Rover after its health was depleted.
• AG-19306 – Fixed an issue in the Launch Terminals where they didn’t list the available Field Missions for the Sinking Reef and Fungal Depths Regions.

Missions & Tasks:

• AG-19154 – Fixed an issue where Captain Jupiter’s Out for Medical Mission would grant players the Health Mod V3 Blueprint for both accepting and completing the Mission.
• AG-19599 – Fixed an issue where bringing a Carrotling to the Elysium Science Lab in the Tangle wouldn’t register as progress for the Cultural Exchange: Elysium Science Lab Task, available during the Pulp Friction event.

Gameplay:

• AG-19863 – Fixed an issue that was making the prompt to grab items thrown at you to show up too late.
• • Developer Note: This fix should allow you to more effectively throw objective items between players, like the altimeter for Field Ops: Elevation and other Voidbreak Offensive objective items.
• AG-19679 – Fixed an issue that prevented players from being able to deflect Malfunctioning Demolition Device projectiles using the Air Blast or Air Cannon Nozzles.
• AG-19736 – Fixed an issue with the Lasso and Shock Lasso Nozzles that would cause ensnared creatures to slide excessively across the terrain when released.
• AG-19691 – Fixed an issue where the Lasso Nozzle would apply a stunning effect to Brutoliths and Grabcrabs upon release.

Stickers & Achievements:

• AG-19578 – Fixed an issue that would prevent the Overachiever achievement from unlocking after earning all other achievements.
• • Developer Note: This fix should retroactively grant this achievement to everyone who should have previously unlocked it but didn't.
• AG-19676 – Fixed an issue that would grant progress for the Airhead Sticker by shooting confetti at the Station instead of using the Air Blast Nozzle.
• AG-19340 – Fixed an issue that was causing multiple Stickers to not track progress as intended, including: Plantihero, Biologee Whiz, Empty Nester, Tossed Salad, Miner Miracle, Ship-Faced, and Built Different.

Player Customization:

• AG-19288 – Fixed an issue with the icon for the War Cry Emote displaying the same icon as the Cheer Emote.
• AG-19470 – Fixed an issue that could cause players to become stuck in the Examine view upon reopening the Customizer after exiting via Cancel Changes.
• AG-18858 – Fixed an issue where the cursor focus could be lost in the Customizer after opening and closing the Examine view on an Emote.
• AG-19510 – Fixed an issue that would cause equipped Hats to rotate 180 degrees every time the Customizer was opened.
• Fixed a couple of art and graphical issues with the Splattitude Palette, Adventure Suit, and Aquanaut Suit.

User Interface:

• AG-19575 – Fixed an issue that was causing all player nametags to be shown all the time at both the station and on Expeditions. 
• AG-18808 – Fixed an issue with the Refiner UI incorrectly displaying the same category tabs as the Printer. 
• • Developer Note: We listed this in the previous update patch notes, but it managed to slip out of the build, so this time it’s in for realsies. 
• AG-19192 – Fixed an issue that was preventing Printer recipes from being sorted alphabetically. 
• AG-19919 – Made adjustments to the UI prompts on sedated creatures that can be picked up so that the Pick Up and Collect Loot prompts are now consolidated into the same tooltip. 
• AG-19213 – Fixed an issue where the resolution scale would reset to 100% when toggling display modes by using the Alt + Enter keys on PCs. 
• AG-19818 – Fixed an issue with the Dear Diary Data Logs undiscovered icon failing to update in the DAD menu after discovering all Data Logs.  
• AG-19187 – Fixed a formatting issue with the text of tracked Missions and Tasks in the View Objectives overlay during matchmaking.  
• AG-19339 – Fixed an issue where the Expedition Countdown Initiated message would be missing after abandoning and re-entering matchmaking.  
• AG-19456 – Added missing key icons for certain inputs in the Settings Keyboard/Mouse Mapping menu.  
• AG-15615 – Fixed an issue where the planet would occasionally fail to appear on the station's Expedition launch terminals. 
• Fixed multiple other smaller UI issues across the Settings and DAD menus, Dropship recall, and ping wheel. 

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KNOWN ISSUES

The following are some of the most relevant issues that have been reported by the community and we’re working to address.

• AG-12481 – Gliders aren’t applying Palette colors as intended. This is a bug and not intentional.
• AG-4484 – Gliders can sometimes stay unfolded while transitioning into a climb or during the climb over animation.
• AG-17103 – Player character’s right hand appears dislocated when previewing some cosmetics in the Customizer and the EXO Outlet.

Tips & Workarounds

• You can change your Display Name by opening the DAD menu and in the Social tab selecting your username under Squad Members. This will open your Player Profile where you can find the Change Display Name option.
• If you’re experiencing connection issues on the Nintendo Switch 2, try going to your Switch’s “Settings”, select “Date and Time”, and in that menu make sure “Synchronize Clock via Internet” is toggled on.

WHAT IS NEXT? 

Let's talk about what is on the horizon for STARSEEKER. Full transparency: STARSEEKER needs more players, and everything we have been doing has been an attempt to bring in new folks. At launch, we had a strong number of people who tried the game, but we just didn’t have enough content to keep people playing.

Now, after four back-to-back content updates and a big re-arranging of plans to the roadmap, we are feeling much better about putting the game out there. Expect to see some deeper discounts and deals across all platforms while we really try to find some players who are down with the new content and ideas we are exploring.

Our next update will go live sometime before the end of the year and will include the aforementioned changes to Free Roam and the overall economy. Expect to see more changes with lasting impact on how your Expeditions shape the Starseeker’s presence on Tephra, more variety of Nozzle rewards to chase and slot into your Gear loadout, and plenty more bits and pieces we’re eager to share.

There’s some cool stuff coming. I am super thankful to all of you who have stuck by us and shared feedback during this phase while we explored these big changes and worked to make STARSEEKER better. Watching something you worked on for years not meet expectations is very hard, but ultimately, we just want to make games that make people happy and we hope you all can see that. Talk soon.

-jt