New pirate capital ship, bounty system, minor faction raids,

and more arrive in the v1.51 update

Play Sins II Now

New Unit: Pirate Galleon Capital Ship
The Pirates have a new flagship. The Galleon is a playable capital ship with four unique abilities, bringing some new tactical options to the table.

Bounty System
A new Bounty Office in the Markets window lets players spend resources and exotics to put a price on enemy planets. Place a bounty, and the Pirates will come knocking. Any player can collect bounty by dealing damage in that gravity well, adding a new economic layer to conflict.

Minor Faction Raids
Hostile Minor Factions now conduct raids across the map instead of passively roaming near their territory. Pirates and the Aluxian Resurgence each have their own raid types with different objectives and triggers. Expect bombardments, annexation attempts, and bounty-driven attacks depending on the faction.

(Note for modders: roaming functionality is still in the game and usable for modded Minor Factions.)

Pirate Incursion Event
A new event that can trigger on any map with a Pirate Base. In the early-to-mid game, players may find themselves up against a Pirate King, his Galleon, and a growing armada.

Two New Advent Minor Factions
The Alutar Sect and Nilari Cult join the roster, one peaceful, one hostile, each with their own themed abilities.

Core Counter Triangle Rebalance
The core counter triangle has been rebalanced to ensure consistent outcomes across all matchups. Light Frigates, PD units, and Gunship Corvettes now perform their intended roles more reliably, which should make early game fleet composition decisions more interesting.

Capture System Rework
Capturing now uses a points system instead of a timer. New capturable civilian structures, extractors and research labs, have also been added to uncolonizable gravity wells, giving players more reasons to contest those spaces.

Full changelog 

Release Status: *** RELEASED ***

Welcome to our first update of 2026. True to the update's name, v1.51 is all about bounty, pirates and loot! We've added a new bounty system to the game, which will let players place financial targets on opponents. You won't know who did it, but you'll know how much they're offering! Of course, pirates want a piece of the action too, and they will now conduct regular raids on planets. To facilitate this, the crafty scoundrels have modified an Akkan battlecruiser to act as their first capital ship - the Pirate Galleon. Look for the the bounty system in the Markets menu.

Two new Advent Minor Factions have also been added in this update: The Alutar Sect and the Nilari Cult.

Next, we've added a new capture system in v1.51. You can now capture neutral extractors and other structures located on the map - including the new Pirate Galleon.

Last but not least, the core counter balance has been updated in all match-ups. For example, light frigates will now reliably counter PD frigates and cruisers, etc.

Highlights

• Pirate Galleon Capital Ship - New playable unit with four unique abilities: Pillage, Twin Ion Bolt, Redline Navigation and Mag Blast Torpedo Salvo.

• Pirate Incursion Event System - Survive the onslaught of the Pirate Kings in the early game.

• Two New Advent Minor Factions - The Alutar Sect and Nilari Cult.

• Minor Faction Raids - Dynamic raid events with multiple NPC factions conducting targeted raids on player planets.

• Capturable Infrastructure - New capturable civilian structures including Research Labs, Crystal Extractors, and Metal Extractors.

• Bounty System Expansion - Players and AI can place bounties on enemy assets, triggering NPC raids with rewards for collection.

New Bounty System

The Markets window now includes new tabs for the Bounty Office and Raids. Players can spend resources and exotics to add bounty to a discovered planet, with the Pirates launching raids against those targets (all bounty is converted into an overall credit value that is displayed above a planet in the strategic view). Any player can collect bounty by attacking a planet with bounty (structures in the gravity well, ships and planet damage). The Raid window display active raids against your empire.

Minor Faction Raid System

Hostile Minor Factions will now conduct raids across the map, each with different objectives and trigger conditions.

Pirates

• Added Bounty Raid - Will target the planet with the highest bounty anywhere on the map.

• Added Bombardment Raid - Will target planets adjacent to the Pirate Base and attempt to bombard them.

Aluxian Resurgence

• Added Annexation Raid - Will target adjacent planets and attempt to colonize them, by force if necessary.

• Added Bombardment Raid - Will target planets adjacent to the Aluxian Homeworld and attempt to bombard them.

Minor Faction Roaming Disabled

Minor Factions will no longer roam near their territory, they will only leave their homeworld within the context of specific raids.

• Note to modders - the roaming functionality is not removed from the game, it can still be used in modded Minor Factions. The base game Minor Factions simply have the relevant values set to 0.

Pirate Incursion Event

A new complex event that can occur on any map with a Pirate Base present, the Pirate Incursion will see an early-mid game battle for survival against a Pirate King, his Galleon, and his ever-growing armada of pirates.

Core Counter Triangle Rebalance

The core counter triangle has been rebalanced and re-armed as necessary to ensure consistency of outcomes in all matchups, even at a 3:4 ratio of supply. Light Frigates will now reliably defeat PD Frigates and Cruisers - even when those PD units are issued manual evasion orders. PD units will now reliably defeat Corvettes, with the most notable change here being that the Junsurak Warden can now rapidly and thoroughly shut down the Sulsurak Defensor in a Vasari mirror match. Gunship Corvettes (Shriken Gunship, Sulsurak Defensor, Acolyte Corvette), will now easily evade most Light Frigate attacks and rapidly dispatch their clumsier opponents.

In combination, this rebalance should greatly increase the dynamism of early game fleet composition decision making.

Capture System

Capturable objects now function on a points system instead of a time system. In addition, new capturable structures have been added to uncolonizeable gravity wells - Metal and Crystal Extractors, as well as Military and Civilian Research Labs.

• Derelict Loot Level 1 - Capture Point Requirement set to 300.

• Derelict Loot Level 2 - Capture Point Requirement set to 600.

• Derelict Loot Level 3 - Capture Point Requirement set to 900.

• Wreckage - Capture Point Requirement set to 750.

• Ancient Starbase - Capture type changed to Surrender. Capture Point Requirement set to 2000.

• Capturable Extractor - Capture type set to Always. Capture Point Requirement set to 225.

• Capturable Research Station - Capture type set to Always. Capture Point Requirement set to 450.

Minor Factions

Added New Minor Factions:

• Alutar Sect - A peaceful Advent Minor Faction with shield and antimatter focused abilities.

• Nilari Cult - A hostile Advent Minor Faction with population and combat focused abilities.

All Minor Factions are now prevented from Surveying. This will ensure they do not discover Artifacts they cannot use - especially the Aluxians with their expansionist tendencies.

Changelog v1.51.9 → v1.51.12

Gameplay

• Standardized heavy (250 → 300), medium (200 → 250) and light autocannon (100 → 50) Pierce values.

• Standardized heavy (250 → 300) and medium pulse gun (200 → 270) Pierce values.

• Standardized medium (200 → 250) and light laser (100 → 50) Pierce values.

• Influence costs on Alutar Sect and Nilari Cult minor faction abilities updated.

• TEC

  • Metal/Crystal Extractors:

    • Cost changed from 400/50/0 to 400/0/0

  • TEC Cielo Command Cruiser:

    • Durability increased from 200 to 250

  • TEC Hoshiko Robotics Cruiser:

    • Durability increased from 200 to 250

• Advent

  • Metal/Crystal Extractors:

    • Cost changed from 250/0/90 to 150/0/75

  • Advent Tempest Frigate:

    • Durability increased from 200 to 300

    • Max Hull decreased from 900 to 800

    • Max Armor decreased from 410 to 285

    • Max Shields decreased from 925 to 825

    • Missile Pierce increased from 0 to 150

  • Advent Subjugator Cruiser:

    • Durability increased from 200 to 250

  • Advent Bomber Strikecraft:

    • Max Armor decreased from 75 to 50

• Vasari

  • Vasari Overseer Cruiser:

    • Durability increased from 210 to 270

  • Vasari Bomber Strikecraft:

    • Max Hull decreased from 90 to 60

  • Medium Phase Missiles:

    • Max Angular Speed decreased

    • Max HP decreased from 9 to 6

    • Max Armor decreased from 12 to 9

Changelog v1.51.8 → v1.51.9

Gameplay

• Added new bounty and raid statistics to end-game screen.

• Added ability for pirate incursion units to join fleets.

• [Paths to Power] Disabled pirate incursions from unique scenarios by default.

• Roaming fleets can now defend nearby planets if they’re under attack and they don’t have another mission.

• Updated raid balance and composition for Pirates, Nilari Cult and Aluxian Resurgence.

• Pirate

  • Pirate Galleon:

    • Redline Navigation ability autocast default set to off. This should reduce cases of hull damage being incurred needlessly if a player chooses to destroy a Phase Jump Inhibitor instead of using Redline Navigation to bypass it.

• TEC

  • Metal/Crystal Extractors:

    • Cost increased from 250/20/0 (credits/metal/crystal) to 400/50/0.

  • Orbital Transit Hub:

    • Cost decreased from 750/125/100 to 500/125/75.

  • Kalev Gauss Frigate:

    • Durability changed from 125 to 50

    • HP increased from 685 to 845

    • Armor increased from 575 to 800

    • Gauss Cannon cooldown decreased from 12.5 to 10 seconds

  • Harcka Heavy Cruiser:

    • Cost increased from 550/200/25 to 650/250/25

  • Fighter:

    • Armor Points increased from 30 to 50

    • Build time reduced from 40 to 30

    • Light Autocannon:

      • Cooldown reduced from 3s to 2.5s

      • Pierce reduced from 100 to 50

  • Bomber:

    • Durability increased from 0 to 50 - This will make bombers more susceptible to fighter attack specifically, while allowing them to be resilient to PD weaponry.

    • Armor Points increased from 50 to 75

    • Light Missile:

      • Range increased from 5500 to 6000

      • Now fires 4 missiles instead of 6 - damage output is unchanged, but this will make it easier to stop a TEC bomber strike with PD

  • Akkan - Mobile Trade Port Ability:

    • Changed Import Points from 1/3/5 to 1/2/4

    • Changed Credit Export Points from 1/1/1 to 1/2/4

    • Added 1/1/1 metal/crystal export points.

  • Ankylon Titan:

    • Heavy Autocannon changed to match the Heavy Autocannon used by the Harcka, but with faster rate of fire.

      • Tracking changed from 25 to 35

      • Damage changed from 25 to 20

      • Cooldown changed from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds

      • Pierce changed from 250 to 300

  • Interplanetary Transit Research:

    • The TEC population structure has been moved earlier to ensure it can be accessed in a timely manner and avoid being out competed by Trade and Extractor unlocks.

    • Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1

  • Cruiser Shield Refit Research:

    • Moved from Tier 3.5 to Tier 4

  • Superior Shield Emitters Research:

    • Prerequisite added: Cruiser Shield Refit

• Advent

  • Progenitor Mothership:

    • Strike Craft capacity from levels changed from 1/1/1/2/2/2/2/3/3/3 to 1/1/2/2/2/3/3/3/4/4

  • Vigilis Sentinel:

    • The Vigilis has the least DPS density of the PD units, and is the easiest to focus fire without wasted damage. This change means Light Frigates will only counter it at a 1:1 ratio, but keeps it safer from focus fire and ensure the Advent have a higher Durability unit available before Tier 4.

    • Durability restored 250 to 300.

  • Exoria Illuminator:

    • Durability reduced from 300 to 250

    • Armor Points reduced from 410 to 350

    • Medium Beam:

      • Damage increased from 90 to 150

    • Beam Turret:

      • Cooldown increased from 6s to 8s

      • Damage increased from 25 to 40

  • Fighter

    • Hull Points increased from 45 to 75

    • Build time reduced from 30 to 25

    • Shield Burst is now enabled when the fighter gains shields from outside sources, such as the Shield Blessing ability.

    • Light Laser:

      • Damage increased from 10 to 14

      • Cooldown increased from 2.5s to 3s

      • Pierce reduced from 100 to 50

  • Bomber

    • Durability increased from 0 to 50 - This will make bombers more susceptible to fighter attack specifically, while allowing them to be resilient to PD weaponry.

    • Hull Points increased from 80 to 100

    • Shield Burst is now enabled when the fighter gains shields from outside sources, such as the Shield Blessing ability.

    • Light Beam:

      • Range increased from 4000 to 5000

      • Cooldown reduced from 15 to 12

  • Metal/Crystal Extractors:

    • Cost increased from 200/0/25 to 250/0/90

  • Temple of Congregation:

    • Cost decreased from 600/125/120 to 300/125/120

  • Orbital Habitation Blueprint

    • Moved from Tier 2.5 to Tier 2

• Vasari

  • Metal/Crystal Extractors:

    • Cost increased from 0/120/30 to 0/120/60

  • Jarrasul Evacuator:

    • Strike Craft capacity from levels changed from 1/2/2/3/3/3/4/4/4/5 to 1/1/1/2/2/2/2/3/3/3

    • Weapon damage and rate of fire from levels reduced to account for additional weaponry

  • Kanrak Assailant:

    • The Kanrak needs to reliably defeat Heavy Cruisers, these changes allow it to do that while having no impact on its anti-capital ship effectiveness.

    • Shields increased from 820 to 940

    • Armor increased from 410 to 455

    • Medium Phase Missile

      • Damage changed from 60 to 72

      • Cooldown changed from 7.2 to 4.8 seconds

      • Pierce changed from 510 to 420

      • Armor reduced from 15 to 12 - the Kanrak’s faster rate of fire requires its missile to be more easily intercepted to prevent PD from becoming overwhelmed.

  • Kortovas Oppressor:

    • The Kortovas required an increase to DPS density now that it has lost its Point Defense Pulse. It now defeats most lower tier units, but correctly loses to most missile units.

    • Supply cost increased from 16 to 18

    • Heavy Wave Cannon:

      • Damage changed from 48 to 36

      • Cooldown changed from 6 to 4 seconds

  • Heavy Fighter:

    • Build Time increased from 90s to 120s - unlike the other faction Fighters, the Heavy Fighter has considerable resilience, further augmented by multiple modes of regenerating HP. Together with very small squadron size, this makes it remarkably easy to maintain at full strength in combat, necessitating an even further increased build time.

    • Light Beam:

      • Pierce reduced from 120 to 60

  • Bomber:

    • Durability increased from 0 to 60 - This will make bombers more susceptible to fighter attack specifically, while allowing them to be resilient to PD weaponry.

    • Light Phase Missile:

      • Range increased from 5100 to 6000

      • Cooldown reduced from 18s to 12s

      • Pierce reduced from 420 to 360

  • Labor Distribution Center:

    • Cost decreased from 0/240/120 to 0/240/90

  • Heavy Phase Missile:

    • Armor reduced from 30 to 24

UI / UX

• Added final new minor faction portrait art

Misc / Bug Fixes

• Fixed Replays not working; should work properly from this version onward.

• Performance Improvements:

  • Reworked raid cooldown-to-spawning transition to re-pick targets fresh instead of validating stale cached targets.

  • Added BFS-based reachable gravity well precomputation, replacing per-target jump distance checks.

  • Added bounty market mutation versioning to skip redundant UI rebuilds, cap snapshot history via uniform and build exotic credit lookup table at bind time.

  • Fixed bounty chart stale data on window re-open and fade-out rendering artifacts.

  • Show cooldown raids in raid list, removed cooldown progress bar and used hash map-based raid consolidation in the window.

  • Switched AI controllers from optional-copy to pointer-based bounty state access.

  • Removed all raid TRACE logging.

• Removed lockup on obtaining capturable units that persisted after capture.

• Cleaned-up handling of mods that are removed from Mod.io. Should prevent invalid data and mods becoming ‘stuck’ in a subscribed state.

• Fixed crash in the debug window system on game exit.

Audio

• Added Pirate Galleon VO.

Modding

• Added new debug commands to trigger raids

• Added new debug command to force trigger event scripts

Changelog v1.51.7 → v1.51.8

Gameplay

• New Game Setup Options

  • Raid Strength Scalar

  • Raid Frequency Scalar

  • Time to First Raid Scalar

• Pirate Galleon:

  • Spawned incursion fleets will now try to defend the Galleon when it comes under attack. When the gravity well is cleared of enemies, the incursion force will resume looting.

• TEC

  • Harcka Heavy Cruiser

    • HP increased from 1100 to 1250

    • Armor increased from 1250 to 1400

    • Armor Strength increased from 75 to 90

    • Supply cost increased from 14 to 15

    • Autocannon cooldown decreased from 5 to 3 sec

    • Autocannon damage decreased from 25 to 20

    • Autocannon pierce increased from 250 to 300

    • Autocannon range decreased from 5000 to 4000

  • Stilat Missile Corvette

    • HP increased from 300 to 325

    • Armor increased from 325 to 400

    • Missile damage increased from 40 to 50

    • Missile armor decreased from 5 to 1

• Vasari

  • Kortovas Oppressor

    • HP increased from 1335 to 1545

    • Shields increased from 1260 to 1410

    • Armor changed from 925 to 1120

    • Wave cannon range decreased from 5100 to 4200

    • Removed point-defense turret

• Pirate Incursions

  • Added unique art and descriptions to Pirate Incursion notifications

  • Initial Pirate raid spawn increased from 15 to 20 minutes.

  • Increased time between waves from 2 to 4 minutes

  • Decreased supply increase per wave from 50 to 30

  • Decreased max supply per wave from 500 to 200

  • Reduced max total supply from 1000 to 650

  • Made Pirates less chatting with the taunts

• Added raids for Aluxian Resurgence and Nilari Cult.

UI / UX

• Updated notification system tooltips to display additional raid information on mouseover

  • Will now display a progress bar on countdown

  • Raid launches will now go to all players; along with the target.

  • Player whose planet is being raided will now be notified when the raid arrives.

• Bounty UI

  • Updated display logic for raid strength tracking

  • Overhauled raid list display and filtering

  • Crosshair will now appear in strategic view for planets targeted for a raid

• Added unique art and descriptions to Pirate Incursion notifications

Misc / Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug that could have caused multiples of the same NPC faction to spawn (pirates excluded)

• Improved Raid system to better track instancing and reward calculations

  • Fixed raid missions possibly blocking behavior

• Updated capture system to better handle decapping of enemy-owned units

• Fixed issue that caused UI updates to lag on tooltips

• Optimized unit movement code to improve pathfinding/performance.

• Fixed minor faction spawning on random maps to allow the Nilari Cult to spawn.

• Updated random 10-player multi-star map to not spawn multiple Pirates

• [Paths to Power] Fixed bug in the Seek & Destroy scenarios caused by the new Lua changes.

Modding

• Added new unit operator actions:

  • population_add_value

  • population_add_modifier_type

  • cap_at_max_population

  • flee_to_hyperspace

• Added more Lua scripting API functions

  • For details, visit: https://wiki.sinsofasolarempire2.com/space/SSEFW/3170238513/Lua+Event+Tutorial

Changelog v1.51

Gameplay

TEC

• Re-armed Units:

  • Akkan Battlecruiser: The Akkan has long been considered extremely under-armed for a capital ship. In order to rectify this, additional light weapons were added. This should greatly increase its militia clearing and anti-corvette capabilities while keeping it appropriately limited in a Capital vs. Capital fight. To further increase flexibility, it has also received Hangar Hardpoints (including the ability to equip the Reserve Squadron Hangar item).

    • Added 6 new Light Autocannon Turrets - 6.7 DPS, Pierce 150, Range 8000.

    • Added Hangar Capacity of 1/1/1/2/2/2/2/3/3/3.

  • Ankylon Titan: The Ankylon has had a few extra PD turrets added to its side batteries to give it more consistent coverage.

    • Added 4 additional PD Autocannon Turrets.

  • Garda Flak Frigate: The Garda has long suffered from a complete lack of ventral weapons, leaving a blind-spot where Corvettes are safe from retaliation and missiles may slip beneath a tall enough formation. This has been rectified with the addition of two ventral turrets with 180 degree firing arcs.

    • Added 2 additional PD Autocannon Turrets.

• Capture Weight: The new capture system requires capture capable units to have a capture weight defined. High capture weight allows units to capture faster.

  • Kol Battleship: Capture Weight 5

  • Akkan Battlecruiser: Capture Weight 5

  • Dunov Battlecruiser: Capture Weight 5

  • Sova Carrier: Capture Weight 5

  • Marza Dreadnought: Capture Weight 5

  • Takadaran Command Fortress: Capture Weight 10

  • Khevarkov Modular Battlecruiser: Capture Weight 10

  • Ankylon Titan: Capture Weight 15

  • Ragnarov Titan: Capture Weight 15

• TEC Enclave Garrison:

  • Percheron Light Carrier removed from possible garrison unit pool.

• Research:

  • Added the Privateer Persuasion research to the TEC Primacy faction at Tier 4.0, allowing them to gain a windfall of a single Pirate Galleon.

  • TEC Shield Tech Tree ratio rework: TEC ships previously started the game with lower effective hit points (EHP) per supply, placing them behind the other factions in survivability until they unlocked their shield points from the tech tree. In order to provide better late game viability to TEC Corvettes and Frigates, these units now begin the game matching the EHP per Supply of the other factions with only Hull, Armor and Armor Strength. Unlocking Shield Points will now place these units ahead of the standard EHP per Supply values for their archetype, matching the impact on survivability that Vasari Self Repair and Advent Shield Burst upgrades provide.

• Units:

  • Cobalt Light Frigate

    • HP changed from 610 to 750

    • Armor changed from 635 to 825

    • Armor Strength changed from 40 to 50

  • Garda Flak Frigate

    • HP changed from 325 to 400

    • Armor changed from 410 to 450

  • Shriken Gunship Corvette

    • HP changed from 215 to 275

    • Armor changed from 200 to 300

    • Build Cost:

      • Credits changed from 200 to 185

      • Crystal changed from 15 to 10

  • Stilat Missile Corvette

    • Build Cost:

      • Credits changed from 245 to 215

      • Crystal changed from 55 to 40

  • Akkan Colony Capital

    • Mobile Trade Port now also adds an additive Export Credits Point Modifier of 1/1/1.

• Research:

  • Backup Shield Generator Blueprint

    • Tier changed from Tier 2 to Tier 3

    • Research Time changed from 225 seconds to 360 seconds

    • Price:

      • Credits changed from 1200 to 1700

      • Metal changed from 200 to 300

      • Crystal changed from 300 to 500

    • Prerequisites: Improved Shield Arrays

  • Corvette Shield Refit

    • Tier changed from Tier 1 to Tier 2

    • Research Time changed from 120 seconds to 225 seconds

    • Price:

      • Credits changed from 700 to 1200

      • Metal changed from 100 to 200

      • Crystal changed from 125 to 300

  • Cruiser Shield Refit

    • Research Time changed from 225 seconds to 270 seconds

    • Price:

      • Credits changed from 1200 to 1250

      • Metal changed from 200 to 225

      • Crystal changed from 300 to 350

  • Derelict Specialists

    • Adds +1 to capture weight; removes previous time scalar

  • Enhanced Shield Cohesion

    • Tier changed from Tier 3 to Tier 4

    • Research Time changed from 420 seconds to 525 seconds

    • Price:

      • Credits changed from 1750 to 2200

      • Metal changed from 325 to 400

      • Crystal changed from 550 to 700

    • Prerequisites: Removed Improved Shield Arrays

  • Frigate Shield Refit

    • Tier changed from Tier 1 to Tier 2

    • Research Time changed from 150 seconds to 225 seconds

    • Price:

      • Credits changed from 750 to 1200

      • Metal changed from 125 to 200

      • Crystal changed from 150 to 300

  • Improved Shield Arrays

    • Tier changed from Tier 3 to Tier 2

    • Research Time changed from 360 seconds to 270 seconds

    • Price:

      • Credits changed from 1700 to 1250

      • Metal changed from 300 to 225

      • Crystal changed from 500 to 350

    • Prerequisites: Removed Cruiser Shield Refit

Advent

• Re-armed Units:

  • Transcencia Starbase: The Transcencia has had its Heavy Plasma Turrets greatly increased in scale to ensure they are visible from afar, along with an increase in damage to match their new stature. In addition, both its Heavy Plasma and PD Laser turrets have had their arcs tweaked for consistency.

    • Increased the size of the Starbase Heavy Plasma Turret by 500%.

    • Re-aligned Heavy Plasma Turrets for consistency.

    • Re-aligned PD Pulse Turrets for consistency.

  • Acolyte Corvette: In service of the core counter triangle rebalance, the Acolyte has been granted three new Light Laser Turrets to ensure it can properly engage other Corvettes. With two dorsal weapons and one ventral weapon, all with excellent clearance, the Acolyte will never be out-maneuvered again.

    • Added 3 new Light Laser Turrets - 2.0 DPS, Pierce 50, Range 3000.

• Capture Weight: The new capture system requires capture capable units to have a capture weight defined. High capture weight allows units to capture faster.

  • Radiance Battleship: Capture Weight 5

  • Rapture Battlecruiser: Capture Weight 5

  • Revelation Battlecruiser: Capture Weight 5

  • Halcyon Carrier: Capture Weight 5

  • Progenitor Mothership: Capture Weight 5

  • Oblivia Dreadnought: Capture Weight 10

  • Justicia Dreadnought: Capture Weight 10

  • Coronata Titan: Capture Weight 15

  • Eradica Titan: Capture Weight 15

• Units:

  • Acolyte Corvette

    • HP changed from 450 to 325

    • Shields changed from 425 to 300

    • Build Cost:

      • Credits changed from 90 to 75

      • Metal changed from 40 to 30

  • Disciple

    • HP changed from 625 to 650

    • Shields changed from 650 to 700

    • Armor changed from 215 to 245

• Research:

  • Rite of Reclamation

    • Increases capture weight by +2; removes previous time bonus.

  • Vigilis Blueprint

    • Tier changed from Tier 2 to Tier 1

    • Research Time changed from 270 seconds to 150 seconds

    • Price:

      • Credits changed from 850 to 550

      • Metal changed from 275 to 150

      • Crystal changed from 650 to 350

Vasari

• Re-armed Units:

  • Jarrasul Evacuator: Although always a capable capital ship, the Jarrasul has had a relatively boring and visually plain weapon layout. In order to increase the unit's flexibility and interest level, especially in early game engagements against highly agile targets, 5 additional Light Wave Cannons have been added, with one near the existing Light Wave mount, and the other four in broadside only mounts - two left, two right.

  • Junsurak Warden: The Junsurak Warden has had its PD Pulse weapons re-aligned, with its dorsal gun now facing forward by default. This will greatly increase its ability to act as a close escort missile screening ship for the Vasari fleet.

    • Re-Aligned all three PD Pulse turrets.

• Capture Weight: The new capture system requires capture capable units to have a capture weight defined. High capture weight allows units to capture faster.

  • Kortul Devastator: Capture Weight 5

  • Antorak Marauder: Capture Weight 5

  • Jarrasul Evacuator: Capture Weight 5

  • Skirantra Carrier: Capture Weight 5

  • Vulkoras Desolator: Capture Weight 5

  • Anarkrul Wanderer: Capture Weight 10

  • Sularkon Tyrant: Capture Weight 10

  • Vorastra Titan: Capture Weight 15

  • Kultorask Titan: Capture Weight 15

• Units:

  • Junsurak Warden

    • Shields changed from 535 to 635

  • Ravastra Skirmisher

    • HP changed from 910 to 940

    • Shields changed from 660 to 720

  • Sulsurak Defensor

    • HP changed from 460 to 420

    • Armor changed from 180 to 120

    • Build Cost:

      • Metal changed from 60 to 80

      • Crystal changed from 35 to 45

  • Tosurak Raider

    • Build Cost:

    • Metal changed from 75 to 95

    • Crystal changed from 45 to 60

• Research:

  • Heavy Turret Servos

    • Removed range bonus; decreased tracking speed bonus from 2 to 0.48.

  • Improved Orbital Extraction

    • Research Time changed from 60 seconds to 75 seconds

    • Price:

      • Metal changed from 120 to 150

      • Crystal changed from 60 to 90

    • Prerequisites: Added: Orbital Extraction

  • Precise Turret Servos

    • Tracking speed: scalar changed from 0.2 to 0.24

    • Range: scalar changed from 0.15 to 0.12

Pirates

• Capture Weight: The new capture system requires capture capable units to have a capture weight defined. High capture weight allows units to capture faster.

  • Pirate Galleon: Capture Weight 10

• Units:

  • Pirate Galleon: The new Pirate Galleon capital ship has arrived.

    • Abilities:

      • Pillage: Acquire a unique buff for the Galleon by targeting different structures, from research, to economic, to combat buffs.

      • Twin Ion Bolt: Fully disable the target enemy unit, capable of targeting even Titans.

      • Redline Navigation: Allow the Galleon and nearby units to temporarily ignore Phase Jump Inhibition at the cost of hull damage.

      • Mag Blast Torpedo Salvo: Fire a salvo of heavy torpedoes to deal shield damage in an area.

    • Armament:

      • 1x Heavy Missile - DPS: 40, Pierce: 1000, Range: 12000.

      • 1x Gauss Cannon - DPS: 25, Pierce: 600, Range: 12000.

      • 6x Medium Autocannon - DPS: 7.5, Pierce: 200, Range: 8000.

      • 4x PD Autocannon - DPS: 4, Pierce: 0, Range: 5000.

      • Planet Bomb - DPS: 5, Pop Kill DPS: 0.2.

    • Defenses:

      • Hull: 5170

      • Armor: 2165 (Armor Strength: 100)

      • Shields: 0

  • Pirate Rogue: The Pirate Rogue has been rebalanced to be more flexible, though remaining most aligned with the Light Frigate unit archetype.

    • Hull: 585 → 685

    • Armor: 730 → 810

    • Light Autocannons changed to Medium Autocannons.

    • Primary Medium Autocannon changed from 6 DPS, 100 Pierce → 7.5 DPS, 150 Pierce

    • Medium Autocannon Turret changed from 4 DPS, 100 Pierce → 3.3 DPS, 150 Pierce.

    • Medium Autocannon Turret Tracking Rate reduced from 40 degrees/s → 30 degrees/s.

• Pirate Minor Faction Starting Fleet: To make the Pirate Base more of a challenge to attack, Pirate Galleons have been added to the Garrison. These capital ships start at level 6, and will always have Twin Ion Bolt, as well as a selection items to further augment their stats. Like other Pirate Galleons, they can be captured if forced to Surrender. They will not be used in any roaming fleet, acting purely as defenders.

  • Added 3 Pirate Galleon Capital Ships.

UI

• Added additional detail to modifier tooltips

• Unit tooltips now display Psi Power

• Trade tooltips enhanced with additional information

• Empire tooltips expanded with more detail

AI

• Fleet behavior improvements for captured units

• Unit AI behavior expanded with capturable state handling

• Attack controller improvements for raid scenarios

• Defense controller improved raid response mechanics

• Fleet controller enhancements for captured unit integration

• Fleet data improvements for behavior tracking

• AI can respond to scripted events with appropriate threat assessment

• AI difficulty uniforms expanded with raid parameters

• AI diplomacy uniforms include raid considerations

• AI attack score improvements for bounty planet targeting

• AI includes event system integration for dynamic responses

• Defense controller tracks raid threats separately

Misc.

• Optimized ‘god rays’ to improve performance

• Optimized render meshes for performance improvements.

• Optimized particle effect renderer.

• Optimized skybox renderer.

• Updated unit selection system to improve performance.

• Optimized late game code to improve performance.

  • Overall, the above improvements may increase performance by as much as 50% on some systems

• Fixed bug that would cause incoming diplomacy offers to be blocked with patience at 1, after patience hit 0.

Modding

• Added repeatable research feature allowing players to repeatedly research certain technologies

• Added mod dependency resolver with automatic load order management

• Added mod folder location customization in settings

• Added mod unsubscribe warning dialogs to prevent accidental removal

• Added orphaned mod cleanup system

• Added mod migration system for handling deprecated mods

• Modding tooltip now displays mod dependencies and conflicts

  • Mods that have dependencies on other mods can now be set on Mod.io for authors.

  • The game will automatically download dependencies when needed during mod install/update.

• Updated diplomacy window to allow exotics to scroll if modders add more than 5

• Added mesh animation support for modding.

• Lua Scripting System:

  • Complete Lua event system infrastructure added. Custom, completely scripted, ingame events are now allowed. They do not have to be tied to a specific map.

  • Event system supports multi-instancing for simultaneous events

  • Event metadata generator for script documentation

  • Lua event bindings added for unit, player, gravity well, and simulation state

  • Event system integrates with AI threat detection

  • Countdown timer system for simulation events

  • For more information on using Lua, please see: https://wiki.sinsofasolarempire2.com/space/SSEFW/3170238513/Lua+Event+Tutorial

• Capturable Units System:

  • Complete rewrite of capturable unit mechanics replacing objective-based structures

  • Capturable units now support surrender state instead of just destruction

  • Capture point system implemented for gradual unit capture

  • Capturable unit data includes surrender tracking and capture progress

  • Rotating child mesh animations for visual feedback during capture

  • Unit capture weight attribute for tactical depth

  • Cannot scuttle unit mutation prevents player destruction

  • Galaxy generator now spawns capturables and asteroids in uncolonizable systems

  • Capturable units uniforms patch system for modding support

• Strikecraft System

  • Added strikecraft kind expansion system

  • Strikecraft capacity limits system implemented

  • Added strikecraft kind capacity data tracking

  • Strikecraft uniforms enhanced with kind-specific capacity information

We're extending the demo play period through March 16 at 1:00 PM ET.

Play the Demo

What's in the Demo

Two fully playable factions. The United Earth Forces bring numbers, durability, and relentless ground power. The Post-Human Coalition abandoned flesh for advanced tech, fielding smaller armies that hit harder and cost more. They play completely differently.

Multiplayer for up to 8 players. Full PvP, co-op against AI, or solo skirmish. Can't fill a lobby? Add AI opponents to any open slot.

Three maps across two environments. Arctic tundra and desert wastelands, day and night. Small (2-4 players), Medium (2-6), and Large (2-8). All available immediately with zero unlocks.

Thousands of units, one strategy. Pull back to orbit to read the full battlefield, then zoom down to the front line to direct an assault. Ashes II rewards planning over click speed. The best strategy wins, not the fastest hands.

Steam Deck compatible. Full native controls.

Your Feedback Matters

We're actively reading and collecting player feedback from the demo. Bug reports, balance observations, feature requests, gameplay impressions, all of it is being tracked and factored into development. The response during Next Fest has been incredibly helpful, and we want to keep that going.

Thank you to everyone who played during Steam Next Fest and helped make Ashes II one of the standout demos of the event. Whether you're jumping in for the first time or running your tenth 8-player match, we appreciate every game played and every piece of feedback shared.

The demo comes down March 16 at 1:00 PM ET. Don't wait.

A new campaign, new sovereigns, smarter AI, and faster performance land in Elemental: Reforged's latest update

Join Early Access  |  Wishlist Elemental

The Beta 3b update for Elemental: Reforged is now available. Here's what's new.

The Prelude Campaign
The final campaign, Prelude, is now playable. This joins the existing Fallen Enchantress and Legendary Heroes campaigns, rounding out the campaign lineup ahead of launch.

New Sovereigns
Lord Markinn and Warlord Verga are now selectable sovereigns. You can also edit, copy, and delete your custom sovereigns and factions directly from the selection screen.

AI That Puts Up a Fight
The AI has received a significant pass. It now defends the areas around its cities, correctly respects Zone of Control in tactical battles, and properly pays essence to found cities instead of spamming them. Enemy lair upgrade speed now scales with difficulty -- slower on Novice, faster on Insane.

Performance Improvements
Loading into games and loading saves is noticeably faster. City menus open quicker, and end-of-turn processing takes less time with reduced CPU usage during AI turns.

Elemental: Reforged officially launches on March 17!

Full Beta 3B Changelog:

Change Log

AI

• AI now prioritizes defending areas around friendly cities, targeting goodie huts, enemies, lairs, and quests nearby

• Enemy lair upgrade speed now scales with game difficulty (slower on Novice, faster on Insane)

• Enemies will correctly obey Zone of Control in tactical battles

• AI and Human players now correctly found cities by paying the essence cost to fix spamming cities

• Added AI movement and unrest bonuses per difficulty level

Campaigns

• Added in a new campaign: Prelude

• Turned off fame in campaigns that rewards free champions

• Fixed missing strings in some quests

• Fixed campaign loading screens turning black

• Adjusted UI sizing for character conversations in campaigns

Fallen Enchantress

• Fixed missing city stats for Kilford

• Adjusted sequencing of the final battle popup to correctly appear before the battle

• Dynasty, Foreign Relations and Kingdom Report UI is disabled to properly align with the campaign

• Fixed goodie hut icons not disappearing correctly

• Resolved issues with champions spawning in water while using the transport ship

Legendary Heros

• Dynasty and Kingdom Report UI is disabled to properly align with the campaign

• Resolved crash pop ups occurring when observing cities

Gameplay

• Lord Markinn and Warlord Verga are now available as selectable sovereigns

• Added in new item and recipe, the Potion of Essence that gives a sovereign +1 essence

• Units cannot get more than 15 stamina anymore

• Fixed stamina changes from tactical battles carrying over to the strategic map

• Revealing Shard and Reveal a Champion now correctly only reveals one random location instead of all

• Chances of having any additional children decrease as players have more children

• Fixed issues where chain mail proficiency was not unlocking high level chain mails

• Added in more quests

• Added functionality to the tent item, the tent will restore health but immobilize the unit/army for 1 turn

• Removed tech requirement from the air spell

• Fixed Fast ability description to show actual effect (+2 Initiative in tactical combat)

• Fixed Charge ability missing its attack bonus tooltip (+2 Attack first turn)

• Added missing Rage ability tooltip (+8 Attack when under 25% HP)

• Balance ability Initiative corrected from +2 to -1

• Hosten's Library now shows specific +10 Research instead of vague description

Graphics

• Addressed issues with HP bars being extremely high up in tactical battles

• Went through and gave clothing to Units who should be wearing shirts

• Fixed issues with Magnar slave units having broken textures when designing them

• Fixed armies appearing 2 tiles away from their actual position

• Magnar Male units now correctly wear helmets instead of having the helmets clip into their forehead

• Made sure the champion Thane Bird is wearing the correct shirt

• Fixed units in the game having missing hair revealing a black spot on the back of their head

• Fixed missing Tile Designs for Wild Ogre Camp and the Witch’s Hovel

• Fixed loading screens blacking out when loading game within a game for campaigns

• Adjusted lighting in tactical battles to not be as bright

• Fixed mounted units appearing far away and small in the Shop Screen

• Updated tactical maps

• Smoother transitions when zooming in close to the map

Modding

• Added in a bubble indicator on the title screen if there are mod updates

• Improved loading and typing for foreign languages in other languages for modding

• Updated the modding UI to be more concise and easier to understand

• Fixed a crash when enabling/subscribing to mods

Optimization

• Loading games in foreign languages will correctly appear, load and save

• Loading into a game and loading a save will be much faster

• Opening the City menus is much faster

• Improved end-of-turn speed and reduced CPU usage during AI turns

Text

• Fixed negative numbers incorrectly displaying as "+-2" instead of "-2"

• Updated Refined Arcana description to clarify it increases mana generation, not Essence

• Fixed issues where city names would not appear when cycling through the cities

• Fixed missing text in some quests throughout the game

• Improved loading for languages in other languages

• Fixed some typos within the campaigns

• Fixed missing text on some quest popups

• Updated fonts throughout the game

UI

• Fixed the Marriage button on the Dynasty Screen to work on all UI resolutions

• Added in the Ability to Edit, Copy and Delete sovereigns from the Choose Sovereign screen

• Added in the ability to Edit/Copy for sovereign factions

• Added in quest status information in quest location tooltips

• Fixed equipment tab being inaccessible when viewing enemy units

• Resolved issues of certain Units missing portraits, specifically recruitable monsters

• When opening the Hiergamenon no longer zooms in close to the background

• Continue button works when launching the game

• Updated the Unit and City tree on the left side of the screen to be updated to match the games UI

• Removed the Intro Sovereign book and replaced it with an updated screen

• Fixed missing map stamps for Mite, Spider, and Wolf lairs

• Added a confirmation when double clicking on items to use them

• Fixed missing images for some monster lairs

• Resolved clipping issues with the loading screen

• Fixed missing text after researching the Civic Tech

• Fixed missing image on the popup for when a faction is busy

• Fixed trait tooltips in conversations showing placeholder text instead of the correct trait name

City UI

• Adjusted the City Queue build status to fill when being built instead of using the old circle

• Improved the city build queue adding in smooth dragging when moving around build items

• Resolved issues where after casting Grip of Winter all of the city buttons became disabled

• Fixed city UI tooltips from being cut off

• Polished the City HUDs to support longer length text

• Fixed the city enchantment tooltip alignment

Icons

• Added in an archer icon for the tech tree

• Created icons for Bloodline traits

• Created icons for Lore traits

• Updated the Scholar’s Sanctum icon to correctly be transparent

• Fixed an issue where a player's Army Strength icon would disappear as they moved around the map

• Added in icons when an army constructs a tower for Spell of Making

• In the active effects tab being immobilized now has a proper icon and display

• Fixed missing icons in the Hiergamenon

• Added in missing icons in the research tree

This is the second in a two part series showcasing the forces available to the United Earth Forces in Ashes of the Singularity II. From deadly fighter jets to enormous armored dreadnaughts, the UEF fight for the sake of all humanity.

Play the Demo Now

Stardock Entertainment and Oxide Games announced today that a free demo for Ashes of the Singularity II, the highly anticipated sequel to the massive-scale RTS, is available now as part of Steam Next Fest. The demo will feature two factions, 8-player multiplayer, and full skirmish mode. Ashes of the Singularity II is an RTS where you command thousands of units across continent-sized maps, fighting a war for control of the solar system.

The Ashes of the Singularity II demo is set in a near future where the United Earth Forces represent humanity's last stand against the Post-Human Coalition. Each faction commands unique units, with the advanced Post-Humans fielding mechs and tanks with energy weapons vs. the UEF’s flesh and blood army. Players will battle it out to determine the winner. 

"We built Ashes of the Singularity II for people who want to think like a general, not compete in a clicking contest," said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment. "Your strategy should decide the battle, not your APM. Next Fest is a chance for players to find out if that's the kind of RTS they've been looking for." 

Demo Features Available:

• Two playable factions: United Earth Forces and Post-Human Coalition
• Skirmish mode against AI
• Full multiplayer for up to 8 players (with AI backfill as an option)
• Three maps: Small (2-4 players), Medium (2-6 players), Large (2-8 players)
• Arctic and Desert Environments
• Day and Night scenes
• Save and load functionality

Developed by Oxide Games, renowned for their technological innovation, and published by Stardock Entertainment, the company behind the acclaimed Sins of a Solar Empire series, Ashes of the Singularity II promises to elevate the RTS genre once again.

Players eager to join the fight are encouraged to play the free demo during the Steam Next Fest and wishlist Ashes of the Singularity II now on its Steam page.

Engage directly with the development team and community through the official Discord.
For more updates, visit www.ashesofthesingularity.com.

Steam Next Fest is upon us, and with it, a playable demo of Ashes of the Singularity II! We’ve been hard at work getting an early version of the game ready for public play.

In this demo, we’re exposing both Singleplayer Skirmish matches, as well as Multiplayer matches. We currently support up to 8 players in either singleplayer or multiplayer, and you can use AI players in both cases with customizable difficulties. We’ve included 7 different difficulties in the demo, ranging from ‘Trainee’, which lets you learn the basics against a fairly passive AI, all the way up to ‘General’, which pressures even our best internal players.

The AI works in both singleplayer and multiplayer, so feel free to team up with your friends in an online co-op comp-stomp as you learn the ropes. There are both Public and Private lobbies in multiplayer for custom games, so bring in friends or make new ones as you learn to play! There is no ranked play (or ‘quickmatch’) in the demo, but those features will be in the full game.

The demo has a selection of three great prebuilt maps, one Small, Medium, and Large map. The small map, Twin Lakes, is an arctic Siberia theme, and is a great place for 1v1 or 2v2 games that are more fast-paced and intense.

Crossroads (Night), our ‘medium’ map, is a 2v2 or 3v3 style map, and showcases our desert environment with a unique nighttime aesthetic.

The big map, Scorched Divide, is a daytime desert map that features a lot of jagged canyons and narrow paths. Positioning and pathing really matter, as there are a lot of cliffs that can really disrupt your ability to quickly reposition to nearby regions.

This is a really large map, targeted at 6+ players, and the ideal place for a 4v4 match. You can also run an 8-player free-for-all here, but realize that this will be a brutal slugfest and we’ve seen games like this run for well over an hour, or in some cases, multiple hours. Good news is that Save / Load is functional (in singleplayer) including autosaves, so you can breakup these marathon games into multiple sessions.

Procedural maps are reserved for the full version of the game, so if you like what you see, please remember to wishlist Ashes of the Singularity II on Steam!

We hope to see you in-game during Steam Next Fest, and enjoy playing the game as much as we’ve enjoyed making it so far.

Check out this quick getting started vid if you want to speed-run through how to construct buildings and recruit new armies.

The remastered fantasy 4X strategy RPG exits Early Access with three campaigns, a dynasty system, deep crafting, and hundreds of new quests, characters, and dungeons

Wishlist Now  |  Join Early Access

Stardock Entertainment today announced that Elemental: Reforged, the remastered and expanded fantasy 4X strategy RPG, will leave Early Access and launch on March 17, 2026 on Steam with a launch discount. 

Elemental: Reforged is a turn-based strategy game set in an RPG world. Players create their own sovereign, found a civilization, explore a procedurally generated fantasy world, and compete for control of powerful magical shards. Every unit in the game is a unique individual with their own name, stats, equipment, and history. Players can research technology, learn spells, send heroes on quests, craft magical items, and wage war or forge alliances with rival civilizations.

"What makes Elemental unique is that it's a strategy game in an RPG world. The world really is your sandbox. You create your own character, fantasy civilization and bring them into a vast world that is different each game." said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock.

The first Elemental game, Elemental: War of Magic, released in 2010 featured an ambitious design that envisioned a world in which every character was unique and existed within a living world of varied civilizations competing for domination. Despite praise of its innovative features, the game struggled under the limitations of 32-bit hardware. Two years later, Stardock released a sequel, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, which streamlined the feature set to fit better in 32-bit memory space. A spin-off game, Elemental: Sorcerer King, was developed that focused heavily on the features that were removed from the original Elemental such as crafting, quests and character progression. Now, Elemental: Reforged takes a new 64-bit and 3D engine, a remastered set of visuals, features and content of all three games, and collects them all into a brand new package that introduces new content to fully deliver the original vision of Elemental, 16 years after the first game’s release.

Elemental: Reforged Key Features:

• A world of unique characters. Players can design their own units with desired visual customization and attributes, recruit champions, equip gear and watch them develop over the course of a game.
• Three Story-Driven Campaigns. The original Elemental trilogy’s campaigns are all included: Prelude, The Fallen Enchantress, and The Legendary Heroes, each exploring an era in the history of this world and its ultimate destiny.
• Hereditary Dynasties. Sovereign rulers can marry, have children, and pass down traits and visual characteristics across generations.
• Deep Crafting System. Create unique weapons, armor, enchantments, and magical artifacts to equip your armies.
• Hundreds of New Quests, Characters, and Dungeons. Never-before-seen content, including new storylines, encounters, and explorable locations that expand the world far beyond the original games.
• 10 Distinct Civilizations. Each with unique traits, playstyles, and visual identities.
• World Terraforming. Reshape the land itself using shards of elemental magic.
• Tactical Combat. Turn-based battles with intelligent, non-cheating AI.
• Full Modding Suite with Steam Workshop. Create and share custom maps, scenarios, and total conversions.

Elemental: Reforged will release on March 17, 2026 with a launch discount on Steam or direct through Stardock.

For more information, visit www.elementalgame.com.

Wishlist Now  |  Join Early Access

Play as the UEF or PHC faction in the Ashes II Demo during Steam Next Fest (Feb 23 - Mar 2)

Wishlist Ashes II Now

Ashes of the Singularity II, the sequel to the massive-scale RTS, takes you to a world in the near future where three factions are fighting for the fate of the solar system: the United Earth Forces (UEF), the Post-Human Coalition (PHC), and the AI Substrate. Whether you're interested in the single-player campaign, multiplayer, or skirmish matches, the faction you fight for is in your hands.

Post-Human Coalition (PHC)

World elites have access to "eternal life" by uploading their consciousness. Their bodies are gone but hey, that's the price of forever.

The Post-Human Coalition started as a small group of such elites, manageable, tame. But as more and more people became post-human, the PHC found itself in disarray.

In-fighting, greed, glory, the pursuit of planets and power to fuel each individual.

Claiming planets as their own, using up natural resources and destroying ecosystems to fuel their growing computational capacity.

Some post-humans view themselves still as part of humanity. Mac chief among them. They don't revel in antagonism. They seek a mutually beneficial relationship with those who remain tied to their biological forms. They seek diplomacy, compassion, care. Maybe even greater access to post-human ascension for humans who seek it.

Some post-humans view themselves as the natural evolution of humanity, a superior off-shoot of the mammalian evolutionary progression. Demi-gods of sorts. Still looking down on humanity but without animosity.

Some post-humans consider themselves something else entirely... a race of their own... not beholden to humanity or biological beings in any way. Supreme rulers... worse perhaps. Gods that fight among themselves and care little for the ants below that may be squashed by their actions.

Before Haalee and the Substrate split from the PHC, they were able to utilize her skills and knowledge to engineer advanced technology.

Their weapon systems mix their own personal vision for post-human futures with Haalee's guiding hand.

Since their split, their technology has been adapted slightly to try to address any subterfuge on her part, whether real or imagined.

You'll see assets and units from the first game but perhaps with slight optimization, additions, and changes as they cleave themselves from Haalee's influence.

Notable Units

Commander	Hyperion	Nemesis
Starting command and control unit. Role: Enhancer Health: 2500 Damage: 98.6 Recruited from: Cannot be recruited.	Aerial dreadnaught with unmatched firepower. Role: Anti-Ground, Quality Health: 7000 Damage: 137.1 Recruited from: Sky Factory	Long-range, anti-tank ground unit. Role: Sniper, Range Health: 900 Damage: 50 Recruited from: Forge

Another Year in the 24th Century

We have an exciting year coming up for Galactic Civilizations IV, probably the biggest year of updates and improvements yet. I’ll talk about the Expansions and DLCs we have in development first and then the free updates next.

Expansion Pass 2

We’re very happy about our plans for the next two years of GalCiv, and we wanted to make that concrete for players by laying out those plans; and making it easy for players to get on board with a single purchase. The issue isn’t the content, it’s the price: It’s $75 which is a good deal when you consider it’s what we’re making for the game going into 2028. However, users just see the price tag.

So we will make a big change to Expansion Pass 2 – we’re going to add content to address those concerns. We are adding onto the Pass with an entirely new DLC: Tales of the Snathi.

If you have already bought Expansion Pass 2, you need do nothing, and the Snathi will be added automatically when they are released. If you felt that the Pass was too expensive, hopefully you will see more value in it now.

As a reminder, the schedule for 2026 is:

1. Federations & Empires (Spring)

2. Ascension (Fall)

These DLC will also be purchasable separately if desired.

2026

Now we get into the free updates and there’s a lot on our plate! We’ve been reading this thread and taking notes.

A few big things on our list:

1. Combat: We really want to beef this up in interesting ways this year. Some of this will involve updating the Warlords DLC, but a lot of it will be in free updates.

2. Planet Depth: Even the OS/2 version of GalCiv back 30 years ago had things like planetary statistics and more world depth. This is something we want to introduce in the big v4.0 update later this year.

3. UI, UI, UI: There’s a lot of UI work we’ve been doing in some of our other games that we want to bring over to GalCiv this year.

Let us know in the comments what else you would like to see this year!

Wishlist Ashes II Now

Part 2 on the streaming economy in Ashes of the Singularity II. In this video, we’ll cover the second of our key resources, Elerite, and how it shapes key mid and late game strategies.

Long time no see! Sorry about that. Happy New Year!

The sausage factory behind the scenes means that there are often multiple projects happening simultaneously. The Oxide team is busy working towards having a beta version of their near-future RTS: Ashes of the Singularity II. Do me a favor and wishlist that please! If you like strategy games, especially ones with a strong single player effort, and that focus on strategy instead of click speed, you’ll probably like it.

A lot of the Stardock time has been finishing up on the remaster of the fantasy 4X series, Elemental (War of Magic + Fallen Enchantress + Sorcerer King). It’s actually in early access and you can go check that out here: Elemental: Reforged on Steam. If you like Ara and want to imagine what a fantasy version would be like, there you go (except no supply chains).

The Good News

We talked with Microsoft near the end of the year and they were happy enough with how things are going that they’ve renewed us to continue working on Ara for another year. Our success is based on sales of the game and the DLC. That’s what determines our staffing levels (well not mine, I’m with you guys no matter what).

National Production Policy

We have been working on version 2.1 which has turned out to be a lot more complex than originally expected.

Besides having lots of balance and other tweaks the big feature is the National Production Policy system:

So here’s how that works:

Players can globally set what quotas they want for all their items and set a priority for reaching that quota.

That part is done and working great. The tricky part is how to handle it in the cities and here’s what we’ve designed and slowly been implementing:

Choice 1: Player wants to manage their improvements themselves or let the store owner handle it (which is what you have now):

But as you can see, the UI (this is a mockup btw) is a little different here. We are trying to make it easier to use.

Choice 2: You allow the improvement to be managed by the National Policy.

So in this case, your National Economic Advisor chooses what’s being built. You still have to decide what improvements are being built, what ingredients you want to let them use to speed things up, etc.

But this isn’t as straightforward at it sounds. There is a fine line between automation and having the game play itself.

And we’ve actually considered having this feature gated behind a technology in Act II or even Act III because by the time you’re entering later ages, you really shouldn’t feel like you have to tell every grocery what they should be doing. You have bigger fish to fry.

So we’d like to hear what you think! Let us know in the comments!

This week, we're shining a light on the creators that are digging into Ashes of the Singularity II! From first looks to never before seen gameplay, be sure to like and subscribe for more exclusive content.

PotatoMcWhiskey

PotatoMcWhiskey has built a massive following breaking down strategy games for players who want to know if something's worth their time. When he tries a new RTS, his audience listens.

Pravus

With years of grand strategy content under his belt, Pravus knows what makes a large-scale war game click. His first impressions carry weight with the empire-building crowd.

CaptainShack (TheXPGamers)

CaptainShack has been the authority on sci-fi gaming on YouTube for over a decade, running one of the largest communities in the space. If it involves massive battles and starships, his audience wants to hear what he thinks.

Beta 3 for Elemental: Reforged is here, bringing a substantial visual overhaul, expanded campaign content, and reworked AI

Get into Early Access  |  Add to Steam Wishlist

Visual Overhaul

The most immediately noticeable change is the updated character models. We've left the PlayStation 1 era behind with new models that apply retroactively to existing characters. We may still need to upscale some clothing models and textures, but the core visual upgrade is now in place.

Campaign Updates

Beta 3 includes two campaigns: Fallen Enchantress and Legendary Heroes. We've not only ported this classic content but expanded upon it as well. The War of Magic campaign is coming soon and will be ready for our full release.

AI and Balance Changes

The AI has received significant attention in this update. The original AI was designed to "lose well", throttling its own performance to ensure players could win while facing some early-game challenge. This approach has been reworked, with restrictions removed that previously prevented AI players from pursuing quests and exploration if the human player appeared to be struggling. We'll be lowering the default difficulty setting to account for these changes.

Bug Fixes and What's Next

Beta 3 also includes extensive bug fixes, which occupied much of our recent development time. Following this beta, we're shifting focus toward release, with plans for a post-launch roadmap based on player feedback.

Thank you for your continued support, your enthusiasm is what drives us.

Full Changelog:

Key Features

Enhanced Visuals - Overhauled character models with improved heads, textures, new hairstyles, and updated graphics

New Campaigns - Experience the Fallen Enchantress and the Legendary Heros stories in fully playable campaigns

Quality of Life Improvements - Resolved dozens of player-reported bugs affecting gameplay, UI, progression and more

January 27th, 2026 BETA 3A Update Changelog

Audio

• Added in new Title Menu Song

Gameplay

• Fixed issues where units on the map would disappear when removed from an army

• Fixed issues where units would pop around the map instead of doing proper unit movement

• Fixed the Armor and Breast plate recipes to give the correct item

AI

• AI units blocked from changing destination while units are moving

• AI now prioritizes getting goodie huts and monster lairs around their cities before exploring

Monster Lairs

• Monster lairs leveling up to stronger lairs now take world difficulty level into account when deciding when to level up

• Monster lair leveling up normalized so that they generally take quite a bit longer

Localization

• Fixed issues with typing with non-Latin characters anywhere in the game

• Save games written in non-Latin characters will now appear correctly in the load game menu

UI

• Borderless Window correctly works on all resolutions

• Updated the Campaign images

• Updated the premade Sovereign Portraits

• Made sure that campaigns that cannot use Dynasty no longer have a coming soon tooltip

• Changed the Dwarven description to be about Syndicate thugs

January 23rd, 2026 Hot Patch

Gameplay

• Spearmen and Spellcasters will face the correct direction when attacking in tactical battles

• Fixed the movement speed for Spider and Dragon mounts to not be extremely slow

Graphics

• When traveling through a city, armies will no longer leave their map position behind making it appear as if they disappeared

UI

• Fixed broken portraits that had bad sizing throughout the game

January 21st, 2026 Hot Patch

Gameplay

• Adjusted the speed of units so they no longer walk and animate slowly

• Fixed archer units not facing the correct direction in tactical battles

  • We are still addressing the direction issues for Spellcasters

Graphics

• Fixed broken particle graphics when settling a city

Saves

• Fixed an issue where campaigns would disappear when trying to play them after already loading an old save made before Beta 3

UI

• Fixed the Discord link on the title screen to no longer have an expired link

January 20th, 2026 Update Change Log

Known Issues

• If you load a save from before Beta 3 then try to play the campaigns in the same session, they will appear missing when loading into the campaign menu

AI

• Improved AI’s ability to craft

• Fixed AI overestimating threats from large enemy groups

• Fixed AI difficulty levels not scaling properly

Art

• Added in new face models for all races and genders

• Added in new body textures for all races

• Added in new eye textures

• Added in new skin textures/tattoos for all races

Audio

• Music for the game will now play Elemental Reforged tracks more often than tracks from the legacy games

Campaign

• Added in The Fallen Enchantress Campaign

• Added in The Legendary Heros Campaign

Controls

• Added the use of G (right click behavior) to tactical battles

Dynasty

• Fixed issues where a Dynasty newborn was showing up as a full-grown adult

• Babies now correctly age 1 season at a time instead of 2

• Updated the zoom on the dynasty screen

• Updated the Dynasty Screen from having tree lines that overlap into other families

• Updated the visual appearance of some of the marriage candidates

• Adjusted the childbirth chances by having made the first child easier to have, but having many children becomes harder faster

• Reduced the parent's city co-location bonus from 3x to 2x

Gameplay

• Added in new Staggered movement

  • Units will walk staggered

• Players can no longer build a pier on land

• Fixed the enemy, Kez Morn the Chainfist, to actually have a weapon

• Added in new Soul Ascension Life/Death spells which gives permanent +1 Essence

• Added in a new early-game champion event

• Added in champion roster updates

• Added in +10 training turns to abilities

Items

• Added in a new item the Frostbite Ring that has a cold attack and slow effect

• Fixed some broken items that were not functioning correctly

  • Map of Champions

  • Shard Map

  • Refreshing Elixir

  • Candlecloak Scroll

• Fixed Chain Mail Armor incorrectly showing up as a sellable item

• Fixed issues where players could not equip chain armor even though they had the chainmail trait

• Fixed the Ring of Ash to show the correct amount of damage instead of 0

• Increased damage values on several weapons for better game balance

Monster Lairs

• Heavily improved Monster Lair progression

  • Added in intermediate T2 tiers for Bandits and Darklings lairs

  • Lairs have faster upgrade times

  • Lairs are more varied with different monsters

  • Added in respawning wandering monsters

  • Wildlands lairs used more dangerous creatures

Graphics

• Updated Fog of War to reveal tiles progressively as units move through them

• Added per-scene lighting for most scenes within the game

• Added in a new tinting system for custom sovereign characters

• Updated lighting and bloom settings for the select Sovereign screen

• Updated water wave visuals

• Updated water planes to extend infinitely in cloth map mode when Fog of War is revealed

• Added in lots of improvements for the shadows

• Resolved an issue when reloading into a game caused a faction to turn neon pink or purple

• Updated the crystals on the crystal rocks

Localization

• Localization improvements done throughout the game

Modding

• The modding description window now sizes text correctly without incorrectly clipping off the side of the screen

• Fixed an issue where custom tiles saved in the Builder’s Forge had an incorrect time stamp

• Fixed issues where players could not delete their custom-made tiles

UI

• Added in a new City Context UI

• Added in a new Player Context UI

• Removed the soft lock from the game from casting the Spell of Making causing the Research window to not close

• Fixed a bug where mouse over was broken for most buttons in the game

• Resolved the overlapping notifications if players got lots of notifications on the right side of their screen

• Fixed the missing icon for essence in the tech tree

• Added in new Active Effects to players in the Unit Details

• Added a background to the Slag Ability to not make it look so transparent

• Fixed the missing Elemental Logo from the Credits

• Resolved confusing tooltips making it seem that a Corvax Leader could use specific items

• Fixed 0 fame being awarded to no longer show as ++0

• Reduce tile yield icon height

• Fixed misspellings for the unlocks for the Third Book of the Magi

Screens

• Updated the Campaign Screen

• Updated the Unit Upgrade Screen

• Updated the Heal Injury Screen

• Updated the Enchant a Unit screen

Sins of a Solar Empire II has extensive modding tools to help creators in the community bring their ideas to life, to mutate, enhance and alter the game in many different ways.

In this video, we’ll take a look at a small selection of the more popular mods that alter Sins II in various ways to give you an idea of what is on offer. These mods tweak statistics or remove limitations on existing units, add new Maps, or overhaul the game with entirely original content such as new Ships, Starbases, Technologies and more!

All these mods can be found and accessed on the mod.io site or through our in-game mod browser.