Developer posts and news about this game.
I rebuilt the first hour. Then I rebuilt everything around it. A few weeks ago someone recorded 23 minutes of themselves playing Starfend for the first time. Near the end they said something I couldn't unhear: "The tutorial is vague. I didn't retain any of the information. I most
Your runs just got a plan. Two of Starfend's core systems grew up this update. Stones now have somewhere to go — ten rarity ranks, from humble Stardust all the way to Cosmic — and skills stopped being a lucky drop and became something you draft , run after run. 💎 Stones: rank up
Pick up a controller. Starfend was waiting for this. When I first built Starfend, it was a mouse-and-keyboard game that happened to tolerate a gamepad. Not anymore. I rebuilt control from the ground up — and the game I always pictured, the one you play leaned back on the couch wi
Hey everyone, We've put real work into making Starfend a great experience on Steam Deck: 🎮 Full controller support — every menu and action is playable with the Deck's controls, no manual setup required. On-screen button prompts match the Deck. 🖥️ UI adapted to the Deck's 1280×8
Full Controller Support Starfend now has complete controller support powered by Steam Input! What's New Play with any controller — Xbox, PlayStation (DualSense/DualShock), Switch Pro, Steam Deck, and generic gamepads are all supported, including future devices. On-screen prompts
New Features Localization — 10 Languages Supported The game is now fully localized in 10 languages, including support for CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) and Cyrillic scripts. Font atlases were rebuilt for all language groups to ensure proper rendering across every screen, toolti
Giant Meteor System — Major Update New Features Giant Meteors - Up to 10 Giant Meteors now orbit the battlefield simultaneously, each with a unique orbit radius and speed. - Giant Meteors scale in size proportionally to their current HP — the bigger they look, the more dangerous
Tooltip System Overhaul We've completely reworked the in-game tooltip system to make it clearer and more useful during both the Prepare and Battle phases. - Click-to-inspect: Clicking an enemy or gun now opens a detailed tooltip. Clicking the same target again closes it — no more
NEW — Wave Buff Cards - Attack Range — A new color-coded buff card, one per gun color. When picked, permanently increases the attack range of all guns of that color. The more you stack it, the farther your fleet reaches. - Collect All Coins — A utility card that instantly vacuums
Stone Inventory Filters Finding the right stone in a large inventory just got easier. The stone inventory panel now has a filter bar with 13 buttons — one for each of the 10 stone colors and one for each of the 3 tiers. Tap a color to show only stones of that color. Tap a tier to
New Features Main Drone Shield The Main Drone now has an active Shield ability. Press Shift to activate it and block incoming damage. The ability has its own cooldown UI and 4 new sound effects. Shield is also available in the control rebinding menu. Wave Buff History Bar A new H
Starfend — Build Update | May 2026 ⚙️ Settings & Controls Full Settings screen with Audio, Video, and Controls tabs Audio: Individual sliders for Music, SFX, Voice, and Cutscene volume; Tips toggle Video: Fullscreen toggle, Resolution selector, VSync, Target FPS (30/60/120/Un
Full Audio Overhaul The game now has sound effects for virtually every action: ship placement and destruction, drone hits, stone shop interactions, dash recharge, skill tree upgrades, game speed changes, and more. Tower placement sites also now loop an ambient audio cue while sel
Starfend — Update Notes Meteors - Meteors now grow larger as waves progress and visually shrink as they take damage - New LavaRock shader with glowing emissive cracks that deepen as the meteor loses health Coins - Destroying meteors now drops coins with a pickup visual effect - C
New Features - Leaderboard on Main Menu — the global ranking is now accessible directly from the main screen, no need to start a match. - Main Menu button on Prepare Screen — you can now return to the main menu directly from the preparation screen. Gameplay Changes - Fleet reset
Abilities Overhaul The Abilities screen has been redesigned to make every choice feel more meaningful. - Smaller, tighter point pool — The total point cap has been reduced from 240 to 100, earned at 1 point per victory. Progression feels complete sooner and choices carry more wei
New Feature: Buff Stones (Meta-Progression) A new meta-progression system has been added, Buff Stones. Stones persist across matches and give your guns permanent damage boosts. Stones - Stones come in 3 tiers, each granting a flat damage multiplier to specific gun colors: - Tier
UI Visual Polish - Wave buff cards now display a color-coded frame that matches the cannon color of each buff — makes it much easier to read your choices at a glance - All in-game tooltips (gun stats, drone stats, enemy info) now have a matching colored frame border, giving the U
New Features - Keyboard shortcuts for upgrade selection — when the buff card screen appears between waves, press 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 to select the card in the corresponding position. Speed shortcuts (1/2/3) return to normal after closing the screen. - Keyboard speed controls — press
New Features Speed Control & Score Multiplier - Press 1, 2, or 3 during gameplay to set game speed to 1×, 2×, or 4×. - Your final score now reflects how fast you played — running at 4× speed can quadruple your leaderboard score. - Steam leaderboard updated to rank players by