February 2026
February was focused on finishing off the new skill trait content & giving it all VFX
TL;DR
80 skill traits done + VFX
1M+ possible skill combos
UI is placeholder (missing icons) until full UI rework
NEW Skills currently auto-named; custom naming coming soon
NEW Progression rebalanced; enemies now generate strategy-based skill sets
NEXT: ~1 week in-house QA/playtest, then playable build to limited playtesters (via Discord)
NEXT: skill naming + Astral nicknames, then Astral Abilities
The Update
Skill traits are now complete & have VFX! With a final total of 80 traits! Thats enough to create well over 1 million combinations!
February started half way through the new Skill Trait update, now it’s finally feature complete and rocking some tasty VFX to boot!
Once the in house QA & Playtesting is done in the next week or so, I'll be rolling out a playable build to playtesters to let them play around with making any of the well over 1 MILLION possible skills!
I’m looking forward to seeing what strategies and builds players come up with!
More updates
UI
It’s worth noting the skill related UI is currently a bit of a mess; Icons are missing for most traits, so a temporary UI solution is in place for now. Usable but kinda ugly and boring. BUT this will be updated as part of our coming UI full rework!
Skill naming was on the cards for this month but the bug fixing has taken longer than planned, so currently skills get an auto-generated name only. But you’ll get to name them soon!
Content/Progression
With all these new skill traits the progression curve of the game has needed tweaking, as well as how enemy Astrals generate skills. Previously it was pretty much random, but now there is a first pass at a system that generates skills based around a specific strategy type. Early days but im hoping to use this system to make opponents feel like they have personality and archtypes
Polish
All the new Form skill traits needed VFX, for every type, so that took a while. But they are all done. It’s the kind of thing i wish i had infinite time to polish but reality isn’t so generous
What’s next
The next week or so will be in house playtesting & fixing things
Followed by releasing the build to a limited playtester pool (if interested you can inquire on our discord!)
The next feature goals are to allow skill naming (and Astral Nicknaming) and then moving on to Astral Abilities! They are going to add a fun strategic layer to each Astral, giving players something to build their strategy around!
If you want to help support Astral Arena please Wishlist + tell one person who might like the game!