Greetings, Commanders!
Pre-flight checks are complete, and safety protocols are disengaged—our open playtest is now live until April 18th! Access has been granted to all those who've requested it, and for prospective pilots who've yet to, you can still do so on our Steam page!
This week's playtest will include two opportunities for our recruits to become full-time pilots, that is to say, two ways to earn a full-game key!
Last but not least, in addition to the content revealed in our original playtest announcement, we'll also be testing an early iteration of the long-requested Endless Mode! If you enjoy being barraged with enemy fire and mercilessly pursued through the cold, unforgiving expanse of the universe, worry not—you can do so indefinitely!
What To Look Out For
Narrative Encounters - These will appear as dedicated nodes on the Starmap and randomly when warping into a new sector. Each scenario offers multiple outcomes and a level of risk associated with each decision.
Luck System - A new player stat that tips the cosmic scale in your favor across several systems—narrative encounters, crate and cache drops during combat, and augment, enhancement, and weapon reward quality.
Skill Tree Expansion - The full skill tree (48 skills across Damage, Survival, and Exploration paths) has been completely redesigned and expanded. Additionally, Lock and Banish charges join Rerolls to give you more control over your manifest.
All skill costs will be reduced by 50% temporarily to allow players (you) to explore more of the Skill Tree during the limited playtest!
New Mineable Resources - In support of our Skill Tree expansion, materials and Science can now be collected via Mineable Asteroid Clusters and new roaming Anomalies.
Endless Mode - Upon defeating the Rebel Flagship, players can now choose to continue their runs indefinitely. This will generate a new Star Map for the player to complete, with increasing Threat Levels.
These are, of course, in addition to countless improvements to enemy behavior, performance, and gameplay! For a more in-depth debrief on some of today's major additions, refer to our last transmission:
Report To High Command
We strongly encourage all pilots to submit their mission reports to their commanding officer (which, just so happens, is a feedback survey—don't question it; they outrank you). Additionally, we welcome any and all additional feedback, suggestions, and reports of anomalous activity to be made directly to High-Command via our community Discord, links to which can be found below.
Playtester Key Raffle & Discord Role
Once again, we'll be raffling off a handful of keys to the full game to those who participate in the playtest! Here's how to enter:
Complete a few test flights of the Starforged Legacy Playtest.
Complete the Feedback Survey (also accessible from the in-game main menu).
Join our community Discord to be notified when we draw winners!
When filling out the feedback survey, be sure to include your Discord username (not just nickname)! This is how we'll contact our winners and distribute game keys.
Testers who leave feedback as well as their Discord handle in our survey will also receive a playtester-exclusive 'Test Pilot' role in our Discord!
Highscore Contest
To qualify, submit a screenshot of your post-mission 'Victory' screen in the #contests channel on our community Discord. Multiple submissions are allowed if you happen to surpass your own high score, but make sure your final score is submitted by the end of April 18th.
After the deadline, we'll review the submissions and distribute keys to the three highest-scoring participants! These keys will grant you full access when we launch in Early Access, 1.0, and beyond!
Communication Systems Online
Receive incoming transmissions: news, announcements, devlogs, and deep-space disturbances, by following Second Shift Games on X (formerly Twitter), Bluesky, YouTube, Reddit, and TikTok, or by visiting our website: SecondShiftGames.com.
Join our community Discord to chat with the developers and fellow pilots, and give your feedback on the game!
Wishing you clear skies, Commander.
// END TRANSMISSION //