Starforged Legacy Update 0.3.2 [v2970]

Update 0.3.2 Hangar & Arsenal is our largest content update yet. It introduces a faster, combat-focused mode, three ships with twelve curated loadouts, four weapons, twenty-eight new Augments, six new Ship Upgrades, and an extensive overhaul of Augmentations.

Thank you to every pilot who participated in the recent public beta and shared feedback with us! Your reports directly shaped adjustments to Combat Circuit shops and reward flow, the Dreadwing, Augment balance, mission clarity, and many of the fixes below.

Content

Combat Circuit

Combat Circuit is a focused twelve-sector gauntlet built around a repeating fight, extract, and shop loop. It removes Starmap navigation, allowing for constant challenges to the player's builds while still enabling meaningful route, economy, and risk decisions.

• Choose between two Salvage Routes before each sector. Routes determine the next sector's challenges and rewards, then add a related benefit to the following shop.

• Decide when to activate the warp drive after completing an objective. Staying longer earns more opportunities, but Threat continues to rise, and enemy pressure escalates.

• Face bosses in sectors 6 and 12, with a full repair after the sector 6 boss.

• Shop between sectors using Credits earned during the run. Combat Circuit shops offer Weapons, Augments, and Ship Upgrades, plus Reroll, Banish, Lock, and repair services.

• After sector 12, earned Credits are banked. Choose Press On to continue directly into Endless, or End Run to return to the Main Menu.

• Compete on a dedicated Combat Circuit Leaderboard.

• Challenge routes reveal their modifier before commitment and grant an additional Augment choice on completion.

• High-Stakes routes add Threat and faster reinforcements in exchange for bonus currency. Completing a High-Stakes sector raises Threat for the rest of the run. High Stakes appears on 25% of eligible route screens on Normal, 40% on Hard, and 60% on Impossible; the following eligible route screen is standard-only.

• Lingering after an objective attracts increasingly frequent elite reinforcements. ALI warns when an elite warship enters the sector.

New Playable Ships

Starward (Frigate) - Fast escort frigate whose self-fabricating Aegis capacitors intercept incoming fire and strike enemies that breach its orbit.

• Aegis Capacitor Array (Signature Augment) - Gain 3 Aegis Capacitors and fabricate on every 3s, up to 8. They intercept enemy Projectiles or detonate on enemies, dealing 100% of Max Shields as Damage within 15m.

Sunder (Cruiser) - An assault cruiser that tears space open with every Micro Warp, carving a damaging corridor through the enemy formation.

• Riftwake (Signature Augment) - Micro Warp tears open a damaging rift along its path, instantly striking every enemy caught in the corridor. Rift damage increases with Thruster component level.

Dreadwing (Battleship) - A retaliatory carrier that deploys Fighter wings as its Shields fall, recalls squads as Shields recover, and rebuilds destroyed Fighters over time.

• Reprisal Wing (Signature Augment) - When Shields fall below 75%, 50%, and 25%, deploys 4 Machine Gun Fighters. Fighters return when Shields recover above 30%, 55%, and 80%, and must rearm before redeploying. Fighter Health and Damage increase with Subsystem level.

New Weapons

• Flak Cannon: A close-range projectile cannon that fires a wide blast. Its Augments can tighten or widen the pattern, redirect pierced shots, or turn concentrated hits into a stunning shockwave. Unlocks for 1,000 Credits.

• Arc Cutter: A persistent penetrating Beam array that sweeps across the selected firing direction. Additional Beam count can create staggered trailing cutters that hit independently. Its Array Duration now counts toward its Fire Interval, so there is less downtime between sweeps. Unlocks for 25 Science.

• Gravity Missile: A homing missile that pulls ordinary enemies into a gravity well before detonating. Bosses and movement-immune targets resist the pull but still take damage. Unlocks for 100 Materials.

• Compression Field: An expanding field that damages enemies, then contracts to arrange surviving enemies around the ship for follow-up attacks. Unlocks for 3,000 Credits.

Each weapon becomes available to purchase after 4,000 kills with its weapon family, and its Augments unlock at 400, 1,600, and 4,000 kills with that exact weapon. All four weapons have dedicated icons, Arsenal entries, and unique Augment pools.

Augment Overhaul

Augments now provide fixed-power effects instead of being upgraded repeatedly during a run. This keeps each Augment's identity readable and makes component capacity a meaningful build decision:

• Augments no longer have levels. Previously, an Augment could be found again to raise it from level 1 to level 5, and its numbers scaled with that level. Every Augment now grants its complete effect the moment you acquire it.

• Each component can hold up to eight Augments.

• Ship Overview and component tooltips now show used and available Augment capacity.

• Owned Augments no longer appear as upgrade rewards. Level-up and Upgrade rewards focus on Ship Upgrades instead.

• Build-dependent Augments can now require supporting stats, tags, or effects before entering the reward pool.

• Critical, Dodge, and Pierce payoff Augments now require a meaningful amount of their enabling stat before they can appear.

• Incompatible Augments now block one another directly instead of allowing dead or contradictory combinations.

Because levels are gone, every Augment has been returned to a single fixed value. The Augment Rebalance section below lists those whose feel has changed the most.

Pool Curation

The new tier-five Exploration skill Pool Curation lets pilots shape future reward pools from the Codex:

• Disable or re-enable up to 10 purchased Augments so they no longer appear in future reward rolls.

• Choices persist through save, load, and respec.

• Codex tiles clearly show whether each Augment is enabled or disabled.

• Full keyboard, mouse, and gamepad actions are supported.

New Augments

New Ship Upgrades

• Expanded Swarm (Swarm Missile): Launches additional missiles in every swarm.

• Scatter Chamber (Flak Cannon): A high-capacity flak chamber that adds projectiles.

• Collapsed Core (Gravity Missile): Gravity wells grow larger and persist longer.

• Bank Shot (Projectile Weapons): Projectiles may ricochet toward nearby enemies.

• Integrated Systems (Subsystem): Unified processing improves Experience Gain and Luck.

• Tactical Uplink (Subsystem): Coordinated weapon systems increase global Damage and Range.

Repair Support Drones

• Nanite Repair now deploys an unarmed Repair Support Drone instead of applying the repair invisibly.

• Repair Support restores a share of Max Health immediately and then continues healing from a finite reserve.

• Repair Support pauses while Hull is full and resumes when healing is needed.

• Paid Repair Contract Beacons can now appear in combat. They cost Credits that scale with map depth, cannot be used at full Hull or at the drone cap, and are refunded for failed purchases. They account for roughly 10% of paid Beacon rolls.

• IRONHIDE’s Emergency Protocol now deploys an armed Repair Drone that heals while firing one Machine Gun magazine.

Combat History

• Added a player-facing Combat History stream that records damage, kills, and other combat events.

• Open the full history from Pause or Run Summary, then filter and scroll the event list with mouse, keyboard, or gamepad.

• Run Summary now presents Damage and Combat History in a single, consistent analysis panel.

Weekly Leaderboards

• Leaderboards now use week-specific scoreboards that reset each Sunday using Steam server time.

• A countdown below the Leaderboard shows when the next weekly competition begins.

• Older weekly scores remain separated from the current competition.

Augment Rebalance

Because Augments no longer have levels, every one of these now grants a single fixed value instead of scaling from level 1 to level 5.

• Ablative Plating: Now restores 6% Max Health every 30 kills.

• Pulsing Plating: Now deals 100% of Max Health as damage in a 50 m radius on a 2-second cooldown.

• Reinforced Bulkheads: Now grants 100 Base Health for a 10% Movement Speed penalty.

• Power Surge: Now deals 50% of Max Shields as damage to up to 4 enemies. It has moved out of the Shield pool and into the general Weapon pool, and now requires a meaningful amount of Shields before it can appear.

• Capacitor Burst: Redesigned around critical strikes. Instead of a flat weapon damage bonus, it now grants 50% Critical Chance and 100% Critical Damage for 6.5 seconds whenever Shields fully recharge.

• Beam Efficiency: Now increases Fire Rate and reduces Reload Time by 25% for each other equipped Beam Weapon, up to 50% each.

• Shattered Shields: Cooldown increased from 3 to 10 seconds, and it now appears on the Buff Bar.

• Projectile Proficiency: Returned to Projectile Weapon drops. It grants 10% Fire Rate and 25% Max Ammo for each equipped Projectile Weapon, and now applies those bonuses correctly instead of multiplying them to extreme values.

• Emergency Protocol: Its Repair Drone is now armed. It heals for 5 seconds while firing one 72-round magazine, deploys reliably on fresh Ironclad Core loadouts, and returns within 15 seconds.

• Deathmark Tether is now Red Hole. On kill, it has a chance to spawn a Red Hole that makes nearby enemies take more damage.

• Arc Amplification: Now stacks at most five times per magazine, and its description states the limit.

• Repeated Rounds and Belt Fed: Stack caps reduced to 12. Combat Catalyst: Stack cap reduced to 8.

• Fallout Zone: Duration increased to 5 seconds, and radius increased to 10 m.

• Critical, Dodge, and Pierce payoff Augments now require a meaningful amount of their enabling stat before they can appear as a reward. Most Dodge Augments now require 15% Dodge Chance to drop, Evasive Maneuvers requires 5%, and Evasive Overload now requires Plasma.

• Dodge Augments no longer hand out the stat they pay off. Evasive Maneuvers and Offensive Evasion no longer grant base Dodge Chance, Evasive Fire no longer grants Dodge on ability use, and Glancing Blows lost its On Dodge effect.

• Weapon Augment descriptions now consistently say Fire Rate instead of Attack Interval, and Impact Amplifier's Tick Interval wording was corrected.

Ship Upgrades

• Beam, Field, Missile, and Projectile Mastery now scale from your current component damage instead of adding a flat amount, ranging from 4% to 6% at Common up to 35% to 50% at Legendary.

• Experimental Warheads and High-Velocity Rounds now grant 18% to 24% Damage at Rare, 30% to 38% at Epic, and 52% to 65% at Legendary.

• Combat Array now grants 8% to 14% Damage at Epic and 18% to 26% at Legendary.

• Focused Aperture now grants 8% to 12% at Rare, 14% to 20% at Epic, and 25% to 35% at Legendary.

• Mega Rounds now grants 4% to 18% Damage across its tiers.

• Neutron Warheads now grants 4% to 22% Damage across its tiers.

• Deep Space Scanner now reduces paid Beacon Credit costs by 25% instead of permanently marking Beacons on the HUD.

• Engine Tuning can now appear at every rarity. It improves Movement Speed and Acceleration, making Thruster levels easier to raise.

• Thruster Efficiency no longer displays as Engine Core, and now shows its correct description and Cooldown.

Rewards and Economy

• Banish now removes a Ship Upgrade at every rarity for the rest of the run instead of removing only the selected rarity. Banished offers no longer leave empty reward slots, and locked copies of a newly banished item return the Lock charge.

• Shops and reward screens no longer offer Ship Upgrades that cannot improve a capped stat, and they refresh offers that become capped or banished while another reward screen is open.

• Shop prices now increase with run depth, and boss Credit rewards increase with progression.

• Repair buttons now show honest FULL REPAIR and REPAIR {N} HP labels instead of a single generic option.

• Selected-ship Luck and rolled Ship Upgrade values now survive starts, restarts, resumes, and map travel.

• Early Luck now scales Ship Upgrade rarity more gradually. At very high Luck, Common and Uncommon results are removed from normal rolls.

• Anomaly missions now award double Science plus a separate burst of map-scaled Credit pickups.

• Standard Science rewards increased by 30%. Station Defense now grants a High Science payout when it rolls Science.

• Paid Augment Beacons are now much rarer, making room for the new Repair Contract Beacon in the paid Beacon rotation.

Missions and Enemies

• Rewrote all 30 narrative events so situation text, ALI commentary, player choices, and outcome reactions are clearly separated.

• Narrative event presentation now gives ALI a clearer portrait, label, and dialogue treatment while leaving more room for event text.

• Broadened the secondary mission pool, clarified objectives, and reduced repeated generic kill and mining missions.

• Station Defense Breachers now pose a meaningful threat to the objective.

• Defense and escort missions now add only Breachers around their objective instead of stacking another full set of regular enemy waves over the sector's normal spawns. Remaining Breachers now stop, charge, and detonate when the mission ends instead of disappearing instantly.

• Enemy Reinforcement Beacons now summon one named elite Cruiser with 20% additional Hull instead of an entire fleet.

• Tier 3 Shielders now fight as ranged support units and appear only in group waves.

• The Swarm Carrier now launches a new wave of five Fighters after its current wave is destroyed.

• Enemies now approach from a wider variety of positions instead of repeatedly forming the same radial lanes.

• Guaranteed mini-bosses now retry validated spawn positions instead of appearing inside blocked or unnavigable space.

• Boss missions now complete reliably at zero Health and award their reward once.

• Narrative follow-up missions now begin correctly, and Science Station Aid now advances from drive-key collection to the return objective and awards its Mission Bounty correctly.

• Zone Control progress now remains visible at the control point, and its capture beams remain visible for the full capture.

• All live enemies now use clearer player-facing names in combat notifications and history.

Combat

• Plasma Arc and other Beam Weapons now cap bounce and blade counts at 32, preventing runaway chains from growing into hundreds of projectiles.

• Cluster Warhead secondary explosions no longer critically hit, and Cluster Warhead now applies correctly per projectile again.

• Follow Up Strike children no longer take a second Range Amplifier pass.

• Defense Protocol and NPC Railguns in Point Defense and support missions now deal damage on hit.

• Trader Rescue NPC weapons now deal damage correctly, and pooled NPC projectiles no longer lose or reuse damage.

• Mining Laser now appears immediately, remains continuous while mining, stops cleanly when interrupted or out of range, and cannot complete another extraction after losing range.

• Radiation Wake and Proximity Trail now distribute hazards along completed movement paths instead of clustering them at the starting point, and Radiation Wake creates a fixed-size cloud path when Phase Beam misses.

• Ion Pulse now stops safely if its Weapon or ship source disappears.

• Beam Weapon audio now pauses and resumes correctly when menus open and close.

• Environmental hazard damage is now attributed to Hazard instead of Unknown.

• Beam Array Ship Upgrades now grant the correct Beam counts and use the correct stat label.

UI and Controls

• Added a Random Ship and Loadout button that previews a random unlocked combination before starting a run.

• Ship Customization now uses consistent right-facing portraits, and unreleased ships appear as non-selectable CLASSIFIED silhouettes.

• Skill Tree gamepad support improved. X now refunds the selected skill; directional input follows connected skills and branches instead of skipping nodes; moving focus no longer drags the view; and reopening resets the view correctly.

• Long Current Missions objectives now wrap instead of stretching the menu across the screen.

• Equipment reward notifications now stay underneath Pause and other menus, and resume after returning to gameplay.

• Added compact Weapon, Ship Upgrade, and Augment reward receipts. Ship Upgrade stat changes are color-coded, and receipts wait until reward selections close instead of covering them.

• Augment cards now identify the exact Weapon or movement component they apply to.

• Augment tooltips now use explicit benefit, downside, and neutral colors instead of guessing from whether a number is positive or negative.

• Stun, Slow, Armor Breach, and Plasma keywords now display their matching status icons, and missing stat icons were added across Augment descriptions.

• Added consistent Threat and Warp icons across run screens, plus icons for previously unsupported stats.

• Reward cards now transition cleanly between mouse hover and keyboard or gamepad focus, and the full Augment card owns hover, click, focus, and confirm input.

• Ship Customization controller focus now enters ship cards correctly, and A/Cross reliably confirms the selected ship and reaches Start Run.

• Settings now maintains a clear gamepad focus indicator when opening the screen, changing tabs, and navigating controls.

• Difficulty Select now uses the same orange focus and selected states as other menu buttons.

• Main Menu and Quit prompts now explain when the current run will be saved.

• Ship outlines now default to Off for new profiles and can still be enabled in Settings.

• Failed interactions and pickups now explain the reason, play a failure sound, and remain available to retry instead of silently consuming Credits or rewards.

• Restored Campaign Star Map control icons and normalized movement-ability input prompts.

• Restored manual aiming and firing after narrative events.

• Mineable HUD markers now appear only when nearby and reliably hide outside range.

Performance & Optimizations

• Converted and cleaned up a large number of combat, projectile, hazard, enemy, and environment effects using lighter emitters and effect-specific scalability settings.

• Added pooling and reliable cleanup for transient effects, targeting markers, projectile trails, field instances, and repeated combat tasks.

• Added bounded workload limits for extreme projectile, radius, chain, persistent-effect, and secondary-proc combinations to protect late-game frame time.

• Ship Upgrades that would exceed supported projectile or radius limits stop appearing as future rewards.

• Preloads the next sector background during warp, reduces blocking level-streaming work, spreads texture uploads, and caps packaged 4K textures and skyboxes at 2048.

• Fixed long-run buildup involving projectiles, reload ownership, knockback tasks, looping trails, and enemy-death effects.

• Restored runtime obstacle navigation carving.

• Fixed a Windows startup crash when Steam is unavailable.

• Improved FSR Frame Generation stability when the viewport is lost during travel or shutdown.

• Added Steam Deck defaults, including a skipped first-launch benchmark, FSR anti-aliasing, and updated UI scaling.

Art, Audio, and Clarity

• Added new menu and combat music tracks and restored correct Main Menu music switching.

• Reduced repeated field-impact audio and cleaned up several high-volume combat sounds, including a Pause sound refactor.

• Updated fog, nebula, radiation, targeting, enemy-death, projectile, and pickup presentation for better readability.

• Damage, Electric, Plasma, Slow, and Stun explosions no longer use the large abrasive sphere, and Breached Core and Nuclear effects now read with a red border instead of pink.

• Removed thrusters from small enemies while keeping them on bosses, mini-bosses, and elites.

• Added clear Codex descriptions for the live weapon roster.

Fixes

• Fixed repeated or failed input during Run Setup, Ship Customization, and Star Map travel causing duplicate transitions, lost resumable progress, or disabled controls.

• Protected progression from being discarded when unlock data changes, and fixed Codex unlocks updating only one entry linked to a shared condition.

• Fixed XP modifiers applying twice to normal rewards and preserved XP or Credits earned before death.

• Fixed reward screens becoming stuck, reopening, or appearing in the wrong order.

• Fixed weapons attaching to the wrong ship sockets after changing or restoring a loadout.

• Fixed Charger collisions launching enemies far across the battlefield.

• Fixed Exploder enemy activation and Irradiated and Junkyard Cruiser Shield presentation and collision issues.

• Fixed enemy targeting indicators not appearing.

• Fixed leaderboard run details losing ship or difficulty information.