Cold starlight settles over the Reach. Cosmic storms dull briefly and wrecks drift more slowly, crusted in frost and pale blue light.
Welcome to Wildgate’s Winter Festival! Our latest event arrives December 18 and runs through until January 15th.
Here’s an early preview of some of the new goodness coming in our latest patch.
REASONS FOR THE SEASON
As the winds turn chill in the Reach, you’ll see the weather and storms shifting too.The few that call this everchanging part of the galaxy “home” are also celebrating the changing of the seasons, from the Lucky Docks to your favorite Points of Interest.
Snowball fights abound, but be careful - some appear to contain Rocks…
WINTER CRATES
Winter Crates are coming to a loot room near you! Each crate contains one of sixteen limited time seasonal items, including (by popular community demand) three very important Ophreet who have insisted on wearing the warmest and coziest winter coat imaginable.
Any opened Winter Crate, just like a Scrap Crate, rewards the entire crew. If your teammate finds one, you get credit too! Sharing is caring this holiday, even in the vacuum of space.
LOGIN REWARD EVENT
In addition to scrap crates, there's even more presents under the reactor this holiday! Every day you log in and play, you’ll collect a new winter-themed reward.
There’s 8 rewards to collect, so make sure to grab all yours before the end of Winter Festival! Check out your progress at the bottom-left of the main menu screen.
PROXIMITY CHAT ENTERS...THE CHAT
Prospectors have been asking for this one since launch! We heard you. And soon, so will everyone else.
Proximity Chat allows you to talk to any nearby player in range, even if they are not on your team. It is fully opt-in. Turn it on in the options menu and your voice will broadcast locally in the Reach.
Make uneasy alliances! Make brand new (respectful) enemies! We can’t promise resulting conversations will always be wise (that’s just from our internal playtests), but they will certainly be memorable.
A few details for the curious:
Proxy chatting non-teammates who are nearby will be displayed on your HUD with a name and speaker icon.
On either PC or console, if you have Open mic enabled, your Proximity Chat will broadcast to your team, party and proxy chat channels. Everyone will hear everything!
On PC, you can set a separate Push To Talk bind/key for Proximity Chat.
If your teammates have separate binds for Proximity Chat, you won’t hear them transmitting there - you’ll only hear them chatting in team or party channels.
On console, if enabled, Proximity Chat is always Open Mic. There’s only so many buttons!
Proximity Chat uses the same moderation system as in-game voice for Wildgate, so don’t say anything you wouldn’t say in front of your parents, your grandparents (their language pending), or an angry horde of Reach Beasts. They have surprisingly good hearing.
Get a good clip? Share them with us @PlayWildgate on socials, or in our video channel on our official Discord server!
REACH DROPS - NEW HARDPOINTS
It wouldn’t be the holidays without a few pieces of technology! Never fear, we’ve gadgets and gizmos aplenty.
Coolant Button:
Ever had a ship that’s a bit of a fixer-upper? Us too. Enter the Coolant Button - hit it to activate Ice and soothe your poor ship’s wounds. It’s on a separate cooldown to your standard Ice button on your ship’s reactor, so can give you that extra bit of healing in a pinch.
Time to play Dance Dance Refrigeration.
Ship Flash Shield:
What if you could make your ship invulnerable to all damage for 5 seconds?
The clever beings who invented the Flash Shield have brought a ship-sized one to market just in time for the holidays. Prepare for ramming speed?
IMPROVEMENTS AND COMMUNITY REQUESTS
Proxy chat's not the only community-requested feature to land this patch. Here's a few more improvements and additions we've made based on your feedback - thanks for keeping it coming, and keeping it constructive!
Loadout Slots:
As a follow-up to loadout changing in lobby, you can now save up to three custom loadout presets!
Swap between your best builds anywhere in Wildgate that you can normally change your loadout. If you need to tweak your team setup or respond to a particular opponent you see in a lobby, now you’re ready to roll.
Custom Lobbies - New Game Modes:
Custom Lobbies now support Fleet Battle and Treasure Hunt! Host your own matches, practice scenarios, community events, or full scale chaos nights. Whatever your crew and friends enjoy, you can now run it on demand. Pop by our official Discord’s LFG channels and hop into some games.
Discord Integration:
Wildgate now includes Discord presence and rich presence features. You’ll be able to:
See who is online, idle, or offline
View detailed game activity like mission type or session time
Send direct game invites through Discord and receive them in game
Speaking of Discord - the LFG Channels in our official Discord server are a great place to find crewmates to queue with!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Whether you’re giving the gift of friendship via charming proximity chat comms (we trust you), collecting festive fancies or grabbing a game of Fleet Battle with friends, we hope you’ll find some seasonal cheer in Wildgate’s Winter Festival.
We’ll be taking some time to rest and reflect from the 24th, then be right back with you in the New Year. 2026 will start with a patch in early January with something we’re excited about (but can’t talk about quite yet), that we hope will bring a new bunch of players into the game.
Happy Holidays, and see you in the Reach!