NEW: HARDCORE / PERMADEATH

17 Sep 2026Developer post

☠️ NEW: HARDCORE / PERMADEATH

One hull. One life. No second chances.

Tick HARDCORE / PERMADEATH on the main menu to enter a whole new universe. You'll read the rules and choose to accept before anything changes.
One life. When your hull hits zero, your Hardcore pilot is gone for good. It stays on your roster as a Ghost, a reminder of what you lost.
A world of its own. Hardcore pilots fly on their own server, apart from everyone else.
Self-found. Everything you have, you earned: your own credits, bank and cargo. No auction house, no mail, no trading, no squads, no battlegrounds or arenas.
Your ship, your skill. No Ship Enhancements. Premium ships and your Supporter pass still count.
A brand-new Hardcore title screen and its own theme music. Turn it up.
Normal pilots and Hardcore pilots share your pilot slots. Pilots from the other mode are shown locked until you switch modes.

Every faction has a true home. Each faction's safe zone now sits deep in its own territory, near its corner of the galaxy, with its homeworld rising behind it.
The Neutral Zone (the old Sanctum Reach, where Grand Admiral Korrath Vael fell) is the open space at the heart of the galaxy. Its safe zone is the only one every faction may use.
Home is home. Another faction's safe zone won't protect you, serve you, or take you in. You always respawn at your own faction's home.
Orbital stations circle every safe zone. You'll only see the stations that serve you.

The Black Market at the Neutral Zone deals only with smugglers: pilots of the Shroud Collective, and Phantoms of any faction.
It's the one way goods cross the war lines. Everyone else needs a smuggler.

Every ship's hull is now four times stronger. Fights last longer, and every decision counts.

Item tooltips are back and far more detailed: what an item does, its rarity, what you already have installed, whether it's an upgrade or a downgrade, trade rules and what a vendor will pay.
Your call: you can now install a weaker upgrade if you want to. We'll ask you to confirm first so it's never an accident.
Weapon modifier tooltips show what's already on that weapon.
Your buff and debuff bar and your hit numbers are showing again.

Every orbital station has its own ambient music, and your track picks up right where it left off when you fly away.
A fitting salute plays when you fall in battle.
If loot can't be picked up, you'll now see why.

Rejoining fixed: logging out and back in, or returning from the hangar, now reconnects every time.
When the servers are busy you'll see a clear SERVER IS FULL message instead of an error. Try again in a few minutes.
If a connection is refused, the warp screen tells you why and counts down each retry.
Deleting a pilot works again.
Title screen and Pilot Select layout fixes on smaller screens.

One hull. One life. See you in the dark, pilot.