Training Run, Bosses and a Rebuilt Fleet

Everything that changed in Gunmetal Orbit since v1.76, in one place. There's a new hands-on Training Run for new pilots, every sector now pays out its own gear, and Endless dives through depth tiers. Bosses show up every five waves and drop loot you fly in and grab. The whole enemy fleet was rebuilt from scratch. Late runs got a real fight back, the Outfitter was rebuilt, and the game runs a lot smoother.

Watch the new gameplay trailer on the store page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4975430/Gunmetal_Orbit/

New: Training Run

• A hands-on tutorial, right on the title screen. A short guided run in the real belt teaches the whole loop by having you do it: fly, dash, mine, bank at the pad, ride the tether home, fight, chain a streak into OVERDRIVE, fire your ultimate, down a boss and grab its Artifact Core, then dock and build before flying one real patrol wave.
• Each step waits until you've actually done it, and you can hold to skip any step. A death in training just drops you back on the pad.
• New pilots are pointed straight to it with a "NEW PILOT? START HERE" nudge. Finishing it earns its own commendation and a COMPLETED mark on the title, and you can replay it any time.
• Training is completely separate from your real runs. It never touches your save, your record or your unlocks.

New: Sector gear

• Every sector now has three pieces of its own gear: slightly better shop items themed on that belt, earned by winning it at Hazard 1, 3 and 5.
• Win a sector at a high Hazard and every piece below it unlocks at once. Once earned, the gear can show up in the Outfitter in every sector.
• Sector Select shows how much of each belt's gear you have and what wins the next piece. Hazard levels you unlock count in every sector, and the Hazard screen now says so.
• Your Hazard unlocks are safe. An old win can no longer drop out of your history and lock a Hazard level again.

Endless goes deeper

• Past wave 20, Endless escalates every ten waves into a new Depth, each with a real twist instead of just more health. Depth II runs two mutators at once and adds a mid-boss every fifth wave, Depth III fields twin bosses, and Depth IV stacks three mutators and lets even ordinary hits breach your hull.
• Your depth shows on the HUD, in the Outfitter, on the end screen and in your Service Record.
• The Endless health curve is gentler, so skill matters more than a health race. The shop stops pricing gear out of reach deep into a run, and choosing Go Endless after a win no longer triples enemy health.
• One Retry Wave per Depth tier in Endless, so a deep run ends on its own. Standard contracts keep unlimited retries.
• Endless no longer throws its big elite pack before wave 10.

A boss every five waves

• Standard, Rush, Union Rules and Daily Contract runs now field a boss on every fifth wave as well as the final one, so you meet two bosses on Hazard 0 and up to six on Hazard 5. Mid-run bosses are sized for the build you have at that point and pay the full boss reward.
• Every run earns Artifacts now. Mid-run bosses hand you an Artifact pick on the way.
• You meet every boss before one repeats: the Bulwark, Siege Crawler, Storm Herald and Ore Tyrant all show up before any of them comes back.
• Elite and horde waves land in the quieter waves between bosses, never stacked right next to one.
• Bosses drop an Artifact Core. Fly into it to claim the boss's Artifact on the spot, with a 30% hull repair and 8 seconds of OVERDRIVE.
• New enemy: the Ore Smuggler. It never fights back. It runs for the edge loaded with stolen ore, so chase it down for Plasma, Cobalt, a credit bounty and a free reroll before it warps out.
• Six new Artifacts for 15 in total, including Kingslayer Lens, Tyrant's Crown and Phoenix Cell.
• Boss trophies on the Records screen, plus six new commendations, including BOSS HUNTER for downing all four.

The enemy fleet, rebuilt

• Drifters, Poppers, Bulwarks and Lancers were rebuilt from scratch for the overhead camera, so each one reads at a glance. Same sizes, speeds and hitboxes.
• Bosses with moving parts. The Siege Crawler's mortar battery raises and kicks back, the Storm Herald's coil ring spins up before every warp, the Ore Tyrant's jaws snap shut, and the Bulwark boss brings its own carrier dreadnought.
• The Juggernaut drives its ram out on pistons and the Ore Reclaimer reaches out with harvesting claws.
• Your Station Uplink bays each have their own hardware on the ring now, so you can spot them at a glance.

Late runs fight back

• The Outfitter grows with your run. Weapon cards get stronger as the waves go on, and with every mount full it stops offering guns you can only downgrade with.
• The shop reads your build, with more items from synergy families you already own and fewer copies of the same stacking item.
• Late waves hit harder and stay crowded. From wave 18 a strong build no longer clears the screen and then fights one enemy at a time, and from wave 20 regular enemies get a little tougher every wave.
• New: Hull Breach. From wave 15, elite and boss hits halve your healing for 3 seconds.
• New items: the Anchor family. Mag-Clamps and Siege Gyro reward standing your ground, if your build can back it up.
• Lifesteal pays for what you invest. Late in a run it heals faster the more of it you stack.
• Health Regen never goes negative. Upgrades that cost regen are only offered when you have the regen to pay for them.
• The Relay Buoy now banks your whole hold at full value, but it's a rare Relic now, and only a trip home builds your delivery streak.

A new Outfitter and new menus

• A rebuilt Outfitter armory, with detailed display stations that react to what you shop for.
• New large portraits for all 28 weapon families, plus clear tier chevrons and rarity jewels on every card.
• Cards put the important information first. Weapon numbers match how each weapon works (beams show DPS, mines show their blast, orbiters show their blades), and reserved offers get a clear RESERVED strip.
• New: FIELD GUIDE. Not sure what Uplink, station systems or Engineering mean? Press View (I on keyboard) or click GUIDE on the Level Up, Station Uplink and Outfitter screens for a quick definition of every term on that screen.
• Dash, tether and ultimate share one clean cooldown animation, and a full charge never hides an ultimate lockout.
• Pick your sector from inside it, with full-screen key art for every belt. The spacer roster now stands in a lit hangar.
• Every spacer gets a victory pose and a fallen pose, and victory, defeat and Level Up now play out in cinematic new scenes.
• Level-up cards show their equipment art the way the Outfitter does, mission cards show illustrated loadouts, and you can inspect new unlocks at full size from the results screen.
• Options, Records, How To Play and Run Build share one look, and How To Play has new illustrated pages.
• A new LineCrush Games studio opening, and the title fills widescreen and ultrawide monitors.
• A full game manual, a quick reference card and a read-me, open from How To Play or the Steam library.
• Your ship now flies over a lit hex floor that shows your hull and ultimate at a glance.

Fixes and quality of life

• When a wave kills you, RETRY WAVE is now the big lit card on the end screen, so it's clear your run can keep going.
• Tether Home fires the moment you press it and works much closer to the station.
• Supply caches open every time and show their price above the crate. Cache rewards name the item and what it does, and reward notices stay up about twice as long.
• Edge arrows always point at their target. A Survey Beacon or the home marker to the south could get an arrow pointing the wrong way.
• The glowing teal crystals that looked like ore but couldn't be mined are gone, so every glowing crystal you see now breaks. Crystal Reach announces its crystal clusters when they arrive at wave 4.
• No more invisible walls around the refinery and the ore rig.
• Knockback can no longer push enemies out of the arena.
• Station upgrades buy on the first press.
• Cache and distress rewards no longer hand out relics you haven't unlocked.
• Skipping the studio opening never starts a run by accident.

Smoother everywhere

• No more freezes when you launch a wave, when you leave the Outfitter, or every 20 seconds from field gear.
• Station Uplink volleys no longer hitch, first-time stutters mid-wave are gone, and the first dock opens faster.
• Your ship, enemies, shots and pickups move smoothly on 90 Hz to 165 Hz screens, including the Steam Deck OLED.
• Big kill streaks stay smooth, and Outfitter purchases are three to six times faster.
• The STATION view and Options now work properly with a controller.
• Fixed: minimizing the game or opening the Steam Overlay during an overclock choice no longer freezes it.

Full notes for every version are in the patch-notes posts on this page.

Found a bug or have feedback? Tell us in the Steam Discussions. We read every post.