Game Update August 27, 2026
Around 7 AM UTC (09:00 CEST), game servers will restart for a game update to be deployed.
This update represents the next phase of features we announced in our Golden Skull Update Dev Shack. Three different types of ship upgrades are added to the list of items that XC Remnant Carriers can drop.
New XC-Exclusive Remnant Carrier Rewards
All of the following items can now drop from XC-type Remnant Carrier units. SC-type Remnant Carrier units will not drop them.
Additional Item Slot Upgrade Kits
Adds the ability to install a new item component to your spaceship. Previously announced as "9th slot" upgrade, this exciting new upgrade can also extend the number of usable item slots for spaceships with less than eight usable slots!
Spaceship Alloy Upgrades
This new type of upgrade will change the look of your spaceship's hull. No additional benefits are provided.
Engine Trail Upgrades
This new type of upgrade will change the look of your spaceship's engine trails. No additional benefits are provided.
Ship Upgrades General Info
New Achievements for Ship Upgrades
Changes to Existing Mechanics (Engine Trails)
Reworked Renderbox Previews
Other Changes & Fixes
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Around 7 AM UTC (09:00 CEST), game servers will restart for a game update to be deployed.
This update represents the next phase of features we announced in our Golden Skull Update Dev Shack. Three different types of ship upgrades are added to the list of items that XC Remnant Carriers can drop.
New XC-Exclusive Remnant Carrier Rewards
All of the following items can now drop from XC-type Remnant Carrier units. SC-type Remnant Carrier units will not drop them.
Additional Item Slot Upgrade Kits
Adds the ability to install a new item component to your spaceship. Previously announced as "9th slot" upgrade, this exciting new upgrade can also extend the number of usable item slots for spaceships with less than eight usable slots!
- Item slot upgrade kits can be found for any type of item (except blaster, collector, repair droid).
- A specific type of slot upgrade kit can only be installed if the current ship does not already come with that same item type (no doubled item configuration possible).
- After you install a slot upgrade to your ship, you can equip the new slot with an item of your choice and matching type through the usual shop section.
- Items installed to the additional slot differ in effectiveness compared to their "native" versions. These differences vary depending on item type and may affect warmup, cooldown and active times (exact values for each item slot upgrade kit are provided in the shop's description text).
- Once installed to a ship, the additonal item slot type is displayed in your target HUD for other pilots to see.
- The ladder league division icon is no longer displayed in pilots' HUDs (still present in scanner).
- The moment an item slot upgrade kit adds an actual 9th slot to your ship's configuration, the skill bar at the bottom edge of the screen will extend to fit the new slot.
- All item slot upgrade kits share the same Skull Level requirement (Skull Level 15).
Spaceship Alloy Upgrades
This new type of upgrade will change the look of your spaceship's hull. No additional benefits are provided.
- Alloy upgrades can only be installed to spaceships with matching technology (i.e. you cannot apply a RavenDynamics alloy to a ne0n ship).
- Only compatible alloy upgrades are available in the shop; incompatible alloys are listed greyed-out and cannot be purchased by mistake.
- Selecting a compatible alloy upgrade in the shop will display a preview using your currently equipped ship.
- If you have a permanent Ion/Fusion/Antimatter Armor Alloy equipped, its look will be overwritten by installing one of the new alloy upgrades. The boosts provided by those items remain active.
- Nine different types of alloy upgrades are available, with blue, red and green variants each. All upgrades share the same Skull Level requirement (Skull Level 10).
Engine Trail Upgrades
This new type of upgrade will change the look of your spaceship's engine trails. No additional benefits are provided.
- There is no limitation as to which kind of engine trail can be installed to which spaceship.
- "Fly before you buy": An animated preview of the selected engine trail upgrade is displayed right in the shop window.
- For starters, three different sets of engine trails are available, with varying Skull Level requirements.
Ship Upgrades General Info
- The Remnant Intelligence Panel discloses information on the new ship upgrade drops in the same way as before.
- The new ship upgrades can be accessed in the hangar through a new section in the spaceship configuration window.
- Like other items that can be purchased in the shop with Cryonite, selling ship upgrade items returns half their Cryonite price.
- None of the new ship upgrades can be applied to Conquest ships.
New Achievements for Ship Upgrades
- Added achievement tracks for collecting the new item slot upgrade kits, grouped by ship class. Also added a meta achievement for collecting all available item slot upgrade kits.
- Added achievement tracks for collecting the new alloy upgrades, grouped by alloy type. Also added a meta achievement for collecting all available alloy upgrades.
- Added achievement tracks for collecting the new engine trail upgrades, grouped by sets. Also added a meta achievement for collecting all available engine trail upgrades.
Changes to Existing Mechanics (Engine Trails)
- Engine trail colors are no longer used to communicate special roles, e.g. squad leader, game master etc.
- Squad leaders can now be identified in the game world through a yellow [SL] suffix appended to their pilot names in the HUD display.
Reworked Renderbox Previews
- Most "renderbox" preview areas in the game have been updated to an advanced implementation with the following benefits:
- The preview area's camera now offers more differentiated controls even in the preview's default non-magnified state.
- Improved rendering enables additive graphical effects to be visible in their full glory right in the preview area.
- New look: Both a new background image and a foreground "scanlines" layer apply to most renderbox previews in the game.
- The magnifying glass buttons that accompany the renderbox previews in pilot profile and shop window have moved from the upper left to the lower right corner.
- The size of the skillbar area inside the shop window's spaceship renderbox previews has been reduced to make more room for the display of the spaceship itself.
- New smaller icon for bringing up an item's decrpytion track in the shop window. The new icon is now resembling an encrypted blueprint.
Other Changes & Fixes
- Fixed that the scanner window would no longer display information when scanning planets in the starmap.
- Optimized the loading of custom materials on both player and NPC ships to use less memory.
- Applied a bit of polish to the hangar's configuration panel and drone setup window.
- Followup fix for the July 30 unit respawn fix because certain units could respawn immediately under certain circumstances.