Star Traders: Frontiers News

Update #167 is rolling out during the Steam Space Exploration Sale where you can save 33% on Star Traders: Frontiers. The frontier awaits, so get in here or help a friend find their way to the bridge!

With this update, we've made some major rebalances to the pricing system of missions to ensure that single-stop and short jump missions to increase their minimum prices, added a pile of new helpful icons for different ship components, rebalanced some of the ships affected by the Mass reduction of cabins and barracks, added 2 new Contact Traits that allow specialist recruits and made some improvements to Black Market Traits that will help smuggling access to more common.

If you enjoy the pace of updates, please tell a friend and leave a review!


An important balancing upgrading has come to Mission pricing to help ensure that shorter missions, very far away missions and missions that only involve one step are all fairly balanced in price, as well as valuable throughout the life cycle of a long captain's career. In general, this is going to appear as a bump to many mission prices and a focus on making individual steps worth their jumps.


We're returning to ship component icons this week to inject a new level of variety and clarity to their visual style. We've added new icons that separate Officer Cabins from Barracks, as well as a new icon to separate Combat Hyperwarp Drives from traveler and base drives. Also, all Mass reduction components now have their own icon. Finally, we've split the boosters into 4 categories -- those that lead with high Pilot, those that lead with high Navigation, those that are aggression focused and then all others (often Electronics-high).

This is a great new start that makes looking at a ship build far more interesting and communicative as well as helping to make the shopping experience more visual and easier to sort through.

However, we are just getting started. Future updates will feature the component's level as part of its icon, so seeking out level 4 pilot modules will be something you can start to do without reading any text and only looking at icons. With this, we are also planning on buffing the Starport component filters to be more clear, breaking them out into much more functional silos, where "Ship" filter today groups together a very wide range of types, we will see that split out into 3 or 4 new filters to make shopping faster and easier.


Two new Traits have arrived for Contacts -- a "Decorated Vet" who was a hero in some Solar War sometime in the past as well as an "Unscrupulous" Contact who doesn't really care how it gets done, just wants the rewards.

Decorated Vets put more weight on Faction Rep, pay better for Missions, but most importantly, offer Military Officers recruits!

Unscrupulous Contacts raise the price of all of their services, may enable the Black Market and most importantly, offer Smuggler recruits!


With this update, we've added clarification to the Trait text for all Contact Black Market Traits. A single Black Market Trait is not enough to always enable to the Black Market, which we've now made clear in the Trait description. It is only when a Black Market Trait is combined with certain types of Contacts (a Greedy Merchant or an Unscrupulous Spice Trader) that the Black Market becomes available via a Trait.

We have also improved the rules so that *any* Contact who has 2 Black Market Traits -- the Unscrupulous Greedy Prince -- will open Black Market access, making it a little easier to find Black Markets across the galaxy even with Contacts where you might not normally suspect it.



After the Mass reduction to all barracks and cabins last update, we are coming through with a large sweep to effect some additional ship balance and remove any Mass reduction components deemed no longer needed on ships. With this update, we've made changes to the Vulture Liner, Fallen Carrier, Dragoon Cruiser, Lightbow Raptor, Longbow Cruiser.

We've also caught up to the faction-only Mass reduction components and improved them to match the core set. The Hawk Mass Reducer 4 (Alta Mesa only) and Lion Mass Reducer 4 (Thulun only) are both far more interesting and attractive now within their class.

We fixed a bug with the Shielded Officer Suites where their Mass was too high for the group.


- Improved base price and duration calculations for all Missions to avoid some missions coming out with far too low pay
- Added new component icons for Officer Cabins, Combat Hyperwarp Drives, Mass reduction comps, Pilot boosters, Nav boosters, aggressive boosters
- Ship balance improvements for: Vulture Liner, Fallen Carrier, Dragoon Cruiser, Lightbow Raptor, Longbow Cruiser
- Improved balance of Hawk Mass Reducer 4 (Alta Mesa only) and Lion Mass Reducer 4 (Thulun only)
- Added new Contact Trait "Decorated Vet" increases weight of Faction rep, +10% mission pay, recruits Military Officers
- Added new Contact Trait "Unscrupulous" increases cost of services, recruits Smugglers and may enable Black Market
- Clarified rules for Black Market Traits -- these Traits combine with certain Contact Types and Traits to possibly open Black Market (but not always)
- Removed limitation on Black Market access -- any Contact with combo of Unscrupulous, Greedy, Corrupt, Underworld can grant access
- Fixed incorrect Mass on Shielded Officer Suites medium component
- Fixed incorrect Void Engine name in main ship status screen

Update #166 rolls out with a new Mass 8000 freighter, a rebuild of the Cargo Missions to make the more exciting and lucrative for focused merchants, a new look at how craft pilots gain XP, and a major rebalance to the Mass allocated for Dual-Field Engines, Barracks and Officer Cabins. As always, there is more so check the full notes below.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements, please share the game with a fiend and be sure to leave a review!

For anyone having crashes during the Faen storyline or other storylines when completing a mission, this update should resolve it! Thanks to everyone for reporting the issue.


While peaceful merchants have run cargo missions for a long time, these missions have not scaled well to the power and grandeur of those said merchants. With the latest update, Cargo Missions now take into account the captain's cargo hold size, their Rep with the faction and their Trade Permit level when determining how far to push the requirements for the cargo delivery -- and the price. The rewards for cargo delivery now scale more above the linear line as these requirements go up. Now, its possible to see larger deliveries with larger pay days.


We've made some important and highly impactful changes to the Mass stats for all ship components -- small, medium and large -- that primarily house Officer or Crew. This type of component has across the board seen a reduction in Mass, sometimes upwards of 20%. As every ship is required to have some barracks and officer cabins, this frees up a bit more design space across the board and even more so on ships that feature multiple components to house their crew and officers.

Dual-Field Void Engines have also seen a reduction in Mass to improve their place within the engine hierarchy and to help offset the decision to return to Balanced engine from one of the specialist builds.


The new Pallas Freighter leaves the starport at a heavy 8,000 Mass boasting powerful internal shielding, best-in-class fuel storage (96 base, 250 all told) and the average hull points of a freighter built for transport.

The Pallas offers 8 large slots -- an unrivaled layout with a ability to expanding with large components like cargo holds. In trade, it has only 12 medium and 8 small slots. The Pallas has the option to convert into a carrier and fly up to 3 max craft, which is especially suited to its large slot setup.

Built out with a wide array of medium component cargo holds, a Salvage Bay, and an array of bristling weaponry for its own defense -- the Pallas Freighter will cost you more than $1,000,000 credits to get into but is worth the price tag.


The Blazelight Railgun and Radiance Raligun -- the high level small slot railguns -- have been rebalanced a bit with Update #166. The Radiance has been pushed even more into the pattern of a crippling weapon with high Radiation Damage and high Crippling Chance. The Blazelight maintains its position as a more hull-destructive version of the weapon.

We've also added a new windowed resolution by request and dropped in 8 new awesome barks (thanks @lurker) that reference back to Exodus and pre-Exodus lore.


- New 8000 Mass class Ship: Pallas Freighter - mighty transport class
- Enhanced cargo delivery missions to scale up delivery requirements (more cargo, more reward) based on ship's cargo hold, Permit rank, Rep levels
- Improved balance of XP granted for craft pilots during ship combat, also moved XP gains to moment of attack/boarding/intercept instead of landing
- Rebalanced & reduced mass costs for Dual-Field Engines, Barracks and Size 2 Officer Cabins
- Added 8 new barks hearkening back to Exodus and galactic core
- Added 2560x1080 windowed resolution by request
- Fixed switch names of ship debuffs Devastating Shot and Disabling Approach in hovers during ship combat
- Rebalanced Blazelight Railgun (small slot, lvl 5) and Radiance Railgun (small slot, lvl 6)
- Fixed issue where story event on quadrant map might not stop ship from moving
- Fixed crash occurring on some maps with Faen or other story missions ("Conspiracy in Motion", etc)

Update #165 adds a new carrier ship to the mix, fixes a critical story bug plaguing the Faens, drops a new rare lootable relic, updates the Pirate default starting templates and improves the ship displays in new game, drydock and new ship to include more of the critical fields.

The updates keep coming, so be sure to leave a review and tell a friend.


The Obsidian Carrier lifts off from the nearest starport with a void shaking rumble. While lightly armored, the Obsidian's best-in-class Hull and high shielding makes a hull with high endurance. Built with redundant launch bays and capacity for all 4 craft right off the tarmac, the Obsidian is one of the most focused carriers available on the open ship hull market. It's sale is locked behind the Press Gang unlock


An important Faen story bug was introduced two updates ago, which causes some missions to suddenly disappear after their first step. We're very sorry for the issue and would like to talk to any player who is having the problem - we will help resolve. This update fixes the issue for all future captains.


Thanks to @en1gma and @lordofsyn on our https://discord.gg/tresebrothers for suggesting some improvements to the starting Pirate template. With some adjustments to priority, changes to Skills and Attributes as well as a ship swap, the Pirate template has never been more ready to fly and dive into ship combat.

Please note that these changes to the template will only appear in new installs.


Across the game where you're looking at a ship without being able to see all of its components, a wealth of new roll-up stats are available. Where before you could see the hull's base fuel, now you can see its final fuel, cargo as well as prisoner cells and passenger cabins. In addition, you can see the exact count of crew and officers who have bunks on the ship as well as the hull's maximum for crew and officers. This extra info is a great boon when planning a build and considering a new ship purchase!


A new rare relic can now be found during Salvage, the Voidsealed Heavy Jack. We've also reduced the chance of encounter xeno slightly in Explorer, with some weighting to the early game experience as well. And, we've fixed a bug with the Longbolt having a missing tag line.

A huge thanks to everyone posting bugs, feedback and reviews!


- New Unlockable Ship: Obsidian Carrier (7000M)
- Added Unlock Reward info for "Press Gang" Award -- conscript 20 enemy crew
- Fixed bug causing some story missions such as Erik and Zette's to disappear suddenly after finishing one step
- New Relic: 'Voidsealed Heavy Jack' (Military Gear, Salvagable Rare)
- Replaced Pirate Template with updated and Improved version putting more focus on the right Attributes, Skills and improved ship choice
- Improved Ship Details display in new template to include final cargo and fuel capacity as well as maximums for crew and officers, prisoner and passenger cabins
- Improved Ship Details display in New Ship/Dry Dock to include the same additions as new template
- Fixed missing description of Longbolt starting ship
- Fixed Crashes in Unlock Display in some conditions
- Slight reduction in Xeno encounter rates during Exploration

Update #164 will help us wrap up the Steam Summer Sale in style! The Grand Prix theme was all about speed, and we've dropped 5 updates with tons of new content, new features and community driven improvements fast-fast-fast! And this latest update is no expection -- Update #164 features a new Rychart-only ship, 2 new ship weapons focused on disabling enemy ships, a new Javat-only cargo hold, major new improvements to how enemy AI staff their ship, rebalance for Pilot Assist Modules versus craft attacks and well, there's more too. Read the full release notes for everything!

If you've enjoyed the relentless pace of updates and the game, please leave a review and tell a friend!


Rychart's own fast, sleek and deadly Gunhawk Sabre is hitting the void with a very unique build. This M2400 class ship features 10 small components, 7 medium slots and only 1 large slot but boasts high start Armor, Shield, a full set of 6 officers and the smallest crew out there, clocking in at 18. Build for close ranged combat, hit and run boarding or spying expeditions that are just in Rychart's wheel house, the Gunhawk Sabre requires a special kind of focus and a special kind of captain to command. Whether your rapidly training a small inner core of crew and officers for a large ship upgrade or planning to stay forever, the Gunhawk Sabre is a joy to fly.


Sometimes you need someone to negotiate for peace on your behalf. You're in luck, because the new Interceder class Plasma Cannons are ready to "talk it out" with your enemy. Packing a huge Radiation Damage punch and extra Crippling Chance, these high level large class Plasma Cannons are built to decimate and cook the enemy crew and ship's internals while leaving the hull (mostly) in one piece. Perfect for pirates and salvages alike, mount these new beauties on your ship and start negotiating your way out of trouble.


Javat is finally getting into the transport game with the release of their new Hauler Hold. Boasting 65 Cargo capacity and a solid chunk of Fuel storage, the hold is perfect for any commodity merchant all the way up to someone who can afford to pack it with Rare Trade Goods and sail the stars.


Enemy ship captains are gaining a new level of versatility as they are now able to staff their crew with more interesting Job picks. Military and boarding-focused captains may choose to foregoe extra Pilots or Gunners in trade for more Swordsman, Pistoleers and Rifleman. And now, Pirate captains may swap out some of their Pilots for Pirates. These changes will have a wide set of effects -- they can make boarding against military vessels harder as you may face multiple sets of trained fighting crew. Also, they may reduce the ship pools on some ships as a Pilot or E-Tech is replaced with an extra Pistoleer or a Swordsman. This also increases the chance that Captains may find more interesting Jobs to conscript among the enemy crew. And Pirates among the enemy crew will bring new varied set of Talents to bear in ship combat.

As with all major shifts, this will be done in multiple stages, starting here and looking to expand to other enemy captain types and other exciting crew Jobs. The changes are difficulty dependent, so you're less likely to see these new swaps on lower difficulty.





With some improvements to Pilot Assist Modules, we're moving toward some important rebalancing to help defend against craft. Craft come with a percentage based attack system (60% to Hit, etc) that does not take normal ship defenses into account. If the craft is able to close and swoop down in over your hull, you're way bigger than a womprat or a barn and their bombs are going to hit you. Now, with new bonuses coming off Pilot Assist Modules, your capital ship has gained the ability to avoid their attack runs altogether with a Dodge %. This new type of bonus will be propagating to other ship components as well, as its a critical part of allowing the AI to fairly use craft, especially for smaller ships.


We've fixed a ton of other nice things for you as well! Salvage Bay components now work against xeno. All story fights against xeno are properly counted in your stats screen. We've fixed some issues with smaller maps and story missions hanging -- if you were having this crash, just try again after the update. We've resolved a bug with "Dread Legacy" Trait from xeno hunters in certain quadrants. The Quad-Goltha Scanner component needed some tweaks to be fair versus the rewards of the storyline so got a bit of a down balance. And, we fixed more odd edge-case bugs with the Arbiter storyline and story arcs timing out.

If you're enjoying the updates, we hope you'll leave a review!


- Added new ship design: Gunhawk Sabre is a unique Rychart-only M2400 class ship built for close range combat and boarding
- Added two new large slot Plasma Cannon ship weapons -- the "Interceder PCX" class deals massive Radiation Damage in trade for low Standard Damage
- Added new Javat-only "Hauler Hold" large slot cargo hold is high capacity for bulk shipments, adding 65 cargo and 40 fuel
- Military or boarding minded enemy captains will now hire additional fighting crew (difficulty dependent)
- Pirate enemy captains will now hire additional pirates to staff their boats (difficulty dependent)
- Improved Pilot Assist Modules 1-4 to include % chance to avoid attacks from small craft
- Rebalanced the Quad-Goltha Scanner against the Red series Goltha tech to improve the "Goltha Theory" storyline pay off
- Salvage Bay ship components now improve the results when salvaging xeno ships
- Fixed crash occuring on some 12 quadrant small maps with story missions ("Conspiracy in Motion", etc)
- Fixed bug with "Dread Legacy" Xeno Hunter Captain Trait that caused it not to display in certain quadrants when defeating xeno
- Fixed issue where some Mission and Story battles against xeno were not properly recorded in logs
- Fixed bug making the chance to avoid a fight in Civil Unrest Rumor very low
- Fixed bug allowing Zenrin Archivist Contact to appear on non-Zenrin systems
- Fixed other ways that the Arbiter Coalition storyline could end early
- Fixed some bugs with early Arbiter-Faen storyline and timing out

It's the second week of Steam Summer sale and our 4th big update so far! With Update #162, you're still saving 33% and you get even more content, outfits, a new Pirate Talent, major Stash feature improvements suggested by the community and more! We'll dive into all the specifics below, section by section.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and new content, please leave a review. Great to see some of our 600+ hour players coming out to drop reviews on the game! Thank you :D

If you've ever been looking for an interesting and peace-focused merchant / high cargo ship build, look no further than the screenshot above shared by @JimmysTheBestCop. Amazing capacity, amazing fuel efficiency, but no weapons and weak Ship Skill Pools. This one needs factions to be friendly and some powerful Encounter Talents.


With Update #162 we've added another matching outfit. Your Military Officers and Commanders never had it so good, now featuring an outfit specifically baked just for them. If you are a Captain, Officer or just a pretentious crew member, you can now wear your full regalia and remind everyone else that you serve a faction military. Or not. Either way -- you're going to do it in style.

A huge thanks to all of our Patreons who have helped suggest outfits that are appearing in this second wave.


If you've got *a lot* of things in stashes buried all across the galaxy than this update is for you. First up, we've now denoted the rows that are the headers for individual stashes by coloring them differently, making it a quick visual scan to see the different stashes. Second, we've included Quadrant name in the stash header row, making is easy to see which Stashes are in the same Quadrant, helping you plan a pickup run if you're sweeping through to collect and sell.

Third, we've added a Dump feature for stash items. You can dump an entire entry in a stash or even just a few units -- all from across the galaxy. By erasing these entries from your data records, you remove the Stashed cargo from your list. Got 32 units of Biomass that are 17 jumps away? Dump it!

Finally, we fixed a routing bug that was occurring when looking at Stashes on the galaxy map. If you're routing to stashes from this map, the waypoints will now update correctly.


The Pirate Job has gained a new rank 11 Talent, "Looter's Intuition" that affects all encounters with Merchants while blockading. While hunting the richest targets, a Pirate's nose for loot can now help pick out the merchants who are most heavily loaded with cargo. There are no clear visual signs, perhaps the slightest traces on the arc scanner reverb -- but none the less, a real Pirate just nose. Knows? Nose.

Any Merchant who is encountered with this Talent firing is going to have a packed cargo hold, often with extra valuable goods. Just one more way to reap the benefits of blockading.

We've also fixed a bug with the "Signature Jammer" type Talents -- they were not appearing in the ship encounter log if they reduced Rep loss to just -1. We've clarified their description as well to be clear that they have cannot reduce Rep loss below -1 and we've also clarified all Doctor Saving Talents which had some confusing words in their description before.

Thanks to everyone for playing, sharing and gifting the game. Also, for reviewing! Enjoy the new content!


- Added new matching character outfits -- military officer or top brass commander
- Added new rank 11 Pirate Talent "Looter's Instinct" which causes any Merchant encountered during Blockade to have bonus cargo
- Stash List now includes Quadrant name for each stash grouping for easier visual parsing
- Added feature to "Dump" cargo from Stashes at a distance, allowing the complete removal of Stashes without visiting them
- Improved color coding of rows in Stash list to make it clearer which are the Stash headers and which are Stashed cargo
- Fixed issue causing galactic map to route oddly when navigating to a stash
- Fixed bug that was preventing "Signature Jammer" Talents from appear after ship encounter if the Rep loss was exactly -1
- Clarified description of "Signature Jammer" Talents to be clear that they reduce Rep loss to a minimum of -1
- Clarified description of medical Talents that prevent Doctor Skill failures and Life Savers