Patch notes

Cosmic Starship is updated often. These are the most recent changes, newest first.

Version 3.6.2

  • Your crew has more to say. 116 new voice lines (259 in all) for Command, your wing lead and the Starlink engineer, so you hear the same line far less often: sixteen ways to acknowledge an order, thirteen reactions to a multikill, a dozen calls when the enemy warps in.

Version 3.6.1

  • Battle videos show a labelled hull bar with your ship’s name, shield and energy at the bottom of the picture, so viewers can see how much damage you have taken.

Version 3.6

  • The Mandala Star (formerly the Mandala Wheel) has been withdrawn from the game: there are 48 warships now. If you owned it, its price (16,200 credits and 14 reactor cores) is back in your account the next time you open the game.
  • The Aurelian Concord’s saga, The Builders’ Key, now ends with the Glass Oracle: fly it in the last mission, and keep it when you clear the saga.

Version 3.5

  • The Mandala Wheel is now the Mandala Star: the wheels are gone, and in their place is a three-pointed star of cut violet crystal with a flower of shards turning at its heart. Its ultimate is Star of Ages.
  • Three more warships rebuilt to look like their own people: the Thorn Reaper (a ribbed Choir pod with scythe arms and a stinger), the Glass Oracle (a great crystal with three prongs holding a lens) and the Night Pilgrim (a slim salvaged wedge with wide-set engines and curved phase vanes). Stats and skills are unchanged.

Version 3.4

  • Who Would Win? now lets each side pick a formation: Line abreast, Spearhead, Pincer, Shield ring or Column. A fleet in formation keeps its shape until the fleets meet, and the formation travels in the link you share.
  • Does a central breakthrough work? We ran 120 mirror battles for each formation against a plain line: the Column won 71%, the Spearhead 45% (but with the most ships left when it did win), the Shield ring 43% and the Pincer 42%. Try your own fleets.
  • The upgrade stripe is on 42 warships now, not 13.

Version 3.3

  • Thirteen warships now show their upgrades as a lit stripe in their civilization’s colour down the spine: it appears with the first upgrade and widens and brightens with every level. The other hulls keep the quieter look.

Version 3.2

  • Fighters fly in three dimensions, yours and the enemy’s: every wing holds its own height and each craft weaves, climbs and dives. A craft that is hit rolls away, a damaged one trails smoke, and one that is shot down tumbles on burning before it pops.
  • Upgrades show on your ship again, as a better-kept ship in its own colours: brighter plating, brighter lights, more gun ports, a longer exhaust plume and a brighter shield bubble. The hangar says what each upgrade bought.
  • Fixed: in Who Would Win? the free camera’s W A S D keys and right-drag moved the wrong way. The arrow keys work too.

Version 3.1

  • Four new main guns: the Scatter cannon (a fan of five shards, strongest up close), the Heavy torpedo (slow, turning, bursts wide), the Focus beam (hits at once and heats up while you hold fire) and the Arc caster (lightning that jumps to two more ships). Fourteen warships carry them, and every civilization now flies at least two kinds of gun.
  • Every kind of round has its own shape: plasma balls, cased missiles and torpedoes, tumbling shards, crackling arc bolts. Your own plasma takes your civilization’s form, spores for living ships and crystal for the lattice builders.
  • Thirteen ultimates that worked alike now each do something of their own: the Stiletto’s Ion Sweep fans into three beams, the Magnetar fires twice, the Heliostat’s beam leaves its line burning, the Scarab’s shells walk down your aim, the Sunkeeper’s fall in a ring, the Pathfinder’s gate stuns what is inside when it shuts, and more. See each warship’s page.
  • Upgrades no longer bolt armour slabs, masts and rings onto your hull, so every ship keeps its own lines. They work exactly as before, and since 3.2 they show in the ship’s finish.

Version 3.0

  • Flight training is easier to follow: each step shows its keys as keycaps (W A S D, Space, 1 2 3 4), a row of eight marks shows how far you are, and you can skip it. Controls you have not learned yet are dimmed and light up as their step comes.
  • A clearer battle screen: Hull, Shield and Energy each carry their name and number, the mission goal has an OBJECTIVE tag, and the chain counter appears only once you have a chain.
  • Better-looking battles: warmer sunlight that gives hulls shape, a light film grade, a softer glow, a space backdrop with layered nebulae and twinkling stars, and a sun glint on Earth’s oceans.
  • A “Jump to” bar on the Hangar, Squads, Station, Skirmish and Settings tabs takes you straight to each section, and the Skirmish launch button stays on screen.
  • Who Would Win? camera: every view says how to steer it, two new views follow one fleet each, changing view glides instead of jumping, and R or a double-click re-centres on the fight.
  • Phones: the flagship’s name sits under the ship, and the Begin button fits on the first screen.
  • Five warships rebuilt so no two ships of a civilization look alike: the Thorn Reaper (a thorned stalk with a stinger), the Glass Oracle (a crystal lance with a lens), the Lightwing (a flat forward-swept wing), the Night Pilgrim (a blade hull inside two phase rings) and the Constellation (its rings on an Earthforce hull).
  • Engine exhausts fade like plumes in each civilization’s colour, and the living ships of the Verdant Choir and Myrr Tidekin have a grown skin instead of riveted panels.
  • No rules changed: ships, difficulty, prices and drop rates are as before, and your save carries over.

Version 2.99

  • Meridian Station rebuilt in 3D as a finished station: a plated spine with a glazed command dome, a turning main deck, a gravity ring of lit habitat windows, docking arms with ships berthed, solar wings, radiators and a glowing reactor keel, under a sky with a gas giant. The shield lattice is a soft glowing bubble.
  • Mods are easier to compare: every piece shows its ★ fit score first, the one number to compare. A spare copy says how it stands against the copy you have fitted (“Weaker than your fitted Epic copy … safe to recycle” or “Stronger … tap Replace fitted”), and roll grades name their tier (“Perfect for Common”).
  • One red mark per target: a hostile capital that is also a mission target carries only its objective bracket.

Versions 2.94 to 2.98

  • Skill visuals: every skill lays a rune circle in your race’s colour and sends out a shockwave; capital powers add a column of light. Hostile craft are drawn deep red so enemies read at a glance.
  • Fracture Surge keeps the picture in full colour; slowed enemies leave violet trails.
  • Battle videos can record both shapes at once: every clip comes out in 16:9 for YouTube and 9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Shorts.
  • Meridian’s builds open after five missions; the power array and the brighter beacon open when you win Meridian Rising.
  • Crew voices by ElevenLabs are the only voice pack and are on by default; the recorded sound effects are always used.

Version 2.93: Meridian Spire

  • Eight station builds in five lanes, built in any order: Defense grid I–III (a stronger outpost on the battlefield, guard craft, a shield lattice), an upper deck (+10% salvage), a lower deck (faster repairs, one more hired warship) and a power array.
  • Power priority: Harvest (richer expeditions and contracts), Shield (a mirror shield on your outpost) or Lance (the mirrors fire a solar lance through the first capital or boss in range).
  • The beacon: Low, Bright or Blazing. Brighter means bigger contracts that pay more, and raids on Meridian that you defend in a Hold the Station battle.
  • Trophy hall: a piece of every boss you beat goes on the station, with your best time and difficulty.

Version 2.92: doctrines

  • Six doctrines, one at a time and free to switch between battles: Glass Cannon, Swarm Lord, Momentum, Anchor, Tempest and Last Stand. Each is a clear strength with a clear price. See doctrines and play styles.

Version 2.91: blueprints

  • The Corona Throne, Sunkeeper, Void Ark and Obsidian Crown need a blueprint, earned by winning the second mission of their civilization’s saga. Clearing the whole saga still gives the ship for free.

Version 2.90: play styles and the hunt

  • Five play styles in the hangar, each built around a unique mod: Wing Commander, Jump Raider, Capital Hunter, Overflow Caster and Ember Gunner.
  • ◎ Hunt: pin the one item you want and the star chart shows which bosses drop it, how often, and how close you are to forging or buying it.

Version 2.89: ship balance

  • Every capital was measured in the battle simulator against fighter swarms and in duels, and the ships far above the rest were brought down: Corona Throne’s Supernova, the pull powers of Nautilus, Tide Mother, Pathfinder, Eclipse and Grapplejaw, Sunkeeper, Obsidian Crown, Void Ark and Sky Thane’s beam shield.
  • The strongest hulls cost more at the shipyard, and forging a relic warship costs 80 relic shards, 32 exotic matter, 8 cores and 9,500 credits. Ships you already own keep working with the new numbers.

Versions 2.83 to 2.88

  • Battle videos for YouTube, Facebook and TikTok: highlight clips record themselves around every big moment, REC (or L) records a whole battle, with the battle’s info on the picture. Save or share from the results screen.
  • Vertical and square videos show more of the battle (Framing: Wide).
  • Easier to read: bigger menu text, a Text size setting (Normal, Large, Larger), a How to play window on the ? button and a controls list in the pause menu.

Version 2.82: unique mods

  • Unique mods are worth fitting: their main stat doubles, each gets a fixed second stat, and best-fit now picks them when they suit your focus. Gatebreaker can reach +101% primary damage and Wingmother’s Oath +115% escort strength.

Version 2.81.0

  • A recorded soundtrack: a menu theme, three battle layers, a boss theme and victory and defeat stings, composed with ElevenLabs Music.
  • The music follows the fight. Battles open calm, move to combat and then intense as enemies close in, and settle when the field clears. The layers share a key and tempo and keep the beat when they swap. Bosses get their own track.

Version 2.80.0

  • Fleet synergies: mix civilizations in your fleet to unlock auras. Eight pairings, from Drone Lattice (an Earthforce carrier with Tessellate tiles prints drones and makes every drone near it hit harder) to Tidesong (the Myrr sing and the Verdant Choir’s living hulls mend). See the squad command guide.
  • The Crew hall and the Warship dock show your active synergies and the ones you are one pick away from. In battle, a faint ring shows each aura’s reach.

Version 2.79.0

  • Easier on the eyes: guns no longer shake the screen on every shot, and the Screen shake slider now also controls camera kicks.
  • Mod rolls by tier: a mod’s bonus stats roll higher the rarer it is, and every mod shows a roll grade from Low to Perfect. The hangar can sort by it.
  • Legendary drops slam down in a blazing pillar of light, with a short slow-motion beat, their own sound and the rolled stats shown when you pick them up.

Version 2.78.0

  • Combat feel: kills, capital ships going down and ultimates now land with impact: freeze frames, particle bursts and a callout that sums up what your ultimate did.

Version 2.77.0

  • Sagas: every lent ship has a 3D preview, and the ship inspector demonstrates each of a ship’s skills around its hull.

Versions 2.73 to 2.76

  • Who Would Win? now fights in open space, both sides can buy their fleets with the same budget (prices measured from thousands of simulated battles) and ships no longer overlap.

Version 2.72.0

  • New: Who Would Win?, the battle simulator. Pick two fleets from fourteen civilizations and watch them fight to the last ship, live in 3D, with a camera that follows the action. Both sides fly the same AI by the same rules.
  • Every matchup is a link to share; record a clip with sound in 16:9 or 9:16 for YouTube, Shorts, Reels and TikTok.

Version 2.71.0

  • Civilization sagas, in full: fourteen sagas, one for every civilization, 42 missions. Fly the Korrath warlord’s own Bloodhammer, a Myrr Nautilus, a stolen Throne Sunkeeper, the Elders’ Lorekeeper, a captured Hollow Ark and more; clear a saga to keep its flagship.
  • Every saga opens with a film read by the Chronicle’s narrator (ElevenLabs) and ends with an epilogue of its own.
  • The Sagas page shows what is in progress first, groups the sagas by the region that opens them, and folds finished ones to their ending.
  • Leaderboards: a new title, Envoy (five sagas); Friend of Many Peoples now asks for all fourteen.

Versions 2.66 to 2.70

  • New videos: a one-minute launch trailer, a 30-second spot and a vertical 15-second short for phones, all rendered in the game itself, with narration, sound effects and music made with ElevenLabs (see the gallery).
  • Leaderboards: a weekly race, the Deep Space Atlas and Commander Rating, with titles to earn and wear, and crowns for last week’s top ten.
  • Bosses: an entrance card when a guardian arrives, phase marks on its health bar, a moment for every phase change and a slow-motion death.
  • Heavy strikes glow white-hot and sound an alarm; boost through one for a Perfect Dodge (no damage, energy back, faster boost).
  • Rare loot stands in tall beams of its colour, with name chips, screen-edge arrows and minimap marks, and waits 50 seconds before fading.

Version 2.55.0

  • New: a combat trailer with a story (Trailers page, ▶ Watch the trailers), 80 seconds. The gate wakes and the Iron Mandate comes through; Earthforce launches and you take the helm; Meridian Station falls under siege; Earth cannot win alone, so the Elder Conclave and the Varenn Regency answer, each rebuilt warship firing its power (Sky Thane’s Ion Storm, Rune Warden’s Beam Away, Lorekeeper’s Ancient Bulwark, Sovereign’s Royal Decree); then the war goes through the gate. Shots of about four seconds at the battle’s real speed, close cameras and two slow-motion beats, and a narrator (17 lines spoken with ElevenLabs; the music dips under the voice).
  • Removed: the launch, gameplay and Hold the Station trailers. The Trailers page now plays the combat trailer only.

Version 2.54.0

  • Four warships rebuilt (stats, skills and prices unchanged):

Version 2.53.0

  • New pages: a Gallery (40 in-game screenshots of battles, bosses, story chapters and menus, plus gameplay videos rendered by the game itself) and a Guides section with eight guides: the best ships for beginners, squad command, every boss, mods and crafting, Meridian Station, ship upgrades, battlefields and hazards, difficulty and Threat.
  • Every warship now has a card with hull, shield, speed, firepower and range bars; the campaign, game modes, civilizations and FAQ pages have pictures, pills and expandable answers.

Version 2.50.0

  • Almost there (results screen) now shows important goals only by default: new warships, features opening, station expansions, the Atlas gate and ranks that open a mod or relic slot. Mastery, flagship upgrades, expeditions and ranks without a new slot stay out unless you pick Everything.
  • Every goal has a × button: one tap hides that goal in place (nothing else on the screen moves), with Undo and "Hide all <kind>" right there.
  • Settings › Gameplay › Almost there: Important only / Everything / Off, a switch for each kind of goal, and a button that shows hidden goals again. The panel’s "change" link opens it.

Version 2.49.0

  • Four new warships inspired by animals, plants and sacred art (49 capitals):
  • Abyss Manta (Covenant striker): a ray whose great wings beat slowly. Wingbeat Dive charges through the cursor (460 damage, 1.5 s stun); signature Stinger lash (corroding tail strike). 13,500 credits, 12 cores.
  • Nautilus (Myr vanguard): a chambered spiral shell with swaying tentacles. Siphon Jet drags everything within 400 together for 4 s; signature Ink cloud; +8 hull/sec. 15,300 credits, 14 cores.
  • Lotus Throne (Lumen support): a lotus bloom of three turning petal tiers on a lily-pad hull. Thousand Petals shields every ally within 460 for 25% of hull and repairs 8%; signature Petal storm. 15,800 credits, 14 cores.
  • Mandala Wheel (Prism vanguard): three counter-turning petal wheels round a crystal heart. Wheel of Ages: a wave 520 wide, 300 damage, systems dark for 1 s; signature Spoke beam. 16,200 credits, 14 cores.

Version 2.48.0

  • New warship: Halo Spire (Elder Conclave), a pale needle spire threaded through three panelled rings of different sizes, each turning at its own pace. Ring-lance artillery: Halo Cascade fires a beam 1,150 long (560 damage, fighters it crosses go dark); signature Ring pulse; shields recharge 40% faster. 16,200 credits and 14 cores.
  • Constellation rebuilt: an armoured arrowhead bow and a long keel blade threaded through two great rings that stand across the spine and turn against each other, their inner lips lit cyan, and a tilted hangar ring round the stern. Stats and powers unchanged.
  • Eclipse rebuilt: a thick segmented gate ring with a lit inner lip stands tilted over the hull, the captive singularity and its accretion veil inside. Stats and powers unchanged.

Version 2.47.0

  • Threat: ten levels above Cataclysm, picked in the briefing when Cataclysm is your difficulty. Each level adds one rule on top of the last and pays 10% more salvage: 1 Ironclad (hostile hulls +15%), 2 Overcharged (damage +12%), 3 Elite tide (more elites, three affixes each), 4 Thin margins (rarer repairs, your shields −10%), 5 Ironclad II, 6 Blitz casters (faster hostile skills, ambush packs every 25 s), 7 Overcharged II, 8 Relic hunters, 9 Ironclad III, 10 Apex (your hull −15%, more elites).
  • Threat 1 opens with Cataclysm; a win at Threat N opens Threat N+1. The results screen says so, and the battle opens with the rules in play. What you protect (the station, its emitters, a convoy) grows with hostile strength, so objective missions get harder through the rules instead of breaking. Not in the Deep Space Atlas, which has its own modifiers.
  • Elites can now carry three different affixes (Threat 3 and up).

Version 2.46.0

  • Rail lance unchanged. The other guns each gained something the rail does not have:
  • The capitals that were still behind, mostly from thin hulls, get more hull and shields when you fly them (Morrow Hive, Bloomlight, Ark, Thorn Reaper, Vigilant, Carrier, Spire, Coralheart, Hammer, Sovereign, Pyramid); Bastion, alone above the field for its price, has 8% less hull. Hostile ships are unchanged, so missions play as before.
  • Result: the weakest capital went from 25 to about 48–52 on the trial score, the median from 51 to 66; weapon averages now rail 76, pulse 66, plasma 60, missile 57 (was about 40 for plasma and pulse).
  • A second calling: every capital role is at home on one kind of expedition (carriers trade convoys, support anomaly surveys, vanguards salvage sweeps, artillery black-site raids, strikers relic digs): better odds and +25% haul. Ship cards say which.

Version 2.45.0

  • Civilization sagas (Star chart → Sagas): short story chapters flown in another civilization’s own capitals, lent to you for the mission with upgrades for its level (or yours, if higher), your mods, crews and squads. Wins count double toward the lent ship’s mastery. Clearing a saga gives you its flagship (or, if you own it, its cores back and 12 relic shards).
  • The first three: Iron Exiles (Iron Mandate, after The Shattered Moons; Vigilant, Obsidian Crown, Magnetar), The Quiet Bloom (Verdant Choir, after The Ion Tempest; Morrow Hive, Thorn Reaper, Bloomlight) and House of Knives (Varenn Regency, after The Ion Tempest; Stiletto, Imperatrix, Sovereign). Each opens with its own cutscene; the rest of the civilizations follow.
  • Saga missions do not change the campaign, the Atlas or what opens features. The star chart’s view switch wraps on narrow phones.

Version 2.44.0

  • Fleet Command: reasons to buy capitals and fly different ones.
  • Fleet registry (Hangar): every capital you buy adds +0.4% to its role’s stat for whichever ship you fly: carriers escort strength, strikers damage, artillery ability strength, vanguards hull, support shields (up to +12% per stat). Owning every capital of a civilization adds +0.5% to all five. The three free starters count only through mastery.
  • Mastery: each mission won (campaign or Atlas) with a capital as your flagship counts toward its mastery (levels at 1, 3, 6, 10 and 15 wins). Every level adds another +0.4% to that ship’s role. Cards show mastery stars, wins to the next level and what an unowned ship would add; the results screen announces a new mastery level, and the flagship’s next level is an "Almost there" bar.
  • Command orders on the bounty board ask you to use the rest of the game: add a capital, win flying a capital below mastery 2, buy upgrades, win with a hired warship, bring expeditions home, imprint a codex line, rank up a relic, build a station level. The board always carries one when one is available; orders that need a locked feature never appear. Orders done outside battle pay at once, with a notice. Rewards are relic shards, exotic matter, cores and catalysts.

Version 2.43.0

  • Features open as you play, so a new commander meets them a few at a time. Start: star chart, hangar (ships and upgrades), settings, Explorer and Standard. 1 mission: the mod bay. 2: Squads. 3: Meridian Station (shipyard, workshop, market). 4: crew hall. Earth Orbit cleared: skirmish, warship dock, Commander difficulty. 8 missions: co-op, fabricator. 10: tuning bay. "Meridian Rising": station expansion. First boss: relic forge. Shattered Moons cleared: Deep Space Atlas, Veteran. Rank 8: expeditions. Ion Tempest cleared: Nightmare. Titan Graveyard cleared: Cataclysm.
  • A locked tab, deck or difficulty is shown dimmed with a lock and says exactly what opens it and how far you are. The results screen announces each feature the moment it opens (with a button to go there), and the next one is an "Almost there" bar. Saves from before 2.43 keep everything open.
  • Reactor cores drop less often (enemy capitals 45% → 35%, elites 25% → 15%); catalysts drop from 14% to 10% of enemy capitals.
  • Nightmare hits a little harder (enemy hull ×1.75, damage ×1.6). Cataclysm’s combat is unchanged: a bigger damage step made Hold the Station missions unwinnable for a fully upgraded flagship.
  • Expeditions open at rank 8 (was 3); slots at rank 8, 13 and 18.

Version 2.42.0

  • New Station deck: Expeditions (Relics group, opens at rank 3). Capitals you own but do not fly, and relic warships outside your wing, take contracts from a three-offer board: trade convoys (credits), salvage sweeps (scrap), anomaly surveys (exotic matter), relic digs (shards, danger 3+) and black-site raids (catalysts, danger 4+). A contract moves one step with every battle you see through (abandoned battles do not count) and comes home after 2–6 battles.
  • Danger is real and shown up front: every ship shows its odds for each contract, from its class, upgrades or relic rank. A failed run brings back 30% of the haul and the ship spends 2 battles in repair. Danger 4–5 successes may bring a spare catalyst. Slots: 1 at rank 3, 2 at rank 10, 3 at rank 18. Taking a contract posts new ones; the board cannot be rerolled. A ship that is away cannot be flown or put in the wing until it is back.
  • Pay is a slice of what a battle at your level pays (5.5% to 15.5% of a battle per battle the contract lasts), so expeditions add to playing and never replace it. Enemy strength is unchanged.
  • The codex (Tuning bay): recycling a mod, by hand, in bulk, from the recovery inbox or through the break-down filter, teaches every bonus line it had and keeps the best value per stat (up to a full line). Imprint a learned line onto another piece in place of one of its bonus lines for a Reforge cell plus scrap and exotic matter by tier. One imprint per piece; the line leaves the codex, so learn it again by recycling. Reforging the imprinted line away frees the piece. The Undo bar and the results screen say what the codex learned.
  • Results screen: expeditions that came home are listed, and the soonest one to return is an "Almost there" bar. Far goals (more than 15 battles away) no longer fill the panel.