v1.90.0 Patch Notes

September 17th, 2024
Welcome aboard Koalas! A brand new crew member joins the fight.

Koala: Mobile Medic

• A new support crew class: charge up “medballs” at any Medbay, then drop them off for wounded crew
• Each medball contains a restorative elixir worth 25hp
• Koalas can carry two medballs and drop them one at a time:
  • Use the drop button (just like gems), or “E” on keyboard
  • Medballs expire if not picked up after 30 seconds
• Medballs can be filled at any active medbay, in or out of battle:
  • Medballs fill even while a Koala is healing, or in secondary seats with Medbay Amplifiers installed
  • Koalas auto-swap into the main seat on a Medbay if they have medballs to fill and there are no wounded crew queued ahead
• Koalas can drop medballs whether healthy or knocked
• Any wounded crewmate can pick up a medball, including the Koala that dropped it (self revives!)
• During battle, Koalas will receive 150 score for each of their medballs consumed
• Medball and Gem inventories are separate; Koalas can carry both

Enhancements:

• Green Gems:
  • Each green gem has a deposit value of 3
  • Drop rate is ~5%
  • Mysterious eucalyptus aura our scientists can’t quite figure out...
• Twitch Drops 3:
  • New campaign featuring "Nurse K" Koala outfit launching September 25th
• Crew follow cam:
  • On desktop, right-click on any crewmate to activate "cam follow" mode on that player. Useful to check out an outfit or highlight a player on stream. Pan away to end "follow" mode.

Content:

• Koala launches with 8 outfits: the free "classic" look, two data key variants, and 5 premium outfits: Doc, Outback, Skuba, Beach Bum, and K-Bot

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where a Captain could get stuck at a sector exit if First Mate jumped but didn’t select a reward
• Fixed a bug where the Steam overlay would not appear on Mac, blocking purchases
• Fixed an issue where some Steam names with spaces were not processed correctly and appeared as default “Crewmate”

See you aboard!

v1.80.0 Patch Notes

August 16th, 2024
Officer roles, Twitch Drops, Robot outfits and more!

New Features:

• Officer Roles
  • Captains can assign crew into four new officer roles to help run the ship
    • First Mate: Granted full access to the helm. Help out or run the ship alone if the captain is AFK
    • Chief Engineer: Can purchase Tech upgrades
    • Supply Runner: Granted one extra gem slot
    • Intern: Granted 5% bonus XP
  • One crew member at a time can occupy each role (e.g. only one First Mate)
  • But, the same crew member can hold multiple roles (e.g. you can assign someone to be both Chief Engineer and Supply Runner)
  • Roles can be assigned and revoked at any time while aboard the ship; only the captain can manage roles
  • Crew will receive notifications in game when their roles change
    • Note: the First Mate role will only be available on desktop for now. Adapting the Helm interface to mobile devices is a major project that we couldn't tackle for this update.
• Twitch Drops Support!
  • Watch any Twitch streamer in the Slipstream category to earn free rewards as follows:
    • 20 minutes: 5 Data Keys
    • 1 hour: 5 Data Keys
    • 2 hours: 5 Data Keys
    • 3 hours: 2 Respec Tokens
    • 4 hours: 2 Respec Tokens
    • 5 hours: “Sir Purrsalot” exclusive Cat outfit
  • Once rewards are claimed in Twitch, they will automatically be awarded in Slipstream
  • The first campaign will run for two weeks. More campaigns planned for the future.

Enhancements:

• Ship Preview - when selecting a captain in the Space Dock, you will now see a preview of the ship that includes:
  • Link to the Captain’s Twitch stream (if available)
  • Ship type (e.g. Firecrest, Hedgehog, or Sparrow)
  • Current run, and whether it’s a Bonus (e.g. “Charon Bonus”)
  • Time of current run (e.g. “20m 13s”)
  • Crew count and distribution of classes (e.g. 3 Bears, 2 Cats, 1 Turtle)
• Tech Upgrade Highlights - in the Engineering Hub, Techs available to upgrade are now clearly highlighted so you know what you can afford at a glance.
• Seat Priority - crew in the 3rd seat on a station are now automatically moved to the 2nd seat if it is vacated. This updated logic prevents a player in the 3rd seat being “cut in line” to operate a station.
• In the Proteus Challenge run, maxed Techs now provide a much larger bonus to score (boosted from 20 -> 100 points per max Tech)
• Removed captain restrictions: all desktop players can now be captains after completing the tutorial
  • We removed the “reach level 3” requirement to allow more players to experience the game when captains are not available
• Dates in the Proteus leaderboard now display in localized format for clarity

Content:

• Drops exclusive outfit: Sir Purrsalot, a cat in knight’s helm. Earned with 5 hours watch time.
• Bot Crew activate! Six new premium outfits available in the Slip Shop, with each crew class in shiny robotic form.

Bug Fixes:

• Player names with unsupported characters should now display an alternate or default name; there should be no more empty entries for players in the crew list
• Fixed typo in the Proteus scorecard (“Dificulty”)
• Various error fixes and optimizations

See you aboard!

v1.70.0 Patch Notes

June 27th, 2024
Daily Challenge Runs w/ leaderboard, Steam Sign-in, new regions, beach outfits, and more!

New Features:

• Proteus Daily Challenge Run - compete with other captains for the top score!
  • In the new Proteus region, every captain gets one daily attempt on an identical one-sector map.
  • Each day’s run includes 1-3 random pre-set Techs and a random bonus XP multiplier between 10-90%.
  • Runs are scored based on these factors: run time, battle difficulty, map clearance, final hull damage, maxed techs, and run outcome.
  • Every attempt is ranked on a leaderboard using run score. The leaderboard resets each day, but a full history is viewable. The leaderboard includes the captain’s name and crew MVP name.
  • The Challenge leaderboard is accessible to all players from the main menu and aboard ships - check back to see where you end up each day!
• Custom captain messages
  • Captains can type and send custom messages from the Helm
  • Messages appear as notifications for all crew aboard, like battle alerts
  • Can be used in both streamed and offline runs
• Steam Sign-in on Desktop
  • All desktop players launching the game with Steam can now sign-in with a Steam ID instead of Twitch.
  • In-game name and avatar will come from your Steam profile
  • The Steam account is separate from existing Twitch accounts; they do not merge. Can be used as an alt account if desired.
  • Steam users can be captains, just like Twitch users. However, we still recommend Twitch sign-in if you plan to stream on Twitch so that players can find your channel.
• Google Sign-in on Android
  • Android players no longer need a Twitch account to play; Google sign-in can be used instead of Twitch, or as an alt account.
  • In-game name and avatar will come from Google Play Games
  • This was released in a prior hotfix to Android, but noting here for the record.

Enhancements:

• Resume runs: captains can now rejoin runs in progress if they are disconnected due to internet outage or crash.
  • Captains must rejoin their ships within 15 minutes or the ship will be auto-docked.
  • This is designed to help in cases where, for example, a captain has made deep progress on a run when their internet suddenly goes down.
  • Overall run progress and resources should match upon return, but minor details (like nodes revealed by scans) may be reset
  • This is not a “save and resume later” feature; it’s just meant to help in case of catastrophic crashes/outages.
• Hovering on map locations revealed by Intel rewards will now show path connections to other nearby nodes on the map.
• The sector map now scales based on window size, which should make it a bit more usable.
• The Tech “Upgrade Ready” button in the helm now includes the option to auto-navigate your character to the Engineering Station with a single click.
• In the Space Dock, captain names are now linked to their Twitch channels so you can view the stream before joining.
• Battle XP and Level-up notifications now auto-expire after 30 seconds, like all other notifs.

Content:

• Region map updates:
  • New Proteus Challenge region
    • See New Features section above
  • New Eris Training Run:
    • A single-sector training simulation in friendly space.
    • Battle, Encounter, and Outpost text focus on teaching core tips and tricks.
    • Combat is scaled down to very easy; this run is targeting new captains or those looking for a refresher. But, all are welcome to play!
  • Neptune region refresh:
    • Now one sector only
    • Difficulty reduced to medium
    • The goal is a quick but fun experience for captains with limited time
• New outfits:
  • 6 new premium outfits in the Slip Shop: Beach Bums! Summer has arrived…in space.
  • Special limited-time outfit: a Pride 2024 Croc, available for 20 data keys until July 14th. Happy Pride Month!

Bug Fixes:

• All credit balance displays in the Loot Shop should now update appropriately after a purchase
• Default display mode is now properly set to Windowed for new installs
• Better error handling on purchases that are delayed or fail within the app
  • Added a new “Sync” button to the purchase flow in case of a failed purchase; this may help to finalize a purchase that was completed on Steam but didn’t make it into the Slipstream app
• Double-click on “Back” in the Engineering Hub should no longer cause UI issues
• Various error fixes and optimizations

See you aboard!

v1.60.0 Patch Notes

May 9th, 2024
Daily Bonus and speed runs, crew respec, tons of improvements, and the introduction of the Slip Shop.

New Features:

• Run Summary & speedrun support

  • On clearing a run, captains will now see a summary that includes:
    • Total run time and splits for each sector
    • Final stats and cargo
    • Full crew leaderboard
  • In-game run timer pauses at "Sector Clear" screens to allow for breaks
  • Party mode waits until after Run Summary is closed

• Daily Bonus Run

  • Once per day, captains can choose to launch a bonus run
  • Bonus runs grant 50% extra XP and higher Data Key drop rates for everyone aboard
  • Can be used for any region (e.g. Pluto, Neptune), but only one run per day
  • Resets globally at the same time for everyone (6AM PT)

• Respec Crew

  • Re-assign skill points to try different crew builds
  • Each Token refunds one skill point
  • Respec is only available in the main menu for now, not aboard ship
  • Respec Tokens can be purchased; may be used as drops in future
  • All existing players will be granted 3 free Tokens

• Slip Shop

  • Buy outfits, Data Keys, and Respec Tokens
  • Available both in the main menu and aboard ship, in new shop areas
  • Payments integrated with Steam
  • Mobile payments not yet available, but purchases made on Steam will be available on mobile when using the same account

Enhancements:

• More captains: all players can now be captains once they reach level 3 with any crewmate.
  • Players with 100+ Twitch followers are still automatically captains
  • Captain rules are now explained in the Space Dock for non-captains
  • Players can still request captain approval in Discord as needed
  • Captains still must play on Desktop
• The new-player tutorial is now before sign-in, allowing players to experience a bit of gameplay before asking for authentication
• Health and shield values are now shown in the lower left HUD bars
• Community links (Discord, Twitter, Instagram) have been added to the main menu
• Alert for clearing a run is now labeled as “Victory Bonus” to differentiate it from battle rewards
• Changed the class description for the cat from “Clever Hacker” to “Artillery Ace” to reduce confusion

Content:

• Ship retrofits:
  • Firecrest reinforced with 8 new weapon stations and one new Gem Forge
  • Hedgehog gains four additional Gem Forges in corner zones
  • Sparrow retrofitted with two additional Medbays in previously unused passages on Decks 1 and 7
  • Slip Shop areas added to all three ships
• New batch of diabolical “Crack the Code” encounters added to all regions
• Six premium outfits added, one for each class:
  • Panda, Scottish Fold, Iguana, Smarty the Hamster, Squid, Turt Ninja
  • Purchasable with premium Credits

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed: data key balance will now update when aboard ship even if you don't open the dialog
• Fixed an issue with Twitch sign-in on mobile that was preventing sign-in in some regions (e.g. Germany)
• Fixed the FPS monitor setting to actually turn it on/off
• Fixed an issue where captains couldn’t re-visit an outpost after closing it but not leaving the node
• Lowered the position of weapon station damage indicators so they do not overlap health bars
• Moved the position of some ship health screens to be more visible; also added a few more
• Slightly lowered the volume and range of Shield Station SFX
• Improved the UX on volume/FPS sliders so they are easier to use on mobile
• Fixed a bug with the location reveal animation so it won’t stick on the map
• Fixed some usability issues when unlocking a new crew class
• Various other error fixes and optimizations

See you aboard!

v1.50.0 Patch Notes

April 4th, 2024
QOL improvements, bug fixes, and support for 2023 Alpha player rewards!

Enhancements:

• New Alerts:
  • End-battle XP and key rewards are now shown via alert, not a blocking dialog
  • New “Level Up” alert added when a skill point is awarded
  • To help new captains, added an alert when joining a ship that points the player to the Helm

Content:

• 2023 Alpha player rewards arrive: the Wild West outfit set for all 6 crew
• Nine new encounter scenarios in Pluto and Charon, written by our community contest winners
• New enemy ship in Neptune and Triton Regions: the Marvelous Marauder, designed by community member MisterMarvelous

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where the Solar System map would appear blank after completing a run
• Fixed an issue with the Twitch sign-in page on mobile not scrolling vertically (particularly problematic for players in Germany)
• Fixed issues with the new player tutorial that occasionally carried over into a real ship, causing mayhem
• Fixed a bug where emotes would not work for new players during their first session
• Fixed a visual bug with the “Upgrade Ready” banner for crew
• Fixed the position of the edit icon for nicknames and ship names
• Attempted to fix/reduce crashes when shutting down a ship after a long session
• Several optimizations and error fixes

See you aboard!

v1.40.0 Patch Notes

March 25th, 2024
Outfits arrive! This update lays the foundation for crew customization, along with several bug and error fixes.

New Features:

• Crew Outfits v1: customize the look of your crew!
  • Each crew class launches with two new outfits (12 total)
  • Outfits can be unlocked and added to your inventory with data keys
  • Unlock and equip at any time, including aboard ship
  • Many more outfits and customization options coming in future

Enhancements:

• Added slug combat phase to new player tutorial

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where scrolling outside the Slipstream app would still zoom
• Updated the expanded crew leaderboard to always show a collapse button
• Fixed broken link to email from our Help menu
• Fixed an issue where the login flow on Android would be interrupted if you backgrounded the app (hotfixed previously)
• Numerous optimizations and error fixes

See you aboard!

v1.10.0 Patch Notes

February 29th, 2024
This update is manly focused on bug fixes, but also includes a tutorial for new players and the Triton region to explore.

New Features:

• New player tutorial, appears after selecting first crew
  • Teaches basics of the stations; brief and skippable
  • No “replay” option yet for veterans; we’ll share videos and may add that later

Content:

• Triton: We’ve discovered a slipgate to Neptune’s largest moon, and it is swarming with enemies.
  • New hard region, 2 sectors, mostly battles. Requires a coordinated and high-level crew to complete.

Enhancements:

• New music track that plays while visiting any Outpost location
• New framerate settings for iOS and Android:
  • Option to set FPS cap at 60 or 30
  • Option to turn on FPS monitor
• New toggle to turn off Special FX:
  • Turns off some animation and lighting effects that may be taxing older devices. ON by default for desktop and iOS, OFF for Android.
  • If you have a newer Android device, feel free to enable
  • If your device is struggling with poor framerate and/or overheating, try turning Special FX off and setting your FPS cap to 30.
• By popular request, the Esc key now works to exit helm for the captain

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where Medbay Amplifier tech would carry over across runs
• Fixed a bug where the iOS app would crash on load with poor network or on certain wifi connections
• Fixed bugs with the crew leaderboard getting stuck on screen or being transparent
• Fixed an issue where not all emotes would play if many crew trigger them at the same time
• Fixed an issue where intel rewards were not always listed in encounter results
• Fixed a bug with the crew stats menu rendering multiple times in a stack
• Fixed some typos and erroneous rewards in encounters
• Removed Shift + P as an input for displaying debug data
• Adjusted repair highlight requirement to 500, should appear more often
• Fixed kick and ban functions for all captains (hotfixed prior to this patch)
• Fixed an issue where XP/level was displayed incorrectly after switching crew (hotfixed prior to this patch)
• Numerous error/crash fixes and optimizations

See you aboard!

Beta Launch Patch Notes

February 12th, 2024
Changeset since the November 2023 Final Alpha build

Major New Features:

• Crew Transporter Station:
  • Swap to any other crewmate you’ve already rescued
  • Can only swap between runs; once you start a run, everyone is locked in
  • Both captains and crew can swap
• Rewards for clearing sectors:
  • On clearing a sector, we now display stats and rewards
  • Choose between Repair and Refuel options
  • Rewards will scale based on how much of the sector you’ve cleared; max rewards for a 100% clear
• Between-battle XP:
  • Repairs and gem deposits between battles now award XP
  • Repairs outside of battle now 2x speed to streamline gameplay
  • Full portrait mode support:
  • Exception is the captain’s helm, which is only available on desktop
• Automatic captaincy:
  • Players with >100 Twitch followers are automatically approved as captains
  • Players with <100 followers may still request via Discord
  • Prior Alpha captains will all be approved regardless of follower count
• Apple sign-in available on iOS devices:
  • We still recommend Twitch sign-in for cross-play between mobile and desktop
• Android performance improvements:
  • Optimizations for improved FPS and reduced heating on older Android devices

Content:

• New ship: the Sparrow
  • 7 deck gunship, designed to provide new challenges
  • 10+ players recommended
  • Medbays are only located on the Bridge; protect them at all costs
• Various balance changes to enemies, encounters, rewards, and techs

Enhancements:

• Choose from all 6 starter crew as a new player; no more random selection
• Emotes can be activated on stations (when crewmate isn’t otherwise busy)
• Ship’s gem balance is shown on screens at the Gem Forge stations
• FPS cap settings on desktop:
  • Set cap at 30, 60, 72, 120, 144, or uncapped
  • New option to toggle FPS monitor on/off
• New helm notification for captains when they have enough gems for a tech upgrade
• Added animation when gems are picked up
• Scan animations in the helm now upgraded through 5 levels of Scan Booster
• Mini-tutorials only appear on first join on each device (both captains and crew)
• UI should now display appropriately on iPads
• Various small art and UI enhancements and fixes

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where some station damage animations would play on a delay
• Fixed an error that would appear when making a jump to a cleared area with your last fuel cell
• Fixed a bug where searching for captains on mobile was not working
• Fixed a bug where the damage output per zone in the Helm was displaying too low
• Fixed a bug where non-battle stations (Helm, Engineering etc.) were listed as “offline” in the helm when they were not
• Fixed UI issues when editing long text strings (e.g. a crew nicknames)
• Adjusted UI scaling so smaller windows will not shrink UI down beyond readability
• Optimized sector map for captains to fix performance dips in mostly cleared sectors

See you aboard!