Patch notes, 16–17 October: a new tutorial and a round of fixes
2026-10-17
An 18-step tutorial with clickable steps and highlights, a Guides tab, cheaper Colony Ships, a clearer energy readout and a long list of fixes from your feedback.
Here's everything that changed on 16 and 17 October. Most of it comes straight from your feedback in the beta. Every time below is GMT.
A new tutorial
The tutorial now has 18 steps and ends with founding your first colony, instead of building a U25 Transport. There are three new steps: Visit the Trader, Upgrade your Dock and Launch a new colony. "Prepare for heavy lifting" is now "Technological leaps" (Technology Lab 3, Energy Systems 3, Thermal Fusion Drive 3, Ion Drive 2 and Sector Mapping 1), and "Build a U25 Transport" is now "Expanding an empire" (Dock 3 and a Colony Ship). If you're part-way through, you keep your place.
Tutorial goals and rewards
Automate construction now comes before Build a steady economy. Push past your power no longer asks for a Solar Plant, so you see an energy deficit for yourself, and the next steps explain how energy keeps your production up. Several steps now include the Solar Plant level you need (4, 6 and 10). Hydrogen rewards are bigger on steps 5, 6, 8 and 9: 300, 500, 600 and 700.
Click any tutorial step
Every step on the Tutorial page now opens when you click it, done or still to come, with its goals and reward. The current step has a Go to button that takes you straight to the page you need.
Highlights show you where to go
While you work on a tutorial step, the side bar button for the page you need glows softly, then the item on that page. Click it and that glow goes away until the next step.
Guides tab
All seven guides are now on a Guides tab on the Tutorial page. Every player can read them, any time, even after finishing the tutorial.
Cheaper Colony Ships
The Colony Ship now costs 7,500 metal, 10,000 silicon and 2,500 hydrogen (it was 10,000, 20,000 and 10,000). It now needs Dock 3, Ion Drive 1 and Sector Mapping 1.
Sector Mapping
Sector Mapping now needs Technology Lab 3, Ion Drive 2 and Energy Systems 3 (it was Technology Lab 3 and Ion Drive 1).
Colony Ships that land
A Colony Ship sent on its own used to leave an empty fleet flying home after founding a colony. The ship is now used up on landing and the fleet ends there.
Spare energy
The Energy readout in the top bar now shows one number: how much energy you have spare, like +12, or how much you're short, like −29 in red. Hover over it to see what you make and what you use.
Technology progress
The Technology page now has a strip across the top with the technology being developed, its time left and a progress bar, the same as Buildings and the Dock.
Pay with, first
On the Trader, choosing what you pay with is now the first row of the Trade card, instead of sitting at the bottom of the page.
The Starmap opens where you are
The Starmap now opens on the system of the planet you have selected. Clicking co-ordinates in a report or message still jumps there, but the map no longer stays on that spot the next time you open it.
Easier-to-read Starmap labels
Planet names are now bold and white, with the owner's name smaller underneath in steel blue, or in your note colour for them.
Inactive is now Dormant
Players who haven't signed in for 7 days or more are now marked Dormant. Nothing else about them has changed: dormant players still have no size protection.
Note colours
The Trader note colour is now yellow, so it no longer looks like Farm's orange.
Message tabs
The number on each Messages tab now counts only new messages, and there's no number when there's nothing new. Team and Guide have moved to the end of the row, and Alliance now sits after Espionage.
Dates, not "today"
Messages are now grouped under their date, and chats always show the date with the time. "Today" and "yesterday" are gone from the website too, since they depend on where you are.
Signing in opens your homeworld
When you sign in, the game now always starts on your homeworld, not on the last planet you were looking at.
Website sign-in box
On some screens the sign-in box on the front page was cut off and hid its Sign in button. It now shows in full.
The Broker
The Exchange guide now calls the Broker "she".