Welcome to our 246th newsletter on Star Atlas! This weekly newsletter, published by Aephia Industries, focuses entirely on the development of this ambitious game. Here, we attempt to aggregate all the newsworthy tidbits revealed, primarily by the team, throughout the past week.

Last week was dominated by SAGE C4 Phase 3. While the team missed its hoped-for end-of-week release window, we got the clearest picture yet of what the next phase will actually look like: a new starter bundle, much tighter economic balancing, a full fleet recovery and medallion system, and a considerably more capable Nemesis Engine. Beyond C4, we got updates on the road to z.ink mainnet, the return of UE5 multiplayer, and the ongoing DAO Council election.

Let’s dive in!

SAGE C4 – Phase 3

During Atlas Brew #220, Michael (CEO) said the Phase 3 checklist was roughly 80% complete. The team was aiming for Thursday or Friday at the latest. No launch or official delay had appeared so far, so that window has now passed.

When Phase 3 does launch, every account will be wiped, and everyone will receive a new starter bundle. Unlike the bundle used earlier in the PTR, this one will provide resources, R4, Claim Stakes, and a wider range of ships rather than completed components. Players will have to progress through Council Rank and craft more of what they need.

The Democracy Module remains the final major feature guaranteed for this phase. Phase 3 won’t go live before it is done. Meanwhile, the single-player campaign has been narrowed down as well: Phase 3 will include the prologue, which doubles as a tutorial and first-time user experience. The full campaign consists of that prologue and five acts, though the team has not yet decided how many acts will be ready for the mainnet launch of C4.

Economy and balance

The team has addressed the community’s #1 feedback item in phase 3: The resource map will be much less forgiving. Rare materials are being pushed farther into the MRZ, resources will no longer be available everywhere, and mining richness will vary by location. Players may need to cross several regions to find what they need, while factions that lose control of the right territory could temporarily lose practical access to a resource. This should finally give freight and Local Markets a proper role in C4.

The Brew also gave us several concrete balance values:

  • Council Rank can increase a fleet’s capacity to 312 ship points, compared to the fixed max of 145 in SAGE: Starbased.
  • Subwarp and ordinary warp speeds have been reduced by 67%. The target is roughly 24 hours to cross between the two farthest points on the map by subwarp.
  • Non-mining ships retain 5% of the normal mining rate and will only be able to mine asteroid belts, not planets (which was a bug).
  • Tier 5 ship configuration bonuses are being reduced from as much as eight or nine times the underlying stat to roughly 1.8 times, or an 80% bonus.
  • PvP ammunition consumption is being cut by 50%, alongside larger ammo bays. The target is 25 to 30 engagements before a fleet needs to restock.

Recovery and medallions

Destroyed fleets will return through a four-part recovery system. The timer depends on the fleet’s slowest ship and its distance from the CSS. Players then pay a base towing fee, receive the fleet at 50% damage, and use toolkits to repair it. A separate convenience fee can skip the remaining timer.

For fleets using default configurations, the full recovery fee becomes the medallion value paid to the winner. Each medallion can be exchanged for one ATLAS, but only after it has been carried back to a Faction-owned starbase. Medallions weigh nothing, yet remain fully lootable until extraction.

Nemesis Engine

NPC ambushes at mining sites were only the start for the Nemesis Engine. Pirate-held bases now receive garrisons that attack nearby hostile fleets, while roaming Jorvik “Wolf Packs” choose targets they expect to beat and flee from stronger fleets. They can also harass neighboring starbases.

John (Product Manager) said the development server handled roughly 1,000 fleets without scaling problems. Players will be able to fight these pirates inside safe zones and earn combat XP, though they are not currently expected to drop medallions.

z.ink

Phase 4 is still planned as the 30 to 45-day launch rehearsal we described last week. Michael called it “absolutely imperative” that C4 mainnet launches together with z.ink Genesis, its TGE, and z.ink mainnet. The team no longer considers launching C4 on Solana first, only to migrate it later (a backup plan that Michael voiced months ago).

Michael described z.ink as largely ready. The current demo bridge connects AtlasNet and the z.ink testnet, while mainnet will require the planned Solana-to-z.ink bridge. The team is also looking for more validators. Once C4 reaches feature lock in Phase 4, every mainnet component will go through extensive security audits before release.

UE5

Michael shared more information about the UE5 game’s dedicated multiplayer servers, which have been offline for a few months now. The servers needed to be rebuilt, but the people who managed them were (and still are) no longer on the team. They have now managed to get them back, however. The team also fixed an issue that caused the matchmaking server to expire after three hours without a connection. Matchmaking and Arena’s invincibility bug fix have meanwhile rolled out to the public. It seems racing is currently experiencing some issues, however.

Star Atlas - Iris' Blessing

Star Atlas – Iris’ Blessing

Iris’ Blessing

The next Iris’ Blessing drawing will take place on Friday, September 11th. The prize pool is:

  • 10 Fimbul ECOS Unibomba
  • 10 VZUS solos
  • 5 Fimbul Lowbie
  • 1 Busan Thrill of Life
  • 1 Calico Shipit
  • 1 Ogrika Mik
  • 1 Ogrika Tursic
  • 7 Crew Gold 5
  • 10 Crew Gold 1
  • 10 Crew Silver 5
  • 10 Crew Silver 1
  • 5 Crew Platinum 5

With the multiplayer servers coming back online, there should again be a double-XP weekend later this month. If there is, it will take place on the weekend of September 25-27.

DAO Updates

Voting continued last week for the fourth Star Atlas DAO Council term. With three candidates for five seats, there is still no contest: all three will join the Council when the new term begins on October 11th.

PIP-35: Council Election #4

This proposal determines who will serve on the Star Atlas DAO Council for its fourth term (October 11, 2026 – July 11, 2027). As outlined in PIP-10, there will be one round of voting. Three candidates nominated themselves for five available seats. Because the number of candidates does not exceed the number of available seats, all three candidates will be elected and will officially begin serving on October 11, 2026.

Structure:

  • Structure: Single Transferable Vote (STV)
  • Voting Opened: Sunday, August 30th
  • Voting Closes: Sunday, September 13th (end-of-day UTC)
  • Available seats: Five
  • Council term: October 11th, 2026 to July 11th, 2027

Current results (~7 days in, ~12M PVP committed):

  1. emperor
  2. earther
  3. jith_blade

Here is a screenshot of people’s first choices so far:

Council Election #4 - People's First Choice [source: our STV Visualizer]

Council Election #4 – People’s First Choice [source: our STV Visualizer]

You’ve reached the end of this week’s issue! See you next week!