Starbound to exit early access soon with a colossal patch

I am really excited to give Starbound some proper playtime when it leaves Early Access. It's already fun, but I didn't want to have characters or worlds wiped during Early Access. They have put up what to expect in Starbound 1.0.

They do state all the questing and other new features aren't replacing the sandbox of the game, but it will help it feel more alive. You can still do whatever you feel like doing.

The story content actually sounds pretty amazing. It will feature several missions, each ending in a unique boss fight. I can't wait to see what they have cooked up.

The fact that you progress as you see fit, and take whatever gear you feel will help is awesome:

QuoteAs of this update the mission/story progression, armor progression, ship progression and colony progression are all entirely separate. Whilst missions do increase in difficulty as they progress, it’s up to you how you want to tackle them in terms of gear, weapons and items. We’ve removed any artificial gates, though you will need to ensure you have the equipment needed to overcome any environmental hazards.

There are also a bunch of side quests that vary in what you do, like a battle arena, a museum that needs to be populated with artifacts, and test chambers to unlock tech upgrades.

On top of that, you will also get generated quests that also vary in size and content.


Planet generation has also had a big overhaul, with each planet featuring a mix of major biomes. Each planet will have a ton of content too in the form of dungeons, villages and beautiful microdungeons.


You can create colonies for NPCs to move into, and if they really like you they will join your ships crew! Each crew class will have different benefits, like a medic or a soldier. If having your own crew isn't your thing, you can hire a penguin mercenary.

Then there's also ship upgrades, fossils to find, new crafting progression system, an optional survival mode with hunger, new weapons, revamped pet system, and more.

One thing in particular I am excited about is the Steam integration. Finally you will be able to invite your Steam friends into your games, so you don't have to setup a server. They are also planning Steam workshop support.

Starbound is already big, and it's about to get massive. You should seriously read the patch notes here, there's a lot coming.

I'm really excited! No word on the actual release date yet, but I imagine it's close. I do hope they get around to getting their SteamOS icon back on Steam too. The game is there and downloadable, but it was removed by Valve back when they did a little bit of SteamOS curating.

You can already get Starbound right now from Steam and GOG. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.