Hades' Star Development blog

Modules New Trade module: Entrust (teleports a transport ship cargo to another transport ship) New Trade module: Offload (while active, all the transport's shipments will be delivered at a lower rate when the ship arrives at a Trade Station) New Mining module: Genesis (creates new asteroids in the current sector) New and existing Transport ships level 3 and higher will get an extra Trade module slot Destiny: Activating ship is now disabled right after the teleport (8 hours in White Star, 10 seconds elsewhere). Blast radius now constant on all levels. Damage reduced on level2+ Unity: Damage increase per additional player reduced on all levels Barrage: Increased base damage and damage per additional enemy on all levels. Max damage is now capped at the equivalent of having 5 additional enemy ships in the sector. It is now possible to uninstall non-weapon modules from any ship, to help with Hydrogen usage

White Stars have arrived! Coordinate with your Corporation members to outsmart the competing Corporation and gain Relics. See this post for more details on White Stars. Other changes:

I've written before about potential star types we're evaluating. Today I'm happy to announce an upcoming new star type that I think will be a great fit for the game. As usual, keep in mind gameplay details are subject to change as we playtest and tweak.

Modules New Trade module: Rush (increases the Transport speed proportionally to the number of shipments carried that are destined to the next waypoint) New Mining module: Enrich (increases Hydrogen stored in current sector by fixed percentage) New Support module: Alpha Rocket (launches a projectile that does damage to all enemy ships on impact, but can be destroyed by enemy fire before impact) Corporations Corporation Search screen allows filtering Corporations by name, Region, total influence, and number of members Corporations can set Minimum Influence requirement. Players below that influence level cannot join (or request to join) First Officer can now step down by promoting another Officer to their role Senior members and Officers will now see an Invite option when viewing the profile of another player that is not in any Corporation Chat  "Report player" option will show up on public Red Stars Added language filter on Galaxy chat and public Red St...

Corporations Private Red Stars that are not full can be joined by other Corporation members after they started Senior Members and above can Invite other players to the Corporation Corporation chat entries that are related to Red Stars have different appearance and are collapsed by default after the mission has expired Corporations can now set a Region (country) to help visibility. Recommended Corporations can be filtered by Region (note that only Open to All Corporations will show up in the Recommended list) Other improvements and Bug fixes Increased Credit Storage for level 15+ planets Red Star participants can send an alert to bring specific locations to other player's attention Time Warp no longer affects Red Star timer Fixed issue that was not allowing space stations to be moved within the same sector Fixed an issue where Teleport could move a ship straight on top of a Star Fixed issue where Destroyer beam was showing as active when the Destroyer was disabled...

Red Stars & Combat New Cerberus ship: Destroyer (starts appearing at Red Star level 6) Ships that are docked on the return stargate in a Red Star at the moment the supernova happens will automatically jump back (instead of being destroyed) New artifacts for Red Star Levels 7 and 8. New art for L6 artifacts and Red Star 6 planets. Red star planets will display correct level (in red stars, planet level affects the levels of the artifacts the planet contains) Tweaked number of planets in Red Star level 4+, to make more higher level planets available Fixed another case that could cause Cerberus ship movement to be affected by ships docked on asteroids from a nearby sector Modules 7 new modules (3 Trade, 1 Mining, 3 Support) EMP: Reduced duration for level2+. Reduced blueprint requirement to upgrade for level6+. Barrage: Total damage now depends on number of enemies in the same sector (instead of number of enemies within firing range). Reduced damage per additional...

On the next update, the Ship Upgrade process will change. This is in response to the d evastating fleet losses issues we've acknowledged before, as well as to provide better balancing and progression.

As we are headed into global launch later this summer, I wanted to take the opportunity to write about the current status of the game and what we see as priorities for future updates going forward.

Our new update is now available! Here's what's new:

Today we are releasing the first update to the live version of the game, available in Canada. Soon we'll have more details to share on our plans to launch in more countries - stay tuned! Here's what's new in this update:

I got greedy again and neglected to look at the timer and lost a transport ship. That’s always the way it goes for me, but at least this time, I didn’t lose a battleship! Hi, I’m GALaxy and I’m playing Hades’ Star like the rest of you! This is my millionth system and I love it the most because it’s permanent. I’ve been testing every version this game has ever seen (remember when we were saving colonists?! No? That was just me, then) and boy am I glad to say au revoir to the tutorial. I’m not what you would call a “gamer” so don’t get your hopes up for cool moves and sweet tricks. I mean, maybe I might come up with something, I just can’t promise anything. My game play is more strategized for my daily life. I like levelling up, maxing out, collecting all the cats and then I’m like, “Now what’s the point?” so that’s when there had better be some weekly events or updates to keep me going. Good thing Hades’ Star is headed in that direction because it would be really hard to let my husb...

Today we are shutting down our game server, ending an alpha testing period that lasted a bit over 3 months. During that time we had hundrends of participating players that helped a lot both with fixing bugs, and with suggestions and in game activity that affected our developer priorities. We feel this alpha period has been very helpful in making a solid game, so if you participated: Thank you! The game server will be down for one week. After that period, we will be gradually launching the game in select countries over time. There is no final plan for all countries yet, and details are still being figured out, but here's the current plan so far. Around March 20: The game will be available for players in Canada on Android, via the Google Play store. Around March 27: The game will be available to download on the App Store, for iOS players in Canada. After the Canada launch, we'll be looking to launch into more countries, but there are no concrete plans at the moment. As we...

Today brings the release of the last update to Hades' Star Alpha, which has been live for almost 3 months. This update brings some final content we felt was necessary before going into beta (especially the Weapon modules, the Leaderboards changes, and the Warp Lane Hub buildings which should bring a new level of strategic planning to delivering shipments for higher level players). During this time we were able to significantly improve the game, largely thanks to the help of early players. If you participated in the alpha - thank you! For the next few months, we plan to slow down the rate of major features. There will still be some new modules, but the majority of the focus will be on balancing existing content and make yellow and red stars as fun as they can be. We are still on track to launching our beta version some time in March. The alpha version will be live until March 6, at which point the servers will be brought down for a few weeks as we prepare for proper launch in our ...

If you've been participating in the alpha, you may be familiar with the Leaderboards window, which shows the players who have advanced the most in the game: In its current form, the "Score" column is just the amount of XP a player has collected. XP is gained by doing shipments, upgrading planets, researching artifacts and completing achievements. Nobody ever loses XP, so it's an indication of how long someone has been playing, and their overall level of progress. There are major issues with using XP for the leaderboards: It rewards whoever is playing the most. If a player near the top doesn't log in for a day or two, they will most certainly lose their spot.  Players who started playing the game later don't have much hope of catching up.  Spending Crystals can directly translate into more XP (i.e. by buying more shipments or Artifacts, or buying the resources to upgrade planets).  There is no risk of ever losing XP, so there's little movement an...

Today we are realeasing our 3rd update to the Alpha version. We have made great progress in improving stability and fixing issues, largely because of your reports. Thank you and please keep the feedback coming! Our current plan is to do one more update to the Alpha during February, then end the alpha period 1-2 weeks after that update. After the Alpha ends, the game will be unavailable for a few weeks as we prepare to launch in certain countries. Here is the list of changes in today's update: Ships and Combat All ship speeds increased. Battleship is now faster than both Miner and Transport ships. New Cerberus Ship: Sentinel (low hitpoints but high damage, dangerous in high numbers) New Cerberus Ship: Colossus (very strong, equipped with the Salvage module) Cerberus Sentry renamed to Guardian Cerberus ships no longer have levels Cerberus ships will now quickly and predictably react to ships moving into their sector. Hitpoints and damage has been rescaled (x10 to all ...

Greetings explorers! Over the next several weeks we’ll be giving you a better look at some of the features of Hades’ Star. This week we’ve decided to discuss the early stages of the game as well as some of info you’ll need to do to survive and triumph in the cold, unforgiving vacuum of space. If you’re completely new to the world of Hades’ Star, your mission is one of expansion through the colonization of planets, the building and upgrading of your fleets and the defense of your acquired territory from constant Cerberus threats. There is a lot to do, and a whole lot of space to explore and conquer. We’ll start off by discussing the basics of the Hades’ Star economy. There are three types of currency you’ll have to manage and obtain in game, Credits, Hydrogen, and Crystals. Each one is vital to your success and can be obtained in a variety of different ways. CREDITS: Credits are your main currency, used to buy ships and build infrastructure. Quite simply, building a spac...