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You may find the invaders have a sense of humor on April Fools day tomorrow!
2.0.5 Changelog
Added a small April Fools cosmetic gag
Added V-SYNC toggle
Fixed a couple task-engine crashes related to trigger order
Fixed controller menu input issues in the deck scene and bud's factory
Attempted performance improvements / memory usage improvement
Fixed a few localization / text mistakes
We've just crossed over 1.5 MILLION hours played! That's insane, that's like 171 years, I wasn't even born that many years ago, it's older than me!!
A lot of big discussions happening behind the scenes at Pengonauts, we're working on some big things!
Also... Console Ports & Mobile News......... soon??
fanart by Longcx ~ Happy Chinese New Year!!
The demo contains a great sneak peak at the gameplay in the full game. Your progress will be transferable as well!
Try the first three Commanders on the first 3 difficulties, as well as a special Daily Challenge mode!
This demo is available in Simplified Chinese, English, French, and Japanese. Enjoy!!
In the FULL GAME, you can unlock THE OVERSEER, a commander that lets you mix and match two different commander abilities as well access to their unique artifacts!
This will allow you to craft some creative and game-breaking combos by combining the strengths of multiple playstyles together. Though beware, playing as the Overseer will increase the scaling of the target defense substantially!
Thank everyone!
- Axolotl
Heya everyone! Hope you're doing well in this new year!
We're happy to announce that the playtest for DiceVaders is live now!
DiceVaders is a roguelike dice-game in the score-attack genre in the same universe as StarVaders. Roll dice, build synergies, get big numbers, and try to reach the increasingly challenging targets!
In DiceVaders, you will play as Commanders - powerful alien invaders that are attacking the Earth!
Just like in StarVaders, each character will have their own unique abilities and unique artifacts that only they can find during the run. You'll be able to unlock over 10 commanders, each one based on the bosses from StarVaders!
In this game, you'll be building an army of (very familiar) alien invaders, using positional and archetype synergies to create powerful combos and gain high scores.
If you've played games like Luck be a Landlord, Nubby's Number Factory, or Ballionaire, this game is very similar! Though with a much stronger focus on strategy.
As you play and get stronger, you will soon encounter Earth's most powerful protectors. The pilots! They each come with debilitating abilities that you will need to play around... Don't let them stop you!
If you sign up from the "Playtest" button on the DiceVaders steam page, you should be able to get access to the open beta directly!
This is a beta, which means there will be bugs and there are still missing content, art, balance, polish, etc!
Although there's many things missing that we are aware of, we still appreciate any feedback you have, even though it may be obvious. With that in mind, let me explain some of what is currently inside of the playtest, and some of what is still missing!
Included in the playtest
Missing / Upcoming
- 8 Commanders to play with
- The remaining 2 Commanders
- Chapters 1 through 5 in difficulties
- Chapter 6 (The Ending / Final Boss Fight)
- 6 Multiversal Challenges including dailies
- The rest of the Challenges (6 or more)
- Over 100 artifacts, 30 powers
- Controller / SteamDeck Support / Keybinding
- 30 units, 15 Warped units.
- Full Settings Menu + Save Profiles
- A lot of temporary UI stuff!
- Localization
- Compendium (there's a temporary one if you click on the dice in the main menu)
- New SFX and new music by plasterbrain
- More Artifacts, Powers, and Warped Units!
Where can I give feedback / submit bug reports?
If you have any feedback, the best way to let us know is through our DISCORD SERVER. Otherwise, feel free to use the Steam Discussion forums as well.
If you have any bugs to report, please use the in-game F2 Bug Report form. Doing that will send your save files to us so that we can reproduce the exact bug easily!
How long will the playtest period last?
We will likely continue beta testing until full release, but at some point in February, when we release the public demo, the access to the playtest will become limited to within our discord server / or with a secret code.
So join our server if you wanna stay in the beta!
Can I stream / make videos on the playtest?
The beta is not a secret, but it is still at an early stage, so we would prefer if content creators wait until the public demo (in February) to stream and/or create content for the game.
Is there a roadmap? How often do you update things?
It turns out I'm really bad at planning what gets done next, like some sort of chaotic aquatic creature, I just kinda follow my whims and what I feel like at the moment, so there's no set schedule or anything.
We'll try to do weekly updates but no promises!
Will the game be localized in X/Y/Z language?
The playtest won't be localized, but we want to localize the demo and the full game.
For this game we wanna take a more hands on approach on the localization process, so we're working with specific people, some of them members of our community, to help localize the game into each language. If you may be interested in helping out, please let us know!
If you have any more questions feel free to ask in the comments below or on our Discord Server!
We hope you enjoy!
We got nominated for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year at the DICE awards! Wish us the best of luck!
The game has also been seen in quite a few end of the year lists around the webs. Thank you all for enjoying the game! This is our first game so it really means a lot for us!
https://rogueliker.com/roguelike-game-of-the-year-2025/
https://frostilyte.ca/2025/12/20/the-best-games-of-2025/
For other news, no updates for mobile or console ports yet, but we are currently in conversation with a few porting studios - it takes time! No promises, but the conversations are looking good...
We've also just pushed a new patch for the game, mostly small bugfixes. The team took some time off for the holidays and have been busy with Dice recently, so apologies for the slow patching!
Patch 2.0.3
Just noting here again, in the previous patch, we added a new "custom localization" system that allows players to insert their own localizations into the game. Please contact us if you'd like the specifics for that!
Fixed a bug where Max doesn't get unlocked correctly.
Fixed many suggested localization changes - especially in the French localization!
Removed VSYNC from the game - potentially helping with performance?
Fixed Chronoblast being playable without a player entity.
Fixed a couple wrong tags (ie cards getting components they arent supposed to have)
Fixed a few specific interactions with Shock timing, relevant with Sura interactions.
Prevent the Bab cards from being "favorite" cards in the Trophies page
Also check out these awesome fanart by @Cerlica1 and @nat-toes
Changelog:
Added a new system to load custom localizations files into the game! You'll need to add a .json file to the save folder, feel free to contact us for more information about this.
Fixing an issue where the entire cutscene for Min & Max is not playing
Fixing the timing for Sol Siphon (it didn't work for cards drawn start of turn)
Fixed a few missing tags for new content in 2.0
Fixed issue where you could double-upgrade a card.
Fixed random items spawning into pickups (like the max autobomb going into the pickups in the ultimate ending fight)
- MIN, THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
Quick note, we are having a DAILY DEAL starting on the 22nd, the game will be 25% off!
We are also happy to tease our NEW GAME in the StarVaders universe... DICEVADERS! The roles have been reversed! Take control of the invaders to defeat the Earth in our new dice roguelike.
Hey all! Thank you so much for joining us on our journey, it's been a long development time and we are finally ready to put the final bow on the game (for content at least). The 2.0 update is out now!
There are two new pilots to play with! Min is a Gunner pilot and Max is a Stinger pilot. Discover their unique gameplay styles, new cards and new artifacts! There are over a dozen new unique cards and artifacts to play with for both Min & Max, we hope you enjoy!
There are now 4 pilots for each class, bringing the total amount of pilots in StarVaders to 12!
Unlocked at 70 and 75 trophies, these are the final packs in the game!
If you don't want to chase achievements to unlock these packs, you can also "unlock all" from the main menu to instantly unlock everything. Though now with 100 total trophies, just playing over time should eventually unlock everything!
Get into the Holiday Spirit with the Holiday pack:
Create new traits with the Shining Star artifact, adding the Shiny trait to all cards in your deck! Shiny gives a chance to make the card free when drawn.
Noel's Frozen mechanic makes a re-apparence with the Mittens! The Mittens cards lets you draw and freeze cards to retain in your hand across turns. Since Frozen also counts as a trait, it will interact with the other cards in this pack as well!
Use the Toy Wrench or Toy Darts to scale off of cards with multiple traits! The more traits the better!
Control Time with the Temporal Pack:
A new keyword Chronocycle allows you to spend Chrono Tokens for powerful effects! However, if you run out of tokens, playing a card with Chronocycle will instead generate a Chrono Token for you!
Spawn your own Time Angels with the Halo Strike card, striking adjacent tiles. Or use the Aeon Storm to push all invaders away based on the amount of Chrono Tokens you are missing.
The Pack System
Part of the magic of the "Pack System" is that it lets us add a lot more variety and mechanics without diluting the card pool as is often a problem in many deckbuilders with a lot of content. We're now at 15
With 15 packs, without counting the different pilots, there are now over ~2730 potential different card pools to play with.
We've added 14 new trophies/achievements to this update, bringing the total to 100!
Trophy Title
Description
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Win with Min
Lost in Time
Win with Max
Turbo Granny
Complete Min Challenges
Into the StarVader-Verse
Complete Max Challenges
The Actual End...?
Complete the Ultimate Ending
nice
???
Killer Queen
End the turn with 8 or more Bombs on the grid at the same time.
Electric Feel
End the turn with 8 or more Shocked entities.
Timeless
Win a run without using a Chrono Token.
Veteran
Win a run without having any Starter cards remaining in your deck.
The Bare Necessities
Win a run without Rare or Legendary cards.
Run It Back
Have winstreak of 5 or more on any pilot.
Hoarder
Win a run with 10 or more artifacts.
Cyberware
Win a run with 8 or more cards with components.
A mysterious red button has appeared in Min's Workhop.... what's gonna happen when you press it? To unlock the Ultimate Ending, you will explore a new side-story involving Min and Max.
The Overseer has been upgraded with new, dangerously punishing abilities, including a new randomized Phase 2 that creates scenarios from the scariest invaders straight out of your worst nightmares, and new echo-invaders that cannot be killed in traditional ways.
With Post-Impossible difficulty, this new ending will now be the most difficult challenge in the game!
But fear not, this ending is also accessible on Apocalypse difficulty as well for players who want to see the new content without bashing their hands against it.
There is no new skin for this update :( If StarVaders has been fun for you and you'd like to help support our studio, the Supporter Pack is a wonderful way to show your support! We (Pengonauts) are a small and new 3-person studio based in Montreal, Canada. StarVaders is our first game, but we have many great plans ahead!
We’re grateful for any help, but remember – buying the pack is entirely up to you, and your enjoyment of the game is what matters the most! The supporter pack is purely cosmetic and won’t affect the gameplay experience.
Check out the Support the Team! Bundle, where you can get the supporter pack and the soundtrack at an additional 10% discount, here!
StarVaders - Support the Team! Bundle
Fix some achievements taking an extra run to unlock
Fix some controller input bugs
Attempted fix for Chinese font sometimes using Japanese characters. (If it is still happening, switching languages a few times in-game should fix the issue)
Slightly increased difficulty of Mothership, Megablob fights
Updated tutorial run starter decks
Fixed missing tags and tooltips for several cards and artifacts
Fix Basic Rocketeer only firing one rocket ever
Fixed timing priority for Orchid-type attacks to be more player-friendly
BIG BALANCE PASS! Including changes to the following:
Bolt: Now draws a card
Swell: 0 cost -> 1 cost
Burn Book: Reduces cooldown by 2 -> 3
Extract: Reworked ability
Psychic Beam: Reworked ability
Jellyfish: Reworked ability
Mudslide: 0 cost -> 1 cost
Assassin: Reworked ability
Free Delivery: Legendary -> Common
Inner Void: Legendary -> Common
Various localization changes and improvements
Keep reporting bugs! Although new content is over for now, we are still committed to fix issues and occasionally patch the game!
2.0 is the last planned content update for StarVaders. There is still mod-support that is a work in progress, as well continuous bug-fixing, balancing, and general support, etc.
It's been almost 4 years since we started StarVaders, yet it feels like it's been much much longer! This game is a significant portion of our lives and we are so, so grateful that it has found an audience that is kind and supportive. It really made everything feel worth it!
I know a lot of people say it deserves to sell more and everything, but it has already surpassed all our expectations on basically all fronts, so all we can say is thank you! And a HUGE special thanks to all the playtesters that have been playing and helping us improve the game before release. The game really would not have even been finished without y'all! You know who you are!
As you've seen at the top, we just soft-announced our next title DiceVaders!
Since it worked great for StarVaders, we're planning to do a similar open-beta style playtesting with weekly updates - you can join our discord or sign up for the playtest on Steam! We'll have more info soon, but we want to begin playtesting before the end of the year!
Although DiceVaders is our next project, it's not the only thing we're working on - we've been prototyping a new, dream game this whole time - it is nowhere near ready to be shown to the world - but it is something that I guarantee is unlike anything you've seen before!
Think something like Scavenger's Reign meets Darkest Dungeon meets Outer Wilds. I am beyond excited for it and hope it pans out! We are currently looking for potential opportunities (funding, collaboration, etc) for this future game. If you think you might have something interesting for us, let us know through the Pengonauts website!
Hey everyone, happy 6 month anniversary for StarVaders! We released exactly half a year ago, and things have been looking great!
The highlight of the next update will surely be the two new pilots, so let's tease them a bit:
Min is a new Gunner pilot, with a mechanic based on Quarks:
Whenever a Quark enters your hand, immediately purge it, draw 1 card, and randomly launch an Auto-Bomb near invaders.
Min's starter artifact is the Omega Gate, which gives you a Quark whenever you burn a card!
Being a chaotic little gremlin, Min loves card draw and generating Quarks to decimate the grid. There's a whole bunch of fun synergies and toys that come with Min's gameplay style, but it is always chaotic and bombastic!
Min is inspired by the mechanics of one of my favorite characters in roguelike deckbuilding - check out Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend, a fun twist on the genre!
After finishing her fundraiser, Min is now travelling across the cosmos to find her brother who got lost in space and time...
Max is a new Stinger pilot. His signature artifact is the Rez-Drive:
While you are Shocked, your Attack cards consume the Shock to get +1 Repeat.
Self-Shock is a stance mechanic, buffing your next attack. Max slips around the grid, shocking himself and slashing invaders in a very tactical and precise gameplay style.
Max is our take on the classic "stance" type character design like the Watcher in STS.
Max has been busy... working on a technology that has unexpectedly become a danger to all the timelines...
Following the unexpected consequences of his experiments across space time, Max's inventions have merged with the Overseer. Follow Min's new quest to defeat an even more unfair final boss!
I am so sorry.
Along with more bug fixes and achievements, this update will include two new packs as well!
The Holiday Pack focuses on trait-synergy, giving cards new traits and synergies with multi-trait cards.
The Temporal Pack plays with Chrono Tokens! Manipulate time to your advantage in this final pack.
After this 2.0 update, we currently don't have any further plans for StarVaders content, so it may very well be the final major update. Although there's no more content planned, we're still commited to fixing bugs, helping with mod-support, as well as potentially porting to consoles and/or mobile.
But never say never! There is also always a chance that I randomly get inspired to make new StarVaders content, but I am currently out of gas and am pouring most of my brain into our next projects.
We actually currently have two upcoming projects:
A "mini-game" coming early next year.
A "dream game" that will take many more years to come.
I am certain this mini-game will be very exciting for fans of the StarVaders universe... Stay tuned, more news coming soon!
- Axolotl, of the Pengonauts
FYI we are gonna be in the Autumn Sale with a discount starting on the 29th.
We're also in 2 new bundles with some of our favorite games: Slay the Spire and Wildfrost!
With the "complete the set" option, you can get any game for cheaper if you own the other one!
Get Slay the Spire x StarVaders Bundle
Get Wildfrost x StarVaders Bundle
Without further ado, check out what's new in the 1.2 changelog:
With 2 new invaders for each act, that brings the total to 10 invaders per act ~ increasing the variety for the whole game! These invaders create scary new challenges for the player to play against, and making that choice of which fight to battle a bit more deep.
Discover these new mechanics for yourself! You will need to unlock them with the timeline divergence meta-progression by playing a few runs in the new update.
Harvest season is upon us, beware what lurks in the night skies!
The Full Moon Pack is a new neutral pack unlocked at 60 Trophies that focuses on Sacrifice and Isolated mechanics.
Sacrifice is a way to describe destroying an invader instantly, no matter if it's Immune or Shielded.
Isolated is a new keyword that describes invaders that are adjacent to no other invader.
Some fun new cards in this pack include:
CLAW, a 0 cost card that strikes 3 random isolated invaders.
Reap Soul, a 1 cost self-purging card that sacrifices any non-Boss entity.
Push and pull invaders into isolated positions to destroy them with Claw, or use Reap Soul to bypass tricky invaders such as Echo, Shelled, or the new Sponge invaders!
Back to school! Tippy's back to teach you some new lessons.
The Academy Pack is a pack that unlocks at 65 trophies, focusing on enhancing Starter cards ~ your Shifts, Fires, Jabs, etc. Call Tippy to join the fight and strike invaders every time you play a Starter card, or simply use an Eraser to purge your starter cards for a devastating column attack.
The Pack System
Part of the magic of the "Pack System" is that it lets us add a lot more variety and mechanics without diluting the card pool as is often a problem in many deckbuilders with a lot of content. We're now at 13 total packs, and expect 2 more packs in the next update! With 15 packs, each pilot will have ~2730 potential different card pools to play with.
Various new achievements have been added, mostly for completionist players as well as for creating new trophies to unlock the new packs with.
Very sorry for those of you who lost their 100% completion ~ and a warning that the next update will also have new achievements as well. We had to rip off that bandaid because the November update will feature some new content that will require new achievements.
Some of these achievements should auto-unlock if you load a save profile in which its already completed, but do let us know if it's not working!
Trophy Title
Description
Armageddon
Unlock all bosses and invaders in the game.
Why Can't I Hold All These Cards?
Reach the max hand size (of 12).
Consecrated
Win a run on Post-Apocalypse difficulty.
Exalted
Win a run on Post-Post-Apocalypse difficulty.
Ascendant
Win a run on Impossible difficulty.
Thank You For Playing! <3
Complete ALL challenges in the game.
Aim for The Top
Complete all Roxy challenges.
Blizzard of Hell
Complete all Noel challenges.
Fullmetal
Complete all Zeke challenges.
Godspeed
Complete all Shun challenges.
Poseidon's Aid
Complete all Hali challenges.
Warrior of Liberation
Complete all Kaia challenges.
Iron-Blooded Orphan
Complete all Iris challenges.
El Psy Kongroo
Complete all Xenn challenges.
Devils Never Cry
Complete all Garu challenges.
Bury The Light
Complete all Sura challenges.
Purist
Win a run without any components on your cards.
Tower Defense
Win an encounter without playing a Move card.
There is a new halloween-themed skin for Xenn in the Supporter Pack! (in addition to the 4 existing skins)
If StarVaders has been fun for you and you'd like to help us continue working on the game, the Supporter Pack is a wonderful way to show your support! We (Pengonauts) are a small and new 3-person studio based in Montreal, Canada. StarVaders is our first game, but we have many great plans ahead for both StarVaders and other games beyond!
We’re grateful for any help, but remember – buying the pack is entirely up to you, and your enjoyment of the game is what matters the most! The supporter pack is purely cosmetic and won’t affect the gameplay experience.
Check out the Support the Team! Bundle, where you can get the supporter pack and the soundtrack at an additional 10% discount, check it out here!
StarVaders - Support the Team! Bundle
Fixed various visual issues related to the Bestiary
Fixed a couple tagging issues (traits / keywords not displaying properly)
Added missing Turkish localization team to credits
Fixed a few rare interactions causing task-engine crashes
Fixed Okizeme not carrying over Combo anymore
Fixed a few input locks related to transitioning scenes
Keep reporting bugs! We probably accidently introduced a bunch of new ones, and beta testing can only catch so many!
That's right, 1.3 is now called 2.0 (because it sounds cooler). It's also gonna be the biggest, baddest update for StarVaders (and potentially the final content update?).
2.0 will feature 2 NEW PILOTS, a new storyline, and a new variant of the true ending we're calling the ULTIMATE ENDING. These 2 new pilots are some of my favorite designs in the game, and can't wait for you all to try them out.
One of the new pilots is gonna be our one and only, favorite workshop-keeper Min! She's gearing up as a new Gunner pilot to head off on a cosmic adventure trying to find her missing brother...
The beta for 2.0 will begin in early October on our discord server, so stay tuned!
The 1.2 update is live now! Hope you all enjoy the new update!
- Axolotl of the Pengonauts
Are those new invaders???
1.2 - Night of the Invaders will include: - 6 new invaders! (with their basic and advanced variants) - Full Moon Pack: A pack that plays with Sacrifice and Isolated invaders. - Academy Pack: A pack that focuses on manipulating Starter Cards. - A bunch of new achievements! Things are speeding up for the rest of the year. The next update after that (1.3) will be coming sooner than later (November 21st!). We'll be starting the beta for that one in October. We hope everyone enjoyed their summer vacations! The team took some good time off as well, but now we're all back to work. There's some exciting things coming ahead - stay tuned! - Axolotl of the Pengonauts
FYI we are gonna be in the Summer Sale with a 10% discount starting on the 26th.
It's finally Summer (in the northern hemisphere) and the pilots are enjoying a well-earned break after fighting invaders in countless timelines. Check out what's new in the 1.1 update below!
We've also finally reached over 2000 overwhelmingly positive reviews at 98%!
It's honestly so insane to me, I never would have thought so many people would enjoy our very wacky, very specific design philosophy. I've thanked you all so many times already but you really don't know how helpful it is to us indie devs.
If you missed it, here's a recap of what we've done between 1.0.0 and 1.0.7:
Added Savescum Mode and Infinite Chronos assist mode toggles
Buffed Roxy and Noel's starting decks
Improved the clarity and balance of the True ending and Hemophage boss fights to make them feel better to play against
Fixed dozens of bugs, crashes and localization issues of all types
Much more! check out the full changelog of all updates in our previous news posts.
Adjust the game to your liking with the Sandbox Settings, a new menu to tweak the game with.
Notable features include:
Optional customization of difficulty with new settings based on player suggestions.
Ban specific packs and bosses from appearing during gameplay.
We will continue to add to the Sandbox Settings based on player feedback and suggestions!
Part of the magic of the "Pack System" is that it lets us add a lot more variety and mechanics without diluting the card pool as is often a problem in many deckbuilders with a lot of content.
We will be able to add as many packs as we can think of, and each one added will expand the variety of the card pool across multiple runs. And if you do not enjoy the new packs, you can always disable them in-game with the new sandbox settings!
The first new pack post-release is the Beach Pack, themed around "random" synergy. Randomness is not always dangerous, sometimes it can be harnessed and used to your advantage.
Use the Pocket Sand to strike random invaders while sifting through your deck, or throw the Beach Ball at other invaders with big splash damage. (Beach Ball is one of my new favorite Items to build around!)
This pack is designed to synergize with the existing card pool too. The Roadtrip card will return all cards that mention "random" from your discard pile to your hand, and the Lucky Dice artifact will improve the odds of ALL random-related artifacts and cards from other classes and packs!
Discover these in-game after you unlock the Beach Pack through earning trophies!
We're adding a new neutral Legendary, and each pilot gets a new pilot-unique Common artifact that explores a bit more of their unique mechanics!
Some of these are references to content creators who played the game that we really enjoyed, try to guess who they are!
There is a new beach-themed skin for Kaia in the Supporter Pack! (in addition to the 3 existing skins)
If StarVaders has been fun for you and you'd like to help us continue working on the game, the Supporter Pack is a wonderful way to show your support!
We (Pengonauts) are a small and new 3-person studio based in Montreal, Canada. StarVaders is our first game, but we have many great plans ahead for both StarVaders and other games beyond!
We’re grateful for any help, but remember – buying the pack is entirely up to you, and your enjoyment of the game is what matters the most! The supporter pack is purely cosmetic and won’t affect the gameplay experience.
We've just created a new bundle, where you can get the supporter pack and the soundtrack at an additional 10% discount, check it out here!
StarVaders - Support the Team! Bundle
On the Character Selection screen, there is now an indicator for the highest difficulty the pilot has won with.
Challenges now show a different trophy when they've been completed with the True Ending (this is not retroactive so only new runs will update it).
Regenerating Shield now has its own, more visible section in the description, and has been added to the bosses that it applies to that was missing that information.
Zeke has been buffed to start with Echo on their Nova Bomb instead of a Heated.
Zeke has had problems with setup and early-game, which became a lot more apparent after the buffs to Roxy and Noel. Changing the Nova Bomb upgrade gives Zeke a strong AOE setup early and also helps showcase his ability to dismantle self-purging cards as an advantage.
It's not the biggest buff but it does give him the much needed early game tempo to be able to get off the ground easier and build towards something stronger.
Doom Ritual has been reworked to only activate if no other invaders are channeling Doom.
Buffed Chant (from Dark Medal), now draws a card.
Buffed Dawnbreaker and Nightbringer, now only increases cost of Sun/Moon cards by 1.
Nerfed Hologram, now 1 cost instead of 0 cost.
Added a countdown for when the Daily Run resets
Orchids and other similar simultaneous doom + attacking invaders now attack before channeling Doom.
Added animations for Min! (very important)
Added whiff indicator to Static Wave
Added more info tooltip for Robo-Parrot
Added a toggle in the settings for increasing danger zone visibility on the grid.
Buffed Gunner Assist!, now fires 2 additional rockets
Ghosts can no longer gain immunity while they are channeling Doom.
Added some modding-framework related changes to the codebase in preparation for modding
Improved the clarity of a few boss descriptions
Fixed several missing card tags
Fixed bug involving entities floating above holes
Fixed a few mouse-hover input related bugs where some entities are too close to each other
Fixed Ultra Coolant crashing on a no-commons pool modifier run.
Fixed missing 2x Legendary Special reward on a no Legendary pool modifier run.
Increased Guide scale for better readability
Fixed Visual overlap of completion star in more info
Fixed Summon limit text overlapping with Bomb limit
Fixed Summon limit text not updating when max Summon limit is changed
Attempted fix on Nessie freeze when defeated
Attempted fix on settings scene crash due to resolution errors
Attempted performance improvements and fixes for memory leaking
Many localization changes based on suggestions.
Hope you all enjoy! The update is live now!
Other than any immediate bug fixing patches, the next big content update will be Update 1.2 around September / October. It will be very scary and have a bigger focus on new gameplay content! The beta for it will be up in the next few months, so stay tuned!
- Axolotl of the Pengonauts
Just wanted to update y'all that the 1.1 update is planned to release on June 24th!
We are releasing around that time to align with the Steam Summer Sale, during which we will have a discount - keep an eye out for it if you haven't gotten the game yet!
Our Beta branch has been live for the last 2 weeks and the update is almost ready - we're finalizing localization and a few art assets as well as fixing a few remaining bugs.
Min Squish Animation
Play Volley Ball!
Egg
If you'd like to play the update early, feel free to join the Beta branch! Access information can be found in our discord server or in the QQ group.
There have been people asking for more Supporter Packs, we really appreciate the support and enthusiasm! But to clarify, our current plan is to continue to add additional skins to the current Supporter Pack. So you'll only need to buy it once but have all future skins available (like the upcoming Kaia skin for the 1.1 update).
On discord, one of our players (Slaith) has started working on a modding framework! It's still quite early but it's been great to see it grow.
We're trying to support any modders in any way we can, feel free to join our discord if you'd like to help out or take a look! I'd love to see what players can come up with.
I'm also excited to share that I have already started working on the 1.2 and 1.3 content updates! The current plan is to have the 1.2 update for the Autumn Sale and the 1.3 update for the Winter Sale of this year, but our plans could still change over time depending on the circumstances and beta testing.
Timeline
Content Update Plan*
June 24th:
1.1: BEACH EPISODE
1 new Neutral Pack
11 new Artifacts
Sandbox Settings
Bugfixes and QoL Improvements
September / October
1.2: ????????????
????????????
2 new Neutral Packs
More Achievements
November / December
1.3: ????????????
????????????
????????????
2 new Neutral Packs
More Achievements
*Our plans may change!
???????????? means i know what it is but we're keeping it a secret for now! I'm really bad at keeping secrets though, I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to share this pseudo-roadmap yet, but i'm too hyped to keep it to myself.
As with 1.1, the next two updates will also appear on the beta branch early for testing. I'm really excited for the rest of the year, some of the planned content are gonna be very fun to reveal.
We're just on the cusp of 2000 overwhelmingly positive reviews! The reviews have all been so helpful, both positive and negative ones.
If you have any issues or feedback, please let us know! Even if it's not the majority, I do still listen to all criticism and would like to provide options if possible to help improve the game for every player (like what we're doing with the sandbox settings in 1.1 for example).
We wanna thank you all for the continued support, which lets us continue expanding the game! Not every first time indie studio is as lucky as us to have found such a passionate user base, thank you so much for giving us a chance.
- Axolotl of the Pengonauts
Hey pilots! Hope you are all doing well! It's been exactly 1 month since our full release and we've been so happy to see the response from you all! A lot of gratitude for all the feedback and reviews you have left us, they've helped tremendously. Following that, we're excited to announce that the game is doing well enough for us to continue improving it and adding more content with free updates, starting with the 1.1 update coming in two a few weeks!
We've been pretty busy during release month fixing a lot of the major bugs and crashes that have been reported, but now that things have stabilized a bit better we will be slowling down our rate of patching to work on bigger content updates. Here are some of the planned new content that will be available in the 1.1 update:
We've added a bunch of customization features since release based on player feedback (such as save-scum mode for example). To expand on that, I've decided to create a whole menu for more customization of the game. Included in the new sandbox settings will be new options inspired by player feedback such as: - Add more granular post-Apocalypse challenges with smaller steps in between each difficulty. - Post-Apoc no longer shortens each act. - Ban specific bosses from appearing (great for achievement hunting!) - More... Did someone say they want more ascensions?? Just to make it clear, the DEFAULT difficulties will not change, but we will be adding new options to customize the difficulty for players. I'm personally pretty open to allow players to play the game the way they want to play, so if it's not too hard to implement I don't mind adding new options based on suggestions! Let us know what you'd like to be able to customize in game.
There will be a new, summer-themed neutral pack, as well as new pilot-unique common artifacts for each pilot! Vamos a la playa! I should warn that the new card pack might be based on a potentially controversial mechanic haha, but at least with the Sandbox Settings you'll be able to ban specific packs from appearing too, so if you don't like the new pack you can disable them from in-game!
We will be opening up a beta build (probably on Monday) to start playtesting the 1.1 update. More information about that will be shared on our Discord and QQ groups. The beta will also only be available in English and Chinese. Starting from now, we will also likely be pushing updates and the usual patches to the beta first, before updating the main build. That should prevent some of those awkward hot-fixes for crashes i accidently introduce in the last minute, oopsie.
We've tried to enable steam cloud-saves a couple times for Mac for the past few weeks, but everytime we did it, Steam decides it's ok to delete the entire save directory without warning, deleting all progress from Mac users. We've even implemented a backup folder that is seperate from the steam cloud specified directory to avoid this specific problem, but apparently that entire backup folder gets deleted by Steam cloud too even though it's not in the path that steam cloud is supposed to update... So for now we've disabled Steam cloud saves for Mac and are waiting on a solution from Steam Support so that we can enable it without deleting any progress.
We've also gotten your reports on optimization issues, potentially some sort of memory leak as well on long playtimes. We haven't quite figured it out yet, but are working on it. If you are experiencing strange amounts of lag or stutterring, please use the in-game bug report form if possible to send us a report! That'll help us figure out the cause, thanks!
A huge thanks again for everyone. To wrap up this too-long news post, we wanted to highlight a few of the content creators that have believed in us, as well as some of the amazing fan-art created by the community so far! Check it out: Celerity's full-day streams clearing ALL Pilots on Post-Apocalypse Watch their Twitch VODs here! Northernlion making bespoke Youtube content for us despite the algorithms.
@jmaphis.bsky.social @nat_toes on twitter Long / longcx
About
This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for StarVaders, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main StarVaders statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.