Star Atlas has launched Phase Two of its SAGE C4 public test realm, a depth update built around six major additions. Combat has been rebuilt as Combat V2, hostile NPCs can now spawn onchain through the Nemesis Engine, and Cultivation Claims add a new production path. The phase launched with a full board wipe: every player must recreate their character and all prior PTR progress has been reset. It remains a playtest, and the team is asking players to push the systems and report where they break.
What Changed
- Combat V2 is live, rebuilt around stat modifiers plus new damage and shield types, so fleet composition and matchup decisions now carry more weight.
- The Nemesis Engine is live as a PvE NPC generator, allowing hostile NPCs to spawn onchain and create persistent enemy activity across the C4 map.
- Cultivation Claims open a new production path, producing organic resources used to craft stims and potion buffs for fleets.
- Progression has been reworked: Council Rank now uses accelerated mainnet-proxy progression, career nodes follow an XP-curve system that unlocks in-game components, and a new Goal System guides players through the menus.
- zXP tracking has been added, connecting participation in the PTR with progression toward Origin.
- A full board wipe resets prior PTR progress. Players must recreate their character and link their PTR account through Z.ink.
Dates and Rollout
- Combat V2, the Nemesis Engine, Cultivation Claims, progression changes, zXP tracking, and the Safe Zone update are live now.
- The new economy layer, including a fixed daily ATLAS pool per faction for PvE and medallion rewards for PvP, is expected within about a week.
- The Democracy Module is still to come. It will introduce C4’s first regional governance system, allowing players to configure Starbase fees and share captured revenue.
- Also in development: a free-to-play Phase 3 campaign, community automation through Swift 42, a move to Unreal Engine 5.8, and Atlas Legends, a community-built trading card game demoed in UE 5.8.
Numbers and Rules
- zXP tracks toward Origin, capped at 500,000 per phase and scaled by up to 2.25x with multipliers.
- Council Rank uses mainnet-proxy progression with lower XP requirements, with players expected to be able to reach the maximum rank in about 30 days.
- PvE will award liquidity points from a fixed daily ATLAS pool per faction, adjusted by a tug-of-war modifier tied to Starbase control.
- PvP will be uncapped. Destroying a fleet will drop medallions and loot, offset by a burn the team describes as net deflationary.
- Medallions will redeem for a fixed amount of ATLAS, but only when a player successfully extracts with them.
- Safe zones expand when a player holds a region and all its entry points, with no enemy fly-in allowed until a border is contested.
Source: Official Star Atlas announcement
