Star Citizen News

Here you’ll find what’s officially announced, what’s running on the test server right now and what’s supposed to happen next. Facts and rumors sit side by side, but always clearly labeled:

Anything unofficial gets a circle, from rumor to almost certain. What the circles mean exactly

What the game looks like today and where it’s headed in the long run is covered under Current state and Outlook. You’ll find all upcoming ships on the ships page.

At a glance

• LIVE: Alpha 4.10.2
• PTU (test server): Alpha 4.10.3, open to all backers.¹ Alpha 5.0 was briefly open to Wave 1 on November 5 and 6.²
• Tech preview: Genesis / Planet Tech V5 on Nyx I has moved from the tech preview to the PTU (Alpha 5.0)²
• Next big patch: Alpha 5.0, committed for Q4 2026 according to the roadmap³
• After that: Alpha 5.1 with Nyx II and Nyx III, tentatively Q1 2027⁴
• Next event: Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE 2956) from November 13 to 27 at the Tobin Expo Center in New Babbage, and Star Citizen is free to play the whole time.⁵ → IAE page
• Squadron 42: Q2 2027 → Squadron 42

What’s new

• Nov 6 – IAE 2956 is official: November 13 to 27 in New Babbage, with Free Fly and manufacturer days → IAE page
• Nov 5 – First PTU test for Alpha 5.0: Wave 1 got a short look at Nyx I with Genesis, Starchitect and the new contract boards → Test servers
• Nov 4 – Alpha 4.11 is now Alpha 5.0 and committed for Q4 2026; Nyx II and III slip to 5.1 → Alpha 5.0
• Nov 4 – October monthly report: Liberator and Galaxy ready for IAE, work on the Merchantman resumes → Monthly report
• Nov 4 – Fifth PTU build: much bigger buffers for all salvage ships, and the Hyūn is probably one too → Test servers
• Nov 3 – Alpha 4.10.3 now open to all backers on the PTU, including the IAE expo halls → Test servers
• Nov 3 – IAE location official: Tobin Expo Center in New Babbage, testable on the PTU now → IAE page
• Oct 30 – Alpha 4.10.3 open to all waves on the PTU → Test servers
• Oct 30 – New gifting rules for pledges take effect today → Account and pledges
• Oct 28 – Second PTU build for Alpha 4.10.3: deadlier Vanduul, Skarnov with a 30-round magazine → Test servers
• Oct 23 – Alpha 4.10.3 hits the PTU, with “Vanduul Incursion” and the LBCO Skarnov → Alpha 4.10.3
• Oct 10 – Squadron 42 has a Steam page and can be added to your wishlist → Squadron 42
• Oct 9 – Alpha 4.10.2 is live, with the Constellation Mk V Centaurus and the Skylark → Ships
• Oct 9 – New on the 4.11 roadmap: DGS Planet Subdivision, Nyx I becomes the first planet split across multiple servers → Alpha 5.0

What’s been announced

Alpha 4.10.3: the patch before IAE

On the PTU since October 23, open to all backers since November 3 (see test servers). It includes:

• New “Vanduul Incursion” missions: Intersec Defence Solutions is looking for people to take on the Vanduul and the Shattered Blade clan. Clear the hard tiers and you’ll get blueprints for a new energy rifle, two heavy armor sets, a flight suit and new ship weapons.⁶
• New FPS weapon: the LBCO Skarnov, a rifle whose secondary fire mode shoots electric chain lightning.⁶ It was actually planned for 5.0, but CIG pulled it forward to 4.10.3, while the Kastak Arms “Hellion” pistol, the “Verdict” LMG and new bomb racks (size 3 and 10) are committed for 5.0.⁴
• Tech: The 4 GB limit for the Vulkan shader cache is gone. Until now, full caches were thrown away on load. You should notice the difference when starting the game after the patch.⁷
• IAE: The expo halls at the Tobin Expo Center are already included and are being tested on an accelerated schedule.⁸

There’s no official release date yet. The patch is expected before IAE kicks off on November 13.

Alpha 5.0: Q4 2026

On November 4, CIG renamed Alpha 4.11 to Alpha 5.0, because so many new foundational technologies from Genesis come together in it.⁴ The patch was originally planned for September and was pushed to Q4 2026 on September 9 to give the teams more time for 4.10.x. 5.0 is now marked “Committed” on the roadmap, so it’s firmly planned.³ Planned features include:

• Nyx I: a planet without a core, close to its sun, made habitable by Genesis Terraforming. It’s the first to get the new tech; Nyx II, Nyx III and existing planets and locations are set to follow.
• Genesis / Planet Tech V5: new planet tech, among other things for more natural biomes, denser vegetation, better terrain materials and generation on the GPU.
• Starchitect: a developer tool that assembles locations (POIs) from modules and spreads them sensibly across entire planets. Important: this is not base building for players.
• Population Manager: spreads players across servers more evenly and populates locations with inhabitants that fit their surroundings.
• Contract Boards: you’ll find contracts on boards in guild halls at the big hubs, sorted by local, regional, global and star system level.
• DGS Planet Subdivision: planets and moons get split into smaller areas, so no single server is ever responsible for an entire celestial body. Nyx I is the first planet to use it.⁹

Newly added as tentative: a ship combat balance pass, focused on fighters (time to kill and the balance between energy and ballistic weapons), and a loot refresh that, among other things, adds previously Wikelo-exclusive rewards to regular loot.⁴

Removed again: the improved Item Recovery for ship equipment needs more work and has disappeared from the roadmap for now.⁴

Wipe: According to CIG, there are currently no plans for a wipe with 5.0. That doesn’t rule one out, though.¹⁰

First PTU test: Just one day after the rename, Wave 1 got to test Alpha 5.0 briefly on the PTU on November 5 and 6 (see test servers).² There’s no release date yet.

In the community, 5.0 is seen more as a December patch.

Alpha 5.1: Q1 2027

Nyx II and Nyx III were originally planned for 5.0. They’re now tentatively scheduled for Alpha 5.1 in Q1 2027.⁴

IAE 2956

The expo runs from November 13 to 27 at the Tobin Expo Center in New Babbage, and Star Citizen is free to play the whole time.⁵ Each manufacturer gets two days during which you can rent their ships, starting with RSI. November 22 is Best in Show day, and during the Finale from November 23 to 27, you can test-fly every IAE vehicle.⁵ CIG already announced the RSI Galaxy as the headline ship back in November 2025.¹¹ You can test the expo halls on the PTU since November 3.¹² All manufacturer days and what leaks say about the new ships are on the IAE page.

From the October monthly report

• Liberator and Galaxy: Both passed their final review. That makes it official: the Liberator is being prepared for release at IAE. The Galaxy gets a new RSI interface for its control panels, which is set to show up in other ships soon.¹³
• Kraken: still in the LOD0 phase, with its gate review planned for mid-November.¹³
• Merchantman: Two artists have been assigned to restart development. CIG is reworking the whole ship to fit the new player trading design.¹³
• Unnamed ships: Seven ships and vehicles that haven’t been announced yet are in the works, from a fresh kickoff to a finished ship. One of them is meant to give solo players a way to progress in an existing career without having to fly a big multi-crew ship alone. Details are on the ships page.¹³
• Personal hangars: They’re being moved to new instancing tech. When you hail air traffic control, your hangar gets created, and a single elevator can lead to different instanced spaces. This is currently being tested and is meant to lay the groundwork for more instanced content.¹³

Squadron 42

Release in Q2 2027, so somewhere between April and June. Everything else, from the delay to the playtest in Manchester to the Steam wishlist, is on the Squadron 42 page.

Account and pledges

New gifting: Since October 30, newly bought pledges follow new gifting rules. Older pledges keep their existing gifting options.¹⁴ Here’s what changes:¹⁵

• Whether something is a gift is decided at purchase. You can only gift items that show the “Buying as a gift?” option at checkout.
• A gift no longer lands in your hangar first. Right after the purchase, the recipient gets an email with a redemption code and needs an RSI account to claim it.
• You can only pay with real money; store credit can’t be used for gifts.
• If the recipient doesn’t claim the gift within 30 days, you’re refunded automatically.
• Giftable pledges bought before October 30 that are sitting in your hangar keep working as before.

If you buy back a pledge from the buyback with new money after October 30 that you originally bought before October 30, its gifting follows its old state, meaning however it was before you exchanged it for store credit.

Evocati

The Evocati are a hand-picked test group that gets to play new builds first. Unfortunately, they’re under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). So anything that gets out from there is unofficial by definition.

• Genesis test on Nyx I: The only official confirmation is that the first Planet Tech V5 test ran for Evocati only at the end of September, and that CIG collected feedback and performance data. According to participants, there have been at least three of these tests by now, the latest with Starchitect and the server subdivision of Nyx I. Since November 5, Genesis is no longer Evocati-only but on the PTU with Alpha 5.0 (see test servers).
• First impressions: Reports include volumetric rain and a much higher atmosphere.
• New transit tech: Trains, elevators and other transit systems are said to get reworked in a separate Evocati test.
• 4.10.3: Officially spent only a very short time with the Evocati and then went straight to Wave 1. A good sign for stability.⁶
• Dedicated IAE build: In late October, the Evocati got a separate build for IAE. Participants suspected it would ship as Alpha 4.10.4, which would mean 5.0 only comes after IAE. Officially, though, CIG is testing the expo halls in 4.10.3, and 5.0 was already briefly on the PTU on November 5.

What’s running on the test servers

PTU

Alpha 4.10.3, open to all backers (US servers only, long-term persistence enabled)

• Build 4.10.3-PTU.12999338 since October 23,⁶ build 4.10.3-PTU.13032516 since October 28,⁷ build 4.10.3-PTU.13055118 for all waves since October 30,¹⁶ build 4.10.3-PTU.13093654 for all backers since November 3,⁸ build 4.10.3-PTU.13107423 since November 4.¹
• Test focus: stability, bug fixes, Vanduul Incursion, LBCO Skarnov and, since November 3, IAE as well.
• Changes in the second build: deadlier Vanduul Mauler weapons, reworked boarding objectives, and the combat music from “Welcome to Nyx” plays again when you fight Vanduul. The Skarnov now has a 30-round magazine,⁷ and according to a developer comment, a damage bug was fixed and damage was raised.¹⁷
• Changes in the third build: You can now quantum travel to the Shattered Blade Raid locations, and blueprints are awarded correctly once the contract is done. The Skarnov is much lighter and finally has firing sounds.¹⁶
• Changes in the fourth build: more work against overlapping hangars, Skarnov ammo now also shows up as loot, and the cargo doors of the Esperia Prowler Utility have their own interaction.⁸
• In the fifth build, all salvage ships get much bigger material buffers: Salvation 6 → 8 SCU, Vulture 13 → 16, Fortune 13 → 14, Moth 64 → 240 and Reclaimer 240 → 448 SCU.¹ More on salvage is in the salvage guide.

Alpha 5.0, Wave 1 (short test, closed again)

• Build 13119881 on November 5; the test ran until Friday, November 6, 20:00 UTC.²
• The test covered Genesis with Planet Tech V5 on Nyx I, the server subdivision of Nyx I (QDSM), Starchitect locations and the new contract boards in the guild halls.²
• Nyx I got a big overhaul for it: biomes, plants, weather and lighting.²

Tech preview

Tech previews are targeted tech tests on a separate server, usually for Evocati only at first.

• Genesis / Planet Tech V5 on Nyx I: used to be Evocati only, but has now moved to the PTU with Alpha 5.0 (see above).²
• Ship combat balance: In September, a tech preview for all backers had NPC ships take 40% more damage than player ships as a test. Whether it’s still running is unclear.

Leaks

• IAE: Schedule, manufacturer days and new ships from datamines and leaks are collected on the IAE page.
• Deadline list from August 14: A list of ship names and internal completion dates. Its track record is good: the Kruger Stingray arrived with 4.10, the Constellation Mk V and Skylark in October. So the list itself is considered genuine. What’s still missing is on the ships page.
• More datamine finds from 4.10.2: four new flight blades for RSI ships and a new SMG (VKL L55).
• Base building: A first version is said to arrive in 2027.
• Gatac Hyūn as a salvage ship: A first version of the patch notes from November 4 listed the Hyūn among the salvage ships, with a 40 SCU buffer (up from 32) and boxes up to 8 SCU. CIG deleted the line shortly afterwards. More on the Hyūn on the IAE page.
• Squadron 42 rated 18+: The USK, Germany’s age rating board, has reportedly rated Squadron 42 18+ for violence, drugs and sexual innuendo. CIG hasn’t said anything about it yet.

How to read this page

Everything without a circle is official: confirmed by CIG in a Comm-Link, on the roadmap, in a monthly report, in patch notes, on YouTube or on X.

Unofficial info (leaks, datamines from the game files, reports from Evocati testing) gets a circle: