Stars Reach’s Making Waves Update 8.9.0 is out. It brings two new profession specializations, swimming for everyone, tradeable maps and big buffs to the Sniper Rifle and Grenade Launcher. Towns, homesteads and shops also get substantial changes.
New professions, swimming and combat
Strategist lets party leaders slot calls into a Leader Staff and mark a hostile creature within 40 meters for eight seconds. If at least half the party, rounded up and with a minimum of two players, lands a direct damaging hit in time, the call fires. The five calls slow, dizzy, stun, frighten or confuse the target. Calls cost 100 Focus, share a 20-second cooldown, and only one can be active per party. Damage over time and pets don’t count toward the requirement.
Orienteering costs 300 Ranger XP and 300 klaatus at a Skills Kiosk. It levels through swimming, climbing and uphill travel, improving swim and climb speed and reducing the slowdown on hills. It also unlocks two craftable utilities. The Climbing Kit lets you anchor and recover stamina mid-climb, and Traction Cleats stop you from sliding on slopes. Note that hanging still without a kit no longer restores stamina, so climbs need more planning.
Swimming and diving no longer require a skill. Sprint works in the water, a bubble helmet appears when you submerge, and you can use tools underwater, though aiming slows you down.
Hit detection for all projectiles and the Healix beam has been significantly improved. This should fix shots that look like they land but deal no damage. The Sniper Rifle‘s base shot damage has doubled, and you can now move slowly while charging. Explosive Round is replaced by Spotter, a trap drone, and a new Predation mark builds stacks toward a big bonus hit. The Grenade Launcher gets a larger blast radius, faster projectiles, a five-grenade Bombardment salvo and a pulling Gravity Well. Speed Ammo’s damage bug is fixed, and Homing Ammo tracks much harder.
Maps, towns, homesteads and shops
Players with Cartography in active practice can turn their own surveys into map items at a new Cartography Console. A map is a fixed snapshot of terrain and personal waypoints. It has ten hours of active display time and can carry up to 280 characters of creator notes. Maps can be sold and equipped as a rotating minimap.
Town government now has a defined territory, normally starting at 256 × 256 meters around the landing site. It grows as the GovBot levels up, and only a fully upgraded GovBot governs the whole planet. Outside that territory, the planet’s default rules apply. Mayors can now rename their town, and new rectangular road lots cost 15,000 klaatus each.
The Homesteader Shop adds 29-, 37- and 45-meter cubic kits, and neighboring homesteads can be attached on any side, including above and below. A new packup option bundles a build into a Packed Homestead item so you can restore it elsewhere.
Shops now allow partial stack purchases, bulk-only listings, bundle pricing for cheap goods, broader search, editable listings and timed listing durations.
Other changes
- Separate volume sliders for many audio categories, plus output device selection.
- Battle Comms party signals such as Needs heal, at a cost of 10 Focus.
- More skin colors, new terrain textures and a Solid Terrain Flow graphics toggle.
- Spoiled food no longer blocks stomach capacity, and Harvestwake mission blockers are fixed.
Source: Stars Reach official news.
