Development transmission

Current build: 0.2.4

This report describes what is playable in Project Helios today. It is a snapshot of the current public build, not a promise that every system has reached its final form.

Published July 10, 2026

July 2026 report

The expedition now has a beginning, a deep middle, and a way home

The current build connects the launch console, persistent multiplayer worlds, deep planetary systems, long-form campaign, rig progression, and shared survey closeout into one browser experience.

Story

The Helios Lattice Campaign

The cooperative story path now spans six acts and seventeen chapters, designed as an approximately forty-hour arc. C.L.E.R.A. narrates the crew’s work as a routine extraction program begins to reveal contradictory charters, missing rotations, disputed ownership, and a planetary record that refuses to stay buried.

Chapter objectives use live game systems rather than separate scripted minigames: crews mine quotas, preserve samples, complete rescues and writs, investigate anomalies, visit required biomes, defeat guardians, build shared infrastructure, reach extreme depths and altitudes, and launch the Orbital Tether. The story supports solo play and crews of up to six.

Worlds

Star systems and distinct planetary conditions

Pilots can chart a direct Planet Drop or a Star System containing three to five candidate worlds. Six biome profiles—Aurora Icefield, Iron Tempest, Hollow Garden, Glass Dune, Violet Abyss, and Tidal Cobalt—alter gravity, cavern frequency, weather, mineral richness, pressure, and route planning.

The orbital chart lets the crew inspect telemetry before entry. The transition from system view to atmosphere continues into the live surface scene, while each planet in a system maintains its own survey state.

Simulation

Deeper caverns carry physical consequences

Procedural caverns can contain water, mercury, and lava with different density, viscosity, drag, buoyancy, current, heat, pressure, and damage profiles. Breaching a chamber allows liquid to spill through mined openings, and mixed material can cool into recoverable deposits.

Depth zones change gravity, pressure, palette, current, heat, and story signals. Rare samples raise thermal signature, seismic surges punish careless timing, Signal Anomalies create temporary rule changes, and shared cavern bosses give armed crews a reason to bring Breach Bombs and upgraded weapons.

Multiplayer

Persistent crew surveys

Planet rooms now synchronize pilot positions, recovered cells, placed infrastructure, liquid state, shared upgrades, missions, bosses, and escape progress through the built-in relay. Rooms can be listed in the crew finder, protected with an optional access key, or shared directly with an invite link.

Survey state survives a relay restart and remains available until the room is completed or has been inactive for twenty-four hours. Crew resonance improves nearby extraction, tethers support rescue work, and the shared Orbital Tether requires both funding and a crew vote before the planet closes.

Progression

More reasons to return to the surface

Helios Base now supports cargo sales, repairs, refueling, craft upgrades, shared base upgrades, field gear, armaments, and the expedition’s escape plan. A nearby Foundry adds structural pieces for platforms, launch ramps, boost routes, escalators, and elevator shafts.

Successful survey closeouts award Escape Credits. The Mech Vault uses those credits for persistent cosmetic rigs visible to the crew, while every player can customize the issued rig color. Optional cloud profiles synchronize compatible progress, cosmetics, campaign history, and sky achievements between devices.

Browser

Mobile-first performance and flexible input

The game remains self-contained around a procedural canvas presentation, with procedural sound fallbacks and hooks for authored assets. Touch devices use a dynamic movement pad, dedicated action controls, a capped backing-store density, a sixty-frame-per-second ceiling, and reduced particle cost to limit unnecessary battery and thermal load.

Desktop browsers support keyboard play, while connected controllers provide movement, aim, thrust, extraction, and service shortcuts. PlayStation browsers receive their own rendering limits and fallback input path.

Next transmission

What this page will track

Future entries will document player-facing changes that reach the public build: new mission content, balance changes, input improvements, performance work, fixes, and changes to account or monetization behavior.

What counts as an update

Changes that materially affect how a pilot launches, plays, progresses, purchases, or manages data will receive a plain-language note here.

Where to report a problem

Use the contact page and include the device, browser, room code if relevant, and the action that led to the issue. Never send a password or access key.

Where to learn the current rules

The pilot handbook follows the current controls and game loop. It will be revised when those systems change.