If Starfield hasn’t satisfied your space cravings, a huge Everspace 2 update is on the way for free, making it a great time to get into or return to one of the most fun interstellar games of the year. The Armed and Dangerous update arrives at the start of October, and it’s packed with new features, improved ship customization, and some welcome quality-of-life changes.
For those of you who haven’t tried Everspace 2, it’s a fast-paced, single-player space game following the tale of a clone pilot trying to escape the tangle of clashing factions in the war-torn star systems of Cluster 34. It blends space combat and planetary exploration, having you hunt loot to upgrade your ship like a Borderlands or Diablo game. It offers arcadey, approachable systems out the gate that can be tweaked for those of you who prefer the challenge of a more in-depth, hardcore space flight simulation.
Everspace 2 Armed and Dangerous is the first free major update from developer Rockfish Games, who has been teasing hints of what’s to come over the past several months. Now they’ve lifted the lid on everything coming with the patch, and it’s a lot. There are ten new item sets, which break out into a total of 34 new item variants, along with four new catalysts, 40 new item attributes, and two perks. The ability to reroll attributes on an item has also been introduced.
If you’ve been wanting more ship customization, 15 additional tier four wings are being introduced, along with new randomizers for your ship color and modules if you’re looking to experiment. There are also some very nice quality-of-life additions, including on-the-fly quicksave and quickload, improvements to the auto-save system, and customization for the inertia dampeners (by default these handy tools cause your ship to stop moving when you let off the thrusters, contrary to the way real-world physics operate).
There are also improvements to the UI and better support for 21:9 displays. If you want even more details, we’ve got the full high-level list of everything in the update, or you can go one step further and watch the full two-hour deep dive with Rockfish community ambassador Erik Schrader in the video above.
Everspace 2 Armed and Dangerous update release date
The Everspace 2 Armed and Dangerous update releases for free on Monday, October 2, 2023. Here’s an overview of everything in the update, courtesy of Rockfish Games:
New gameplay features
- Ten new item sets (34 new item variants)
- Four new catalysts
- 40 new item attributes
- Modify item: Reroll item attributes
- Added Khala Perk to discover remaining secrets
- Added Tareen Perk to sell crafting resources
New and improved ship customization
- 15 new Tier Four wings
- Ship color randomizers
- Ship module randomizer
Quality-of-life improvements
- Quicksave / Quickload
- Auto-save improvements
- (PC-only) Inertia Dampener customization
- UI additions and improvements (set item icons, item trait icon, etc)
- 21:9 aspect ratio HUD improvements
Rockfish Games also notes that you’ll be able to buy digital editions of the Everspace 2 artbook and its official soundtrack from October 2 on both Steam and GOG. With over 280 pages of concept art to browse and 30 tracks of the game’s outstanding synthwave-led OST to enjoy, there’s definitely plenty there for Everspace 2 players.
We’ve picked out plenty more of the most essential story games on PC if you’re looking for more memorable narrative-driven experiences. If you’re more interested in hunting for loot but would rather keep your feet on solid ground, take a look through the best games like Diablo for our favorite options.