A lot has happened in Orbit since online co-op. Here are the highlights from versions 0.127 to 0.137.
Warp jump: the emergency exit
Surrounded? Hold C (X on a controller). For five seconds light streams toward your ship, then it jumps to the quietest spot in the outer ring, far away from every enemy. Afterwards the drive needs three minutes to recharge. A quick tap is still the familiar phase jump.
Seven new enemies that telegraph their attacks
Pulsars swell before their wave hits. Sickles show their line before they cut. Mortars mark the ground, chargers draw their path in advance, mines blink once they’re armed. Every attack is visible beforehand: if you dodge instead of standing still, you’ll make it through. Enemies also get smarter with difficulty. On Veteran and Legend they aim where you’re about to be.
Drill laser, trading and docking
- In focus, the drill laser cuts ore out of asteroids instead of shooting them apart. That yields far more than weapon fire. A scan shows how much is left in the rock, and the empty rock crumbles at the end.
- At stations you now dock with a button: your ship flies in with a short animation.
- The trading post is a proper equipment store with slots per category. You put items into a shopping cart and pay for everything at once, so a misclick no longer costs you ore.
- The Hangar shows what every upgrade does: “Now 100 → after upgrade 115”.
More impact
The shield is a bubble with a hexagon grid that shatters like glass when it breaks. The Nova is an impulse wave that pulverizes enemy shots. Asteroids break apart instead of exploding. Your ship now has inertia: it takes a moment to get going and glides to a stop. The new Navigation skill makes it more responsive.
Options menu
New in the main menu and the pause menu: damage numbers, health displays for enemies and your own ship, screen shake, reduced flashes, high-contrast enemy shots and separate volume for music and effects.
All details are in the patch notes.