Until now, with enough Nexite, a pilot who registered this morning could buy a Frigate this afternoon. Not any more: the catalogue opens in stages, and the stages have to be earned.
What a blueprint is
A blueprint is the knowledge of an object. Until you hold it, that object cannot be bought or equipped. It is not spent on purchase: once you have the Frigate’s blueprints you can buy two of them if you have the Nexite to spare.
Every item asks for two things: how many blueprints it needs — one at the lower tiers, two or three at the top — and a minimum pilot level. The store shows locked items along with their requirement and a hint about which enemies drop the blueprint, so you always know what you are missing and who to go after.
Starting gear has no lock. The Fighter, its laser, its guided missiles and the four “I” modules are available from the first minute.
The one drop you have to go and get
A blueprint does not credit itself. It falls into space where the enemy died and floats there for three minutes. If you don’t go, you lose it.
You pick it up with the Collector, a standard tool in slot 8 of the ability bar: never bought, never spent, never lost. It has three rules:
| Range | 500 units |
| Your ship stops dead | and if you move, the pickup cancels |
| Hold | 4 seconds with the intake cone extended |
Standing still for four seconds on a map with enemies in front of you is the whole price of the system, and that is deliberate.
Only its owners can see the blueprint: whoever landed the kill and their surviving squad in the sector. On bosses with damage-based shares, everyone who took part. There is only one: the first to collect it keeps it.
Who drops what
| Source | What it drops |
|---|---|
| Base drones | Fighter missiles — the first blueprint in the game |
| Custodians on the front | Weapons of their family, the Gunship, the Corvette and “II” modules |
| Guardian Towers | The heavy family: cannon, missile and scatter gun |
| Guardian Core | The Frigate |
| Guardian Nexus and the Leviathan | Cruiser fragments |
At most one blueprint per kill, and the chance rises with the enemy’s level: fighting on a hard map pays twice over, because they drop more often and from a better tier.
The campaign hands them out too: missions 7, 14 and 20 each deliver a full blueprint. Farming is the fast route; the campaign is the safe one.
Enemies with levels, and grouped together
Every enemy now carries its level next to its name, on the marker and in the target panel (“Custodian Drone · Lv 5”). The higher it is, the more it takes and the harder it hits — but it also leaves more XP and more Nexite.
And they are no longer scattered across the whole map: they gather in pockets, each with its own tier and level. Looking for a fight stops being a flight from one star to the next — you see a whole group at a glance and pick which one to go into.
The starting bases now have enemies, low-level drones kept well away from the station. That is where you learn to fight and where your first blueprint drops, without leaving home.
Maps that open by level
The map now shows locked sectors with their requirement instead of hiding them:
| Sector | Level |
|---|---|
| Bases, Space Station and both entry fronts | open |
| Veil of Alcyone | 8 |
| The Crucible | 12 |
The bases and the station never ask for a level: nobody can end up unable to get home.
What you already have stays yours
If you have been playing a while, this is the part that matters: you lose nothing. On your next login you are credited the full blueprint for everything you already own, so you will not find your own gear greyed out. And what you have equipped stays equipped: the locks only apply when buying, switching ships and fitting something new.
Unfitting is never blocked. You can always take a part off.
