NYX

[icycalm]

It's time to start talking about the new major mission and location arriving in Nyx next month! It's going into PTU soon, if it's not there already (I think it was briefly in Evocati late last week). You can see some minor spoilers already in our #citizen-chat Discord channel.

So first off, rewatch the relevant segment from last CitCon (I've timestamped the exact spot below), it's great fun and you can see it with new eyes now with all the new features that have come online since.

CitizenCon Direct: October 11, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9bXJnkgBQ&t=9495s



Then take a look at the pics released with the Nyx traveler's guide last year.

Traveler's Guide to the Galaxy: Nyx
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... Galaxy-Nyx







And finally the most recent pics released with the latest roadmap updates.





What has me especially excited is that a number of new items and features are coming online with this update that are many more and heftier than usual, and CIG has shown a strong inclination to try to cram ALL new features into the main mission with which an update launches. So we know that the new capital ship refueling/repair/restocking mechanics will be vital to this mission, but flight suit mechanics are also coming in and they might need some locker functionality to be truly useful, plus maybe the area-denial plasma grenade and silent crossbow that are coming will be useful in the boarding stage, implying that the tactical situation inside (which for the first time will include freeing and extracting hostages) will be more complex than usual? And the icing on the cake is that the first Vanduul capital ship will make its appearance as the mission's final boss fight! I've timestamped the exact segment for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9bXJnkgBQ&t=10060s

This is especially important because up to now we've only been fighting cap ships that we can also own, but no player will be able to have this one (at least for now...) so we don't know its capabilities, and even when we later get to know them it will produce more interesting fights than Idris vs. Idris or Idris vs. Polaris. I am looking forward to seeing it arrive also in regular mission chains as a final boss fight. Hopefully they won't keep it restricted to this one.

Moreover, this mission looks like it will require more players than we usually have available, so shubn will have to think about recruiting strategies. We can either just holler on global chat just before we begin, to see if we can snag a couple of randoms, or we can look for orgs to ally with, and in fact shubn has already brought the leader of such an org to our Discord, and I even saw them playing together just this weekend, so whatever he chooses to try, we should be good on that front, and it should be a unique experience. Also a great one to replay when we want to recruit people.

Finally, the capital-ship-based ops that this mission will launch will open up a whole new dimension to the game, and I look forward to spending the odd Saturday roaming the verse and chaining multiple major missions while based off an Idris. And it all starts next month with Tactical Strike Groups (which will almost certainly be renamed before release btw).


P.S. Oh and I forgot that they're obviously timing this mission's launch to coincide with Invictus in order to push new military ships and no doubt also weapons and gear (perhaps more flight blades?) So we'll keep a close eye on that too and see what we can grab that can aid our tactics. I bet the upcoming Ironclad Assault or the Hammerhead variant would do well in this mission.

[icycalm]

First details are out! Sounds complex AF. They don't call it "endgame contract" for nothing! Of course I do take issue with using the term "endgame" in a metaverse game, but what can you expect from 1,300 jobbing devs who've never studied art theory? So I'm cutting them some slack.

[Evocati NDA] Star Citizen Alpha 4.8 PTU 11681592 Patch Notes
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spec ... atch-notes

New Mission: Tactical Strike Groups
Tactical Strike Groups is a new endgame mercenary contract designed for large, organized player squads. The mission tasks players with assaulting a fortified Nyx asteroid base held by hostile forces, working through a multi-phase assault that rewards coordination across ship classes and combat roles. The contract is accessible from Levski and scales in intensity as each phase of the station is dismantled. The rewards will be great but expect heavy resistance throughout.

Mission Overview

• Available via Contract Manager at Levski under Verified Mercenary Contracts
• Intended for squads of 7 or more ships across multiple sizes and classes
• Smaller ships (no larger than a Drake Cutlass Black) are required to navigate the station's internal superstructure trenches
• Larger ships can participate in exterior combat and defense throughout the mission

Key Mechanics

• Only ballistic weapons deal damage to hardened station targets including Power Relays while energy weapons will have an effect damaging Cooling Units and Core components
• Ships will accumulate Distortion Damage when flying inside the superstructure trenches
• Distortion increases in the core central chamber as soon as the weak points are revealed and the shutter that nests them opens up
• Station entrance to the interior FPS section opens when core is destroyed. Trench run entrances open up when all power relays are destroyed

It sounds like, and I hope there will be, a hell of a grind to earn the rep to unlock this. I would make it available only to elite operators that have put in days in clearing missions, but CIG won't go that far I am sure cause they want everyone to play it. Let's see how steep they'll make the requirements. Hopefully steeper than any other contract. And maybe in a few months' time when the mission is old news they can increase the requirements further.

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... nt/ohi0co1

7-10 people from what we have been playing with during EVO.

Capital ships are not necessary, you could go Perseus/Hammerhead and a bunch of fighters. There's nothing bigger than a heavy fighter you really need to worry about and for the tunnel runners, 3 wings that need to be cleared. Currently distortion is too high resulting in you being unable to really escape after your run. Hopefully with that reduced a little so it's still dangerous to linger, but not a death sentence just for reaching the middle.

Depending on what CIG do with relation to armour/weapons and flight suits you might need a Conny/Corsair/Paladin/Valk/Steel/TAC as a dropship for some players with appropriate gear to clear the station and find the hangar.

The face to face with the Vanduul is also not necessary, you can avoid direct conflict, you just need to ensure the pilot you are rescuing gets away.

This means that with all our regulars present we would only need a couple randoms to join, which shouldn't be tough. At any rate if we do ally with an org, it better be a small one to avoid overkill.

Of course balancing may change all this. But it gives a good sense of where they're headed because before the test people were speculating you'd need 20 players.

Glad to hear a dropship may be useful for once. I wonder which is the biggest that can fit in an Idris. Probably the Cutlass Steel at least.

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... _there_are

It's not just Tactical Strike Groups, there are more missions at these locations

I just did a mission that was simply beautifully cinematic. I helped an Idris fight off a subcapital Vanduul ship while taking down small Vanduul fighters. Note this was not the Mauler, it was smaller than the Idris that was there. Already 4.8 Evo is cooking up some crazy gameplay. Btw they are called QV Extraction Stations.

That sounds like the midpoint TSG segment where you help the People's Alliance Idris that's there to resupply poor players who don't own one.

[icycalm]

Datamined info from the discussing.whatever Discord.

I am loving the length and complexity of this. So many genres squashed together. We should be playing it in three weeks. Can't wait.

Tactical Strike Groups Phases (Potential Spoilers, obviously):
- Phase 1 | Opening / First Contact
- Intro Defeat Attacking Fighters
- Completed
- Completed Idris Available

- Phase 2 | Assault Station Objectives
- Intro Assault Station
- Intro Assault Station Weapon Type
- Subobjective Intro 2A
- Damage First
- Damage Second
- Damage Final
- Subobjective Final Cooler Destroyed
- Subobjective Success
- Target Destroyed Encouragement

- Phase 3 | Interception
- Intro Intercept Bombers

- Phase 4 | Power Core Objective
- Reminder Destroy Power Core
- Destroy Power Core Success

- Phase 5 | Escalation / Rescue + Threat
- Reminder
- Save Pilot Captain's Response
- Save Pilot Captain's Response To Forget Threat
- Vanduul Warning
- Success

- Phase 6 | Boss Fight (Mauler)
- Vanduul Mauler Arrives
- Attack Mauler
- Bonus Objective Success
- Escape Mauler
- Escape Mauler Idris Leaving
- Vanduul Mauler Destroyed
- Gabe Dies Captain's Response
- Gabe Escapes Captain's Response
- Fail Pilot Dead
- Success Captain's Response

- Phase 7 | Data Recovery
- Vanduul Data Discovered Mission Start
- Search the Mauler wreckage and EVA to recover data drives
- Mission Complete

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... nt/oirl573

Use a Perseus for the tactical strike groups, big laser gun ignores it.

Interesting, another way for CIG to sell these ships...

If the anti-capital lasers only target capital ships, the Ironclad Assault is going to be one of the best all-rounders for this operation: fit some Nursas for respawn, some Furys for the trench run phase, prepare some turrets for the ballistic phase, and the command module can act as a dropship for the FPS phase.

This is kinda brilliant.

Before you say pay-to-win, consider the design issues. The Vanduul laser turrets are meant to delete capitals in the early phases to force orgs to bring out fighters and attack the fortress Star Wars-style, but where do you draw the line at "capitals"? The Perseus is subcapital, so even if you included it in "capitals", the players would just opt for the next ship down the size ranking. And if you kept enlarging the definition, you would eventually exclude everything.

Personally I would make the lasers target also the Perseus and the Ironclad. I wouldn't go by a vague "capitals" definition but by size. And maybe CIG will indeed include the Perseus, but probably not the Ironclad, since it's the main attraction of DefenseCon. And good thing that sbubn has 69%-off chains to both the base and the Assault variant :)

Either way, those two subcapitals will STILL entail more work and challenge than if CIG just allowed you to use a Polaris or Idris. And if resupplying ends up being crucial for the op due to its length and scope, then the subcapitals will struggle there.

We of course can always have both an Idris and an Ironclad Assault on the scene, no worries. It'll be up to shubn to craft our tactics. All this is good intel though.

[icycalm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsOtI2d ... XVyolQO3wj

Starfighters in flight! Alpha 4.8 delight! Tactical Strike Groups is almost here and it's bringing a host of new features, new content, and new spaceships with it. Jump in to explore what Star Citizen's next major release has to offer.

Not a lot of new info or footage on Tactical Strike Groups, but we already have enough.

Overall the patch is incredible, and don't miss the last segment where they outline what's coming the rest of the year. By New Year's Eve, Nyx will be complete (which means base-building will be in because it's coming with Nyx I), and Squadron 42 might even be out. $1 billion funding is coming this month, and they could well end up at $1.5 billion by year's end, if they deliver everything.

Until then, join The Cult next Saturday as we take on Tactical Strike Groups with our Idris-based... tactical strike group.

[icycalm]

Official Page: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... cal-Strike



Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWQSxN- ... XVyolQO3wj

A missing pilot. An abandoned station. A signal that should have gone dark. Now, it's your move. Bring your best and break the enemy's defenses. Get in and get the asset out fast, before what's waiting in the dark finds you first.

Mission reward: 10,000 aUEC

Top-voted comment lol. 1.5k upvotes. That should get their attention. I also upvoted.

The fun continues in the subcomments:

And you have to share that 10k with 5 people.

And the game bugged out so you didn't get any aUEC.

Always check the comments under CIG videos. You'll either learn something, or have a good laugh, or often both.

One of the pilots is called Falco and he can't shake off a chasing enemy, is this a Star Fox reference.

"Shake em off, Falco!" plus the Aurora Mk II literally has an Arwing livery... They must really love Star Fox!

Our pilot is missing... Let's lose 6 more pilots, 3 fighters, a mobile carrier, a full Idris and their entire crews to rescue them!

All because the pilot didn't want to backspace and respawn home.

Holy smokes, that was Voidy's voice!

Who is Voidy?

Voidy vids. He's an SC content creator. Feels like they used a bunch of them for the pilot voice lines in the trailer.

We got some StarCraft 2 inspired voice actors here with the Pitbulls. Love it.

Right?! I instantly started thinking of StarCraft when I heard them!

This looks so sick. I'm just a humble salvager so I'll be out there in my lil Salvation scraping all your hulls. Good luck and Godspeed gentlemen.

We got Squadron 42 in Star Citizen before Squadron 42.

Strong RTS vibes from those voice lines.

Sega Mega Drive voice lines.

I like the Wing Commander reference shot.

So much ROTJ and Wing Commander in this. Thanks, I love it.

Pilots getting scarce, groundskeeper Willie has to step in for the cleanup (well done CIG).

Command Module vs Mauler wasn't on my list for 2026.

Deep south moonshiner is the voice of Drake Interplanetary, sweet!

Amazing to see that every single thing shown in this trailer is playable.

Even as someone who has been in the 4.8 PTU for a while now, this video brought a tear to my eye. Such an amazing work you guys, never been more excited to play!

That Command Module was going straight for suicide on that Mauler. "HELLO BOYS! I'M BAAAAACK!" XD

I get that reference... now I feel old.

It's from Independence Day. Never liked that movie, just like I don't like Star Fox or StarCraft. These aren't Chris Roberts references, he has way better taste than that. These are homosexual Jared Huckaby references.

Size 14 Torpedo :D

Probably a reference to the Command Module.

There's Welsh, English, Aussie and even South Africa there! Felt more like a mixed clan mashup... Loved it!

Vanduul and Scots are natural enemies.

There were not Scottish accents in that video, the pilot of the Ironclad was Welsh.

Welsh is too niche an accent for me to distinguish, so I'll take their word for it. The rest I got tho.



Release Notes: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... n-Alpha-48



Spectrum Thread: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spec ... cal-strike



Alpha 4.8 New Features & Content Q&A: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... es-Content



Tactical Strike Groups FAQ: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spec ... groups-faq

[icycalm]

Man, they really nailed it on the looks!
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... _the_looks

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... _well_done

Bravo CIG, well done

My mates and I ran the Tactical Strike Groups mission last night. It was very well crafted, with just the right amount of difficulty. The Mauler was a significant threat if not treated properly. The waves were difficult enough to be interesting.

I didn't participate in the ground operation or the tunnel runs as I was piloting my Percy, but the guys who did both really enjoyed them.

Props to CIG for making a fun mission that requires teamwork, with diversity in play style and ship/equipment needs.

It's the best mission they've put out since the initial Onyx facility series. Although I do have to say the Vanduul Tech Smuggler missions are pretty good too.

Def get into the tunnel next time.

It's amazing in there and should be experienced by all!

Nice job on the completion!

o7

Trench run murdered all of us pilots in DROVES.

Bro we had 4 or 5 pilots. Each with a backup ship on the Idris. They all had to suicide express back to Levski a few times to get more ships lol.

[icycalm]

Here are some notes to think about while shubn crafts his plan:

• There is no way to get the flight suits by Saturday; some like the Inquisitor's Kruger Tailwind may not even be in the game at all yet, so forget about them, we'll have to leave them for a subsequent attempt. Thankfully the Inquisitors have medium armor so dogfighting shouldn't be too bad for them (it's actually pretty bad, from my testing). Either way, even if we could get the flight suits, since the suit lockers aren't functional, switching gear mid-mission means a high chance of losing gear. So shubn's plan, whatever it is, probably shouldn't involve gear-switching until the suit lockers are working.
  
  
• I've heard groups of 5-6 players can finish the mission, and officially it's for 7+, but you know that official estimations are always exaggerated. So we should have a decent chance of success with our 5-6 players. Therefore, I would advise not seeking to bring in an outside org to help out, at least for the first attempt. On the other hand, if we have a couple crates with Inquisitor gear and a couple Scorpiuses with a free second seat/capital gunner seats, we can ping people in global chat to see if we get any randoms to join us at the last moment. For that matter, maybe one of our new recruits on Discord will jump in.
  
  
• The Mauler fight at the end is optional. Should we take it on, or skip it? shubn can decide for that in his plan, or he can leave it open to decide when/if the time comes. One option, if we've secured some loot, is to send it out with a cargo ship, while the rest of the crew charges the Mauler. But forgetting about the loot and just charging with our full strength, or alternatively skipping the fight altogether are also valid options. Up to shubn.
  
  
• This is the most complex mission in the game yet, so it's important to not overcomplicate our plan to avoid having the whole thing disintegrate into chaos; shubn should aim for simplicity and flexibility for the first attempt.
  
  
• CIG's Tactical Strike Groups FAQ that I posted earlier is full of spoilers, and they warn you about them. Up to shubn if he wants to look at them for the first attempt. Players should skip them and leave the choice to shubn. If he does look at them, we can say it's intel gained from a recon mission. If he doesn't, we're the recon team.
  
  
• shubn can discuss the plan with everyone in the #cult-command channel and confirm they have the right ships and paints, or he can post it straight here if he's confident he has everything right.
  
  
• Let's try to have the full briefing up by Friday evening at the latest.

[shubn]

Adjudicator will be flying his Sharktooth Idris-M with a Nightbreak C8R in the bottom hangar, since he has the most experience with the Idris, and with the QV Extraction station defenses. He can pick whichever main gun he prefers. I'll be flying my Ironcore Idris-P with 'T' kit. In the Idrises, we will bring at least two Skullcrusher Scorpiuses for icy and recoil, and as many Blacksmith F7As and F7Cs as we can for everyone else, all with Deadbolt cannons. Adjudicator's clone will be flying a Skull and Crossbones Cutlass Black for support and boarding. My clone will be in my Idris to fly it if I need to disembark.

I'll be going as Pirate Commander, icy and recoil as Pirate Master Chiefs, and everyone else as Pirate Inquisitors.

The plan is simple: blow shit up and don't die. I can't tell you exactly what we're up against since I haven't been watching videos or reading guides (all I know is we need ballistics, hence the Deadbolts), so the only guidelines I have are: try and keep situational awareness, fight as a team, and don't hesitate to bail if things get too hot.

I don't know if full ballistics is a good idea or if having some energy weapons would be better, so we could also do half Deadbolts half M-series cannons. If no one objects, we're going full Deadbolts for now.

[icycalm]

Absolutely I agree full-ballistics is a bold and exciting plan for this mission, and since the new feature is cap ship rearming, we should be able to just go back for rearming after every phase of the mission, assuming both Idrises get stocked to the brim with supplies.

It's just that I have very little experience with changing ship loadouts, I've only done it once just the other day with the Gladius's nose gun, so I suppose we must go out and buy these? I am not sure if ysignal and Rory have done this before, and they probably don't have the credits... Hopefully we can help everyone get it done, and it'll be a good learning experience as well.

[icycalm]

Also thought I'd copy-paste how we arrived at the idea for two Idrises, from the #cult-command discussion, as it suggests how we could use the second one:

Which reminds me, why not bring both Idrises?
We've never brought out two before, and tomorrow we have all hands on deck, plus we can use all the tankiness we got.
You could crash the P on the Mauler for example.
We'll be MUCH tankier with two.

shubn also didn't mention any specific tactic for the Mauler in his briefing, though his plan makes it clear we'll just deal with it if/when we get there.


Perseus versus Mauler

Also loading the P with the T kit will give us 20 Size 12 torpedoes that should be able to hurt the Mauler big time even before/without crashing into it.

[shubn]

Regarding the guns, yes, you have to go buy them. What I sometimes do is remove the current guns at my home location, so I know where they are, fly the ship to where I can buy the new guns, and equip them there. And of course you shouldn't forget to insure the loadout after equipping.

It should cost a bit less than 500k to outfit a Scorpius or F7A/F7C with Deadbolts. I can send cash to whoever needs.

Scorpius: https://www.erkul.games/loadout/nuObDHiY
F7A Mk II: https://www.erkul.games/loadout/1Rz9m90j
F7C Mk II: https://www.erkul.games/loadout/VjFtolIC

Click "Non stock items to cart" on the right, then open the cart at the top-right, and you can select the shop for each item in the cart. Deadbolt IIs can only be purchased at New Babbage, and IIIs and IVs at either New Babbage or Orison. For the F7C, you need to buy the nose and ball turrets as well.

[icycalm]

All this will make the preparations even longer than usual, but the upshot is that people will become acquainted with these mechanics, and also with the purchase locations for these particular components and ships, so it's all good. We'll just have to provide as much support as possible to whoever needs it to speed things up for them.

It all ties with my plan to launch a new subforum entirely devoted to the Cult Spec, so that each rank can get its own thread, and we can start listing recommended gun attachments and vehicle components for every rank in preparation for actually fabricating all these items with high-quality materials after blueprint acquisition. So tomorrow is the first step in that process.