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