SHATTERLIGHT: MONOLITH

Flight HUD & Starter Weapon Choice Update

- Steadier flight HUD: Cargo and loot counters keep a stable layout as you collect hardware. Compact rows leave more room for combat, with full progression details available when needed.
- Choose your first upgrade: Upgrade any Standard weapon family: Pulse, Prism, Rail or Seeker. Engineering uses normal costs and now strengthens stock weapons before you fit a named model. Weapon models still follow their existing loot and fitting progression.
- Your refit, your choice: The first-refit guide introduces all four starter weapons and follows your first paid Engineering choice into the next flight. The earned Twin Flak fitting lesson remains separate. Veteran progress stays intact.
- Clearer Fleet Records: Large Gear Scores use compact labels in the in-game leaderboard. Inspect a score for its precise value; ranking and submitted numeric values are unchanged. Older capped records keep their lower-bound marker.

ELITES, COMBAT & PROGRESSION UPDATE

• New Elite Encounters: Face Bastion’s breakable armor and exposed core, or dodge Hunter’s marked attack lanes and punish its recovery. Elites unlock after fitted Gear and guardian progress, keeping first flights protected.

• More Combat Impact: Stronger weapon feedback, rarity-colored effects and explosive reactor ruptures make battles feel more satisfying. Destroying Bastion can damage nearby enemies.

• Automatic Fleet Refits: Escorts now refit as your equipped Gear Score improves. Existing purchased bonuses remain, and Expeditions are still available.

• Clearer Prestige: New pilots reach their first milestone after fully clearing Sector 3, followed by Sectors 5, 10 and beyond. Claim at the Station when ready. Existing earned claims and purchased benefits are protected.

• Guided First Refit: Earn salvage, extract, fit your first Twin Flak weapon and buy Engineering MK II before heading back into combat. Short on resources? Keep flying and finish the upgrade later.

• NEW Tag Fix: Inspecting or equipping an item now clears its NEW tag, including older stuck tags on equipped items.

Your saves, Gear and purchased upgrades are preserved. Thanks for playing Monolith! ❤️

Gear Pickup & Extraction Update

• Gear pickups: Hardware caches light up, trail into your ship automatically and play short pickup sounds. Cargo stays unbanked until you extract; actual Gear is identified after extraction.
• Compact extraction: Resource totals, a Gear highlight and your next actions now fit into a smaller results panel. Expand recovered Gear or flight details when you need them.
• Faster refitting: Compare & Fit opens the recovered part directly on your ship. Open Gear takes you to your full inventory.
• Update history: Previous patch notes are now available inside News. The latest update still opens once, with daily supplies in the same window.
• Progress protected: Loot rolls, rewards, existing Gear, saves and purchased upgrades are unchanged. Repeat guardian hunts now display a clear Hunt label.

Arsenal & Loot Update

- Sector loot: Higher sectors now drop higher-level Gear, and item levels increase actual Sortie power. Strong later drops can beat older, higher-rarity equipment.
- Rarity effects: Pulse ricochets, Prism branches, Rail shards and Seeker fragments, aftershocks or chain explosions reflect your fitted Gear and weapon model. Engineering MK remains a separate upgrade.
- Clearer Gear comparisons: See damage, firing rates and real percentage gains before fitting. Coverage trade-offs are shown too, so a higher number is not the whole story.
- Sector readiness: Station and Armory show your Gear Score, estimated sector targets and direct-firepower guidance. Recommendations are a challenge benchmark, not a guaranteed win.
- Rarity glow: Mythic and higher Gear now glows in its rarity color, with clearer labels for each tier.
- Research cleanup: Old on-beat Gear bonuses no longer roll. Purchased Weapon Cycling research now improves Sortie fire rate without timed inputs.
- First weapon tutorial: New pilots can earn Twin Flak through a successful combat extraction, then learn to fit it and buy its first Engineering upgrade.
- Progress protected: Saves, existing Gear, currencies and purchased upgrades are preserved. New sector drop levels do not reroll your current inventory.