Phantom Galaxies 101: A Guide to New Co-op Patrol Missions
Gather your squad and launch into Frontier Space, Ranger pilots! As part of our latest major Early Access update, the earliest version of our Patrol missions are now available, offering brand-new multiplayer challenges and rich rewards. Patrols are our first major content release of 2024, and are a pivotal step for us in enhancing the multiplayer PvE experience for Phantom Galaxies!
Players will be able to load up into randomly-assigned teams of up to four pilots. Together, you will take on missions, defeat enemies and earn bountiful rewards for your efforts. This release marks a significant milestone for us in our Phantom Galaxies multiplayer content, and is a feature we have been working to refine for some time now. In fact, over 15,000 lines of new code were needed to bring Patrols to life. This will be a first taste of our matchmaking and group functionality and we are looking forward to developing this feature further. We can’t wait for you to experience the thrills of our new cooperative challenge!
How to Access Patrols
To access Patrols, all you need to do is complete or skip the ‘Target Practice’ Tutorial mission alongside Captain Olson. You can then access the Patrol Terminal aboard Halberd-001 — to the right of the Starfighter Console, just outside Castillo’s room.
In this first version of Patrols, only one mission will be available to you at the terminal, but more varieties will be added over time. When choosing a Patrol mission, you will be able to view details such as the mission’s title, description, location, objectives and more before you commit. If you like what you see, select your mission, and be placed into a matchmaking queue which will begin the team creation process. Note that at this stage, teams for Patrols will be randomly assigned based on availability — in the future, we plan for a party system which will allow you to choose your fellow adventurers.
You can roam freely around Halberd-001 until your party is found, but cannot enter space without being removed from the queue. Keep an eye on the new UI pop-up informing you of the status of your team search. Up to three other Rangers are able to join a Patrols squadron, but you won’t be able to take on Patrol missions alone.
Currently the queue is first come, first served, so if you’re looking to play with specific friends, you can use Discord to coordinate — but ending up in the same Patrol squad will be timing dependent.
Setting Out on Patrol
…Success! Your Patrols team has been selected and you are ready to roll out. Once your team has been formed and you have accepted the ‘Ready Up’ prompt, you will be automatically transported to the Patrols mission map where you must work together to complete the core objective. While in-game communications are not available within this first iteration of Patrols, we will be opening up multiple voice channels in our Discord that you can use to chat with any Rangers that you recognise from your team.
In this first iteration of Patrols, the objective is simple — survive eight waves of interstellar reavers, and turn the lot of them to stardust. When you complete your objective, fly through the portal and you will be granted your rewards and transported victorious from the Patrol map back to Halberd-001.
As we build out Patrols over time, some missions will be more difficult than others, but you’ll be able to take on anything with fellow Rangers by your side! There will be no need to check your fire, as friendly fire is not enabled. If you are defeated in combat, you will simply respawn within the Patrols map until the mission is complete. If you disconnect at any stage (causing an error message to appear) or quit to the menu mid-mission, you will not receive rewards even if the rest of your team continues.
Enemy behaviour is also something that’s changing within Patrols. In other parts of space, enemies express a lot of movement — however in Patrols we have made some adjustments, designing pirates to be less “flighty”. Our overall goal is for there to be less emphasis on “cursor chasing” down your foes, and to make them a more formidable challenge overall. Let us know what you think!
Rewards
The rewards are subject to change, but allocations in this initial phase will be structured like so:
Rewards for completing one Patrol:
- ASTRAFER: 1
- Activity Points: 150
- XP: 50
- Credits: 1000
Daily Caps:
- ASTRAFER: 1
- Activity Points: 300
- XP: 100
- Credits: 2500
Note that these are PERSONAL caps, not global — they will reset daily and are tethered to your PG account rather than your Avatar. ASTRAFER rewards are awarded from the global PvE ASTRAFER pool.
While there is an upper limit each day on the amount of rewards you can earn, there’s no cap on the amount of Patrols you can complete. All you need to do is return to the terminal and choose your next adventure. Between Bounties and Patrols, the stars are filling with prosperous Phantom Galaxies opportunities!
Patrols are the centrepiece of our latest update of Phantom Galaxies Early Access, which brings new Gear opportunities with fresh Ranger weapons and equipment, increases to maximum Power Levels, new in-game rewards, improved player controls, a range of fixes, and more!
Please note that this is the first iteration of Patrols, a foundational piece in Phantom Galaxies’ overall gameplay and content. This feature will be built on over time and there are plans to implement further locations, new and optional objectives, enemy variety, varied rewards and more on top of the core experience. We value player input highly here at Blowfish Studios, and will be watching your comments closely (as well as our own data) to identify changes and additions we can make to the gameplay. Join us on Discord and get in touch with our Community Team to let us know your thoughts on this first taste of Patrols!
To join our ever-evolving Early Access experience, you can install the game through the following launchers:
That’s the run-down for these new multiplayer missions, Ranger! Any more questions, please feel free to join our Discord, where we’re happy to provide any answers. See you in the stars!
