Build notes.

Build 16

October 2026 · v0.4.0-beta

Preview of the launch build, still in progress: the units-first build. Every unit gets its own look, and the interface and online play keep growing toward 30 October 2026.

Added

• A unique look for every unit. Each of the 229 units and structures is being redrawn so no two units on one side look alike, with the ink outline and cel shading from Build 15.
• Faster, clearer building. The build menus use the same keys on iPad and Mac, and an order that cannot be finished is dropped with a notice instead of leaving a unit standing still.
• Comms wheel and rejoin. Ping and quick-chat from a wheel, and rejoin an online match if you drop out.
• Calmer armies. Crowds of units spread out and march in lanes instead of piling up.

Changed

• Free to play with an optional Pro. Pro adds no ads, chat, and every unit and map, with a free 24-hour trial.

Known issues

• This is a preview: some units still wear the Build 15 look until the redraw lands.

Build 15

October 9, 2026 · v0.3.0-beta

The look-and-feel build: a comic-ink art style, a new violet-accent interface, units that stay on the ground and clear of buildings, smarter AI levels, a new menu stack, and the first online-service foundations. Builds are private testing links for now.

Added

• Comic-ink look. Every unit and structure is drawn with an ink outline and cel shading. The Rift is scribbly and overlapping; the Conkored are detailed and clean. Lines get thinner and simpler as you zoom out.
• New interface colors and type. A deeper violet accent, condensed type, and a calmer HUD that keeps buttons and labels spaced the same everywhere.
• Orders dock and HUD spacing. The orders panel is headed "UNIT ORDERS", every row and card sits on one shared spacing step, and the minimap toggle sits in a column to the right of the map (collapsed, it shows only the expand button).
• Groups card. Its collapse button now sits inside the card, and the HUD opacity text no longer quotes a stale percentage.
• Scroll hints. Every scrolling list on a tablet shows an animated chevron while there is more to see.
• Unit Bunker. The searchable unit encyclopedia (from the main menu and the pause menu) is now called the Unit Bunker.
• New menu navigation. Menus open as a stack with a breadcrumb header, step markers and a hint bar, and remember where you were.
• Tier-3 experimental units for the AI. In long one-on-one matches the Hard AI starts building an experimental unit from about minute 22 (Normal from about minute 26).

Changed

• The faction is now called Conkored everywhere you can see it.
• The order tile "Attack-move" is now "Attack".
• Easy attacks last. With the starter pack Easy now sends its first attack at 12 minutes (it was 8), after Normal and Hard at 10, and the skirmish setup text reads from the same value.
• Hard builds its tier-4 structures sooner and keeps its Power flowing into Alloy, with a bigger safety margin on the slowest maps.
• Units stay on the ground. They no longer sink into hills, clip into buildings or props, or shoot through terrain; missiles, tracers and the Lance arc over hills.
• Idle units push apart gently instead of stacking on one spot.
• HUD and label fixes. The power cap reads "5k" instead of getting cut off, labels never break mid-word, and the HUD no longer covers itself.

Fixed

• The Mac and iPad players now include the comic-ink pass (it was only added by the editor before).
• The animation check for units that stop now frames the whole squad (a test fix; no gameplay change).

Known issues

• Hard still beats Medium about 3 matches in 4 (the goal is 4 in 5).
• A few Normal and Hard matches on Plated Meridian end with no winner at 45 minutes: units get stuck at one pocket of the map (a pathing problem, not an AI one).
• Easy is still too weak for a brand-new player without the starter pack.
• One short hit-flinch check on land units is marginal on some maps.
• The in-game store and Pro purchase screens are not part of this build (the groundwork is in, but there is no store screen to open yet).
• Everything listed as a known issue in build 14.1 still applies except the Facetfall walk animation after a stop, which is fixed.
• The iPad build has been run on the iPad simulator only so far, not on a device.

Build 14.1

October 6, 2026 · v0.2.1-beta

A follow-up to build 14: smaller downloads, a Hard AI that spends its Power, and a roomier iPad build list. Builds are private testing links for now.

Changed

• Smaller downloads. Game data and maps now ship in one compact file, so every build is a good deal smaller.
• A Hard AI that spends its Power. In long matches the Hard AI used to sit at a full Power bank while it ran short of Alloy. It now builds more converters and turns that Power into Alloy, so late-game armies keep growing.
• The AI stops re-checking spots it already knows are blocked. Large matches with many AI players spend less time on base planning.
• More room to play on iPad. While a builder's list is open, the Orders and Groups panels fold into tabs (tap a tab to pin one open), the selection card shrinks to one row, and the list shows five whole rows. At 100% interface size the controls now take about a quarter of the screen on both iPad sizes (it was 35 to 37%).
• Factory rows on touch drop the stat column and show a "+1" pill, so names are never cut off.

Fixed

• The build list no longer needs three pages for the Factories tab on a large iPad at 120% interface size.

Known issues

• At 120% interface size on iPad the controls still take about a third of the screen. Selecting a factory keeps the queue card open, which is taller than the build list.
• Hard still beats Medium only about three matches in four, and a few Hard AI matches end with no winner at 25 minutes.
• Everything listed as a known issue in build 14 still applies: the HUD focus mode Tab order after Stop, the Rift Piglet's rifle against structures, AI armies jamming on Plated Meridian and First Light with the starter pack on, and a short walk animation on Facetfall after units stop.

Build 14

October 6, 2026 · v0.2.0-beta

The control and HUD build: keyboard build navigation, a calmer HUD that never covers itself, chained touch orders, tier-4 structures, raised defenses, three new or living maps, smarter units and AI, and online play by join code, plus a password-gated web build (single player, in a browser). Builds are private testing links for now.

Added

• Keyboard build navigation. Every row of the build list fires on its printed key (a factory queues +1, Shift +5, Ctrl +20, Alt -1), the group key walks every tab and page, a row on another page turns to it first, Page Down pages a long tab, and comma jumps to the next factory. The queue strip takes the wheel and keys too.
• Chain orders on touch. Plan several orders in a row on iPad; Backspace undoes the last planned order and Shift+Backspace skips the current one on a keyboard.
• Tier-4 structures. Up to three per player: the gate pairs that move armies across the map, the Lucernarium's Lance (a burning line you draw), the Slingworks boulder, the protective dome and the Farrow, a mobile factory that turns wrecks into free Piglets. The build list shows the tier-4 slots and what each one still needs.
• Raise a defense. Builders can lift a turret onto a mast so it fires over hills and walls; the ground fan shows where it can hit before and after.
• New maps: Facetfall (a crystal facet world with light wells) and Unstitched Meadow (a torn-plush nursery quilt). Both are Premium living maps.
• Living maps. Selected maps move gently (water, light, a shimmer on the ground) and never faster than the slowest unit; Reduce motion turns it off.
• Map rosters. A map can hide units that do not fit it; the build list says "not on this map".
• HUD focus mode (F8). Walks a focus ring through the HUD's panels so every button is reachable without a pointer: Tab or arrows move, Enter activates, Esc leaves.
• Order at the reticle. With an order armed and the pointer still, Enter gives it at the screen-center reticle (Shift+Enter queues it); the arrow keys move the view under it.
• Online play by join code through the new Farthest Light server (play.farthestlight.gg).
• Build list at the bottom on iPad (Settings > Touch > Build list): the list sits by your thumb.
• A new HUD accent. One accent color marks what is active (the lit tab, the page chevrons and page pill, armed orders), checked against every seat color and for color-vision differences.

Changed

• The HUD never covers itself. Floating cards, tooltips, toasts, the alert rail and the touch placement card find free space instead of landing on docks, alert cards or collapse toggles.
• AI armies move as armies. Groups share one route, spread across the corridor in lanes, queue through narrow gaps in order and wait for stragglers. Wall presses fell from 524 to 82 across 48 test matches. Pathfinding's worst second dropped from 1.47 to 0.58 ms.
• AI squads. The AI groups its army into squads with a goal, and uses gates and the tier-4 weapons.
• Units do not get stuck on orders they cannot finish. A stalled order is skipped with a notice; a builder whose site was taken builds beside it.
• Pacing. Hit points and costs retuned for the tier-4 era (tier-4 structures and their wrecks are much tougher).
• Metal maps give the Chorale fair Power. Eightfold Foundry, Bulkhead Cross and Plated Meridian now use standard sunlight, so the solar array keeps pace with the Rift wind spire.
• American English everywhere players read (defense, color, armor, center, gray), and clearer wording on about 270 HUD, menu, alert and unit strings.
• Menus, settings, the lobby and the results screen were reworked for keyboard focus and touch; the color picker shows taken colors and closes with a tap outside.

Fixed

• Kamikaze units chase and detonate instead of trailing their target.
• The Rift Boil detonator explodes again.
• Long matches no longer allocate memory during play (steadier frame times late in a match).
• A defense being raised and missile silos building a round are no longer skipped as "stalled" orders.
• Online: a game that had played a skirmish first no longer reports different game data to the server.
• The top-bar Power cap no longer spills out of its card at 80% interface size.

Known issues

• In HUD focus mode, after Enter on Stop the focus moves to the Groups panel, so Tab no longer reaches Move on the Orders card (press F8 to go back; Enter works).
• The build list's stat column can run past a narrow row.
• The Rift Piglet's rifle does not fire at structures, and AI armies with the starter pack on can still jam on Plated Meridian and First Light.
• On Facetfall, units can keep their walk animation for a moment after they stop.

Build 13.2

October 4, 2026 · v0.1.2-beta

HUD polish and copyright on top of build 13.1.

Fixed

• The top-bar Power total no longer runs past its card at large interface sizes. At 130% on Mac and 120% on iPad the "/ 2,000" cap hides as designed; the fill bar still shows how full storage is.
• The Architect card's Reclaim and Capture labels no longer spill out of their tiles while those orders are armed.

Added

• "© 2026 Analog Elk. All rights reserved." on the title screen and the credits card.

Build 13.1

October 4, 2026 · v0.1.1-beta

A balance update on top of build 13.

Changed

• The Rift hold their own in big battles. Rift tier-2, tier-3 and hover combat units reach 50% further; lobbed shells fly faster so their arc still lands. The stun launcher, dropped weapons, the Lance and nukes are unchanged. In Hard-vs-Hard matches with the starter pack on, the Rift now win about half (49%, up from 26%); with the pack off they win 44% (was 46%).
• One Rift unit description no longer calls the stun launcher long-range.

Known issues

• Same as build 13, except the Rift large-battle weakness is fixed.

Build 13

October 3, 2026

New

• Touch orders that finish. On iPad every order shows its own target marker while it waits for a tap, gives the order on that tap, then switches itself off. Patrol stays on until the loop closes or Done; Chain orders keeps an order on until Done.
• Animated touch confirmations at the tap point, in step with the order's sound and haptic; Reduce motion shows a still marker.
• A quieter HUD. "Attack-move" on every layout, a compact selection card with paged build rows, Crew and Assist folded into one chip on iPad; the desktop HUD with a builder selected covers about 24% instead of 29%.
• A smarter AI economy. The starter pack counts the Architect's storage, a full bank sends builders to defenses and factory help, Normal and Hard tech to tier-2 factories after the pack, Hard beats Medium in 84% of matches.
• Small things. Range rings on iPad, a host switch for AI concession, Calm in the in-match speed menu, Attack-armed taps on minimap radar contacts, Reset all resets cursor size.

Changed

• Faster. Half the simulation work per tick in 8-player battles (line of sight about 5x cheaper), fewer frame stutters and several match-to-match leaks fixed; iPad holds 60 fps.
• A calmer siege mix. A long base attack lowers the battle once instead of pumping per alert.
• Art. One lighting grade, a shadow floor, clearer factory glyphs and badges, area deaths play once.

Fixed

• The AI never building a factory on two-start maps in larger games.
• Blocked attack orders now walk to a spot with a clear line of fire; long-range ground missiles launch vertically.
• The results screen score always matches the match.

Known issues

• The Rift side is still weaker than intended in very large battles; AI armies can bunch at chokes in big pushes.
• At larger interface sizes the top-bar Power total can run past its card once it reaches four digits.

Build 12

October 3, 2026

New

• A much smaller HUD. Order rows, the build panel, the selection card, the top bar, control groups and the alert rail were trimmed so the HUD covers far less of the battlefield: about 37% instead of 50% with every panel open on a 1366 x 1024 Mac window, and about 15% at rest instead of 19%.
• Grouped notifications. Alerts of the same kind fold into one card that counts the distinct places ("x4, 3 places") and jumps to the one that matters. The expanded rail has Combat, Economy, Build and Intel tabs as one row of icons with counts, and a Clear button; at rest it shows two cards and a "+n more" pill.
• One event, one alert. Each event raises one card and one minimap mark. The off-screen arrow, the sound and the ping are for urgent alerts only (base under attack, Architect hit, a strategic launch, defeat warnings); routine alerts appear quietly and fade sooner.
• Economy in the top bar. Storage full, starved and wasting are shown as the resource word in the top bar, not as alert cards. Running short raises one card and one sound; nothing nags before your first spend or the first minute, and wasting is only flagged when it matters.
• Quiet notifications, on by default. Fewer cards, pings and toasts, softer routine alert sounds, and kill bubbles only for your own bigger kills. Always on at the slower game speeds and with Reduce motion; Settings > Interface turns it off.
• Glass HUD. Translucent panels with a lighter tint and a HUD opacity slider from 60 to 100%; danger words sit on a solid chip. Panels you are not using fade back after six seconds; only urgent alerts or reaching for the HUD bring them back, and they never fade during a tutorial lesson. High contrast keeps everything solid.
• Tips once per device. Skirmish tips (stalled economy, under attack, Architect under fire, idle factory or builder) show once on this device instead of every match, never as pop-ups in the middle of a fight, and never used up while hidden. The first-battle goal card appears in your first skirmish only. Settings > Interface > Show tips again brings them back.
• 14-lesson tutorial. A new lesson, "How your squad fights", teaches stances, with a one-time tip about orders.
• Enemy start markers. Enemy start positions are marked on the minimap from the first second, until you scout them. "Show me" on the goal card pans the camera there.
• Scrolling build queue. A long build or production queue on the selection card scrolls (wheel, trackpad or drag) instead of overflowing the card.
• Replay stats. Army value, Alloy per second, commands per minute and score in the replay panel. Skip ten seconds with [ and ]. In a match, army value is in the Alloy tooltip.
• Adaptive network delay. Local network matches set their delay from the connection, so good connections feel more responsive. A delay readout sits in the network display.
• Haptics on iPad. Taps for orders, Architect and base alerts and the end of the match, with a Haptics switch.
• Calm speed. A 0.5x game speed for the most time to react.
• Cursor size setting.
• New sounds for guns out of ammo, kills, a finished retreat and shared overflow.
• Key hints for the economy and order tiles: tooltips and key-sheet rows for their Alt shortcuts.

Changed

• A calmer mix. The game is quieter overall and no longer pumps when alerts play. Only urgent alerts lower the battle sound, and by how urgent they are; repeated alerts wait before they sound again. Music is audible in battle and the battlefield has an ambient bed.
• Longer early fights. Tier-1 line units, tanks and light turrets are tougher, so early skirmishes last long enough to react to. Rift and Chorale are closer in strength.
• Smarter fire. Direct-fire units stop piling shots onto a target that is already about to die and spread their fire.
• Turning units keep moving. Units with fixed forward weapons roll off while they turn instead of circling in place, and answer orders faster.
• More room on small maps. Small two-player maps start players 20% farther apart.
• Faster tier-3 units. Tier-3 mobile units build in 60% of the time.
• AI attack timing. A single scout near the AI's base no longer keeps its whole reserve at home.
• iPad layout. Every touch target is at least 48 points on the 11-inch iPad, menus open at 120% there, the stance chip sits in the Orders header and the top bar is one row.
• Accessibility visuals. Hit flashes follow the Bright flashes setting; the placement outline has a hatch so it reads on any ground; minimap markers carry shapes as well as colors; the minimap's hold-to-move is off by default.
• Art polish. A bolder Lance beam with an afterimage, visible build beams, cleaner unit portraits and thinner selection outlines.
• AI concede is saved with saves and replays, so a replay ends the way the match did.

Fixed

• Rift siege guns hit what they aim at. The long-range guns scattered several degrees and landed about one shot in five; they are now accurate at every range. They switch to a high arc when the low one is blocked, their barrels no longer flap, guns on slopes fire again and the largest gun's muzzle no longer sits under the ground.
• Guided missiles and hills. Missile units no longer launch straight into a crest right in front of them. On their own they hold fire; when you order the shot they move to a spot with a clear line first.
• Every death played twice. Each unit death stacked a second explosion. Deaths now play once; giants flash and then land one heavy blast, with its sound, when they hit the ground.
• Too-bright battles. After your first selection the whole battlefield was lit by the HUD's icon lights; the lighting now stays as the map intends.
• Black debris and wrecks. Debris no longer shows as black or orange squares and wrecks no longer turn pure black.
• Fog edge. The edge of the fog of war is smooth instead of stepped, and eases in as you scout.
• Animation jumps. A few unit animations jumped back to their first frame; the cause is fixed and checked on every build.
• Missing order sounds. Selecting a unit and ordering it quickly could swallow the order's acknowledgment sound; every order now answers.
• Tutorial economy. The tutorial never runs into "storage full" or wasted resources.
• Clipped labels. The Factories tab and two-digit counts on the production strip fit again.

Known issues

• The Rift side is weaker than intended in very large battles; a balance fix is in progress for the next build.

Build 11

October 2, 2026

New

• Weapons that cost something. Every fabricated round costs Alloy, and energy weapons above tier 1 cost Power, paid through a magazine shown on the unit card. A gun line is a running cost, not a free wall. Starved guns hold fire and say so, and the AI plans for ammunition.
• Choose your color. A color picker in skirmish setup and the lobby, a remembered preferred color, color names on the loading screen and a "Colors by side" accessibility option.
• Riftkin identity. Regrowth (Riftkin mend out of combat), Fury (below half health they fire faster) and Shed Plating (a bone plate that takes a quarter off incoming damage near full health, and grows back). The Chorale stay machines: repaired, never self-healing.
• Scores and kill bubbles. A live team score, kill bubbles in the world with a dot that flies to the HUD on big kills, a Last light end-of-match moment that glides to the deciding blow, an optional time limit decided by score and a Score tab on the results screen.
• Event animations. Acknowledge, hit, fire, brace, kill, build, birth and death clips for both factions, timed to the game.
• Economy and orders. Regroup and Focus orders, queue editing, a Retreat stance (fall back at 30 or 50 percent health), build priority, upgrade in place with a refund, build over wrecks, area extractor placement by drag and overflow sharing with allies.
• AI allies join your attacks and come back to defend your base.

Changed

• A tighter roster. 212 units across the Chorale and the Riftkin, every one with a job. Cut units are gone, duplicates merged, names, roles and descriptions rewritten. Tier-2 builders can build everything tier-1 builders can.
• Harder Hard. Hard now reliably beats Normal.
• Wrecks wait for the death animation before they appear.

Build 10

October 2, 2026

New

• Clear tablet controls. Chain orders, Add to selection and Box select as lit switches with one banner and coach marks the first time. "Fire here" on the order wheel.
• Routes. Multi-point routes with draggable waypoints and patrol loops, on touch and on Mac.
• Drag to build. Lines and grids with a count and cost, a build grid with snap, a gap setting, extractor fields and planning while paused.
• Factory orders. A stance and a route for each factory, queue reorder and remove, one key per unit.
• Collapsible HUD. Every panel folds to a slim tab with a live badge; a collapse-all key on Mac.
• Resume battle and saves. Pick a match back up from the main menu; the game saves when you quit.
• Steady AI difficulty, and AI opponents that concede a lost match.
• Join codes for local network play, with Share on iPad.
• Results that teach. The results screen adds a coaching line, your personal highlight and your top units.
• Accessibility. Reduce motion in menus and the world, high contrast, extra large text, mono audio, a left-handed rail, and device settings matched on first run.

Changed

• Settings reorganized; skirmish setup rules ordered by impact with the rest under Advanced.
• First match. A goal card, AI opening floors so Normal does not rush you before minute ten, and Relaxed speed.
• HUD readability. Control groups on one row, a minimap legend, larger captions, factory pictures on the production strip, lighter outlined Rift icons and Place / Keep / Cancel on the placement card.
• Chorale animation. Hit, fire and fidget on every Chorale model, a choir pulse, hover bob and bank, come-apart deaths and petal factories.
• Riftkin animation. Build loops, more fidgets and new nursery clips.

Fixed

• Strategic launch at a ground spot works.
• Area bombard works by touch.
• Follow turns on and off, with an indicator.
• The idle-builder count and its key agree.
• Enemy turret reach rings show on touch.
• Riftkin rapid-fire animations no longer stutter.