Developer System Era Softworks and publisher Devolver Digital have revealed more details about the upcoming follow-up to Astroneer – STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions. Details were revealed through a showcase stream that clocks in at almost 17 minutes in length, and you can check out below.
As you would expect from a multiplayer-focused entry in the series, the showcase for STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions leans quite heavily into giving us a look at the multiplayer gameplay. The showcase also features creative director Adam Bromell providing a few details for the upcoming title, while also teasing some of the new content coming to Astroneer in its Megatech DLC.
“With this game, I didn’t want to just make a sequel to Astroneer,” explained Bromell in the video. “This is not Astroneer 2. This is a game that really represents the kind of online sandbox games that I want System Era to be known for, so much so that it is a whole new genre, and it is a whole new title. That game is STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions.”
STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions has been described as a “full-blown expedition game” with the gameplay revolving around improvisation as well as co-operation. In the title, players are recruits on an experimental space station dubbed the ESS Starseeker. Working under the leadership of the Fronteer Force, players are tasked with setting off on timed missions on different alien worlds.
The showcase for STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions focused on three main steps that players will have to go through: gearing up for a mission, deploying on to a hostile planet, and surviving and celebrating the success of their missions. The video gave us a look at these three steps by showcasing a mission on planet Tephra.
Tephra itself is described as being “a lush and mysterious planet” that features vast oceans, cavernous depths to dive, and tangled jungles to navigate. Through Tephra, System Era Softworks has also highlighted the fact that each planet in STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions will be hand-crafted, which will allow players to revisit points of interest that the might have spotted in a previous run but didn’t have the time to go check out.
In the video, a squad deployed on to Tephra with the mission to help in repairing critical equipment used by the science team. The squad was forced to improvise the repairs when the equipment was found to have been gooped up by the local fauna.
As for the original Astroneer, its Megatech DLC will bring with it a host of new content for players that enjoy the game’s base-building and automation aspects. This means the ability to create massive structures and more complex automation system using expanded versions of tools already in the game like rail lines. The DLC will be accompanied by a free update that also brings with it a few new items, as well as a new megastructure-styled project that will have players dip their toes into the large-scale automation offered by the DLC. Megatech, along with the free update, are slated for release in November 2025.
STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions will be coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch in 2026.
