In responding to a question in the Foundation Room, Star Atlas CPO, Danny Floyd, confirmed that “skill progression trees are linked with specific missions within that role. So you complete the missions to upgrade those trees. Ambient XP outside of missions is for individual crew onboard who are performing skills and upgrading their individual stats only go towards those crew members, not your overall role-based progression linked to skill trees. This will be really clear once phase 2 of ship missions comes online in the mini-game, and even more [clear] with phase 3.“

Weekly Star Atlas Newsletter #246
Last week was dominated by SAGE C4 Phase 3. While the team missed its hoped-for end-of-week release window, we got the clearest picture yet of what the next phase will actually look like: a new starter bundle, much tighter economic balancing, a full fleet recovery and medallion system, and a considerably more capable Nemesis Engine. Beyond C4, we got updates on the road to z.ink mainnet, the return of UE5 multiplayer, and the ongoing DAO Council election.











![Star Atlas - Pearce MR8 [Concept Art]](https://aephia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/image-768x432.png)






