Star Atlas - Ustur Skeleton - Character design by João Lira

Weekly Star Atlas Newsletter #210

Welcome to our 210th newsletter on Star Atlas! This weekly newsletter, published by Aephia Industries, focuses entirely on the development of this ambitious game. Here, we attempt to aggregate all the newsworthy tidbits revealed, primarily by the team, throughout the past week.

This week marks the transition from the z.ink A.LPHA campaign to the next phase, O.RIGIN, which officially begins tomorrow! With Claim Stakes added as a zXP-earning activity, it’s time to prepare for the start of the main airdrop grind. Alongside this, the team will host an end-of-year Town Hall this Wednesday, replacing this week’s Atlas Brew. Lastly, the results of the DAO Council elections are in, the Econ-Vantarah are forming, and we’ll wrap up this issue with a fresh batch of sneak peeks!

Let’s dive in!

The Road to z.ink – O.RIGIN

The A.LPHA campaign concluded this past week, so it’s no longer possible to collect zXP. The team extended the grace period for daily check-ins, so over the past few days, it was no longer necessary to return daily to maintain the check-in streak. Daily check-ins are still possible, however, so it is (and has been) possible to increase the streak length (which is helpful if you accidentally broke it at some point).

But the big news: The z.ink O.RIGIN campaign kicks off tomorrow! On Tuesday, December 16th, the campaign will officially launch, and everyone will be able to grind for that initial 10% (of the total supply) z.ink airdrop!

Unlike the A.LPHA campaign, there will no longer be a ceiling on the maximum attainable level.
In the A.LPHA campaign, 14 community members reached or exceeded level 20. Their zXP and level will be capped exactly at the level 20 mark before the O.RIGIN campaign kicks off.

Claim Stakes

The team made a last-minute addition to the roster of zXP-earning activities. Staking Claim Stakes (in the Faction Claims program) will now earn you zXP as well (when O.RIGIN kicks off, that is)!
As with the Locker programs, the actual amount of zXP rewarded to each participant will be calculated once per day, at approximately midnight UTC.

End of Year Town Hall

As previously announced, the team is organizing an end-of-year Town Hall. As this is the last week of the year and the team is still working (their 2-week holiday period starts this coming weekend), it was clear that this had to take place this week. The team, meanwhile, officially announced that it will be hosted during the Atlas Brew timeslot this week, on Wednesday, December 17th.

We don’t usually share speculation, but we expect to hear about the following products:

Unreal Engine 5 — Expect updates to gunplay, racing, and the first sliver of the single-player campaign
Holosim Chapter 2
z.ink O.RIGIN

Either way, it should be an interesting Town Hall, so make sure to tune in this Wednesday!

Aephia - STV Visualizer - Council 3rd Term Elections — Aephia – STV Visualizer – Council 3rd Term Elections

DAO Updates

Council Elections

The elections for the 3rd DAO Council term have concluded, and the following five community members will take their seats on January 11, 2026:

ROME | Winston
Q | Morangø
[EMP] jith blade
Emperor ===[]
𝐋ᴀɴᴢᴇʀ

In the meantime, the newly appointed councilmembers will shadow the current Council to ensure a smooth transition.

Congratulations to the newly elected councilmembers, and best of luck!

DAO Casters

Another new initiative created through the DAO is the DAO Casters program. The program was approved under PIP-20, and over the past few weeks, community members could apply by completing a form.

The 2-week period to apply has now been closed, and there is now a period for “campaigning”. When, in the new year, the third Council starts their work, they will create an STV (Single Transferable Vote) PIP to allow the DAO to vote on their top-5 picks for this program.

When picked, these five individuals will serve a 3-month term as official DAO Casters, and:

Begin producing weekly ecosystem content
Launch community engagement initiatives and giveaways
Host the monthly DAO Casters Brew livestream
Serve as visible, creative ambassadors for Star Atlas

The following community members have stepped forward for this role:

@UMG | Z.liper
@ROME | Winston
@《VΛ》Keplernet – NebularTV
@[Λ] Neo (Ajudante dos BR)
@[NEON] slika11
@[COEX] Sakaleyn
@Spike
@Morpheus
@Azzary | Cryptearn
@AnekoGameFi
@vb | Star Atlas Mod
@[AEP] Funcracker ⪛⦿⫺
@MrSekour

News Bits

Finally, there are a few more news bits worth sharing this week:

The second Iris’ Blessing raffle took place this past Friday, and you can check the #monthly-drawing channel on the Star Atlas Discord to see if you won anything. Note that if you did, you should have been tagged and would likely already know.
Next year, the Solana Breakpoint event will take place November 15-17, in London, England. It is unclear whether the team plans to attend, and it is far too early for them to provide any guidance on the topic. But as with this year, we fully expect community members and, likely, a few team members will be present either way.
An application form is now available for the Econ Vantarah (see previous issue). This group will retain its initial composition for roughly 6 months, after which the least active/valuable members will be replaced.

Sneak Peeks

For the past two weeks, we have been posting artwork from João Lira, and we’re continuing that trend today, with the last few concepts he shared on his Art Station page.

As we did last week, we will highlight some of the art posted, but present you with a list of all projects he created (containing many more perspectives and art) below: