Alpha build 99 - Away teams, a base commander, and every officer's story to the end

Alpha build 99 is live, and it gives your officers much more to do: away teams, a base commander, hull specialists, the Tide's own commanders, and the rest of every officer's story.

A required update: build 98 cannot connect. Steam brings in build 99 on its own; if it does not appear, restart Steam.

Away teams

• Open the Academy and press the new AWAY TEAMS tab. Each day (from 00:00 UTC) brings five missions, each of a different kind, for officers who are not in a seat.
• Pick a mission, choose up to three officers (or press AUTO-FILL), and press SEND AWAY TEAM. Missions take 1 to 8 hours and carry on while you are offline.
• Most missions ask for an officer of a class or of your own faction. The better your team matches, the more it brings back: from x0.50 up to x1.25. A weaker team never fails; it brings back less. RISK missions bring back x0.5 to x1.5 by luck.
• Missions bring back dossiers, a Recruit Token, Commendations, standing, Training Data or resources, and each officer learns 150 XP an hour.
• Your Academy's Mark sets how many teams can be out at once: one at Mark 1 and 2, two at Mark 3 and 4, three at Mark 5. RECALL brings a team home at once, with nothing.

A base commander

• From Academy Mark 2, one officer can command your base. Open the Academy, press BASE COMMANDER, then CHOOSE.
• When your base is raided, their Officer Ability works for the base, and half their ATTACK, DEFENSE and HEALTH go to your guns, shields and buildings. Your defense rating counts them.
• Raiders see your base commander when they scout you, and the target card names them. Your commander learns from every raid on your base.

Hull specialists

• The two Rare officers of every faction now know one hull class. From any bridge seat, they make every ship of that class in their fleet stronger: more damage, stronger shields or more armor, depending on the officer.
• The bridge crew screen lights the ships they help in gold and adds a SPECIALIST row to the crew bonuses.

The Tide's commanders

• Each of the Tide's three incursion flagships now has a commander: Vex'thara, the Hollow Crown, on the Hivemind; Oru'khal, the Deep Maw, on the Leviathan; Sereth'ka, the Thousand Eyes, on the Overmind.
• Each has a maneuver of their own, stronger at higher threat. Select the flagship's fleet to see who rides it, what their maneuver does, and your record against them.
• Beat a commander for the first time in a week (from Monday 00:00 UTC) for a Tide Trophy and 300 Commendations.

Every officer's story, to the end

• Parts 2 and 3 of all 96 officers' stories are here, told by Fleet Admiral Voss. Part 2 comes at rank 3 and part 3 at rank 4, as gold STORY signals on the map.
• Finish all three parts and the officer earns a title, shown under their name, and dossiers: 6 to 20 by rarity. Epic and Legendary officers also earn a dress uniform, worn everywhere their face is shown; switch it on their screen.

Also

• + SAVE on the crew presets now asks for the preset's name, so you can name your three presets yourself.
• Every number is a starting value and may change as officers are played.

Read more

• The new Player's Guide chapter, Away Teams and Command, has every rule and number.
• The changelog lists every change in build 99.

Questions or bugs: #tester-chat and #bug-reports on Discord. Ideas: #feedback.