What is the current state of the product?

Playable and stable enough for daily matches, and under active development. Expect balance changes to ships, weapons and abilities between updates, occasional bugs, and some rough edges: matches are set up by challenging another player from the lobby (there is no automatic matchmaking queue yet), and text and voice chat are
unmoderated during Early Access, with a mute option for every player. Windows PC only. The build number is shown on the title screen so you always know which version you are running.

What is included in Early Access?

The whole game as it stands today, free: 41 Star Atlas hulls across ten manufacturers, 145-point fleet building, single player against the arena AI, squad play with friends against the bots, 1v1 challenges through the lobby, built-in voice and text chat, a match clock and a ranked leaderboard. There is no separate "full version" held back; new content and features are added to this same product as they are finished.

Will I have access to the product during the entire Early Access phase?

Yes. Once the game is in your Epic Games library it stays there for the whole Early Access phase and after it. Online play depends on our servers, which may pause briefly for updates; we announce maintenance in the game and on our website.

How long is the product in Early Access?

We have not set an end date. We will leave Early Access when ranked seasons, chat moderation tools (block and report) and the remaining ship roster are complete, and we will announce the date on the store page and on broadsidebattlearena.com well in advance.

How often do you update the product?

Several times a month. Each update installs through the Epic Games Launcher, and the build number on the title screen changes with it.

Is my progress saved between updates?

Yes. Your player profile, statistics, match history and leaderboard standing are stored on our servers, tied to your Epic Games account, and carry across updates. We may reset the leaderboard for a fresh season when Early Access ends, with notice in advance.

Can I provide feedback and bug reports?

Yes, please do. The FEEDBACK / BUG button on the title screen sends a report straight to us with your build number attached. You can also email [email protected], or read broadsidebattlearena.com/support for what makes a report easy to fix.

How is blockchain, NFT, or cryptocurrency used in this product?

Very lightly, and only optionally. Broadside Battle Arena is set in the Star Atlas universe, whose ships exist as NFTs on the Solana blockchain. Our plan is to let a player who already holds such a ship prove that they own it and field it in the arena. In the current Early Access build this is a limited preview available only to a small group of invited testers: it lets them link a wallet to their player account by signing a message. Nothing in the game is minted, bought, sold, traded, staked or earned on a blockchain.

What utility does this bring to the product?

Ownership verification, nothing more. When the feature leaves preview, a ship you already own as an NFT can be placed in your fleet. It gives no combat advantage: every ship in the game is available to every player through the fleet-point system, and NFT ownership adds no stats, no exclusive abilities and no rewards.

Does this product require me to connect an external wallet? What wallets does this product support?

No wallet is required for anything. The preview uses the game's own built-in, self-custodial wallet: it is created on your PC, its private key never leaves your device, it is never sent to us, and we cannot recover it
for you. The game does not connect to browser-extension or mobile wallet apps. Because nobody can recover a lost key, testers are told to use a new wallet holding nothing of value.

Can I use the product without interacting or engaging with blockchain, NFT, or cryptocurrency?

Yes, entirely. Every mode, every ship and every feature is playable with an Epic Games account alone. The wallet preview is switched off for everyone except invited testers, and you will never be asked to create or
connect a wallet in order to play.

What chain does this product use? Is the chain proof-of-work or proof-of-stake?

Solana, which is a proof-of-stake network. During Early Access the ownership feature is developed and tested against Solana's devnet test network, where tokens have no value, before it touches the main network.

Does this product have a marketplace? What can I do with the things that I earn (or purchase)?

No. The game has no marketplace and no links to one, and nothing is earned or purchased on a blockchain. Winning matches earns leaderboard standing and statistics only. Star Atlas ships are issued and traded by third parties on their own platforms, entirely outside our game and our control; the game only reads whether you hold one.

Are there in-app purchases within the gameplay? How are payments processed?

There are no in-app purchases. The game is free, nothing is sold through the Epic Games Store, and no payment is processed inside the game. The title screen shows a voluntary donation address for players who want to help with server costs; donations buy nothing, unlock nothing and are not handled by Epic. If we ever offer optional cosmetic extras, they would be sold only on our own website through our own payment processor, with the terms shown up front, and they would never make a ship stronger.

What account do I need?

An Epic Games account. You sign in through Epic and we create your player profile from it. What we store and for how long is in the Privacy Policy at broadsidebattlearena.com/privacy.

Is chat moderated?

Text and voice chat are unmoderated during Early Access. You can mute any player from the lobby or in a match, and you can report a player by email ([email protected]) with the match time and their player name. A persistent block and an in-game report button are planned before Early Access ends.

What are the system requirements?

Windows 10 64-bit (21H2) or Windows 11, 16 GB RAM, a DirectX 12 graphics card with Shader Model 6 (NVIDIA RTX 2060 / AMD RX 5700 or better), 6 GB of storage and a broadband connection. Full table on the store page.