Today finally marks the release of the long-awaited Megatech update! There’s a lot of content packed into this one, even beyond all the content pertaining to the new DLC. Speaking of which, that’s a good place to start.
Note: Our Nintendo Switch release for this update will arrive in early 2026. We’ll share an update once we have more to share.
The following is an exhaustive list of the changes and new content being added to the game. Steer clear if you’d prefer to go in blind and discover everything for yourself or use the anchor links to jump ahead to what you want to check out.
Anchor Links:
Megatech DLC – Megatech Free Update – PS5 Port
Megatech DLC
Those who bought the new expansion and completed the pre-requisite missions will be welcomed by a new Mission in their log, where a new virtual assistant by the name of Beepy will walk you through the steps to unlock the exciting new Megastructures technology of Megatech! Give this guide a look to ensure you’ve progressed enough to get started.
- New Mission lines have been added to guide Astroneers through unlocking all of the new Megastructures.
New Megastructures
The following three Megastructures are exclusive to the DLC.
Orbital Platform: Space-based observation and science platform developed by the Vastar Infrastructure Research Institute. A Megastructure that can be launched to orbit a planet of choice, offering a vast ring-shaped build space with special conveniences and the MEGA-Mini Asteroid at its center. You only get one, so choose wisely, it’s not an easy thing to move around. Features:
- Gravity: This remains consistent throughout the top side of the platform, even when you jump onto the Asteroid. Walking off the edge will result in falling into space, but you’ll be safely recovered and placed right back.
- Power & Oxygen: The orbital platform contains its own oxygen supply, so no tethers are needed here. As for power, you’ll need to provide that, but there are convenient cable ports through the whole platform to help distribute power.
- Megaception: With a few limitations, you can build other Megastructures on top of the Orbital Platform, as long as you build it on the ring itself. Just keep in mind that some Megastructures are limited to either just one or one per planet.
- Orbital Relocation: You can spend Astronium as fuel in order to move the Orbital Station into orbit of another planet if you change your mind.
- MEGA-Mini Asteroid: An Asteroid of pure soil that can be infinitely reshaped into one of various shapes: Asteroid in two different variants, Sphere, Donut, Flat Platform, Resin and Compound.
- Upgrade Stages: Upgrading the Orbital Platform to Stage 2 adds a Megastructure Component Printer. Stage 3 unlocks free flight on the Orbital Platform, even in Adventure Mode.
- Megastructure Component Printer: A Stage 2 Orbital Platform will have the ability to print Construction Anchor Landing Pads and its associated Mega Module, the Mega-Terrain Platform.
Orbital Platform Mega-Modules:
- Mega-Terrain Platforms: Can be placed on the edge of the Orbital Platform or another Mega-Terrain Platform to extend the edge with flat platforms made of terrain.
Biodome: A peaceful place to plant and harvest plants. Automate the process and gain planetary buffs. Only one per planet. Features:
- Seed Harvest: Biodome harvests are a bit different compared to what you get out in the wild. Instead of Organic, you can harvest Seeds from most regular plantable plants in the Biodome (excluding hazardous plants, LTE Plants and Fractal Roses). Plants will require more care and attention, but their yields will be greater. Seeds are a resource that plays into one of the Museum’s Donation Station rewards.
- Rare Drops: There’s a small chance for harvested plants in the Biodome to drop extra goodies for you to discover. Only the newly added seeds are capable of this (more info on the new seeds further down in the free content section).
- Upgrade Stages: Upgrading the Biodome to Stage 2 adds the Mega-Grow Lamp, which boosts plant growth rate within the Biodome. Stage 3 adds a Megastructure Component Printer.
- Megastructure Component Printer: A Stage 3 Biodome will have the ability to print its associated Mega Modules, listed below.
Biodome Mega-Modules:
- Auto-Planter: Automatically plants seeds in the Biodome from canisters attached to it.
- Auto-Fertilizer: Automatically applies fertilizer to plants in the Biodome periodically. Fertilized plants retain the “fully grown” state longer. Uses Organic.
- Auto-Harvester: Automatically harvests plants in the Biodome. Prioritizes fully grown plants. Harvested items will fill attached storage canisters if available.
- Biodome Expansion: Expands the biodome with more planting space and an additional Mega Module slot. Up to five of these can be added.
- Resource Pod: Allows the installation of canisters on the Biodome to grant it storage options for automation operations like harvesting and planting.
- Mega Oxygenator: Provides a planet-wide buff that slows down suffocation rate.
Museum: A Megastructure that provides rewards in exchange for donations of resource nuggets, power, bytes, and seeds. The advanced model of the Museum also allows Astroneers to display collections of items in themed groups for rewards. You only get one, so think twice before you place it. Features:
- Donation Stations: Donate spare Research Bytes, Power, Resources, and Seeds that can unlock valuable and unique rewards as you reach their milestones. Holographic displays at the center will grow to display your donations.
- Donation Perks: Reaching the final milestone for each donation station provides helpful perks that boost your Astroneer kit. Each active perk consumes 5 U/s, and the boosts will decrease in effectiveness proportionally if underpowered.
- Research Bytes grant increased Backpack power recharge speed.
- Power grants increased Backpack power capacity.
- Resources grant increased Terrain Tool drill speed.
- Seeds grant increased Backpack oxygen tank capacity.
- Collection Perks: Place your collections into themed Displays in order to unlock unique perks. Only one type of collection can be held on a single themed Display Case Platform with a full collection, otherwise items will be dropped from their Cases. Each active perk consumes 5 U/s, and the boosts they provide will decrease in effectiveness proportionally if underpowered.
- A full collection of LRDs grants increased soil use efficiency.
- A full collection of Composite Resources grants increased effectiveness against hard terrain.
- A full collection of Hazardous and Harvestable Seeds grants increased run speed.
- A full collection of Mutant Plant Seeds grants increased jump height.
- A full collection of Galastropod Shells grants increased rover speed.
- A full collection of Medium Research Items grants increased research speed.
- A full collection of Chess Pieces grants increased print speed.
- Upgrade Stages: Upgrading the Museum to Stage 2 unlocks the ability to display collections of items in themed groups for unique perks.
- Megastructure Component Printer: A Stage 2 Museum will have the ability to print its associated Mega Modules, listed below.
Museum Mega-Modules:
- Display Case Platform: Can be placed on terrain around the Museum and connected back to it with Walkways. Fill with appropriate collection items to gain access to the Display Case’s reward. You’ll be able to toggle Collection Perks on and off for full collections on a Platform by interacting with it.
- Display Cases: Offering a place to display your collection of curios and oddities, you can print a Display Case for small items or a Case for medium items, which can be slotted on to the Display Case Platform.
DLC Rewards
Each Megastructure has its own Mission line with its own rewards:
- Orbital Platform: Launching the Stage 1 Package for this Megastructure will reward you with the “Cosmopolitan” palette, shown above.
- Biodome: Planting and successfully harvesting your first plant on a Stage 2 Biodome will reward you with the “Under the Sun” hat, shown above. Completing the Mission line will also unlock the whimsical Melodic Mushroom, which plays a tone when activated or bumped into it.
- Museum: Completing the final milestone for all four of the Museum’s Donation Stations will reward you with the “Tableau” visor, shown above.
- All Megatech Missions: Completing all Megatech Missions will reward you with the “Haywire” mask, shown above.
Deluxe Edition Cosmetics
Those who purchase the ASTRONEER: Megatech – Deluxe Cosmetic Pack will unlock the following set of cosmetics:
- Jewel Case Palette
- En-Ambered Visor
- Gear Shift Mask (With rotating gears!)
Megatech Free Update
All ASTRONEER players will gain access to the following new content.
- The initial Megatech Missions that walk you through building the Distribution Launch System and subsequent Missions to build the Intermodal Terminal will be available for all players.
New Megastructures
The following two Megastructures are included in the Free Megatech Update.
Intermodal Terminal: An interplanetary transportation facility where cargo from trains can be transferred to automated shuttles, allowing for the automation of moving resources between planets. Only one per planet, including the Orbital Platform. Features:
- Landing Pads: Labeled A, B, and C, each pad has its own control panel, allowing you to set its respective shuttle “Loading Mode”, an “Automation Mode” in case you want to set it to manual, and a “Destination”. A shuttle launching from one pad will land on another under the same letter label.
- Integrated Rail Stations: Each Pad has its own attached rail with automation controls for loading and unloading resources to their respective shuttles. No auto-arms needed; resources will be moved until they fill up their available space.
- Fueling: Each Pad has an integrated Large Fluid & Soil Canister slot for holding Hydrazine to refuel your Shuttle’s Hydrazine Thrusters.
Distribution Launch System (DLS): A Megastructure that enables the construction of other Megastructures via Construction Anchors it can launch to locations near and far. You only get one, so think twice before you place it. Features:
- Construction Anchors: A deployable Megastructure construction kit. These are launched from the DLS to anywhere in the system that you want to build a Megastructure in. Once deployed they unfold into a Mega-Printer Platform.
- Mega-Printer Platform: Platform for the Mega-Printer Drones. Provide canisters of resources on platform slots for Drone Printing to commence on the site marked by the Construction Anchor. They will only initiate once all resources are provided.
- Megastructure Component Printer: The DLS already comes fitted with its own printer in order to be able to print Construction Anchors Landing Pads.
- Construction Anchor Landing Pad: Destination for Construction Anchors. Place at the desired location and activate a button to call a Construction Anchor from the DLS.
Megatech Rewards
Completing the Megatech Missions associated with the DLS and Intermodal Terminal, included in the Free Update, will grant the following rewards.
- *DLS: Completing these Missions will reward you with the “Pardon Our Dust” Hat, shown above.
- Intermodal Terminal: Completing these Missions will reward you with the plans for printing the Mega-Mini Training Shuttle, a personal shuttle that consumes less fuel at the expense of lacking any cargo capacity.
- Mega-Deconstructor: Unlocked after printing the DLS. Destroys Megastructures and Mega-Printer Platforms. WARNING: Resources not refunded.
*Check the Known Issues section for more information.
New Items
The following items have been added to the base game, unlockable in the traditional way through research.
- Tether Dropper: Deploys tethers from storage slots at regular intervals.
- Icon Sign: Small Drillable Item. Choose an icon to display from icon collection in item’s list. It has almost 30 different icons to choose from.
- Large Gas Canister: Holds more than a substantial amount of gas.
- Large Fluid & Soil Canister: Holds more than a substantial amount of fluid or soil.
- Walkways: Creates and extends walkways that transfer power and oxygen. Can tunnel through terrain like rail posts.
- New Decoration Items: A set of 7 new decorative items that can be used to spruce up your base. These include:
- Snow Globe: Small slot Decorative Item. A space souvenir.
- Ship in a Bottle: Small slot Decorative Item. How did they get that in there?
- Model Planet: Small slot Decorative Item. It’s like a planet, but smaller. It can be cycled to change its appearance to that of any of the 7 different planets in the game, excluding Aeoluz.
- Robo Bonsai: Small slot Decorative Item. A soothing simulation of a plant that glows and grows over time.
- Lava Lamp: Small slot Decorative Item. Can change colors and effects for more groovy results. Cycle to change colors to either yellow, green, or magenta.
- Helmet Lava Lamp: Small slot Decorative Item. When arts and crafts time goes too far and spare helmets are lying around. It can be cycled to change colors to either yellow, green, or magenta.
- Simulated Aquarium: Medium slot Decorative Item. Now with Robo Fish! No water required.
New Features & Changes
The following changes and additions have been added to the base game.
- New Plantable Plants: A set of 7 new plants you can grow and harvest have been added to the game. These are best suited to the Biodome but can also be planted normally. The new plants include: Nubcap (Glacio), Arctichoke (Glacio), Bubbulb (Desolo), Dewtrunk (Atrox), Conepod (Calidor), Hornstalk (Vesania), and Finwheel (Sylva).
- Encumbrance walk speed has increased. This means you’ll generally walk a bit faster while carrying a large object.
- EXO Chips and Seeds have been added to the list of resources that can be contained in Resource Canisters.
- Train stations can now be set to pull items off of trains based on size tier.
UI Changes
The UI for the game’s Main Menu has undergone some small changes.
- The Main Menu UI has had the Quit button moved to a separate panel on the right of the screen. This right-side panel has two new tabs for showing the News Widget and another for listing Players in Session.
PS5 Port Now Available
It’s been a long time coming, but the official PS5 Port of ASTRONEER is finally here. This version includes the following features:
- Added support for 4K resolution and HDR displays.
- Added higher framerate support with 60 FPS.
- Added Advanced Haptics along with Lightbar and Audio interactions for controllers.
Upgrading from PS4 to PS5
If you already own the PS4 version, then you can upgrade to the PS5 version for *free! This upgrade won’t happen automatically; it’s an option you can opt into by following the steps on this guide. After upgrading to the PS5 version you’ll be able to import your PS4 save files by selecting the option “Import PS4™ Console Save”, listed under the Saved Games menu.
*The only exception is for players in Japan, due to local regulations.
Engine Upgrade
The game has undergone an engine upgrade. This is a necessary part of maintaining parity across multiple platforms.
Known Issues
The following issues have been identified and will be targeted for fixes in upcoming patches.
Orbital Platform:
- Rail Posts and Walkways are unable to connect as intended on the Orbital Platform’s ring. They work as intended on the MEGA-Mini Asteroid and the Mega-Terrain Platforms.
- Some items that fall off the edge of the Orbital Platform and get teleported back on can sometimes stay afloat and hidden.
- If a large number of items are teleported back on to the Orbital Platform they can get stuck inside each other.
- If a player saves their game while in flight on a Stage 3 Orbital Platform, they will not be able to fly upon reloading that save file, causing the player to fall from where they last saved. This can be reset by entering and exiting a vehicle or by player death.
Museum:
- Neither of the Seed collections are currently registering correctly when placed in the Museum’s Display Cases, making their collection perks unavailable.
Creative Mode:
- The DLS Construction Anchor is currently not available in the Creative Mode catalogue.
- The Melodic Mushroom can be found in the Creative Mode catalogue, regardless of owning the Megatech DLC. This is meant to be a Megatech DLC reward and will be amended in an upcoming update.
Rewards:
- The “Pardon Our Dust” Hat rewarded for completing the DLS missions is unavailable at launch. It will be enabled in an upcoming patch and retroactively be awarded to anyone who completed its associated missions.
Miscellaneous:
- The Icon Sign isn’t listed in the Small Printer recipes after unlocking it.
- Most Megastructures and their components are unintendedly destructible via Dynamite. This is capable of causing permanent damage to the Orbital Platform or soft locking you out of rebuilding the DLS.
Emerging Issues
Update: We’re updating the Patch Notes with these two emerging issues we’ve identified since launch. We are prioritizing these issues.
- Players are reporting a crash when attempting to play on Multiplayer. In particular, this seems to trigger when players are close to each other and bring out their Terrain Tool.
- Players are reporting Walkways not having any collision detection, making them unable to walk on them.
- Some players on Xbox are finding the game appear partially greyed out. Toggling off HDR should help resolve this issue.
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