Bethesda announces "countless improvements" to Starfield and a new story expansion

The long-teased Starfield overhaul and its next expansion have been officially announced, bringing actual space travel, the return of Earth forces, and so much more.

After a long break, Bethesda is finally back with more Starfield information, and it's a big announcement. Today, the sci-fi RPG was confirmed to receive a brand-new expansion, as well as a massive free gameplay overhaul with "countless improvements" that will land in less than a month.

The story expansion is dubbed Terran Armada, and as the name suggests, it involves old Earth. There is a new companion included as well, who is a reprogrammed Terran robot named Delta. He is described as "not evil" but also "definitely not good."

"A new threat has entered the Settled Systems," says Bethesda, describing the new storyline. "Believing themselves to be the “true” children of Earth, the Terran Armada is made up of members of the United Colonies and Freestar Collective who vanished during the Colony War. The Terrans are an advanced military force, largely comprised of robotic soldiers."

Also included in the expansion are Terran-flavored ship parts, military gear, a mini-bot crew member, pre-built outposts, and various skirmishes with the Armada in outer space that give big rewards.

Moving onto the massive Free Lanes update, this is where Bethesda is revamping the whole experience.

Cruise mode is coming to all players, which will let explorers travel between planets freely using their own ship's engines without fast traveling. During the longer travel time, players can go about their ship, speak with the crew, craft items, decorate the ship, or do any activity until the autopilot slows the ship down at its destination.

"There are also tons of new space POIs to discover as you travel in Cruise Mode," adds the studio. "You’ll see them dynamically pop up and you can change your destination on the fly to automatically head to one of these POIs, or you can just keep on moving toward your original destination."

Players will be able to jump into New Game+ with their gear going forward too, all thanks to using the new Quantum Entanglement Device they can construct. Starborn abilities have also been changed to allow upgrading without New Game+.

Space encounters have been upgraded too, with brand-new variants and increased frequency being confirmed. Also here are a weapon re-roll system for their legendary effects, two new quality tiers above Advanced, shared containers in Outposts to send resources between them, a database system to track outposts better, alien outpost pets, and much more:

• Anchorpoint Station: Anchorpoint is a new starstation with vendors and quests.
• New Ship Modules: New ship modules have been added to upgrade different ship specs and even add some unique new abilities to your ship, like a new stealth module that cloaks your ship while boosting. These modules will drop in ship combat as schematics and can be installed at any ship services technician.
• Upgrade Module Slot: You’ll notice as you’re customizing your gear that there’s a new Upgrade Module slot. This slot lets you upgrade a specific stat like range, rate of fire, etc. on your gear.
• Colony War Action Heroes: There are 27 Colony War Action Hero collectibles for you to track down. Each one gives a stat buff (with different buffs for opened and unopened versions) and will look great decorating your outpost in the new outpost display cases.
• Many more planetary POIs: You’ll notice an increased variety in the types of planetary POIs as you explore.
• New Elite Crew: Fan-favorite NPC Muria Siarkiewicz can now be added as an Elite Crewmember. Find her at her normal spot near Galbank in New Atlantis.
• New side quests: There’s a number of people on Anchorpoint that could use your help. Talk to everyone.
• New land vehicle: Bounce your way across the surface in style with the new Moon Jumper land vehicle. With its impressive boost capabilities, the Moon Jumper is built for verticality, allowing you to reach high up places much easier while in a vehicle.
• Asteroid base home: For those with a lot of credits to burn, you can now purchase a very ritzy asteroid base to call home. Explore Anchorpoint to learn how to purchase it.
• New enemy modifiers: Add some extra challenge to combat with new enemy modifiers like Tank (3x more health), Tricky (chance to avoid damage), Martyr (dying puts nearby allies into a rage), and more. These modifiers can be tuned in the Gameplay Options menu. All new modifiers will be identified with new icons near enemy health bars and full descriptions can be found in scanner mode.
• New weapon skins: New Constellation and Neon skins for select weapons
• Photomode poses with the REV-8
• New camera features: A toggle to always play a landing camera has been added to Accessibility settings. Additionally, a more distant ship POV level has also been added to camera options.

Check out the video below for a deep dive of the new Free Lanes update and the Terran Armada expansion featuring Lead Creative Producer Tim Lamb, Art Director Istvan Pely, and Design Director Emil Pagliarulo.

The Starfield Terran Armada story expansion and the Free Lanes update are releasing on April 7. On the same day, Starfield will also be released on PlayStation 5, continuing the Xbox porting initative over to the rival platform.

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Posted Wednesday 18 March 2026 at 6:40 am AEST (my time).

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