Aloft closes early access with Discovery & Ancestry: open world, Unity 6, and survival that bites

Astrolabe has released Discovery & Ancestry, the last content update of Aloft's early access run. It's live now, and underneath all the new content sits the heaviest change: the game moved from Unity 2021 to Unity 6, the base the studio says it will build performance and visual work on ahead of 1.0.

The world goes back to its sandbox roots. Sectors and set routes are gone: the Table-Map is open now, with fog of war and island silhouettes in the distance. There are sub-biomes of jungle, snow, prairie and dense woods, plus cluster events like tornadoes, fog banks and asteroid fields.

The Wind Spirit is the new companion: paired with the Wind Vane it turns the wind wherever you want, and it takes Arcadium Essence in exchange for Insight. Ancestral Memories open from the Life Tree's orb and hand out permanent upgrades: a second hotbar, a glider compass, a third personal crafting slot.

Survival bites now. Hunger cuts your maximum health, thirst blocks combos and charged attacks, and exhaustion lowers your damage. The glider doesn't open just anywhere either: it needs open space below, a ledge or a cliff. Both can be tuned or switched off in the options menu, and the studio explained the glider change in its devlog.

There's fine print for anyone with a save: characters from 0.3.5 keep working, but older worlds stay playable with no further support or updates, and may not hold enough Arcadium Essence to finish the tech tree. The official advice is to start a fresh world with your existing character.

Aloft is 30% off until September 7, the steepest discount it has had so far. The team says it will stabilize this version before turning its attention to 1.0, which still has no date.