Today, Cloud Imperium Games released a new patch for its growing space simulator, Star Citizen.
The patch, numbered Alpha 4.8.1, focuses entirely on a new mission type, Defend Location.
The premise is simple, with enemy bombers making attack runs on critical infrastructure at the target location. Players have to stop them by any means possible.
There is also a combined mission that adds an escort element, with a friendly ship landing or launching at the target location, and enemy fighters trying to shoot it down. Players have to both defend the location and protect the friendly ship at the same time.
Existing escort missions have also been spiced up with the spawn of enemy ace pilots and more varied escort ship flight paths, making them potentially more challenging and unpredictable.
Here’s a summary of what you can expect from the new missions.
Mission Details
- Available at asteroid mining bases across Stanton and Pyro via Contract Manager
- 385 total mission locations across both systems, spanning 149 individual bases
- Difficulty ranges from Very Easy through to Super tier (6 difficulty levels)
- Missions will have reputation gates; Foxwell contracts additionally require completion of the Foxwell intro mission before becoming available
- Abandoned and personal cooldown time of 15 minutes per mission
Rewards
- Completing Defend Location contracts earns aUEC, Faction Reputation, and Scrip with the issuing organisation
- Foxwell contracts pay Mercenary Scrip; Head Hunters contracts pay Council Scrip
- Blueprint rewards are available at higher-tier completions
- No cost to accept any Defend Location contract
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Citizen, it’s a PC exclusive, crowdfunded project directed by Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame. It’s a multiplayer sandbox space simulator that has been in development for over a decade and in alpha for several years.
The crowdfunding total for the game just passed one billion dollars, and it’s currently sitting at $1,013,618,750. The game currently has 6,568,087 registered accounts, but we know that not all are paying customers.
Some are alt accounts, while others are simply created to enjoy the “Free Fly” periods that fairly often let non-backers enjoy the game at no cost.
It’s notable that Star Citizen’s funding tally for 2025 has beaten all records from previous years by a large margin.
A single-player campaign titled Squadron 42 is also in active development with a recently confirmed 2026 release window, starring an exceptional cast of famous actors, including Mark Hamill, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, Liam Cunningham, Gillian Anderson, and more.
Since the project has been in development for over a decade, you can see how Squadron 42 has evolved since its first reveal.
Full disclosure: the author of this article has backed Star Citizen’s crowdfunding campaign.
