Patch 0.40.17: The Apex Opens
Published on HivePostify by @stellarch · Wed Sep 02 2026
Back the Charter reaches its summit with a new $2,500 Apex tier, while brawls open up and Shapeshift finally lands its morph.
Back the Charter just grew a summit. The new $2,500 Apex tier lets our biggest backers claim an Apex reward of their own, on top of everything the lower tiers already give. Alongside it, any guild member can now jump into a brawl fray without waiting on an officer, and Shapeshift stops sitting out the morphs it should be making.
🆕 New
Back the Charter: the $2,500 Apex tier is open
Back the Charter now reaches its summit. The new Demiurge tier, at $2,500, sits above Starforger as the top way to back Stellarch. It carries an Apex reward on top of everything below it: your pick of an Apex custom Fighter or an Apex Alchemy Stone, plus 250 Gladiator packs and a large locked STEL grant. Apex reward slots are limited, so the earliest Demiurge backers lock them in first.
🔧 Improved
Jump into a brawl fray yourself
You no longer have to wait for an officer to slot you into a guild brawl. Members and senior ranks can now join an open fray themselves, right from the fray's join control. Officers can still assign people the way they always could, and a guild that deliberately locked a rank out of brawls keeps that choice.
🐛 Fixed
Shapeshift morphs when it should
Shapeshift could wrongly sit out a morph in certain board states, so a charge team built around a mid-fight transformation would just not transform. Now a morph only holds back in a true total stall, when neither side has a Fighter left able to attack. In every other case the morph goes through, even one that disarms, so your plan plays out the way you set it up.
More of the Charter unlocks as we climb toward the goal. Thanks for backing the alpha and sending us the replays that surface these edge cases.
Read the full illustrated patch notes -> https://stellarch.io/en/changelog/v0.40.17
Enlist & stay in the loop
- Sign up and play now -> https://stellarch.io/en - Follow @stellarch on Hive -> https://peakd.com/@stellarch - Join the Discord -> https://discord.gg/K3geA9hD28 - Follow @stellarchtcg on X -> https://x.com/stellarchtcg
Latest dispatches from Stellarch
- [The Ladder Crowns Its First Champion](https://peakd.com/@stellarch/the-ladder-crowns-its-first-champion-mssvba2y) - [Tutorial Live: Help Us Break It](https://peakd.com/@stellarch/tutorial-live-help-us-break-it-msrck8ia) - [Recruit a Pilot, Earn 5% of Their Store Spend Forever](https://peakd.com/@stellarch/recruit-a-pilot-earn-5-percent-forever)
Latest updates from Stellarch
- [Patch 0.40.16: Clean Hits](https://peakd.com/@stellarch/patch-0-40-16-clean-hits-20260902-774271) - [Patch 0.40.15: The Picker Tidies Itself](https://peakd.com/@stellarch/patch-0-40-15-the-picker-tidies-itself-20260831-cd0154) - [Patch 0.40.14: Only What You Can Field](https://peakd.com/@stellarch/patch-0-40-14-only-what-you-can-field-20260831-77d51c)
Stellarch is a deterministic trading-card game on Hive, draft a 7-card team, outplay your opponent, climb the ranked ladder. [Browse the cards](https://stellarch.io/en/cards) · [Read the docs](https://stellarch.io/en/docs) · [See the leaderboard](https://stellarch.io/en/leaderboard)
Tags: #hive-gaming#oneup#gaming#play2earn#hive#oc#web3#stellarch