In this episode, hear an AI summary of the latest Star Atlas community event. Full video recordings can be found on the YouTube channel of Star Atlas TV at https://www.youtube.com/@staratlastv.
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Podcast Transcript
The September 2025 Star Atlas Economic Forum focused primarily on a data dump for Holo-Sim and providing answers regarding Zinc airdrop components, though full approval to share all desired Zinc information was not obtained. The forum highlighted various economic activities within the Star Atlas ecosystem, especially with a new update in UE5 allowing players to earn an in-game resource called Ink, which will be airdropped on a schedule yet to be initiated.
Regarding Holo-Sim data, the forum reported strong player engagement. There are 4,175 players on the leaderboard, and approximately 6,000 have interacted with the game, with quest data suggesting up to 10,000 total users. The game boasts roughly 1,400 daily active users (DAU), consistently punching above 1,300 since its inception, with an average of 1,500 DAU, a level not seen consistently since 2023. This surge in Holo-Sim activity might be due to players substituting Starbase involvement with Holo-Sim given economic conditions and a substantial prize pool at the season’s end. To date, 88,318 quests have been completed, with a robust completion rate for the first five quests, indicating strong initial engagement. An impressive 409 battle passes have been purchased, representing a strong conversion rate among the 1,400 DAU, which excites the team about the future monetization and marketing flexibility of the Holo-Sim product line.
The combat statistics were a major focus, revealing 23,120 combat encounters, 25 million damage dealt, and 4,120 fleets destroyed since August 23rd. An interactive map was showcased, illustrating combat hotspots, with a particular new starbase (MRZ27) recording 5,629 encounters and 924 kills, which the team suspects might be players farming XP by flipping starbases. While initial findings showed defenders doing well, attacker win rates have been improving. Analysis of fleet power levels, proxied by HP, showed a density of engagements between bigger fleets, suggesting that larger players aren’t just targeting smaller ones for fun. However, a “power gap” is increasing, indicating a trend where larger fleets are beginning to target smaller operations, advising passive players to be more cautious. Attackers generally have a higher win chance in smaller battles, but in very large engagements (100,000 HP per fight), big ships haven’t had as much success fighting each other or at all. The data also suggested that defending fleets, when significantly outmatched, tend to escape rather than being destroyed. The team plans to release a Holo-Sim dashboard, including the combat map and Inc data, and will continue to refine their definitions of combat engagements.
The Zinc point schedule outlined various actions that yield Zinc XP (ZXP), emphasizing that ZXP points will not necessarily equal Zinc airdrop value, but more ZXP will result in more Zinc. The point values are not final and will be variable throughout the season to ensure a fun and engaging ecosystem. Social activities like Discord giveaways and tweets offer a low potential for ZXP, as do Holo-Sim transactions, which is intentional to prevent farming a free activity. One-time actions like following Star Atlas or Zinc on X and joining Discord have a higher impact. UE5 competition is in the medium potential range due to variability and challenges in preventing exploitation. The highest potential ZXP earnings come from mainnet transactions, marketplace purchases, Atlas locked, and POLIS locker PvP. Mainnet transactions will be filtered based on specific criteria, focusing on burning tokens to ensure a cost and prevent easy exploitation. Marketplace purchases are based on USD spent, potentially including fees. Atlas locked and POLIS locker PvP mechanisms are designed to be difficult to game, rewarding players for the number of days Atlas is locked during the season, and scaling ZXP based on the amount locked. It was clarified that locking Atlas or POLIS now will count from day one of the airdrop season, and long-time locking does not provide an advantage over locking on day one, aiming for a level playing field and to prevent “whales” from completely dominating the airdrop. The use of third-party tools like Sly Assistant does not affect ZXP counting. The team’s overarching strategy is to reward the most engaged players without requiring them to change their behavior, emphasizing participation and fun within the Star Atlas ecosystem.
