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Page 57 (Backgrounds) Change the last line of the Disciple background to “You gain the Holy Talisman skill feat without meeting the feat's prerequisites.”
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Page 67 (Envoy): Add the following line to the trait definition sidebar entry for Directive: “This action has the auditory or visual trait depending on how you inspire your allies.”
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Page 76 (Mystic): Change the text of Transfer Vitality to be “You can transfer one or more of Hit Points from your vitality network into yourself or a bonded creature you can see within 60 feet.”
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Page 82 (Mystic): Add the Transfer trait to Spot Healing.
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Page 89 (Operative): Change the first line of the striker’s exploit to read: “You have expert proficiency with unarmed and one-handed melee weapons with the agile trait instead of with martial guns."
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Page 114 (Soldier): Update the text for the Pin Down feat to be: “You can suppress creatures in your blast zone by pinpointing a shot to impact near them. Select one creature that was in the area of effect of your prior attack. That creature must attempt a save against your attack again, as though it were in the area of effect from the prior attack. This effect suppresses the target, but doesn’t deal damage or create any of your attack’s normal effects.”
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Page 117 (Soldier): Add the following line to Intimidating Taunt: “This action has the auditory trait or visual trait, depending on how you taunt your enemy.”
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Page 119 (Soldier): Remove the last line of the Bullet Hell feat as it is extraneous.
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Page 148/152 (Feats): Change the Hologram Skeptic feat to be Feat 1.
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Page 169 (Shields): Remove the “Upgrades” header and associated text. This was from a prior build and the content was not added to the playtest.
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Page 169 (Shields): Remove the “Upgrades” columns from shields and shield improvements. This was from a prior build and the content was not added to the playtest.
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Page 172 (Weapons): Change the third line in Magazine to: “Weapons listed with charges represent battery-powered weapons and can use batteries up to the same grade as the weapon (so a tactical weapon can use a commercial or tactical battery).”
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Page 173 (Weapons): Change the boost trait to read: “You can charge up a weapon with this special property with an Interact action by spending 1 expend of the weapon’s magazine. If the boost trait lists one or more traits, apply the traits listed to the next attack you make with this weapon. If the boost trait lists a value, increase the weapon’s damage by the listed amount for each weapon die on the next attack you make with the weapon. This increases the weapon’s damage and is multiplied on a critical hit. Boosting this weapon more than once before firing it doesn’t have any extra effect, and the extra charge dissipates if the weapon is not fired by the end of your next turn.
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Page 180 (Weapons): Move the painglaive to be a martial weapon.
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Page 181 (Weapons): The Zero Pistol was given the later stats of the Machine Gun. It is supposed to have 30 ft. range, 1 reload, 1 bulk, 1 hand, 10 charges magazine, 2 expend, Cryo group, and the tech trait.
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Page 181 (Weapons): Change damage type on the Sonic Rifle and Boom Pistol from S to So.
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Page 181 (Weapons): Add “30 ft.” to the end of the Assassin Rifle’s volley trait.
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Page 181 (Weapons): Add the tech trait to the Aeon Rifle, Card Slinger, Singing Coil, and Starfall Pistol weapons.
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Page 182 (Weapons): Add “30 ft.” to the end of the Injection Rifle and Shirren-Eye Rifle’s volley trait.
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Page 182 (Weapons): Change damage type on the Screamer and Streetsweeper from S to So.
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Page 234 (Spells): Change “quantum aura” reference in Subjective Reality to “quantum field”.
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When we released Starfinder back in 2017, we built it upon the framework of Pathfinder’s first edition with mechanical innovations and new systems for people to explore. Today, Pathfinder is well into its Second Edition, with the core remaster series of books now released. This has put us in the strange position of fighting our own success, as players across the world enjoy the new mechanics in the latest iterations of Pathfinder, such as the beloved three-action economy. We want to take a moment to take all the things we’ve learned since Starfinder began, as well as lessons from the success of Pathfinder’s latest edition, and synthesize those together into a new and better version of Starfinder.
As the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook is released, the Starfinder brand celebrates its seventh anniversary. It’s going to take another full year for us to release the final rules, bringing us up to an eight-year edition cycle for a game that was heavily based on rules from an edition of Pathfinder that had lasted well over 10 years. We’ve learned a lot since we released our original books, and we want to take that knowledge and put it into play by providing better products with what we know will be a better version of the game.
You don’t have to! We’ve made the deliberate decision not to release the dreaded nanite swarms that enter your home and consume your First Edition books. At least, for now…
In all seriousness, we want First Edition games to continue! Everyone here at Paizo has touched Starfinder in some way, and we’re all incredibly proud of the game and our work on it. Just because we’re updating the edition doesn’t mean that we’re invalidating your home games or preventing you from continuing that Adventure Path you’ve been playing for the past three years. Like we did with Pathfinder’s First Edition, we’ll continue printing Starfinder books if the demand is there.
Yes, Starfinder’s Second Edition is going to be entirely compatible with the ORC license.
The Starfinder Second Edition Playtest is going to be Paizo’s most open playtest process to date. It’s our plan to release regular updates on the process, including a look into our internal design and writing processes, as well as extra content in the form of blogs, videos and content drops.
The Starfinder Team really wants to make this playtest process as open as we can, so announcing it early was essential. We also want people to know what the future of Starfinder holds, since it takes time to create a new edition.
The key to the playtest is the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook, which can be downloaded for free or purchased as a softcover book. We’re releasing four playtest scenarios that each take roughly 2 hours to complete: Starfinder Playtest Scenario #1: Shards of the Glass Planet by Mike Kimmel, Starfinder Playtest Scenario #2: It Came from the Vast! by Jessica Catalan, Starfinder Playtest Scenario #3: Wheel of Monsters by Dustin Knight, and Starfinder Playtest Scenario #4: Rescue at Shimmerstone Mine by Jenny Jarzabski. We also have two longer playtest adventures: Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: A Cosmic Birthday by Jenny Jarzabski, and Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: Empires Devoured by Thurston Hillman, which will likely take several 2-4 hour gaming sessions to complete. You can also use Pathfinder Second Edition adventures and monsters to create your own home game and test Starfinder’s compatibility!
Charging for these adventures gave us the resources to produce a premium product that can be enjoyed for years to come. These are full and canon adventures that will not require significant changes after the playtest process. You can play our scenarios at local or online Organized Play lodges and conventions around the world, and use existing Pathfinder Second Edition resources to run your own adventures!
The Field Tests were PDFs that contained snippets of the work the Starfinder team was doing at Paizo to create the new edition. Unlike our other playtest documents, these were not intended to be fully working playtests, but instead are small segments of the game at different stages of development to show what we were working on. Much of the content in these files have been changed as we developed the game, and characters or adventures built using the Field Tests should be updated to include any and all changes made to that content in the later released playtest documents.
The playtest focuses on what we see as key components to Starfinder. Since the game will be fully compatible with Pathfinder Second Edition, we know the game engine is tried and tested. This leaves us free to focus on a few critical elements: classes, an item level-based equipment system, new core skills, updated relevant rules across the game, and a general testing of the gameplay experience. All of this, along with the usual stable of new ancestries, feats, spells, and more! You can read an overview of the playtesting process here.
Your best bet is to pick up a copy of Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core, which provide all the core Remaster rules that we’ll be using in Starfinder’s new edition. This includes the popular three-action economy system that streamlines combat. Other changes include 10 ranks of spellcasting for all spellcasting classes (Starfinder will no longer limit players to 6 ranks), inclusion of versatile heritages so you can now play mixed ancestry characters (like an angelkin vesk or a semi-undeadt borai pahtra), and the three modes of play that allow the game to be split into encounter/exploration/downtime.
Our focus right now is on the core gameplay experience: player characters exploring alien worlds and overcoming science-fantasy threats. We know that starship combat (as well as mechs and vehicles) are integral to the Starfinder experience, and we want to make sure we get these rules right. We’ll announce more about our plans for these rules in future updates.
Absolutely. Starfinder Second Edition is going to use the same rules engine as Pathfinder, but that doesn’t mean that the games will have the same assumed baseline or feel the same in play. Technology is prevalent in Starfinder, and we’ll be including all manner of bespoke tech gear, personal augmentations (like cybernetics or biotech), as well as tech upgrades for armor and weapons. Ranged weapons are far more plentiful, and many of them have the capacity to fire multiple times in a row without reloading or can unleash area attacks. We’ll also be looking to open ancestries in ways that don’t fit as well into Pathfinder’s assumptions: like access to innate flight for species who naturally fly, and more.
Classes in Starfinder are their own bespoke classes that operate alongside the existing set of Pathfinder classes. The soldier is different from a fighter or champion, as it usesConstitution as a primary attribute and focuses on wielding large area-of-effect weapons and wearing bulky armor. Similarly, the mystic creates a bond between them and their closest allies, operating differently than classes like cleric or oracle. Check out the playtest rules for more information!
100% yes.
Yes. Starfinder Second Edition is intentionally designed using the Player Core and GM Core books as a baseline rules system. This means the games will work together, so you can easily sprinkle some fantasy or science-fantasy elements into either game as you desire.
Again, yes! One of the exciting elements of this compatibility change is that it allows us to do some fun things like include Starfinder creatures in Pathfinder products (and vice-versa), or even sprinkle in some fun equipment between the game systems as unique and interesting rewards. For example, most of our skill feats and spells function just fine in a Pathfinder game—but make sure they don’t require holding a comm unit!
The mechanics in first edition products are not compatible with this new edition. However, while the core rules and mechanics have changed, Starfinder’s setting and story go on mostly unchanged.
The Starfinder setting is moving forward alongside its mechanics. For the most part, this evolution includes moving forward with storylines that fans have been invested in for years. This is also an opportunity for us to change elements of the setting that we want to bring into the spotlight. One example of this is adding several new deities to the game’s core pantheon. This doesn’t mean the old deities are gone, but instead, we’re spotlighting other deities as part of the new edition. We’ve already mentioned Zon-Shelyn (god of transmuting pain into art, reunion, and creative expression)is a deity worshiped by Chk Chk, our iconic mystic, but stay tuned for more!
As always, future books will be inline with the current year at the time of their release, with the intent of keeping future releases moving the setting timeline forward. One change here is that we’ll be introducing some canonical changes to the setting based on the result of the various Starfinder Adventure Paths and Starfinder Society scenario results, as well as some other updates based on storylines we’ve had brewing since Starfinder’s inception.
Yes. Quite literally in fact. You can play through an adventure featuring the explosion of planet Aucturn in our Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: A Cosmic Birthday!
No, but maybe we’ll see what's happening with Golarion’s moon.
We’re introducing two new iconics, Dae and Chk Chk, as part of the edition change. You can read about our new iconic mystic in Meet the Iconics: Chk Chk and solarian in Meet the Iconics: Dae. Some classic iconic characters are retiring,, while others are getting a “glow up.”. Obozaya is feeling the sting of age and has decided to shift her focus to heavy weapons and protective armor instead of solving all her problems with her axe-like doshko—don’t worry, she keeps the doshko as a backup!
When the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest launches, visit starfinderplaytest.com and download the Starfinder Playtest Tracking Sheet. Each time you play one of the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventures or Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Scenarios listed on this sheet, check off the associated box. By checking off these boxes, you’ll unlock rewards in our Organized Play campaigns! Earn Achievement Points in Starfinder Society (first edition), gain access to exciting alien ancestries from the wider galaxy in Starfinder Society (first edition) and Pathfinder Society (second edition), and gain access to campaign-exclusive backgrounds themed to the events of these adventures in Starfinder Society (second edition). No need to select which rewards you want most—you get them all!
For the purpose of Starfinder Society (first edition), these adventures are considered repeatable, meaning players and GMs will earn Achievement Points every time they play or run them. Characters do not earn in-game rewards such as credits or XP for these adventures.
The current season of the Starfinder Society (the Year of Era’s End) concludes in May 2025. A short break follows, and the new edition of the Starfinder Society Organized Play program will begin in August 2025 at Gen Con.
Newly elected First Seeker Sarmak’s presence will shape the Year of Era’s End storyline, as well as future Starfinder stories. Many of these scenarios establish setting changes for the new edition, including some major events which will happen on-screen. Additionally, we’re wrapping up several ongoing storylines that fans have enjoyed since that start of the Starfinder Society.
There will be a new program for the new edition. The exact changes for this program are still being worked on, and we’ll post more information closer to the release.