This is a beta release of v8. It does not contain any new Neoplasm faction content - that will be included in a future beta release.

With over a year since last release, this version has a massive amount of changes. Here are the highlights.

Campaign

• Overhaul of Serpulo campaign, with many new user-submitted maps and reworks of existing ones
  
• Difficulty modifiers for the campaign
  
• New launch pad mechanics - a landing pad is now required to receive resources
  
• New functionality for the Interplanetary Accelerator (still a work in progress)
  
• The tech tree can now be viewed in multiplayer for other players
  
• Core database tabs for different planets (or mods, should they choose to support it)
  
• Unique icons for sectors in the tech tree
  

Units

• New unit stances for patrolling, holding fire, queuing commands, and more
  
• New unit commands for looping payload unit transfer, moving into payload blocks, and more
  
• A new pathfinding implementation for units with enhanced performance and reduced unit jams
  
• Command group hotkeys for units
  
• New visuals for unit command selection
  

...and more

• New functionality that enables repairing derelict blocks
  
• Several new utility & production blocks for Erekir
  
• A new UI for editing terrain in-game
  
• New ammo types for Erekir turrets
  
• Balancing & visual improvements for Serpulo turret ammo
  
• Instructions for displaying text and applying drawing transformations for logic processors
  
• A new system for displaying arbitrary in-game textures or shapes in maps with world processors
  
• New UI for easily managing world processor scripting in maps
  
• Many various new features for logic blocks, especially world processors
  
• Significant rendering performance optimizations
  

Using the Beta

To opt-in to the beta, right-click Mindustry in your games list, select Properties -> Betas, and select v8-beta in the drop-down menu. Keep in mind that this is a beta, and as such, game-breaking bugs may commonly occur.

As an added note: If you would like to use the very latest Mindustry version available, select the bleeding-edge branch instead. This branch can be extremely unstable, and may update many times a day. Save corruptions, startup crashes and many other serious bugs may occur. Most users should use the v8-beta branch instead.