Space Turtles Roleplay

Patch Notes

4.25.0 August 29, 2026

🕵️ Syndicate Ops kobos://syndicate

A new tier of HackNet built for exactly four people. One person alone cannot finish an op, and that is the point.

Gauntlet I Clearance Required
Every operator in the cell must have cleared Gauntlet I before taking a seat. The lobby shows who still owes it.

The Cell

Group up with three others and open the Syndicate board on any KOBOS terminal. Every op needs all four seats filled, each with its own job. No seat is optional, and no seat carries the run alone.

SEAT 01 // BREACH
Intruder
Works the breach itself. Security layers land on the desk with no instructions, and someone else holds the answers.
SEAT 02 // OVERWATCH
Analyst
Holds the codex that decodes those layers, plus a live overwatch map of the whole op. If nobody talks, everybody burns.
SEAT 03 // CLOCK
Stabiliser
Keeps the op clock alive by banking time back, kills countermeasure surges, and holds one emergency 20-second freeze.
SEAT 04 // STREET
Field Operative
Outside in the world with a field kit, authenticating relays and hunting down the dead-drop where the payout lands.

On the Op

  • The Intruder faces eight different layer types at launch, shown with no instructions. The Analyst's codex is the only way to read them
  • Mid-op the desk locks until the Field Operative authenticates a relay out in the world, and the payout itself lands at a dead-drop only they can collect
  • The Field Operative starts with a wide search circle on their map and tightens it themselves by running triangulation sweeps from inside it, but the exact spot only ever shows on the Analyst's map. Someone still has to talk them in
  • Once the breach is done, the Intruder can jump on a second desk and help hold the clock
  • The Field Operative can ready up for the next run straight from a Mk II or better field kit

The Lead Market

  • Ops are not free to start. The cell leader buys a lead off the board with hacknet data earned from solo play
  • Softer leads are cheap with modest pay and a tight clock. Harder leads cost real stock, demand better routers from every desk seat, and pay a premium
  • The board always stocks one lead of every difficulty, so the cell picks how hard it wants to run instead of waiting on the right offer
  • Once a lead is held, the router picker only offers rigs that can actually clear it

Also in the Box

  • A built-in Playbook explaining the whole thing before you commit
  • Sound cues for the big moments: layers clearing, surges, the street going live
  • Payouts split evenly, with bonus XP for clean teamwork nobody earns alone
  • Your operator handle fronts the whole op instead of your character name
  • Every op lands in your journal with your role, who ran it with you, and how it went
  • Disconnect protection: the clock holds while the rest of the cell keeps the session warm

👥 Groups on KOBOS kobos://groups

The group system is now built into KOBOS, so a hacking cell can be put together without ever leaving the computer. It is the same groups you know from the phone and F3, just a second way in: anything you do in one place shows up in the other instantly.

From the Desk

  • Start a group with a name, an optional password, a friends-only lock, and a size of your choosing
  • Browse every group currently looking for members, with friends' groups floated to the top, and join straight from the list. Passworded groups ask before you enter
  • Search a player by name and invite them directly, which also starts a group around you
  • See and answer your incoming invites, watch pending outgoing ones, and kick or leave with proper confirmations
  • Password fields are hidden while you type, for anyone playing on stream

Built for the Syndicate

  • When the group hits four members, the app points you straight at the Syndicate board, and the Syndicate app points back here when you show up alone
  • Like the rest of the underground desk apps, both expect a live tunnel connection

📱 Phone Link kobos://phone-link

Pair the phone in your pocket to a KOBOS session over short-range and text without ever pulling it out.

Texting From the Desk

  • Read and answer your texts from a desktop app. Conversations sync both ways, so a reply sent from the desk lands on the other person's phone like any other text, and their answers appear on your screen as they arrive
  • Your full contact list is there too, with search and favourites. Pick a contact to jump into a conversation or start a fresh one, and save new contacts from the desk
  • One-on-one texting only. Group chats and everything else stay on the handset, and money can't move through it

Staying Linked

  • The header tracks the handset itself: its name, battery charge and service signal, live. One click on the bluetooth indicator drops the link
  • A chip in the desktop tray shows the link at a glance and counts unread texts while you work in other apps. Click it to jump in
  • Don't want it? Every tray chip now has its own switch in Settings
  • Auto-connect on login, for people who always want it paired

🎨 KOBOS Personalization kobos://settings

A batch of ways to make your KOBOS setup feel like yours, with a couple of them earned rather than given.

Looks

  • The accent palette doubled from 6 colours to 12
  • A free-pick colour slider for any accent hue you want, unlocked by clearing the Tier 1 gauntlet
  • Two new wallpapers, Horizon and Orbit, and most of the collection now follows your accent colour
  • A new animated digital rain wallpaper that falls in your accent colour, unlocked by clearing the Tier 2 gauntlet
  • Desktop icon size setting: small, normal, or large

Yours

  • Name your machine. Works from Settings or, for the terminal crowd, with the proper command in the shell. The name shows on your login screen, prompt, and system info
  • Your operator handle (leaderboards and Syndicate) now lives in Settings with full controls: set it, change it, or go anonymous

Sound

  • The sound setting now covers all of KOBOS, including the new Syndicate cues, with off, low, medium and high volume steps

🖥️ KOBOS Desktop Quality of Life kobos://desktop

A pass over the KOBOS desktop itself, aimed at the friction people hit every session.

Fits Your Screen

  • KOBOS now scales itself to your resolution automatically. 1440p, 4K and ultrawide screens get a properly sized desktop instead of a tiny one
  • An interface scale setting on top of that (80% to 125%) for personal taste, without changing the monitor's footprint on your screen

Window Management

  • Apps reopen at the size and position you left them, and it can be turned off
  • Pick apps that open automatically on login instead of the default
  • Keyboard controls throughout: Ctrl+arrows tile, maximise and minimise the focused window, Ctrl+Tab cycles windows, Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 jump to a taskbar slot, and Settings has a card listing every shortcut

Smoother Hack Sessions

  • Contracts, gauntlets and mobile hacks now play out as one continuous session: no more window closing and reopening between each hack. The console holds the line with status chatter and proper transitions between phases
  • Contracts got real endings too: a typed sign-off when you walk away clean, a trace-lock cutoff when you burn
  • The hacker console grew some personality: ASCII art stamps, animated progress spinners, and enough line variety that back-to-back runs never read the same. The ASCII art was a player suggestion, so keep them coming

Small but Felt

  • The radio works while you are on the computer (default talk key)
  • The Log app got a full redesign: totals up top, entries grouped by day, and co-op ops list your role, your crew, and the take
  • The tunnel widget shows a proper connecting animation instead of sitting still until it is done
  • 12 or 24-hour clock choice
  • The home computer now tells you when you are missing the talent to use it, instead of silently doing nothing
  • Resetting your desktop icons asks for confirmation first
  • The overwatch and grid maps keep your zoom level instead of resetting, and render sharper at high resolutions

🧸 Shoulder Cosmetics: Fit Adjustment

Shoulder cosmetics like plushies and pets now sit properly on your character, and you can fine-tune the position yourself.

Repositioned Across Every Item

  • Every shoulder cosmetic has been repositioned by hand, and each one now carries a separate placement for male and female characters instead of sharing one
  • Items that sat too far out, floated off the shoulder or clipped into the neck should look right without any input from you

Adjust the Fit Yourself

Bulky jackets, coats and armour push a shoulder item out of place, so you can nudge it to suit what you are wearing:

  • Open your inventory and go to the equipment page
  • Any shoulder slot with something equipped has a small round button in its top corner with four arrows. Click it, and the camera moves in on that shoulder so you can see what you are doing
  • Sliders cover height, how far out it sits, depth, tilt, lean and turn
  • Save to keep it, or Reset then Save to return to the default
  • The range is deliberately small, enough to clear a chunky coat rather than move an item somewhere it does not belong
  • Adjustments save per character and apply to every copy of that item you own, so you set it once. Other players see your adjustment as well
Show the Fit Editor
The Adjust Fit panel open next to a character with a bat plushie on their left shoulder
The fit editor zoomed in on a left-shoulder bat plushie, with sliders for height, sideways, depth, tilt, lean and turn.