Unofficial Roadmap Tracker

[thegreybetween]

Greetings,

DW2 has come a long way since launch, and it is a real pleasure to explore the ever-improving, developing, and expanding universe of possibilities. But we still have a long way to go before the content pipeline catches up with DWU. I thought it might be handy to have a thread that consolidated the various announcements, teasers, and such across the various roadmap and livestream commentary to get a better feel for the big-picture arc. Please feel free to add to this if I have overlooked anything.
NOTE: None of this is official. While I strive to capture info that was stated from an official source, all of this is very much subject to change. Nevertheless, it is the best info we have currently.

BASE GAME IMPROVEMENTS Through "Command Update" coming July 22, 2026
New Features: Empire Contracts - Factions within your empire (and independent colonies) will request things (specific techs, bases, etc) that, if fulfilled by a deadline, grant your empire bonuses. New Hive ships and related, linked in part with Shadows Rising DLC. Policy setting for default independent colony response (!!!).
Ship/Fleet Behavior: Improvements to ship maneuvering, assault pods, planetary facilities, and construction ship build logic, as well as policy settings
AI and System Behavior: Improvements to espionage and pirates (in anticipation of the Shadows Rising DLC). Independent colonies have seen several improvements, including the ability to grow into new contender empires.
UI and Message Behavior: Improvements to map flags (particularly for pirates); camera improvements
Modding Support: New internal Event scripting
Game Setup: Stand by (likely to change a fair bit with the Shadows Rising DLC)
Explicitly Mentioned Items in the works with unknown ETA: A lot of things have been mentioned, but enough time has lapsed that it is difficult to tell which items may make it and which have been dropped. Some of the mentioned plans/desires include Galactopedia searching, deeper fleet/ship management tutorials, better message management (including the frequently requested "Don't message me about this again" feature), among others.

NOTE: The Command Update will precede Shadows Rising DLC; as of yet, no official announcement of the DLC release has been teased.

FACTION REFRESH
Human: Done!
Mortalen: Done!
Boskara: Done!
Zenox: Done!
Teekan: Done!
Haakonish: Done!
Ackdarian: Last faction to be updated (Spring 2026 - per Roadmap, though there has been no mention of it as of July 09, 2026, so the ETA is unknown but definitely not Q2 ("Spring") of 2026)

FACTION EXPANSION
Ikkuro: Done!
Dhayut: Done!
Quameno: Done!
Gizurean: Done!
Atuuk: Done!
Wekkarus: Done!
Securan: Next official Faction DLC (ETA post-Spring 2026) *Not officially teased; no recent mentions
Naxxilian: Next official Faction DLC (ETA post-Spring 2026) *Not officially teased; no recent mentions
Ketarov: Unknown; no official mention of it yet.
Kiadian: Unknown; no official mention of it yet.
Shandar: Unknown; no official mention of it yet.
Sluken: Unknown; no official mention of it yet.
Ugnari: Unknown; no official mention of it yet.

FEATURE EXPANSION
Return of the Shakturi: Done!
Shadows Rising: ETA Unknown; in active Beta testing as of 7/9/2026. It was originally planned to be released Q4 2025 or Q1 2026, so hopefully we'll learn more soon. Teased content includes playable pirate factions with contract-style systems, one or more neutral "Tortuga-esque" havens/bases where any faction can trade, pirate-specific ships/textures, and (possibly) more of the Distant Worlds timeline to explore. Pirate and independent factions have been significantly reworked to bring much more depth and interaction to the game regardless of the style of faction you choose to play. More unrevealed content (nothing spoiled recently).
Expansion #3: A third feature expansion is planned after "Shadows Rising". No more information is available at this time.
Other Teasers: During a 2025 AMA, it was touched upon several times that a possibility exists for a later expansion covering aspects of internal politics for empires. Clearly, this is just a community brainstorm at this point, but there was repeated interest and it was well received by the devs.
MORE?!?!: A forum discussion revealed the XML existence of several new Character types, including a detailed "cabinet" for high-level advisors, as well as individual ship captains and planetary governors. Erik mentioned in that thread that more characters are planned to be implemented into the game, but ETA is unknown
(https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=411219).

OTHER STUFF
Penal Colony: While AI empires will already use slavery mechanisms, there is no clear indicator to the player that a given world is enslaved, unlike DWU, which renamed planets as "penal colonies". In a forum thread, Erik confirmed the AI utilizing slavery, but doesn't rename worlds to penal colonies "yet". Could we see a return of this thematic element? Stay tuned.
Steam Achievements: Erik elaborated during the AMA that Achievements are planned, but will be treated as a very late-in-development addition (not unlike DWU, where achievements were added near the end). This better integrates the achievements into the full DW2 content tree, which at this point is still growing.
Orbiting Planets: While it hasn't been officially removed from the realm of possibility, it is very unlikely we will see orbiting planets in DW2. Reasoning is based on the difficulty of coordinating pathing in a 3D environment as well as resource demands; cost-versus-benefit is too low to pursue.
Multiplayer: Elliot mentioned in the AMA that DW2 was once flirting with multiplayer, but that it didn't end up being feasible at the time. It is not officially stricken from the realm of possibility, but it is also not currently part of the development plan.
Completely New Factions/Content: When asked if we may see races/factions or content never before introduced to the Distant Worlds franchise, Erik and Elliot have each said that while no such content is in the works, it is a possibility in the future.


That's all I have so far. If there are other items that have been mentioned or that you would like me to list/track here, please let me know and I will try to keep the OP up to date as the game continues to evolve. Cheers!

[thegreybetween]

Updated through Beta 1.2.9.2 and "New DLC and Control Update Announcement"

[Buio]

Thank you for a good summary.

[thegreybetween]

Would people prefer that I post here after each update to bump it up for easy visibility, or just quietly edit the posts and let this sink in the list?

[thegreybetween]

Here's the link to the latest official Roadmap, for those who want to read more: https://www.slitherine.com/news/state-o ... admap-2025

[Erik Rutins]

Thanks for this, that all checks out.

[thegreybetween]

Thanks Erik! Happy to help keep this info handy.

Minor formatting change to consolidate the info better.

[thegreybetween]

The latest DLC and Control Update announcement article: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 3598100792

DLC and Update are scheduled to be available April 03, 2025!

[cwaadd]

Thanks for this I learned that a don’t remind me was in the works. Finally ! No more repeated messages.

Please bump this thread every time an important feature is announced

[thegreybetween]

Apologies for the delay. I just made it through my busiest time of the year (I'm a tax accountant in the US), and by the time the dust had settled, I found that I was behind not one but TWO updates ("Control" and "Tactics") and a Factions DLC release, plus two livestreams and an AMA. The Distant Worlds 2 Universe has been very active in recent weeks, and we have loads of great new features to explore! Thanks to the DW2 team for all of the goodies

I've updated the OP. Looks like we now set our sights on the July update mentioned in the roadmap, for which Betas will probably begin appearing in the next month or so. Good times.

[cwaadd]

Thanks for the work. I look forward to play as a pirate

[thegreybetween]

Updated though Beta 1.3.1.0 (July 03 2025)

[thegreybetween]

Updated through "Slitherine Next 2025" stream.

Big updates:
- Next patch coming August 07, 2025
- Next feature DLC officially revealed: "DW2: Shadows Rising" is the official name of the "pirate expansion" and is expected this "winter" (Q4 2025 or Q1 2026). See the stream for early teaser visuals.

[thegreybetween]

Updated through Beta 1.3.3.2
(https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=413890)

[thegreybetween]

It has been a long time without any news on the DLC/Update front. Last update (from Feb) was that things are ready for Beta testers, but nothing other than a bump on the tester thread since then.

How are things coming along? Looing forward to the leading edge of the Dev-diary series starting up (hopefully) soon-ish. In any event, cook as long as you need to, this is mostly just a nudge to say I'm interested, as everything has been so quiet. Cheers!

[Parrius]

I'm curious also. It's been silent for so long. What happened with the Ackdarian update and the Shadows DLC? I will purchase the moment it's released. I'm happy that they are putting in this much time to playtest and make sure that the content works properly. There hasn't even been any beta updates for a while.

[MaximKI]

Development on Shadows Rising is still ongoing. Once we have something substantial to share, we will let the community know.

[fruitgnome]

[thegreybetween]

Updated though Beta 1.3.5.7 (June 2026)

Some commentary:
- A new public Beta after a long hiatus. Hooray! It is great to see some of the upcoming goodies again.

- Empire contracts sound like a great addition to the game! I've been really hoping to see more intra-empire activity, with internal factions and more things to liven up the domestic side of the game. This sounds like a great new step in that direction, and I'm excited to see it!

- No mention yet of the Ackdarian update, so it is unlikely to arrive alongside Shadows Rising and will probably come later. But that is just pure speculation on my part; it could happen any time (and was originally targeting "Spring 2026" so may be closer to public beta than meets the eye).
- Loosely related: Is it just me, or does it seem like each faction update gets more and more elaborate? Comparing a v1.0 faction to the first faction DLC was night and day, and it has been awesome watching the old factions get overhauled. But it seems like the bar is getting raised a lot. Comparing Ikkuro to Wekkarus, for example, we see a lot of newer detail like Colony Development resources, detailed unique character traits, and elaborate mechanisms in the newer factions that are missing from the older "new" ones. It makes me wonder if there might not be a second wave of minor refreshes to catch up the earlier "fancy" factions like Human/Mortalen/Ikkuro/Dhayut with things like Colony Development resources and the like (which seem to be pretty standard for Zenox+ era refreshes). Just a thought.

Anyway, glad to see more stuff in the pipeline, and I hope to be updating this thing more regularly again soon. Cheers!

[thegreybetween]

Updated through the announcement of the Command Update. Once the update drops, I'll clean up the known upcoming features to clear the slate for the run up to the Shadows Rising DLC.