Discovery Freelancer 5.3.1 "Singularity" - Revenge of the PoBs
December 20th 2025

USEFUL LINKS

1. Discovery 5.3 Dev Diary #3 - Announcement Trailer, Systems, Story, and More - Systems, Story, and More
   
2. Discovery Freelancer 20th Anniversary Celebration - Special event celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the DIscovery mod
   
3. 5.3 main release patch notes
   
4. 5.3 hotfix 1 patch notes
   
5. 5.3 hotfix 2 patch notes
   
6. 5.3 hotfix 3 patch notes
   
7. 5.3 hotfix 4 patch notes
   
8. 5.3 hotfix 5 patch notes
   
9. 5.3 hotfix 6 patch notes
   
10. 5.3 hotfix 7 patch notes
    
11. 5.3 hotfix 8 patch notes
    

ECONOMY

HOLIDAY MODE
As a reminder, holiday mode is still in effect until Jan 8th.
What is currently changed:

• Wear & tear on POBs is stopped
  
• No daily consumption of F/CG or Repairs
  
• Invulnerability is turned on
  
• Siege declarations are invalidated
  
• Crafting works as normal (working crew still require upkeep)
  
• Deploying bases is disabled
  
• Core upgrades are paused
  

POB UPKEEP
- Changed: We are moving away from bases mostly relying on a single commodity (Water via Hydroponics). Starting with this patch (after the holiday mode ends), bases would now consume Food (still variable, no changes) and Consumer Goods. Sellpoints and prices have been rebalanced as a result. This also reduces the total volume needed for the crew upkeep by 33%.
- Changed: Hull panels now take 1 unit of volume instead of 2. Repair values remain unchanged, making them the more efficient but more expensive option to mitigate wear and tear. Pricing rebalanced as a result.
- Changed: Reworked Hydroponics recipes - now produce more food but slower. Synth Foods, Farmers Alliance and Samura get their own more efficient variants for Synth Paste and Kyushu Rice respectively.


MODULES/CARGO SPACE
- Changed: Merged Jump Drive and Matrix factories into one. Module contruction cost rebalanced to match.
- Changed: Merged Cloak and Cloak Disruptor factories into one. Module contruction cost rebalanced to match.
- Added: Most factories now provide additional cargo space to compensate for the changes that follow afterwards.

WEAPON/EQUIPMENT CRAFTING
- Added: New module that produces regional codename weapon components, buildable at Core 3. These are (effectively) locked to the factions operating in said regions (following the idea of Shipyard Systems, but for a single region instead of a pair) and consume local materials along with prototype components. As an addition, these form trade routes and are bought by NPC stations at a premium depending on distance. This leads to:
- Changed: Rebalanced the recipes for all crafted weapons - they now require mentioned components instead of raw materials, along with exotics such as Earhart materials. Costs and speed rebalanced according to the weapon size (class) and hardpoint quantities. Regional weighting applied to bias certain weapons to certain regions.
- Changed: Separated the weapons into capital (cruiser and above), and non-capital ones. The "Exotic Equipment Fabricator" now becomes a factory that combines non-capital weapons and non-capital equipment (shields, thrusters etc). Capital weapons remain with the "Exotic Weapons Foundry". Module names changed to align with the new recipe lists.


WEAPON/EQUIPMENT CRAFTING PART 2 - OSMIUM
- Added: New Osmium-specific foundry, which produces osmium-related weapons and equipment. Recipes require weapon components described above, processed osmium materians and, for some recipes, Rydberg Matter. The list now adds:

• Capital Thruster - Horizon Capital Drive
  
• Snub Codename - SHATTERER
  
• Snub Codename - STARBLAST
  
• Cruiser Primary - Cruiser Scatter Missile
  
• Cruiser Defence - Cruiser Particle Bolter
  
• Cruiser Heavy - Cruiser Attenuator Turret
  
• BC Main Battery - Battlecruiser Whirlwind Launcher
  

- Changed: Rebalanced existing kinetic osmium weapons to match the ones above.


FUEL
- Changed: H-Fuel is no longer more efficient than other fuels in terms of production recipes. No volume changes, still 0.5 volume per unit.
- Fixed: As the result of the above, bases no longer get stuck during fuel consumption process if multiple fuels are present.
- Changed: Mox recipe rebalance - adjusted speed and separated to generic and ALG/BMM-specific recipes with more efficiency.
- Changed: Promethene recipe rebalance - now locked to EFL only and is way more efficient.


CONTRABAND
- Added: Difference in pricing between lawful and unlawful contraband destinations. Lawful ones now prefer concealed contraband, and unlawful - regular.
- Changed: Reworked contraband concealment recipes - decreased the consumer good consumption.
- Changed: Reworked shigeakiki recipe - is now slower and less efficient. Rebalanced prices to compensate.


MISC RECIPES
- Changed: Significantly slowed down the milsalvage recipe, increased scrap output to compensate.


IFF BONUSES
- Added: LWB food bonus.
- Removed: Zoner IFF food bonus.
- Removed: All generic Freelancer IFF bonuses.


MINING/ORES
- Changed: Adjusted refined ore pricing globally.
- Added: Java station refined ore buypoints, connecting Niobium to other HRCs.
- Changed: Decreased Uncharted 5 Organic capacitors mining speed.
- Changed: Increased Uncharted 6 Cerulite crystals mining speed.


BUG FIXES
- Fixed: Water sellers.
- Fixed: Oxygen sellers.
- Fixed: Food(s) sellers.
- Fixed: Contraband buyers.
- Fixed: Luxury commodity (metals, etc) buyers.
- Fixed: Other misc commodity sellers/buyers.

BALANCE

VECTOR
- Changed: Cruise speed 500 -> 550

CODING

HOTKEYS
- Added: A keybind to swap strafe and turn keys.
- Changed: Ace NPCs (level 19) will now make use of nanobots and shield batteries.
- Fixed: Looking at NPCs no longer suppresses their thrusters.
- Fixed: FactionScan.DLL should now be functional (each faction has a list of exempt factions that they won't scan, including players affiliated with those groups - see DATA/MISSIONS/faction_scan.ini).

INFOCARDS

- Changed: Planet Toulouse infocard replaced
- Fixed: Golden Dragon Casino
- Fixed: CNO-U1 Racing Engine
- Fixed: Seiran Dust Cloud
- Fixed: Sterngrabe Nebula
- Fixed: Planet Amboise
- Fixed: Kamome
- Fixed: Wormhole
- Fixed: Research Station 19 minefield infocard restored.
- Fixed: Battleship Saumur no longer indicates Picardy to be near the Rheinland Border.

INTERFACE

BUG FIXES
- Fixed: Missing text at 2160p (4K) and similar resolutions.

SYSTEMS

GALLIA
- Added: Added EFL Cryocube Convoy
- Added: Champagne Battlezone & Inital pass for patrol paths
- Changed: Planet Marne mooring fixture undock direction
- Added: Ambient NPC zones to Burgundy and Orleans
- Added: Kouprey and Eclipse NPCs to Gallic Corporations

INDEPENDENT WORLDS
- Changed: Battleship Atum moved to Sabah Shipyard and made undockable.
- Changed: Destroyer Artemis moved closer to Atacama Base.
- Changed: The LSF have scuttled the deteriorating California Jump Gate in Ontario.
- Changed: The Trade Lane between Planet Marseille and the Languedoc Jump Gate downgraded to nav buoys to preserve independent world atmosphere.

BORDER WORLDS
- Added: Core APM Convoy to Omega-55
- Added: GMG H-Fuel Convoy to Sigma-59
- Changed: Tau-23 Outcast Encounter moved to Tau-29
- Changed: Tau-23 KNF encounter moved to Shikoku, loadouts updated

EDGE WORLDS
- Changed: Tripoli now sells Armicustos, Grouse moved to Lagos
- Changed: Zhejiang now sells BWT, Draugr moved to JiangXi

RHEINLAND
- Fixed: Unioner Hel's now use Unioner weaponry
- Fixed: Unioner NPCs now use Rheinland engines
- Changed: More ships added for sale to Unioner Bases
- Added: ALG MOX Convoy to Colonge

BRETONIA
- Added: ALG MOX Convoy to New London
- Added: Gold Convoys added to New London

MISC NPC CHANGES
- Changed: Capital ships now carry MOX in standardized amounts
- Added: Coalition caps now carry fuel as well
- Changed: HRC Convoy spawn weighting updated
- Changed: Oxygen removed from NPC cargo spawn lists
- Changed: NPC cargo spawn lists extended to include police, military and intel factions.
- Changed: NPC cargo spawn lists extended to include AI and Zoner Militants.
- Changed: NPC cargo spawn lists generally extended to include a wider variety of regional commodities.

BUG FIXES
- Fixed: Melun station geometry
- Fixed: Compiegne station geometry
- Fixed: Rambouillet station geometry
- Fixed: IDF nebulae no longer bug out at the edge of the screen
- Fixed: IDF's nav map is easier to read now
- Fixed: IDF's political map no longer flashbangs you
- Fixed: Pianists will no longer continue playing pianos that have been detonated
- Fixed: Senlis Cloud color adjustments
- Fixed: Les Voges no longer appears as Unknown when approached
- Fixed: Dublin Gold Miners put back to work
- Fixed: Unknown Jump Gate loop broken
- Fixed: Monnaco & Deshima dealers put back to work
- Fixed: Hesione & Planet Gammu equipment dealers updated
- Fixed: Battlesip Montmorency equipment dealer updated
- Fixed: NPC Titan CD placement
- Fixed: Missing equipment from stations in Edinborough
- Fixed: Missing LWB bribes
- Fixed: Freelancer Pirate trains carry a proper shield now
- Fixed: Newcastle Military Surplus Convoy not spawning
- Fixed: Level 19 Bristol NPCs reduced to level 13
- Fixed: Wild patrols are no longer attacking empty space 30k below Livadia Shipyard, Omicron Kappa.




Developers:
@Aingar - Coding
@Alex. - Keeping It All Running
@Amba - Art
@Antonio - Systems
@DarkTails - Systems, Infocards
@Haste - Balance, Economy
@jammi - Economy, Systems, Infocards
@JorgeRyan - Systems, giving bad economy advice
@Krmloo - Economy, Infocards
@Sombs - Systems, Infocards, Christmas
adoxa - FactionScan.dll

Quote:bases would now consume Food (still variable, no changes) and Consumer Goods.