In September 2017, developer Chucklefish announced that a forthcoming update to Starbound would bring bounty hunting to the procedurally generated sci-fi game. Since then, the company has offered intermittent updates on Starbound bounty hunting, and now, nearly two years after the announcement, this Starbound update has finally arrived. Indeed, the Starbound 1.4 Bounty Hunter update is here, and it has added a new Peacekeeper faction and looks to turn players into intergalactic bounty hunters.

With the Starbound 1.4 Bounty Hunter update, fans will find themselves as the newest recruit in the Peacekeepers, tasked with story missions focused on taking down "intergalactic gangs across multiple planets." In order to accomplish this noble task, players will need to track these world-hopping baddies by finding clues and following their trails. Ultimately, this process will lead to the lair of a criminal gang, and players will need to subdue a boss within to complete their bounties.

Progressing through these Starbound 1.4 Bounty Hunter update story missions will send players up the ranks of the Peacekeepers and grant them with rewards. That said, this is not the only way to approach bounty hunting in this new Starbound update, as there are procedurally generated bounties to pursue as well. With this type of bounty, fans will encounter a variety of microdungeons, which may add an additional level of replayability to Starbound.

Furthermore, the Starbound 1.4 update adds more than 50 new rare elemental monster variants to the game as well as new items, amor, and weapons. There is also new furniture available, with some of it connecting directly to the Peacekeepers. For those that have been looking for a reason to return to Starbound, the new content offered by the Bounty Hunter update may just fit the bill.

Since Chucklefish indicated that bounty hunting would be coming to Starbound back in 2017, the indie developer has found continued success with Wargroove, a turn-based tactics game released earlier this year. With the launch of Wargroove, some fans may have forgotten all about the possibility of chasing down space criminals in Starbound, but the news of the 1.4 Bounty Hunter update could still come as a welcome surprise.

Starbound is available on PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, PS Vita, and Xbox One.

Source: PC Gamer