Solaris is live. Early Access has been open for a few days now, the first waves of players are in, and the dust has settled enough to take a proper look at where things actually stand.
This is the full recap from our side. What Solaris is, what is playable right now, the parts that are still rough, and where the whole thing is heading. We would rather lay all of it out honestly in one place than let the picture form in scattered pieces.
What Early Access actually is
Early Access is Solaris running as Season 0: First Light. It is the beginning of the server, a chance for people to play it, stress it, and help shape it before it opens up to everyone for free at Season 1.
That framing matters, because it colours everything below. Some things are in and solid. Some things are in and still being tuned. Some things are deliberately not here yet. We will be clear about which is which, because Early Access only works if we are honest about the state of it.
What is playable right now
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Cataclysm
Our battle royale, and the headline of the launch. Queues start at 8 players and scale up to 32, and at launch it is Duos only, you and a partner against the lobby.
Loot comes from crates scattered across the map, and your inventory is capped to your hotbar, so what you find is what you fight with. Combat runs on paintball guns plus custom melee, including a hammer that lets you leap up and smash down on anyone below you. Matches run roughly 5 to 10 minutes, and the whole thing is vanilla server-side, all a player needs is the Solaris resource pack.
Dodgeball (temporarily down)
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Dodgeball was meant to launch alongside Cataclysm, and we are not going to gloss over what happened: we had to take it down on launch day. We hit issues with the matchmaking system we could not resolve in time, and rather than leave a broken experience up, we pulled it to fix it properly.
It is coming back within the next few days, and we will post a dedicated update when it does with the full story. For the record, when it is live it is team vs team, 8 a side for a full 16-player match, get hit and you are out, last team standing wins. Our apologies to anyone who was specifically there for Dodgeball at launch.
The competitive system
This is the part that is easy to miss, so it is worth being loud about: every base game on Solaris has a fully built-out competitive system underneath it. It is not a feature saved for later. It is in now.
- Placement games: three placements set a starting rank based on performance and win/loss.
- The ranks: seven of them. Bronze, Silver, Gold and Diamond each split into three divisions, then Celestial, Eclipse and Singularity at the top.
- Points: wins push you up, losses pull you down, and kills add smaller bonuses on top so rank reflects how you actually play.
- Top 50: reach Diamond and play at least 25 games in a mode to appear on the leaderboard. Top 50 players get a profile icon, and season-end finishers earn a permanent title tied to that season.
- Matchmaking tries to keep lobbies close in rank and only widens when it has to, so a broad queue is circumstantial and never held against a player.
These numbers are being tuned throughout Early Access. That is a big part of what this period is for, watching real match data and refining the ranked experience so it feels genuinely fair from Season 1 onward.
Cosmetics, the Solar Pass and progress
Everyone who is in gets a profile pin. Beyond that, what you get depends on how you joined, and Early Access purchasers pick up the most, including a permanent Early Access role, the Early Access Solar Pass, and a free month of Solar+ when Season 1 launches.
On progress, the honest version: Early Access progress resets when Season 1 launches. That is standard for a test period. The exceptions worth knowing are that anything earned through the Solar Pass is not reset, Stars purchased on the site carry over in full, and the only fully Early-Access-exclusive item is the Founder's Unobtainable set.
Where it is going
Early Access is a starting line, not a destination.
Immediately: Dodgeball comes back online within days, with a full write-up on the fix. Beyond that, Cataclysm gains Solos and Squads after Early Access to sit alongside the current Duos, and modifiers are planned for Dodgeball to twist the standard ruleset.
Season 1, in August. This is the complete Solaris vision, free and open to everyone with no barrier to entry. It brings Corrupted Caverns, a dungeon-based game we have been building toward for a long time, along with additional new games and the full experience. Season 1 also kicks off with a limited-time Unobtainable Event, exclusive items that never return, which is a big part of what Early Access supporters are playing for.
The longer game. Solaris is not just a minigame server, it is the foundation for a full competitive ecosystem. Ranked play feeds into organised, watchable competition through Destiny Games, the competitive layer built on top of the platform, with teams, seasonal brackets and broadcasted finals. Casual play always comes first, but for players who want something more serious, that path is being built right now.
See you on the ladder
That is the state of Solaris at the end of June. A live battle royale, a competitive system running underneath it, Dodgeball on the way back, and a clear line straight to Season 1 in August.
If you find something rough, tell us. The Discord is the fastest way to reach the team, and the feedback we get there goes straight into the build. There is a lot still to come, and the best time to be part of it is now, while it is being built.