Gift cards, contracts from anywhere and app fixes

New

Gift cards

• Gift balance. Gift cards from $5 to $500 add gift balance to your account. Spend it in the Vanguard store's new Gift balance tab on Vanguard Charter time (one, three or twelve months, one-time), Vanguard Permits and Aether, at the website's prices. Gift balance never expires and has no fees.
• Gift cards page. Buy a card on the new Gift cards page, for yourself or as a gift: you get a code to pass on, and we can email it to the recipient with your message.
• Redeem page. The Redeem page now redeems a gift card or Vanguard code right on the page when you are signed in.
• Top up in the apps. In the Steam version you can add gift balance from your Steam Wallet, and in the Android app through Google Play. That balance goes to your own account and is spent in that version of the game and on the website.

Wallet and contracts

• Full Wallet in space. The Wallet in flight is now the full Wallet: your balances, Send credits and your whole journal. Sending credits and the clan treasury work from space with the usual limits.
• Contracts from anywhere. Contracts is in the in-space menu and the phone Menu. Browse any station's contracts, accept one from anywhere (the goods go to your hangar at the contract's station) and cancel your own from space. A contract priced far above what its goods are worth asks you to check the price first.
• Contracts for goods at any station. Make a contract for goods stored at any of your stations: pick the station under Goods at, and the goods stay in that hangar until someone accepts. Cargo finder rows at other stations can start one too.

Shortcuts

• Database key. Alt+B opens the Database (rebindable in Settings > Controls), and the Database now opens on its main page.
• Shadow fit everywhere. Shadow fit has its own entry in the station list, the in-space menu and the phone Menu, and Ship builds has a Shadow fit button, docked and in space.

Improvements

• More ways to pay on the website. Checkout on xetodus.com now takes Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Link and stablecoins and crypto everywhere, plus Cash App Pay in the United States, Bancontact in Belgium, EPS in Austria, WeChat Pay in China, and Samsung Pay and Korean cards in South Korea. Checkout only shows the ones that work where you are, and the Vanguard Charter subscription only shows the ones that can renew. Purchases in the Steam and Android apps still go through Steam and Google Play.
• Aether and Charter time. Aether no longer buys Vanguard Charter time. Aether is for liveries, pilot card frames and other cosmetics, and Charter time comes from purchases: the subscription, Vanguard Permits and gift balance. Charter time already on your account stays, and the Aether stipend and Aether Vouchers are unchanged.
• Drive strength. Drive strength now shows in item tooltips, the Database, Compare, Fitting, Shadow fit and the Ships window, not only in the hangar's specifications.
• Fitting camera. Hovering a slot in the Fitting window no longer moves the camera or lights the mount. A click, tap or Enter selects the slot and zooms in.
• Ore furnace order. Ore furnace cards start with the ores you can refine, from your biggest stock to the smallest.
• Land value breakdown. The tile card of a colony home, shop or open lot shows how its land value is made: the base, each nearby tile's effect and distance, the total, and nature just out of reach.
• Market sorting. Sellers and Buyers in Market Browse each have their own sort: price, units or jumps. The list under them is now called In your Trading range.
• Opened vaults. The Infiltration card dims opened vaults and lists them last, and Hide opened (on by default) leaves them out.
• Settings sync. Your skill ring settings (on or off, fade, pinned and hidden skills) now follow you to every device, and the Vanguard Cloud-saved layout saves and loads all your synced settings.

Fixes

• Android purchases. Store purchases in the Android app work again. Before, every Google Play store panel said the item wasn't sold in the app. No app update is needed.
• Sign in from the apps. Signing in with Google or Steam from the Android app, and with Google from the Steam desktop app, now finishes back in the game, with a short page that takes you back instead of the website.
• Phones that could not load. Phones with little memory now load reliably, using much less graphics memory while loading. If a device still runs out, the game stops and offers to restart with minimal graphics instead of resetting over and over.
• Under fire. The Under fire card lists every attacker in one column and scrolls when there are many. Before, two showed and the rest ran off the edge.
• Quick chat key. Alt+Q opens quick chat from anywhere in the game, not only with the chat focused, and no longer nudges your ship sideways. It is rebindable in Settings > Controls.
• Singularity crossings. Crossing a singularity into some systems could leave your ship stuck after the reward was paid. Crossings now bring you through every time.
• Vault minigame. The vault minigame no longer ignores clicks and Space while a layer is being sent or the splice is starting.
• Friends and alerts. Friends show their real status and can be traveled to wherever they fly. Energy farm alerts, event announcements, reward cards and war declarations reach every pilot they should, and your law timers now travel with you through a jump, so an old one no longer comes back.
• Bosses on schedule. World bosses keep arriving on schedule, and a summoned clan boss always arrives or is refunded.
• Fewer pauses. The first Market and insurance lookups after a server restart no longer pause the game, and a very busy server now answers "Server busy, try again" at once instead of leaving an action waiting.