Greetings Citizens,

Get ready to join the Public Test Universe (PTU.) During the lead up to Arena Commander 1.0, we gave a limited number of backers access to what we call the PTU, a version of the game that offers experimental versions of upcoming patches. Starting today, all Star Citizen backers have access to the PTU and with it access to test a build of Arena Commander 1.0.1.

Please note that the PTU is not for the faint of heart: unlike standard Arena Commander, you’re one of the first people testing a new build which can often be unstable or otherwise non-functional. If you’re serious about helping us test Star Citizen, accessing the PTU and reporting bugs on the forums is one of the biggest services you can provide… but if you’re looking for a clean dogfight, you may want to stick to the standard build. You can report bugs discovered in the PTU here, or provide feedback on the PTU itself here.

Arena Commander 1.0.1 is now available on the Public Test Universe. 1.0.1 is a bug fix-oriented patch, designed to fix a number of issue we saw with 1.0. The next major content patch will be 1.1, which will introduce several long-awaited features to the game. Official patch notes will be available once the release is tested on the PTU and pushed to the main release channel, although in-progress notes will be posted to the PTU forum.

How do I access the PTU?

Step One: Copy your RSI account to the PTU. Go to your My RSI area, select settings and then access Public Test Universe to begin this process. This will copy all of your account settings, pledges and configuration data to the PTU version of the RSI environment. You will then receive an email with a new password and additional instructions.

Step Two: Open the Star Citizen launcher, log in with your existing RSI account.

Step Three: Access the Settings area of the Star Citizen launcher (the cog at the top) and locate the Game Channel list.

Step Four: Select ‘Public Test Universe’ in the Game Channel list and then close the settings page.

Step Five: Log out of the Launcher, then log back in using the new password in the email generated by Step One. Reverse this process to switch back to the standard release channel.

We hope you enjoy access to even earlier builds of Star Citizen! We’re committed to including our backers as early in the development process as possible, so getting the Public Test Universe accessible to everyone as quickly as we could was a priority. Now man your planes and help us test this thing!

PLEASE NOTE: The PTU will not be permanently accessible; it will be available on occasions that the community is needed for testing a patch, and will usually be deactivated after a patch goes live on the main channel. We will update you in this space when PTU content is available for testing.

UPDATE January 23 PTU access is currently closed, so you will not be able to access it at this time.