For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the myriad aliens and starships that make up the Starfinder Battles: Planets of Peril set of prepainted plastic miniatures from WizKids, coming out next month. Now, alas, our journey through the galaxy has come to an end, and we’re putting the landing gear down on our preview cruiser. But before we touch down planetside, let’s get one last look at the creatures in the set that hail from the Starfinder setting’s home system, the Pact Worlds.

First, from Aballon, we have two sizes of SRO (Small and Medium commons) as well as the eye-covered predator known as the Sharpwing (Large rare).

Next, hailing from Castrovel is the Formian Warrior (Medium uncommon), the plantlike people known as the Khizar (Medium uncommon), the three-legged laser-wolves known as Tashtari (Medium uncmmon), and the predatory Vracinea (Large rare). (The ksarik was among the first figures we revealed, so you’ve already seen that one!)

Skipping Absalom Station and moving straight on to the red planet of Akiton, we have the four-armed giant Shobhad (large uncommon). Hailing from the Diaspora asteroid belt is the winged Sarcesian Sniper (Large uncommon). We cruise past a few more planets since we’ve already seen the dragonkin, but we must stop at Liavara to glimpse the Bantrid (Small uncommon) who makes its home on the shepherd moon of Hibb. While Liavara itself is home to the entities known as dreamers, they’re physiologically identical to the barathus of neighboring Bretheda, and they showed up at the very beginning of this journey, so we’ll move on to the last stop on the trip: the mysterious planet of Aucturn, where the Orocoran (Medium rare) lives.

And that’s it for Starfinder Battles: Planets of Peril, releasing in just a few weeks and available for preoder now! While I’d love to go on and explore more amazing aliens in plastic form, right now I’m going to take a break. Lie down. Get some rest. The strangely melodious tinnitus that has accosted me since we left Aucturn is growing to an unbearable cacophony, and I must get sleep. While I slumber in dreams I’m sure will be nothing but pleasant, may you all enjoy your new Starfinder miniatures, friends, and stay safe!

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

Starfinder Battles: Planets of Peril releases next month, and we’re well into our exploration of what strange aliens you can find in every booster box. Last week we looked at the set’s starships, including three vesk models, so let’s look at some of the creatures from the Veskarium you can find in the set.

The Pahtra Stalker we revealed two weeks ago makes its home on Vesk-6, while the helpful Skittermander (Small common) and the decidedly less helpful Stridermander (Medium uncommon) hail from Vesk-3. Skittermanders are known for their bright colors, and we knew we couldn’t get away with making just one. But the set only had so many slots and we didn’t want to take up too many of them with a single alien species, even one as popular as skittermanders. The solution, at least for now, is in alternate-paint promos, of which we made two. We’ll have more information in the future about how you can get your six hands on these little guys. In future sets, if we have alternate-paint figures built into the main set, skittermanders will likely make a reappearance there.

While the Veskarium was initially at odds with the peoples of the Pact Worlds, the two warring star systems had to put their differences aside to face an enemy that threatened both of them: the Swarm! Perfect for use in the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path, the three Swarm figures in Planets of Peril are sure to be the buzz of any playgroup. Check out the Swarm Corrovox (Medium common), Swarm Mindreaper (Medium rare), and Swarm Thresher Lord (Large rare)!

Since most of the remaining aliens in the set call the Pact Worlds home (and thus would make an excellent theme to explore next week), let’s look at some of the aliens from other parts of the galaxy you’ll find in Planets of Peril, as you might encounter them on a journey across the galaxy.

First is the Jinsul Warrior (Medium common), which Starfinder Society players should recognize immediately (and which I won’t say much more about to avoid spoilers for past Starfinder Society plots). And since you’re not likely to get to the jinsuls’ home without going through the Drift, how about a Garaggakal (Medium rare), an outsider native to the hyperspace plane? Along the way, you might need to deal with an infestation of Electrovores (Small common), for which you consult an Orashu Headteacher (Medium uncommon) for advice, and ultimately employ an Uplifted Bear (Large uncommon) to handle them with brute force. Sadly, when you emerge from the Drift, you find the wreckage of another starship, its crew exposed to the vacuum of space and now haunting the area as dread Nihili (Medium common).

Will you make it back to the Pact Worlds safely? What allies and enemies await you there? Find out next week in our final preview of Starfinder Battles: Planets of Peril, available for preorder now!

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

Coming soon to a Drift beacon near you, Starfinder Battles: Planets of Peril is the first full set of Starfinder miniatures from our partners at WizKids. The set offers 32 randomized figures in 3-figure boosters and includes not only a wide array of aliens (appropriate for both PCs from distant worlds to monsters threatening safe space), but also the first starships in the Starfinder Battles line. Each starship comes on a hexagonal base with a sturdy clear support column, making it a perfect fit for any starship battle using the Starfinder RPG.

A handful of starship miniatures were produced a few years ago by Ninja Division and players seemed to like being able to get multiple ships around a single theme—specifically the Eoxian Corpse Fleet and Pact Worlds fleet. So when it came time to pick the ships to include in Planets of Peril, we decided to do something similar, this time offering three Veskarium ship models. Here you can see the BMC Mauler, Norikama Dropship, and Vindicas Tyrant, which are uncommon, rare, and rare, respectively. (Note also that all starships, regardless of their size, are represented on a single hex, so they’re all on 1-inch bases.)

We had originally included only these three starships in the set, in part because we weren’t sure what ratio of creatures to ships was right for the set. We knew that we didn’t want common starships, as most of the time a combat is between the PCs and only a few other combatants. Most GMs, we figured, would need just one copy of any given model.

Fastforward a few months, to when WizKids approached us about pulling some figures out of the set to release earlier as the Galactic Heroes and Galactic Villains blister packs. We now had to replace those figures, and used that opportunity to not only add a dozen creatures that didn’t make the initial cut (for what was, at the time, a 30-figure set), but also to add another two starships at the uncommon rarity. These, we knew, needed to be something that would be useful to GMs and players both (given their uncommon status) and applicable to the most possible adventures. Thus, we landed upon including the Starfinder Society’s Drake and Pegasus. Each ship was presented at a variety of tiers and were, at the time, the only two ships available to every Starfinder Society party.

We hope folks find them useful and that we get the opportunity to include a Gorgon sometime down the road.

Next week, we’ll return to previews of the myriad aliens and monsters you’ll find in Planets of Peril, so strap on your jetpacks and recharge your laser rifles. Until then, Starfinders, be safe and roll 20s.

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

PS - WizKids really went above and beyond with the promo images they provided to show off the set’s contents. These are final production models pulled from a retail case. Let us know in the comments what you think of these (compared to the renders we’ve shown in the past, or the photos of the miniatures on plain white backgrounds) and we’ll work with WizKids to perfect future blogs. Thanks for your feedback thus far, and we look forward to continue working with the community to best promote Pathfinder and Starfinder Battles.