Humanity long ago shed its mortal skin and developed into beings of pure consciousness. But the Singularity is a thing of the past and the very future of human existence is being threatened. Though the post-humans wield godlike power, they find themselves at war for domination of not just the Milky Way but all galaxies with Haalee, the sentient AI, who is bent on saving the universe from post-human predation.

Pouring your human consciousness into thousands of deadly constructs, the time has come for you to join epic confrontations where countless robotic manifestations of war smash each other into scrap only to be replaced as factories convert all available matter into a steady stream of fresh war machines. In this war for ever-more intelligence, where control of matter to fuel the expansion of computing power is the only goal, the struggle will inevitably consume the galaxy...one planet at a time.

The v2.5 update includes improvements to modding, sight range reworks, unit speed increases, and more, while the DLC debuts a new Juggernaut for both the PHC and the Substrate factions.

"The PHC Agamemnon and the Substrate Eye of Darkness were both uniquely designed in order to complement our existing Juggernauts," said Escalation designer Callum McCole. "Juggernauts are definitely late-game killing machines, but they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Players will have to consider how they put their armies together around these warships in order to win."

To learn more about how the new juggernauts will interface with existing units, visit this unit profiles post on the forums. The two new warships in the Juggernaut DLC are:

• PHC Agamemnon: Designed to annihilate swarms of enemy units and overrun defensive positions, the Agamemnon has the potential to hold territory against waves of enemies for long periods of time. It's powerful, but take care when you deploy this ship - it lacks the armor piercing capabilities to be effective against other juggernauts or dreadnought destroyers.
• Substrate Eye of Darkness: The ultimate manifestation of the Substrate's technological superiority, the Eye of Darkness is capable of rupturing the fabric of space and time to destabilize targets at the molecular level. It is devastating against ground units, however, be alert: it is the only Juggernaut that lacks any anti-air weaponry.

The v2.5 update accompanies the new DLC and focuses on gameplay improvements and modding optimization. "Modders are going to really love this update," said McCole. "We adjusted outdated and obsolete reference names to reflect the unit names known to players. Because of this, it'll be easier for modders to find what they're looking for. We want to make modding as easy and intuitive as possible for first-timers and this step is absolutely vital to that."

Here are some details about the features that have been added in v2.5:

• Modding Improvements: Even first time modders can now find units quickly and easily. Reference names have been updated to reflect the display names known to players.
• Sight Range Rework: To create more possibilities for players for outmaneuvering and interacting with their opponents, every unit and structure in Escalation has received an increase in sight range. This adjustment also allows for more scouting opportunities and advantageous disengages from battles.
• Frigate Speed Increase: A bonus has been added to movement speed in order to allow frigates to outmaneuver tougher cruiser armies and harass weakly defended areas more efficiently.

"One of the other main goals in this update was to provide more flexibility to our players," McCole said. "We want them to be able to field different types of army compositions that will encourage lots of different strategies and play styles."

v2.5 is now available for download. The Juggernaut DLC is completely free and is available on Steam. To read the full changelog and see some more details, visit the forums.

A real-time strategy game on a scale never before seen, where even the smallest units have diverse, independent weapons systems on them and every shot fired has its own targeting solution and ballistics model, Ashes of the Singularity explores entirely new and engaging gameplay fundamentals coupled with jaw-dropping visuals. With literally thousands of units acting independently on screen at the same time, players are introduced to a familiar infrastructure of real-time strategy gameplay while focusing their attention not on small engagements between a handful of units, but instead waging large-scale wars across multiple simultaneous battlefronts.

Ashes of the Singularity offers innovative multiplayer alongside its epic single-player campaign that tells the tale of the Singularity and complications arising from humanity's evolution away from physical form. League structures, leaderboards, stats and other features will be announced as development continues, powered by Stardock's cloud-based Project Tachyon metagaming services (led by lead architect Adrian Luff, who helped build Blizzard's Battle.net).

Key Features:

• Massive numbers of units in the world that can be easily organized into armies that allow players to fight wars across several different fronts simultaneously.
• The world's first multi-core real-time AI allowing for a non-cheating AI that can beat most players.
• A story-driven, non-linear campaign that tells the story of a United Earth in the 23rd century.
• A focus on single player replayability while including a wealth of multiplayer features.
• The future-proofed Nitrous 3D engine whose 64-bit, multi-core foundation supports DirectX 11, DirectX 12 and multiple GPUs.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation retails on Steam or through Stardock for $39.99.