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.

Stardock announced the new Hunter / Prey DLC for its massive-scale RTS game, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. New Substrate units and PHC base defenses add depth to players' strategic options in skirmish, multiplayer, campaign, and scenarios.

"This dlc further differentiates the two factions," said Callum McCole, lead designer for Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. "The PHC are now much better at locking down territory, while the Substrate's new units provide versatile tools for assaulting enemy strongholds."

In Hunter / Prey, Substrate players can take advantage of the devastating capabilities of the new Heart of the Phoenix juggernaut, unleash swarms of mechanical Hatchlings using the Clutch of Eggs, and disable enemy defenses with the Falling Star. PHC players can defend their territory with the powerful and heavy-hitting Minos Cannon, wipe out enemy shields using the Nova Tower, or freeze units dead in their tracks using the Stasis Hammer. There are more units and structures to try out and explore, which means greater battles and deeper strategy.

To introduce players to the new units and defenses, a brand new scenario focusing on the Substrate's expansion onto a PHC-occupied world is included. Multiple paths lead to the main enemy base, each with different defenses, so players will have to deploy their armies carefully. Each Nexus they destroy unlocks more of the new units, further building up their reinforcements.

The v2.9 update to the base game will release concurrently with the DLC. It includes a highly requested "Hold Ground" unit command, audio and visual improvements, a significant balance overhaul, and more.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation - Hunter / Prey DLC and the v2.9 update are coming soon.

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.