Basic login with Steam
EULA acceptance
Tutorial
Single-player station (Season 2 and Season 3):
- Onboarding
  - Talk to Badum
  - Equip items
  - Deploy to Fortuna
- Matchmaking and deployment
  - Solo
  - Squad
  - Items insurance
  - Free loadouts (Season 3)
- Inventory and loadout
  - Loadout presets (Season 3)
- Quests
  - Job boards
- Faction progression
- Season pass
- Shops
  - Daily shop
  - Weekly shop
  - Shop rotation
- Daily login
- Character appearance and emotes
- Shops
- Crafting station
- Quarters
- Player balance
- Social features
- Proximity voice
  - Vivox login
  - Vivox create and join channel
  - Proximity voice works
Game mechanics
- Can deploy through terminal
- Can deploy with loadout
- Can evac
- Can do quests
- Can gain/lose loot
- Can use Alien Forge.
Map content
- Bright Sands
- Crescent Falls
- Tharis Island

Running locally

Note

If you've already done all steps previously, you can skip to Step 7.

1. Prerequisites

Warning

The latest Steam version of The Cycle: Frontier currently does not work with Windows 11 24H2!

Important

You must have The Cycle: Frontier from Steam in your Steam library to be able to download it. Otherwise, the download will fail with an error message about missing license.

Before you start, you'll need the following software downloaded and installed:

MongoDB Community Edition.
Latest Prospect.Server.Api from the Releases section
.NET Runtime 8.0 installed.
ASP.NET Core 8.0 installed.
The Cycle: Frontier game client:
- The latest version from Steam.
- Season 2 client. See download instructions below.
- Any other version, even Season 1 works.

1.1 How to download Season 2 client from SteamDB using Steam console

Warning

This will overwrite the existing client if you try to download a different manifest!

With Steam running, press Win+R and enter steam://nav/console. A Steam console will open.
Open The Cycle: Frontier SteamDB manifests.
Press CTRL+F and enter 4623363103423775682 to find the manifest for Season 2 version 2.7.2 client.
Click the icon to copy the download command.
Paste the command in the Steam console and press Enter.
The depot will begin downloading. You should receive a notification and the destination folder when the download is complete.

2. Unpack `Prospect.Server.Api`

Use your favorite ZIP archiver and unzip the Prospect.Server.Api.zip downloaded from this repository.

3. Patch the `hosts` file

To be able to connect to the locally running server, you must replace the IP address of 2EA46.playfabapi.com that the game uses. Do the following:

Open Notepad as Administrator.
Click File > Open... and select C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts.
At the end of the file, add 127.0.0.1 2EA46.playfabapi.com on a new line. Do not add the # character!

4. Generate and import SSL certificate

Important

Do not share the generated certificate! Generated certificate includes a private key that may be used to generate other certificates and compromise your security.

A connection to the server is served over a secured connection. The server uses self-signed certificate that must be added to trusted authorities in order for the game to successfully communicate with the local server. Do the following:

Open the folder with Prospect.Server.Api.
Double-click generate_ssl.exe. certificate.pfx will appear in the same folder.
Double-click certificate.pfx. The Certificate Import Wizard will open:
1. Select Current User under Store Location and click Next.
2. Leave File to Import unchanged and click Next.
3. Leave Password empty and click Next.
4. Select Place all certificates in the following store > Browse.... Choose Trusted Root Certification Authorities and click OK. Click Next.
5. Click Finish. A Security Warning popup may appear, make sure it specifies 2EA46.playfabapi.com certification authority and click Yes.

5. Add `steam_appid` to the game

Open the folder with The Cycle: Frontier and navigate to Prospect > Binaries > Win64.
Right-click in the folder > New > Text Document, and name it steam_appid.
Open steam_appid and enter 480.
Save and close the file.

6. Create a game shortcut with specified arguments

Open the folder with The Cycle: Frontier and navigate to Prospect > Binaries > Win64.
Right-click Prospect-Win64-Shipping.exe > Create Shortcut.
Right-click the created shortcut > Properties.
In the Target field, add the following parameters after the quote -log -steam_auth PF_TITLEID=2EA46. Note the space after the quote.
Move the shortcut to desktop.

7. Run the server

Now you are all set! Open the folder with Prospect.Server.Api and run Prospect.Server.Api.exe. It will open a console if it runs successfully.

Important

Do not close the console when you run the game.

If the console does not open, make sure you have .NET Runtime 8.0 and ASP.NET Core 8.0 installed.

8. Run the game

Once the server is running, make sure that Steam is running and open The Cycle: Frontier using the shortcut you've created before.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

How to remove the certificate?

If you've installed the certificate for the Current User:

Open Start and enter certmgr.msc.
Expand Trusted Root Certification Authorities and select Certificates.
Find 2EA46.playfabapi.com, right-click it > Delete.

If you've installed the certificate for the Local Machine, repeat the same steps but instead open certlm.msc.

`generate_ssl.exe` is flagged as a virus

generate_ssl.exe is a Python application packed with PyInstaller and some anti-viruses may flag it as a virus. This application is a simple certificate generator and you can find its source code in utils/generate_ssl.py.

Body parts are missing with Season 3 client

Currently, the server loads body part IDs for Season 2 by default, so this is expected. You can fix this by going to station and changing your character appearance. This will store the updated body part IDs for your character.

Prospect.Server.Api does not start

Make sure you have .NET Runtime 8.0 and ASP.NET Core 8.0 installed.

Login Failed. Error code: 3

Make sure that:

You have Steam running.
You have created and saved the steam_appid file as described in step 6.
The steam_appid file type is "TXT File".

Login Failed. Error code: 5

Make sure that:

Prospect.Server.Api server is running.
The C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file contains 127.0.0.1 2EA46.playfabapi.com and that the file is saved.

If the server works and the hosts file is saved, press Alt+Tab to a game console that opens when you start the game and check for the following:

libcurl error 7 (Couldn't connect to server) - indicates that the Prospect.Server.Api is not running.
InvalidAPIEndpoint - indicates that the hosts file was not updated properly.
libcurl error 60 (Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with given CA certificates) - indicates that the certificate was not installed correctly. Make sure that the certificate is present in certmgr.msc and there is only one certificate. Try removing the certificate and importing it again by following step 4.
HTTP code: 500 - usually indicates that MongoDB is not running. Make sure that MongoDB is installed and and that MongoDB Server is running in services.msc.