When Owlcat Games announced The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, the question was always how a studio known for deep isometric cRPGs would translate its design instincts to a third-person action format. An exclusive reveal published yesterday gives the clearest answer yet: by making gear — not a fixed class — the core of how your character fights.
In a detailed look at Osiris Reborn‘s progression, Owlcat outlined a system that uses specialisations as a starting point but leaves all four skill trees permanently open. The studio describes its goal simply: “Instead of fixed classes, you are free to experiment with different playstyles until you find what you enjoy the most.”
No Fixed Classes — How the System Works
At character creation, you pick a specialisation — cyber warfare, firearms, and others — that sets your captain’s initial skills and starting gear. Crucially, this does not lock you in. A cyber warfare specialist who spends their first dozen levels investing in marksmanship skills is making a valid and supported build choice.
The four combat skill trees are Marksmanship, Gadgets, Survivalist, and Leader. Marksmanship improves critical damage, accuracy, and weapon bonuses. Gadgets enhances ability power, cooldowns, and damage. Survivalist focuses on health, armour, and lethality in exposed or melee situations. Leader provides buffs to companions and bonuses for the captain when allies are nearby.
You can combine any two (or more) directions, but you cannot take everything — resource constraints force real choices. If you change your mind, respeccing is available on your ship, though the cost increases with each reset.
Gear Defines the Fight — The Workbench System
Equipment is where Osiris Reborn‘s identity separates most clearly from standard action RPGs. Every weapon and gadget you find can be upgraded at a ship workbench, following tiered upgrade paths that push toward specific playstyles. Upgrades range from straightforward stat boosts — more damage, reduced cooldowns, wider radius — to triggered effects and, in rarer cases, entirely new abilities unlocked for a piece of gear.
Each tier requires a choice between two or three upgrade paths, making every item a minor decision about what kind of fighter your captain is becoming. The final tier unlocks a powerful terminal perk for the item.
Good news: Gear upgrades can be reset with a limited consumable. You don’t lose invested resources when replacing an item with a better version.
Item quality determines how many upgrade tiers are accessible. You can’t upgrade quality directly, but higher-quality versions of weapons drop in the world and extend the upgrade depth of your arsenal. Companions carry their own skill trees and signature gadgets with unique upgrade paths, functioning similarly to how Mass Effect handled squad management — issuing orders rather than direct control.
Zero-Gravity Combat and What Else We Know
The progression reveal comes alongside confirmation that zero-gravity combat is one of Osiris Reborn‘s most technically ambitious features — and apparently the one the team is most proud of. Magnetic boots replace free flight (a concession to motion sickness), but the system still required major rewrites to the Unreal Engine 5 build to work correctly. What was originally planned as a side feature expanded significantly after the development team invested serious time in it.
The game spans the events of the first two Expanse novels (Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War), covering Seasons 1 to early Season 3 of the TV series. There is a social skill tree alongside the combat options — unlocking dialogue choices, extra rooms, and distinct narrative branches. Tactical pause slows rather than freezes time, letting you issue companion orders during encounters.
Owlcat notes the game opens linearly during the first couple of hours before expanding to solar system exploration — including destinations like Ganymede, Ceres, Mars, and Luna. The beta, open to Founders with Miller’s Pack or Collector’s Edition pre-orders since April 2026, covered a single story mission set on Pinkwater 04 Station, introducing the cover-based combat loop.
Social stats and progression in RPGs often feel like a second-class system bolted onto the action. Owlcat’s track record with meaningful choice consequences in Pathfinder and Rogue Trader suggests this won’t be the case here. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is expected to arrive on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in spring 2027, with a day-one Game Pass Ultimate launch confirmed.
