Drop Drive: Second Sun

Welcome to Drop Drive: Second Sun!

Overview

A new star is born!

Drop Drive won awards for its innovative drop-style gameplay and infinite replayability. Now, Second Sun takes everything you loved about the original and expands it with cooperative planetary defense, solo mode, specimen research, contract crew, and new strategic depth that transforms every game.

Whether you're a Drop Drive veteran or discovering the universe for the first time, Second Sun delivers bold new ways to explore the stars.

Overall design philosophy

• Everything works with everything. If something needs to be removed or changed, the card/component will say so—no memorizing exceptions.
• We streamline rules instead of adding new complexity.
• We improve organization and setup speed without adding overhead.
• We’ll keep evolving this open universe of possibilities—this won’t be the last release.

Second Sun Expansion

Additional components not included in the image above:

• 5x starter ship upgrade cards
• 11x solo shuttle outfit cards
• Captain Ara Kane replacement tile
• 5x player aid cards
• Rulebook

UPDATE: We are also including the following 3 community-driven anomalies in the Second Sun expansion:

• Derelict Ship & Unknown Form
• Stunted Sun / "Petrol" Line
• Galactic Guidebook

You can see these anomalies closer up in Update 13. 

Second Sun System Layout

New star. New problems. Same questionable leadership.

How the grav gates work:

• Grav gates offer a new, fun way to travel between the two systems.
• Every time you re-drop objects, you always (unless stated otherwise) drop them over the opposite system's sun. This creates a wonderful, dynamic symbiotic relationship between the two systems. 
• All objects in the current system are considered "closer" than all objects in the opposite system. 

Invasion Imperative Mode

Team up, gear up, and don’t let the planets get eaten. 

The Second Sun expansion box includes the following 3 invasions (the other 3 are in the Invasion Incursion add-on - refer to that section for further details):

How The Fungus work:

• Each invasion phase all spore tokens in play grow to the next size up. Then, a new (small) spore token will be dropped into the system containing the mothership.
• Each invaded planet is also considered to have a small spore token on it.
• Traveling through spore tokens causes 1 damage per nav link - so as these grow you will have fewer space lane options through which to travel safely to your destinations!

How The Worldmind work:

• The planets come to life! 
• Each living planet will have it's own sentience behavior. One may be trying to feed on a particular type of asteroid; one may want to eradicate all violence and pirate activity in their system; one may just want to be super-friendly, pulling players into it's gravitational field (forcing players to land, in turn forcing them to leave at the start of their next turn!).  
• Whatever the case, planets will be actually moving around in the systems!

How The Brood work:

• Planets become BUG PLANETS!
• Queen's lay eggs that hatch into bug drones, plasma spitters, and brain bugs. 
• Each type of bug has a unique effect, either spitting plasma at approaching ships or making the planet's liberation project requirements more difficult. 
• Landing on a bug planet will cause the queen to temporarily go into hiding, delaying her egg laying efforts, but you will need to fully liberate the planets in order to eradicate the infestation!

Solo Starfarer Mode

Fend off the planetary invasions in true privateer fashion! Build out your own ship while you send your shuttle off for critical missions.

How Solo Starfarer mode works:

• Play using the Invasion Imperative game mode (pick any invasion) and follow the normal 2-player setup and rules—except you don’t run two standard ships.
• At setup, build one normal ship plus a special shuttle.
• Outfit the shuttle with advanced upgrades tailored to its mission (mobility, combat, etc.).
• While deployed, the shuttle acts like its own ship: it can collect cargo, land on planets, and complete missions.
• When you recall the shuttle, transfer its resources to your main ship, then refit it with new outfits for the next mission.

Contract Crew

Hire specialists. Pay their keep. Try not to get attached.

How Contract Crew work:

• At setup, draw 2 random crew tiles per planet and place them beneath that planet.
• When you land on a planet, you may hire 1 crew there by paying the listed credits.
• While on your ship, crew grant a unique action or bonus (e.g., flick a missile at an enemy, re-roll the specimen research die).
• Each time you land on any planet, you must pay each crew again to keep them, or fire them and leave them on your current planet (where another player can hire them).

Nexuses

Shortcuts through space—side effects may include doom.

How Nexuses work:

• If you end your turn touching a Nexus token, immediately move your ship to any other ship in the game (friend or foe).
• Then immediately encounter that ship—trade to help complete missions, or attack an enemy (Pirate, Reaper, Zorg, etc.).

Specimen Research

Poke the weird thing. What could go wrong?

How Specimen Research works:

At the end of a turn where you didn’t land on a planet/station and didn’t explore an anomaly, you may perform Specimen Research. Choose one:

• Experiment: Roll the specimen research die on one specimen. On a success, score its value in credits—but you risk containment failure, which costs you 1 passenger or crew.
• Breed (2+ specimens): Draw Explore cards equal to your specimen count. If you draw any specimens, keep one. Congrats—it’s a beautiful, baby… slimy thing.

Stellar Scenarios

Fast setup. Fresh trouble. Simplify game setup and create thematic game experiences! Rather than being told that this game is a "full sandbox experience, where you can adapt and adjust any aspect to your liking," now you will have some helpful guides to setting up an immersive game experience that matches your group's specific likes, available time, and desired complexity level!

How Stellar Scenarios work:

• Before setup, you and your fellow Starfighters choose a scenario.
• The scenario card tells you how to set up the Anomaly deck, how to handle the first few anomaly explorations (long- vs. short-range scan), and any other recommended/required modules or tweaks.
• Use scenarios to lock in a theme (e.g., Space Trek or Space Wars) or to match your preferred complexity and play time—there are tons to choose from.
• Feel free to modify any scenario; it’s a guide to help you navigate all the Drop Drive content.

Starter Ships

An optional way to start with a crappy generic ship, and then head to distant planets to upgrade to their unique technologies! Provides a more epic feel of starting from next to nothing and building your ship based on your actual exploration.

How Starter Ships work:

• Each player starts with generic starter ship front/back cards plus a Fuel Bay upgrade card.
• Starter ships have limited stats, so you’ll want to upgrade quickly.
• When you land on a planet, you may swap one starter ship card for a normal ship card from that planet (match the planet-of-origin icon).
• This lets you build toward a strategy based on each culture’s unique ship strengths.

Cosmic Crate Storage Solution

Because your collection deserves a proper cargo hold. 

A complete storage solution for the base game and all expansions to date. 

PLEASE NOTE: Everything that follows is using prototype components only!

Limited Promo Pack (2026)

Limited run. Unlimited nonsense. 

A complete set of all Drop Drive promo cards to date, including some new ones, all with upgraded components and rules.

Here's a complete list of what's included:

• Captain Cosmic Boblin
• Dark Jellies anomaly
• The Host passenger
• Beaming upgrade
• NEW: Nurturing ship front
• Incubator ship back
• CometCon (incl. new custom cut swag tokens)
• Jumpgate anomaly
• NEW: Hazard Sectors anomaly (community submission winner!)
• NEW: Huge Meteor anomaly (community submission winner!)

Each of the items above will be printed by our manufacturer, assuring top quality and matching component specs. 

NEW ADD-ON! Based on direct backer feedback and polling!

Based on our community polling, The Worldmind, The Brood, and The Fungus invasions were decided to be included in the base Second Sun expansion box. However, these additional 3 invasions also drew tremendous interest, so we decided to make a separate add-on for them!

Get ready to experience exotic new dangers in this epic content expansion that DOUBLES the number of invasion scenarios available!

IMPORTANT: You MUST manually add this add-on to your pledge - it is not included in any of the reward tiers, as it was not originally available when the campaign launched!

How The Extractors work:

• The Extractors immediately begin strip mining invaded planets' precious resources. 
• Initially, they will start to block off entire rows of market demand on planets they're drilling into. 
• As drilling continues, cracks begin to form in the planets' surfaces, sending shockwaves through the vicinity...  after 2 cracks occur, the planet shatters and becomes a ruined world for the remainder of the game, and the heartless mechanical fleet moves on to the next one!

How The Zorg work:

• Zorg cubes will pursue player ships in their system, but rather than engaging in a straight-up battle, players will instead need to test out different technologies that the Zorg (hopefully) have no memory of. 
• As more of these attacks occur, the Zorg will begin to remember and adapt to the technologies, rendering the attacks useless and backfiring on the player ships.
• Liberating a planet will result in a wipe of the Zorg's memory in that system, allowing a brief respite in their pursuit!

How The Reapers work:

• Reapers are enraged and hell-bent on direct violence! 
• Each invasion phase, all reapers in the systems will move to and attack the closest (unengaged) player ship, gaining a battle bonus based on the number of invaded planets in that system and the presence of the mothership.
• Defeating reapers comes with rewards - you will earn a free piece of the disruptor for each battle win against them!

Reward Tiers

New to Drop Drive?

Add-ons

New items from this campaign

• $40 Drop Drive: Second Sun
• $40 Cosmic Crate
• $10 Limited Promo Pack (2026)
• $10 Invasion Incursion (IMPORTANT: You MUST manually add this as an add-on if you want this expansion pack - it is not included in any reward tier!)

Original items from the earlier campaign

• $50 Drop Drive
• $25 Space Mat
• $10 Space Walls
• $4 Sleeves (each pack of 50)*

*The exact count of sleeve packs required for each product is as follows:

• Full-size Sleeves of Protection:
  • 1 pack is all that's needed for EVERYTHING AVAILABLE for the entire game, including all old and new items
  • 1 pack TOTAL
• Half-size Sleeves of Protection:
  • 2 packs are needed for all the original game products (previous to this campaign)
  • 1 additional pack is needed for the Second Sun expansion
  • 3 packs TOTAL
• Poker-size Sleeves of Protection
  • 1 pack is all that's needed for EVERYTHING AVAILABLE for the entire game, including all old and new items
  • 1 pack TOTAL

Reviews

Live play through on Board & Barrel 

Part 1 (starts at 19:18):

Part 2:

Pre-Stretched (no stretch goals)

The expansion is (mostly) complete

Drop Drive: Second Sun is already “pre-stretched.” It’s packed with a massive amount of content and deluxe components (including heat-printed wooden tokens) right from the start. Because of that, we’re not planning a complicated web of stretch goals that could add risk, delays, or production headaches.

That said… we absolutely have some awesome extras planned. Read on.

Community-informed design decisions

A few parts of the final product are still open for discussion—and we’d love your input as we refine the last details during the campaign:

• Which 3 Invasions make it into the core expansion. UPDATE: This has been determined and reflected on this campaign page above!
• Specimen Research tuning (how much luck vs. control, pacing, etc.). UPDATE: This has been determined and reflected in the draft rules linked on this campaign page above!
• Cosmic Crate art + tray design (look, layout, and usability). UPDATE: The art has been determined (and the tray designs will take more development time on my end, separately): 

Anomaly design contest

Not a stretch goal, but we did leave room for one (maybe two!) exciting additions. We want to create a new Anomaly that uses the extra scenery tokens from the base game—so during the campaign we’ll be running a design contest.

Start brainstorming now… and get ready to get weird. UPDATE: The anomalies have been determined - we will be including THREE in the core expansion and a bonus TWO additional in the Limited Promo Pack (2026):

Taxes & Shipping

NOTE: Small items, such as sleeve packs and mini-expansions, are not considered games and will not incur additional shipping costs. 

USA: During the pledge manager, after the campaign, we will be collecting sales tax in these states - AZ, CA, CO, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NJ, OH, TN, PA, UT, VA, WA, and WI.

EU: VAT will be collected additionally in the pledge manager. Your games will ship from Germany. No taxes are charged at the time of delivery.

UK: VAT will be collected additionally in the pledge manager. Your games will ship from the UK. No taxes are charged at the time of delivery.

Canada: GST will be collected additionally in the pledge manager. Your games will ship from within Canada. No taxes are charged at the time of delivery.

Australia and New Zealand: GST will be collected additionally in the pledge manager. Your games will ship from Australia. No taxes are charged at the time of delivery.

Rest of the World: No taxes will be collected in the pledge manager. Taxes may be due when your games are delivered. Your games will ship from China or USA. We realize the shipping price is high, but that reflects our costs.

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