Starlight Nesting: How It Works

You sponsor and facilitate a Nest; the two companions choose to form it. Time folds inside a Nest, so when the timer finishes the new companion emerges physically grown and able to speak, inexperienced but not helpless, and joins your crew's care. They inherit a blend of both parents' colors, markings, stats and species, with a chance at something rare.

The folded time is called Temporal Gestation, and it is why a newly nested companion can go straight out on an expedition: nobody is sending a newborn into a Fracture.

Starting a nest

Open the Celestial Forge and pick two eligible companions as Parent 1 and Parent 2.
Optionally add a Stardust Catalyst and/or attempt a Celestial Marking (see “Rare touches” below).
Pay the nest cost to sponsor it. The pair forms the Nest and it begins.
When the timer finishes, come back to welcome your new companion.

Who can nest? Both companions must be in your crew, not busy on an expedition or incursion, off their cooldown, and at least level 5. You won't need a free berth to sponsor a Nest, but you will once it's ready.

Lining up the next one. Saved Pairings on the Forge page bookmark a pair for later at no cost; the breeding queue lines pairings up to start automatically the moment a nest slot frees, without charging anything until a nest actually begins.

Cost. The base nest is paid in Glimmer. The optional Catalyst, Celestial Marking, and Twins add-ons are each paid in Stardust.

Cancelling. Cancel a nest within 10 minutes of starting it and you get a full refund of the Glimmer and Stardust spent, and both parents' cooldown is cleared as if the nest never happened. Cancel after that window and the currency spent is forfeited, and the parents' cooldown stands.

Species

Nest two companions of the same species and the descendant is always that species. Pair different species and they lean toward the more common parent; rarer species are recessive.

Pairing	Descendant's odds
Same species	100% that species
Two Common species (Feline · Canine · Rabbit)	50% / 50%
Common × Uncommon (Squirrel · Otter)	75% Common / 25% Uncommon
Uncommon × Rare (Badger)	75% Uncommon / 25% Rare
Common × Rare	90% Common / 10% Rare

Rarity tiers: Common: Feline, Canine, Rabbit · Uncommon: Squirrel, Otter · Rare: Badger.

Colors

The descendant's base, eyes, nose, and beans colors are each blended from both parents, with natural variation so no two turn out quite alike:

Usually the color lands near the blend of the two parents.
Sometimes it leans noticeably toward one parent.
Occasionally it comes out very close to a single parent's color.

Over generations you can steer a bloodline's palette by consistently pairing toward the colors you want.

Markings

Markings are where nesting gets interesting. Each parent can carry several marking types, and the descendant inherits them by these rules:

Shared markings are dominant. If both parents have the same marking type, the descendant always gets it, with a blended color.
Solo markings are a coin-flip. A marking only one parent has passes down about half the time.
Building up. A faint marking can grow stronger across generations. Two parents at full strength guarantee full strength; otherwise it lands somewhere between the parents and can climb a little higher each generation, so a wispy marking becomes a bold one over time.
Very faint solo markings may not carry. A barely-there marking on just one parent can fail to transmit even when the coin-flip goes its way.

Parent order decides the layering

Markings stack in layers, and which companion you pick first matters:

Parent 1's markings sit on the bottom layers.
Parent 2's unique markings (ones Parent 1 doesn't have) stack on top.

If the layering isn't coming out the way you want, swap which companion is Parent 1 and try again: same pair, different stacking. When the two carry different markings, the descendant tends to look more like Parent 2, because those marks end up on top.

Stats

A newly hatched companion starts with a base of 10 in each stat: Might, Grace, and Instinct. That's only their birth value, not a ceiling: every companion earns XP from expeditions and Incursions, levels up, and gains points to allocate toward whichever stat you want to grow, up to a ceiling that's usually a little higher for a deeper generation. A companion's own page shows its current level, XP, and stat ceilings, and lets you spend a Legacy Echo to raise one further or pay Glimmer to reset allocated points back to the pair's birth values.

A parent's Instinct raises the descendant's mutation chance (below): each point of parent-average Instinct above 10 adds +1%, so lucky, high-Instinct parents are more likely to produce something special.

Mutations

Every Nest has a 10% base chance of a mutation: a shimmering full-body overlay (nebula, aurora, galaxy, iridescence and more) that makes a companion one-of-a-kind, before the Instinct bonus above. This is the coat itself reacting to ambient Stardust, which is why the Observatory's controlled Refractions never produce one. See every mutation →

Didn't get one, or got one you'd rather not keep? The Mutation Workshop lets you preview and apply any mutation to a companion in your crew for 200 🔷, or strip it back to none for 150 ✨. A companion carries at most one mutation at a time, so applying a new one replaces whatever it had.

Rare touches (Stardust add-ons)

Stardust Catalyst. A 35% chance of a ✦ Star-Touched descendant: something in the blood or the eyes carries a fragment of the original impact's colour, pulling their hues toward radiant celestial shades. They wear a Star-Touched badge on their profile.
Celestial Marking. Every Nest already carries a flat 1% chance at a Celestial Marking: a luminous mark left by a literal brush against an open Fracture during Temporal Gestation, which is why no Refraction can ever etch one. Paying for the Celestial Marking add-on raises that to 5% for this Nest. Once a companion carries one, each celestial-marked parent gives an independent 3% chance to pass the trait down, even in Nests where you don't pay for the add-on.
Twins. Guarantees the Nest brings forth two companions instead of one. Each is rolled independently, so their species, colors, markings, stats, and any rare touches can differ.

Generation & cooldown

Generation. A descendant's generation is one deeper than its deepest parent. Companions who came through a Prism Refraction are Generation 1.
Cooldown. After a Nest, both parents rest for a while before they can nest again.