Fights aren't only about bigger guns. Mid-slot electronic warfare modules blind, slow and spoil an enemy's aim, and any rack can be overheated for a burst of extra power at the cost of damaging its modules. The Choir and the Cartel use electronic warfare too.
Electronic warfare
All three need a lock and cycle like a stasis tether. Using them on someone counts as an attack.
- Target jammer Kessler Hush-3 Target Jammer. Each cycle it rolls to jam the target: its strength against the target's sensor strength. A jammed ship loses every lock and can only lock the ships jamming it until the cycle ends.
- Sensor dampener Kessler Fog-2 Sensor Dampener. Cuts the target's lock range and scan resolution: locks beyond the new range break, and new locks take longer.
- Tracking disruptor Kessler Glare-4 Tracking Disruptor. The target's turrets track worse and reach less far. Seekers aren't affected.
Your status dial shows what's on you: JAM with the seconds left, DMP and TRK with how much you lost. Target cards show the same tags on the ships you've locked.
Fighting through it
- Jammed? You can always lock whoever is jamming you. Kill the jammer first, or fly out of its range.
- Dampened? Close in. A dampened ship still fights well up close.
- Tracking disrupted? Load a longer-range charge, keep your distance, or switch to seekers.
- A Halcyon Ward-1 Signal Amplifier in a low slot raises your sensor strength by 60 %, so jammers land less often. Bigger hulls have stronger sensors: a cruiser shrugs off a frigate's jammer most of the time.
Damage types and resists
Every hit has a damage type: Ion, Thermal, Kinetic or Concussive. Each defense layer resists some types more than others, and the pirates have their own weak spots:
| Who | Weak to |
|---|---|
| Cartel (shield-heavy) | Ion on shields, Thermal on armor |
| Choir (armored) | Kinetic and Concussive, especially on armor |
Ballistic and coil guns can switch damage type with their charges; beams stay Ion and Thermal:
| Weapon class | Damage-type charges |
|---|---|
| Ballistic | Incendiary Rounds (Thermal), Arc Rounds (Ion) |
| Coil | Ion Slug (Ion), Flechette Slug (Concussive) |
| Beam | Gamma Crystal (Ion, close range), Infrared Crystal (Thermal, long range). Crystals are never used up. |
Each trades a little range for its damage type. Right-click or long-press a weapon in the rack to swap; the menu also has Reload to top up a part-empty magazine. Show mePlay to try this
Overheat
Each rack has a heat button on its left. Turn it on and every module in that rack that cycles gets +20 to 30 %: more damage for weapons, more speed for propulsion, more repair for boosters and repairers, more range and strength for tethers, tackle and electronic warfare. Show mePlay to try this
- Turn overheat on for the rack you need right now, usually the weapons.
- Watch the heat fill the button and the thin bar under each module: that's heat damage, and it grows faster the hotter the rack gets.
- Turn it off once the fight turns. Heat bleeds away on its own, the damage doesn't.
A module at full heat damage burns out and stays offline. Damaged modules work as normal until then. Repair them at any station with the ship repair; a damaged module has to be repaired before you can unfit it.
Wear
Every active module also wears a little while it cycles, overheated or not: guns, launchers, boosters, propulsion, mining lasers. About five hours of cycling wears a module all the way down, and a fully worn module goes offline until it is serviced. The station Repair services your modules along with armor and hull. The repair shop shows each ship's wear and how much of the repair cost is module servicing, so you know what you pay for. Worn modules can be unfitted at any time.