Skills are what you know as a pilot. They unlock hulls and modules and make everything you fly a little better. Skills train in real time, even while you're offline, so a long queue is always working for you. New pilots also start with a pool of unallocated SP to spend at once.
Steps
- Open the skills window. Open SkillsPlay to try this
- Spend your unallocated SP on a skill you need now with its quick-train button.
- Add skills to the queue for the long run. Show mePlay to try this
- For exploration, start with Astrometrics I. Queue Astrometrics IPlay to try this
How training works
- You earn 1,800 SP per hour, every hour, flat. There are no attributes to tune.
- Each skill has five levels and a rank from 1 to 8. A higher rank means each level costs more SP.
- Levels grow steeply. A rank-1 skill takes minutes for level I and days for level V.
- The queue holds many entries and keeps training in order while you're away. Reorder or remove entries any time.
- A skill can't be queued before its prerequisites. The window shows what's missing.
New pilots start with 250,000 unallocated SP. That's enough for a handful of skills at level II or III. Spend it on what you'll use this week. Finishing the Charter Orientation adds more.
Requirements
Hulls need their Command skill, and many modules need a skill too. You'll see "Requires … I" lines on market rows, in the fitting window and on ship cards, with an Add to queue button.
Requires Cruiser I| You want to fly | Train |
|---|---|
| A Harrier (cruiser) | Cruiser |
| A Dray (industrial) | Industrial |
| A Prospector (mining barge) | Mining Barge |
| A Bastion (battleship) | Battleship |
| An Ark (carrier) | Carrier |
Medium and large weapons need their size skill, such as Medium Beam Turrets. Overdrives need Overdrive Operation, tackle needs Slip Interdiction, and the Rend-5 Strip Laser needs Strip Mining.
Skill groups
| Group | What it does |
|---|---|
| Spaceship Command | Fly bigger hulls; +2 % agility per level on that hull. |
| Beam, Ballistic and Coil Gunnery, Ordnance | Fit weapons and hit harder. |
| Gunnery Support | Faster cycles, longer optimal range, better tracking. |
| Navigation | Afterburners, overdrives, slip speed, a smaller signature while moving. |
| Engineering | Reactor capacity and recharge, more CPU and powergrid. |
| Shields and Armor | More hit points, faster repairs. |
| Targeting | Lock range, lock speed, more targets. |
| Industry | Mining yield, strip lasers, refining yield. |
| Trade | Lower broker fees and sales tax, more cargo. |
| Social | Agent access and contract rewards. |
| Science | Probing, hacking and archaeology. |
The explorer's path
Astrometrics lets you fit a Probe Launcher and makes your probes stronger. Hacking unlocks the Data Analyzer. Archaeology unlocks the Relic Analyzer and needs Astrometrics I first. All three are quick at level I.