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The subject of this article is from the NEXT update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 28 October, 2018. |
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 28 October, 2018.

Space battle (Pathfinder)
Space battle are ship-to-ship combat episodes
Summary[ | ]
Space battle is a type of combat. As of v4.64, most ground battles in this game are against Sentinels. In contrast, Starship battles have a variety of opponents and situations. There are many unintentional and unexpected events, and many events that are easily overlooked. This page introduces the contents, triggers, and points to note.
Combat with Pirates[ | ]
In space, you may fight pirates. After being scanned by a space pirate, you will be attacked if the time limit has passed or if you use the "Starship Communicator" from the Quick Menu. This is more likely to occur in star systems with a high conflict situation. It is also more likely to occur if you have many units or items that can be sold at a high price.
There are patterns that occur immediately after warping using the "Hyperdrive" of the ship and patterns that occur suddenly. The pattern that occurs immediately after warping can be further divided into "Space Rescue" and "engage in combat with a Pirate Dreadnought". The pattern of sudden occurrence is the same as that of a space rescue, but this occurs rarely while traveling through space.
Loots[ | ]
Enemy ships automatically drop items when you approach a small tube that appears just before the plane explodes.
- In space, the enemy plane will slowly move away in the same direction as the plane before it collapses. If the course is correct, you can pick it up naturally even if it's quite rough.
- In the atmosphere, it is difficult to pick it up because it is pulled down by gravity. If you want to avoid dropping it, you need to be conscious of stabbing it in front of you at close range to finish it off.
In both space and atmosphere, if you are too close to the explosion of an enemy ships, you will receive a small amount of damage, so be careful not to unconsciously let your Deflector Shield decrease too much when fighting multiple battles. In previous versions, you could also recover your shield by picking up the tube, but the tube has no shield recovery effect since v3.85 Outlaws.
Space Rescue[ | ]
Pirates are attacking freighters. Players can join in the fight to repel them. When this occurs, it is automatically added to the mission list in the "Log." It will disappear automatically if you resolve it by getting involved or failing, or if you move on to another location without getting involved.
There are two types of missions with the same name:
The first type type occasionally occurs immediately after an inter-system warp in a ship. This type suddenly unfolds in front of you after the player's ship warps out. It is said to occur repeatedly depending on the amount of play time and the number of warps. It is a rare opportunity to encounter a large freighter.
The second type can suddenly occur when you are in space within a star system. This type rarely occurs randomly. The latter can occur very rarely if the player is in space (not pulse jump, but in normal flight) for a long time.
The exact conditions for occurrence are unknown. One reason is probably that it depends on the star system. It is likely to occur in "star systems with a relatively high level of conflict" and "star systems where freighters are frequently deployed in space." If the conflict level of a star system is simply too high, bounties and the like will occur, and this is unlikely to occur. The other reason is probably due to the current location of the player and NPC freighters in space. It seems that in the same star system, there are "locations where it rarely occurs" and "locations where it repeats again in about 10 minutes." However, even if you succeed in discovering the latter location, there is no way to note the coordinates in space (other than leaving a Space Anomaly there), so it will be almost impossible to use it repeatedly as a place to earn "cargo bulkheads." When this occurs, a message will appear on the HUD stating that an NPC freighter fleet is sending out a distress signal for a pirate attack, and one marker will light up.
In previous versions, in this state, freighters owned by the player would also go into emergency mode and would be unable to land (the normally blue entrance would turn red). As of v4.08, it is believed to be possible to land. When you head to the marker, you will see several friendly ships and several pirates fighting around the freighter. The subsequent developments are almost the same as the former type (freighter #space rescue) above. If you destroy all the pirates while being careful not to hit the freighter by mistake, you will land and receive a reward of "Cargo Bulkhead" and "Gold" from the captain on the bridge, as well as evaluation from the lifeforms.
In both of the above two types, the enemies are much weaker than normal space pirates. Even if you take your time, your defense objectives will not be taken. If you want the reward, fight calmly and carefully.
However. If you have called your freighter near the current situation in the star system. If you rush to the location because this sub-mission has occurred, the rescue target will be your freighter, and the mission will end with the destruction of all the pirates. There will be no thank-you message or marker for the captain, and no reward from anywhere. This may also happen.
Pirate Dreadnoughts[ | ]
Added in v4.40 Echoes. The game starts with a freighter being attacked by a pirate ship immediately after warping out.
The player can not only repel the Dreadnought-class pirate ship, but also destroy it. If you destroy it, you will receive a reward for successfully defending the freighter, and you can hire a pirate frigate.
Unlike Space Rescue, if you take too long, the defense target will be destroyed, but there is no disadvantage such as a decrease in the race's evaluation. In terms of the situation, it seems that you are not at fault as you happened to be at the scene of a freighter being attacked by a pirate ship, but were unable to help.
For more details, see Pirate Dreadnought.
Enemy Destruction[ | ]
If you destroy antisocial opponents such as pirates and bounty hunters (Starships other than Sentinel Interceptor with red exhaust smoke), the lifeform's opinion of you will increase. Just before exploding, such aircraft may drop suspicious packages, luxury items for lifeforms, or Pirate Transponder.
Conversely, if you destroy a harmless Starships (with green exhaust smoke), the lifeform's reputation of you will decrease. Just before exploding, these ships may drop Concentrated Carbon, or metal resources (this may vary depending on the version).
Request[ | ]
A mission where you fight at a designated location based on the request you received. The opponent is usually a pirate, but it may be different depending on the star system and the requester.
Mission Board[ | ]
When you talk to a lifeform in distress and offer your help, you will usually end up inspecting and repairing the starship. However, there are also cases where a sub-mission related to combat will begin. In that case, a marker will appear on the location of the enemy you need to defeat.
There may be cases where you "defeat a group of pirates like in the mission board" and "defeat a bounty hunter". The enemy itself is not particularly strong or weak. It is the same level as a general opponent. After defeating it, you report to the lifeform you just talked to (not to the mission agent of the space station) (a marker will also appear). When you report completion, the lifeform's reputation of you will increase slightly. At the same time, you will receive a small amount of Nanites, but it is quite modest. This event is an old one that has been around since v1.6, and the rewards have not yet been adjusted to match the current value of v4.44.
Nexus[ | ]
The system is slightly different from the one on the mission board. Just heading to the marker location will not result in a battle. The battle will only begin after you head there and perform a scan (and wait for the arrival of your group members, and once allies are nearby, you can start the battle at any time).
Bounty Master[ | ]
Your opponents are not necessarily pirates. If you try to complete it, you will inevitably lose the lifeforms' reputation of you. A journey that says "There are things more important than honor" and a journey that says "Having something in mind and don't take the job" are both play styles.
Combat Aviodance[ | ]
If you don't want to fight, you can escape by summon a Space Anomaly from the Quick Menu and enter it. This is the most fastest method ever for avoiding combat.
If there is a freighter or space station nearby, escape there. Continue to boost straight through space (it's better not to steer aimlessly. Just maintain full speed straight). Hold on like that for a few dozen seconds, and when the screen says that pulse jumps are available again, pulse jump. Set your power to "Engine" and shake off the attack.
If you don't prefer these, reload the autosave. Your game progress will be rewound to the point of the autosave.
Piracy[ | ]
Players can attack freighters in space and steal their cargo. Destroying the freighter's container or pod ships accompanying the fleet will give you their cargo. The contents of each item will be displayed when you approach the target and aim at it.
Normal and non-playable freighters will not lower the opinion of the lifeforms even if you attack them, whether they are owned by the player or not. From v4.40 Echoes, the reputation of the lifeforms will be lowered by 1 point for each cargo destroyed. Attacking and destroying pod ships will lower the reputation of the lifeforms by 1 point per ship, for a total of 2 points. If you do it multiple times, it will drop rapidly. Be careful.
Instead, each act of piracy will increase the outlaw's reputation by 1 point. From v4.40 onwards, the freighter itself can also be destroyed. After removing the shield, you can attack the hull to destroy it. However, this plundering will result in a counterattack from the freighter itself. Unless the location is a star system with an outlaw station, you will also be attacked by Sentinel Interceptors as well.
Since v4.40, when you destroy cargo or other items through piracy, the reputation of the ruling lifeform of that star system will decrease for each action. If you have committed too many pirates and your reputation has become negative, and you want to reset your negative reputation, use a Forged Passport on the Station Core of a normal star system.
Freighters can be distinguished by the shape of the bow. The position and number of gun turrets vary depending on the generation pattern. And in fact, as of v4.08, the "pattern with gun turrets on the bottom side of the ship" is limited to a few shapes. So if you find the freighter's guns annoying, approach them from the bottom side (the side without the bridge or entrance) and you won't get shot at as much. However, you can't always aim at all the containers from the bottom side, so if you want to be greedy, you should be prepared to be shot at on the deck side, more or less.
If you feel you aimed at the container and shoot it but it take a strange amount of time to destroy it, try removing "Flight Assist Override" from the "Technology" section of the starship's Inventory. Your chances of being hit may increase slightly, but your attack hit rate will increase more significantly. This is most noticeable with weapons that have slow bullet speeds.
For freighters with open bridges, the hit detection for the main body is not near the bridge. If there is a damage display, your attack has hit, so attack in that direction.
Sentinel[ | ]
Sentinels are also deployed in space. If you takeoff with a Sentinel Alert Level, a Sentinel interceptor will come from the upper layers of the atmosphere, and the Sentinel alert level will be reset to "1".
In a general star system, you may be scanned by the star system authorities (a Sentinel interceptor icon will be displayed in the top center of the screen). If the player is carrying illegal items in a slot other than a Storage Container and is found to be in the possession of them by a scan, you will receive a communication from the authorities. Similar to a scan from a space pirate, there is one countermeasure before combat and three options after the communication.
- Use a Cargo Scan Deflector to avoid the scan itself. If successful, no communication will come and no battle will take place.
- Hand over all prohibited items: If your cargo is discovered and a communication comes, hand over all the illegal items. This is likely to avoid a battle with a high or certainty.
- Surrender an item: If your cargo is discovered and a communication comes, hand over only some of the illegal items. This is likely to avoid a battle with a low probability.
- Refuse to comply: This will always result in a battle.
When the player attacks a freighter fleet or a podship around it, the Sentinel alert level in space will be reached and Sentinel interceptors will arrive. If you are in an Outlaw System, nothing will come. However, this does not mean there are no obstacles. You will be shot at by the guns of the freighter you attacked.
If the player attack the space station, about 10 Sentinel interceptors will be sent out one after another from the station. Nothing happens if you attack the outlaw station. In Creative mode, there is no battle. Sentinel interceptors appear, but they ignore the player and fly away.
No matter how many you kill, as long as you are near the station, reinforcements will continue to be replenished from the station immediately, so if you fight near the station, you cannot eliminate all enemies. Therefore, the alert level in space does not increase. If you move away from the station to a certain extent, enemies will no longer be added from the station and you will be able to eliminate them (and the alert level will increase as usual and the next warp will appear).
The Sentinel interceptors that appear recover their shields very quickly, they also move quickly. You will not be able to fight them if you are not properly prepared. Each time you eliminate them, the Sentinel alert level increases. They will appear in greater numbers and continue to attack.
During the interval between the "alert level increase due to the annihilation" and the "resulting appearance of the next reinforcement", you can perform a Pulse Engine jump. However, if you manually stop the pulse jump midway (to change direction, etc.), the countdown to the appearance of the reinforcements will start again. Also, when the countdown ends and the reinforcements warp out, the pulse jump will be forcibly stopped.
In other words, you can travel long distances with a pulse jump, but if you cannot reach a space station or planetary base in the shortest possible time, the attack will resume soon. The only way to escape is to jump to a safe area in one go.
After repeating the annihilation and the appearance of reinforcements, the final alert level of "5" will be reached, at which point the Sentinel Capital Ship will appear. Before v4.15 Fractal, there were many cases where "the player's ship's direction of travel and the ship's appearance position overlapped perfectly", "the spaceship got stuck inside the ship", and "the only way to escape the situation was to execute the emergency warp unit or reload the save data".
It is unknown whether this will occur after v4.20 Interceptor. For this reason, try not to get too close to the warp-out point (where the white ring is) when the ship is on alert level 5. It is especially dangerous to rush in at full speed after the forced stop of the pulse jump, as you will be directly in front of it. If you see a warning of warp-out, it is safer to slow down or turn and accept the enemy ship's appearance.
This ship is very tough, but you can defeat it by continuing to attack it. If you do, the alert level will rese to zero (and the surrounding Sentinel interceptors will also disappear). You will also get an item called "Carrier AI Fragment" that will reveal a certain crash site.
If you do not defeat it, the alert level will remain at "5" and will not change (even if you defeat all the Sentinel interceptors and leave by pulse jumping away, the alert level will not be released from "5").
Before v4.15 Fractal, at level 5, indestructible Sentinel battleships would reappear at the player's ship's pulse jump destination no matter how many times they were used, making it impossible to escape. The only way to stop fighting was to escape to a Space Anomaly or similar.
As of v4.21 Interceptor, enemies do not reappear at level 5. In other words, it seems that you can effectively escape a combat situation by pulse jumping (although your alert is not lifted). ...It is unclear whether this is the correct new specification or some kind of transitional or unexpected behavior.
Enemy Behavior in Multiplayer[ | ]
In multiplayer, only one person can be targeted by an enemy. This is a tricky system where one enemy targets only one person, for example, even in a mission that you have been working on, it will target other players who pass by and will not target you.
Also, the rules of who will be the target are unknown, and when you are fighting on this side, they will suddenly target a player who is nearby. It may not be a good target for players who deal more damage during battle.