Missile weapons (crew screen)

The missile weapons crew screen targets, arms, and fires the ship's weapons and manages its shields.

This screen is designed for crews of more than 6 officers, or for officers using more than one screen at a time.

• For crews of 5-6 officers, see the Weapons crew screen, whichi combines the functions of the beam weapons and missile weapons crew screens into a single crew screen.
• For crews of 3-4 officers, see the Tactical crew screen, which combines functions of Helms and Weapons into a single crew screen.
• For single-person crews, see the Single pilot crew screen, which combines some functions of Helms, Weapons, and Relay.

For more details on specific types of weapons, see Weapon types.

Targeting

To guide homing missile weapons, the Weapons officer should typically lock onto a target. This is done by tapping/clicking the desired target.

You can optionally fire missile weapons without a lock, either by not selecting a ship (to fire them in a straight line out of their tubes' orientation) or by tapping/clicking the Lock missiles to select a heading using a targeting ring around the outside of the radar.

Note: A ship can target beams and missile weapons separately. See Beam weapons (crew screen) for details about beam targeting.

If the Weapons crew screen is active and is used to lock onto a target, it automatically sets both target types simultaneously. If your ship has both a Weapons crew screen and the split beam and missile weapons' crew screens, your targeting selections might come into conflict.

Weapon tubes

Weapon tubes fire your most powerful weapons, such as missiles and mines. Tubes are fixed hardpoints that face a certain direction, must be individually loaded before they can be fired, and have limited stocks that require resupply when depleted.

Weapons officers require careful aiming in coordination with the Helms officer to be effective, and must monitor and communicate when their stocks are depleted with the Captain and Relay officer to retreat or request resupply when all such weapons are exhausted.

Load and unload tubes

Missile and mine weapons must be loaded into weapon tubes before they can be launched.

• Loading: Select a missile type or mine from your weapon stocks and tap/click Load to load it into a tube. This takes time and is displayed as a progress bar that grows to the right.

  Some tubes can load only certain types of weapons. If you select a weapon type and an empty tube's load button remains disabled, that tube doesn't support the selected weapon type.

• Unloading: Once a tube is loaded, you can tap/click Unload to remove it from the tube to your weapon stocks. This takes time and is displayed as a progress bar that shrinks to the left.

Tube loading and unloading times are influenced by the Missile System's effectiveness.

Lock missiles

When missile Lock is enabled, guided missiles launch toward and pursue the current missile target.

When Lock is disabled, a targeting ring appears on the outer edge of the radar. Use the ring to manually select a heading, and upon launching a guided missile from a tube, the missile will turn toward that heading. A skilled weapons officer can use manual targeting to fire guided missile weapons at targets that evade automatic tracking, or at objects that you otherwise cannot lock onto and target.

(HVLIs and Mines are unguided, and target locks are irrelevant to them.)

Fire tubes

The Weapons officer can fire a loaded tube by tapping it.

For guided weapons, either lock onto a target or use the manual targeting ring to select a heading before firing the tube. Otherwise, the fired missile launches straight forward from the tube's orientation.

(HVLIs and Mines are unguided and always fire straight from their tubes.)

Ship information

The Weapons crew screen provides its officer with only the most relevant details about their ship:

Energy

The ship's current energy, which is consumed by weapon functions and shields.

Effective Weapons officers watch their energy status and communicate with their Engineering officer to ensure that their weapon usage is sustainable and won't burn through the ship's power reserves.

Shields

Front and rear shield charge. 100% is the maximum value, and 0% is fully depleted.

Effective Weapons officers communicate their shield status with the Helms officer to ensure their strongest shields are facing the most dangerous enemies, and with their Engineering officer to ensure that depleted shields' systems are prioritized for repair and recharging.