Weapons
The weapons crew screen targets, arms, and fires the ship's weapons and manages its shields.
This screen is designed for crews of 5-6 officers per bridge.
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For crews of more than 6 officers, or for officers using more than one screen at a time, see:
- Beam weapons (crew screen) and Missile weapons (crew screen), which allow these weapons to each be targeted independently of one another
- The Target analysis crew screen, which allows the Science officer to quickly and visually report a target's tactical information to the Weapons officer.
- 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.
The Weapons screen provides a short-range radar that displays nearby targets. Friendly targets are colored green by default, hostiles are red, neutrals are blue, and unknown contacts are white.
To fire beam weapons or guide 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) and Missile weapons (crew screen) for details.
When you lock onto a target using the Weapons crew screen, you automatically set 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.
By default, the top of the radar always points to 0 degrees, and the player ship's icon at the center rotates to indicate its current heading.
To make the radar rotate instead of the player ship, toggle the radar rotation setting for Weapons in the Preferences file, or in the Interface options in the Options menu.
To toggle shield activation, press the Shields button. The button also indicates the current shield frequency in terahertz (THz), which can be Recalibrated.
It might seem tempting to keep the shields up at all time, but they drain significantly more power when they are active.
You can calibrate your shields to a specific frequency to minimize damage from certain hostile beam weapon frequencies. Shield recalibration takes time and requires lowering your shields, which leaves you vulnerable until calibration is completed.
Shield recalibration time is influenced by the Front and Rear Shield Systems' effectiveness.
Effective Weapons officers work closely with their Science officer to maximize their beams' offensive output by modulating their beams to a vulnerable frequency, and with their Engineering officer to ensure that beams don't deplete their ship's resources.
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.
Missile and mine weapons must be loaded into weapon tubes before they can be launched.
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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.
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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.
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.)
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.)
Beam weapons are precision energy weapons that can fire at any target within their arc. Beams have limited range, generate significant heat, and consume significant amounts of energy. However, they fire instantly, automatically hit their targets, aren't limited by storage capacity, and allow you to surgically damage or disable a target's systems.
Beam weapon firing rates are influenced by the Beam Weapons system's effectiveness.
Some beams are also turreted, which means the beam itself has a narrow arc but can physically rotate within its wider arc to reach the selected beam target. Turret rotation speed can be reduced by beam system effectiveness, which can dramatically reduce their effectiveness.
Effective Weapons officers work closely with their Helms officer to put evasive targets in their beams' firing arcs and keep them there, with their Science officer to maximize their beams' offensive output by modulating their beams to a vulnerable frequency, and with their Engineering officer to ensure that beams don't deplete their ship's resources.
When beam Autofire is enabled, your beams automatically fire at any selected beam target once that target is within any beam arc.
When Autofire is disabled, your beams won't fire under any circumstances.
Disable Autofire as a safety measure around unknown or unscanned targets, or when you don't want to unintentionally perform aggressive actions toward a target.
Beam weapons are energy weapons automatically fired at a selected target within the weapon's arc and range, which might be part of a turreted system that takes time to rotate toward a target. Beam weapons are perfectly and surgically accurate, even capable of damaging specific systems on a target, but are relatively weak compared to missile and mine weapons. They can also be calibrated to better penetrate an enemy's shields by applying shield frequency data from the Science officer.
- Frequency: Set the beam weapons' frequency to best match what the target's shields are weakest against, so that your beams are most effective. The Science crew screens can fully scan a target, and Science can either directly report how its shields react to certain beam frequencies or link that data to a Target analysis crew screen.
- Target: The specific system for beam weapons to damage. The Science crew screen can fully scan a target to see its system status, and Science can either directly report the target's systems statuses or link that data to a Target analysis crew screen. Select Hull to destroy a target ship.
The Weapons crew screen provides its officer with only the most relevant details about their ship:
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.
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.