“An officer sitting idle is an officer wasted. Send them somewhere.”
— Fleet Admiral Selene Voss
Away teams
Officers who are not in a seat can be sent on away teams. Open the Academy and press the AWAY TEAMS tab. You need an Academy: it sets how many teams can be out at once.
| Academy Mark | Teams out at once |
|---|---|
| 1 or 2 | 1 |
| 3 or 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 |
Each day (from 00:00 UTC) brings five missions, each of a different kind. Each can be sent once that day. A mission says how long it takes, what it pays, and which officers suit it.
- Click a mission.
- Fill its team of up to three: click an empty place to choose an officer, or press AUTO-FILL for the best free officers for it. A click on a chosen officer takes them off.
- Press SEND AWAY TEAM. The team is out until the time is up, offline or not.
The team's match. Most missions ask for an officer of a class (Tactical, Engineering, Science) or of your own faction. Each officer can meet one need. The more needs your team meets, the more it brings back: x0.50 with none met, up to x1.25 with every one. A weaker team never fails, it brings back less. The screen shows the match as WEAK, FAIR, GOOD or GREAT, with a tick on each officer who meets a need.
A mission marked RISK pays between x0.5 and x1.5 of that, by luck. The luck is fixed for that mission: sending it again does not roll again.
| Mission pays | For each hour, before the match |
|---|---|
| Dossiers of one officer | 2 |
| Dossiers of your own faction's officers | 1 |
| A Recruit Token | 1, whatever the hours |
| Commendations | 50 |
| Standing with your own faction | 20 |
| Training Data | 20 |
| Minerals | 500 for each commander level |
| Helium-3 | 125 for each commander level |
| Antimatter | 25 for each commander level |
Missions take 1 to 8 hours. Each officer of the team also learns 150 XP an hour, held at their rank's level cap.
While they are away officers cannot take a seat, train, or command your base. RECALL on the team's card brings it home at once with nothing. A team that comes back while you are offline is paid when you next sign in.
The base commander
From Academy Mark 2 one officer can command your base. Open the Academy and press the BASE COMMANDER tab, then CHOOSE.
When your base is raided, the base commander's Officer Ability works for the base, and half their ATTACK, DEFENSE and HEALTH, as a bridge officer's, go to your defences: ATTACK to your guns' damage, DEFENSE to your shields, HEALTH to every building's health and armor. The screen shows what they add. Your base's defense rating counts them.
Abilities that make ships evade or break buildings do nothing for a base: the screen says so, and the base still takes the officer's ratings.
Raiders see your base commander when they scout your base, and the target card names them, so they can plan against them. The base commander learns from every raid on your base: 3,000 XP when the base holds, 1,200 when it is breached. The raid result lists them as BASE COMMANDER.
A base commander cannot sit on a fleet, train or go on an away team. An officer seated on a docked fleet leaves that seat to take command. CLEAR empties the seat. If the Academy falls below Mark 2 or is in ruins, the seat does nothing until it is back.
Hull specialists
The two Rare officers of every faction are hull specialists: each knows one hull class and gives every ship of that class in the fleet a bonus to its damage, its shields or its armor.
A specialist works from any bridge seat (captain or officer), on top of their ratings and ability. The bonus is 6.5% at rank 1 and grows with rank as abilities do. Two specialists of the same kind and class add up, to 25% at most.
The bridge crew screen lights the ships a specialist helps in gold, with the class on each, and a SPECIALIST row in the crew bonuses says how many ships take it. The officer's screen shows the class and the bonus at their rank.
The Tide's commanders
Each of the Tide's three incursion flagships has a commander of its own. Select the flagship's fleet, or hold the pointer on it, and a card shows the commander, their maneuver at the flagship's threat level, and your record against them.
| Commander | Flagship | Maneuver |
|---|---|---|
| Vex'thara, the Hollow Crown | Hivemind | CROWN OF THORNS: below half health, its ships throw back 14% of the damage they take, for 15 seconds (+1% for each threat level above 1) |
| Oru'khal, the Deep Maw | Leviathan | UNDERTOW: your ships move 20% slower for 20 seconds (+1.2% for each threat level above 1) |
| Sereth'ka, the Thousand Eyes | Overmind | MIND SPIKE: your ships deal 15% less damage for 12 seconds (+1% for each threat level above 1) |
The maneuver shows on the battle screen as the Tide's own banner. Your record counts each time you fight the flagship's fleet (MET) and each incursion you fought in whose flagship fleet was destroyed (BEATEN).
The first time each week you beat a commander (weeks turn on Monday at 00:00 UTC) pays a Trophy and 300 Commendations. Beating them again that week counts in your record.
Finishing an officer's story
Part 2 of an officer's story comes at rank 3 and part 3 at rank 4, once the part before is played. Each is a gold STORY signal, played as part 1 is, and Voss tells each one.
Finishing all three parts gives the officer a title, shown under their name, and dossiers:
| Rarity | Dossiers for the finished story | Dress uniform |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 6 | — |
| Uncommon | 8 | — |
| Rare | 12 | — |
| Epic | 20 | Yes |
| Legendary | 20 | Yes |
An Epic or Legendary officer also earns a dress uniform. DRESS UNIFORM on their screen puts them in it, everywhere their face is shown; DUTY UNIFORM puts them back. The part 3 card says what finishing the story gives.