Bridge Officers

Officers

From commander level 10 officers serve on your fleets. Each fleet has a bridge crew: a captain and two officers, and later three more below deck. They make every ship of the fleet stronger, and each brings something of their own to every battle the fleet fights.

There are 96 officers: eight for each of the eleven factions and eight unaligned. Each faction's eight are two Common, two Uncommon, two Rare, one Epic and one Legendary. Every officer has:

Open everything with the OFFICERS button on the HUD: one of the round buttons at the bottom right (they stand in two rows, Battle Reports first). It appears at commander level 10. A number on it counts the officers you recruited since you last looked, and one more while your free daily recruit waits.

Fleet Admiral Voss's gift. When you reach level 10, or at your first sign-in if you are past it, she gives you a full bridge: one Rare officer of your own faction and three Common officers, and one Elite Token. The first Elite recruit you ever make brings your own faction's Epic officer, whole.

Every number in this chapter is a starting value and may change as officers are played.

The bridge crew

The crew belongs to the fleet, not to a ship: ships can be lost, repaired or moved and the crew stays. A fleet has six seats:

An officer's rank of Captain (rank 5) is not the captain's seat: any officer can take the chair.

Ratings. The captain's ATTACK, DEFENSE and HEALTH count in full and each officer's at half. Together they raise every ship of the fleet: ATTACK its weapon damage, DEFENSE its shield, HEALTH its health (hull and armor). Every 120 points is +1%. The ship cards in the Shipyard and the fleet's totals show the crew in their numbers, as the ships fight.

A rating starts from the officer's rarity: 60 for a Common, 80 Uncommon, 110 Rare, 150 Epic, 200 Legendary. It is x1.3 in their class's stat and x0.85 in the other two, x1.4, x1.8, x2.2 or x2.6 at ranks 2 to 5, and +3% for every level above 1:

Your Academy adds 2% to every officer's ratings for each of its Marks, and your collection up to 5% more.

Synergy. Each officer on the bridge from the captain's own faction makes the captain's maneuver 10% stronger (two of them: 20%). The bridge crew screen says how much you have.

The bridge crew screen

Open a fleet's crew from its row on the fleets panel: from level 10 each row carries a crew strip with the bridge's three faces and the captain's name with the crew count, NAME · 3/3 (or NO CAPTAIN · CREW 3/3), and the fleet's DEFEND chip at its right end. Click the strip. ASSIGN TO FLEET on an officer's screen opens it too.

The screen shows the fleet's ships down the left, the six seats, the CREW BONUSES (the maneuver, each ability and each Below Deck job, at the officer's rank) and the bridge's ATTACK, DEFENSE and HEALTH with what they give every ship.

AUTO-ASSIGN gives the captain's chair to the strongest free officer, the two officer seats to the next two, and each open Below Deck seat to the strongest of the rest who has a Below Deck job. Free means recruited, not training, and not in another fleet's seats.

Crews change at your base. A crew can be changed only while its fleet is docked: not deployed and not in a battle. An officer serving in a fleet that is out stays there until that fleet comes home. An officer training in the Academy cannot take a seat until the training is stopped; one being promoted keeps serving.

Crew presets

CREW PRESETS keep three crews you use often, named TIDE HUNT, MINING and PVP until you name them yourself. They are yours, not a fleet's: any fleet can wear any of them.

1. Seat a crew, press an empty preset to choose it, then + SAVE. A box asks for the preset's name (up to 16 letters); SAVE keeps the fleet's six seats in it under that name.
2. Later, on any docked fleet, press a kept preset: the fleet's seats are emptied and the preset's officers take them.
3. To change a kept preset, press it, change the seats, and press + SAVE again.

A preset officer who is serving in a fleet that is out, or training, is left out, and that seat stays empty: the screen says so. One serving in another fleet at your base moves over.

Officers in battle

Officers work in every battle your fleet fights: against the Tide, a signal's ambush, the incursion flagship, another commander's fleet, and in a raid on a base. Another commander's crew works against you the same way.

The Captain's Maneuver comes from the captain's seat alone. Each officer has their own maneuver, with its own name and numbers; these are the kinds:

A maneuver grows with its officer's rank, from its own value at rank 1 to x1.6 at rank 5 for Common and Uncommon officers, x1.7 for Rare and Epic and x1.8 for Legendary. Synergy adds its 10% or 20% on top. The officer's screen shows the maneuver at every rank, yours lit.

While it runs, a banner at the top of the battle screen shows the captain's face, the maneuver's name, what it does and a gold ring counting its seconds down.

Officer Abilities come from every bridge seat, captain included, and last the whole battle. Two officers with the same kind add up, to a limit:

Abilities grow with rank as maneuvers do. When a crew has the first ability in this table, each of its ships below half health carries a HOLD THE LINE callout on the battlefield.

Below Deck and traits

Below Deck seats open at commander levels 25, 35 and 45. An officer there adds no ratings and uses no maneuver or ability: they bring their Below Deck job, which grows with their rank as abilities do. Each kind of job adds up across the crew to 50% at most. A job works for the fleet its officer serves in:

The Shipyard, the mining plate and a signal's choices show the numbers with the crew in them. A cancelled repair gives back what it cost, whoever is Below Deck by then.

Traits are small bonuses of the same kinds as abilities and jobs. An officer has two from the start and a third at level 20 (a padlock until then). Traits work from any seat, bridge or Below Deck, and do not grow with rank. Hold the pointer on a trait on the officer's screen to read it.

Experience

Officers in a seat learn from what their fleet does. The bridge earns the XP below; Below Deck officers earn half.

A battle or a raid pays in full for a win, 60% for a draw and 40% for a loss. A hull's XP is what building that design for the first time pays, from 50 for a Fighter up to 28,800 for a Dreadnought.

Each level takes more XP than the last (150 x the level to the power 1.75). Each rank stops the officer at a level cap:

At the cap an officer takes no more XP until they are promoted: the XP is not kept for later.

BRIDGE CREW on the battle result. After a battle the result lists your crew: each officer's face, seat, the XP the battle gave (1,000 and more written short, as +6.4K XP), the bar to the next level and a gold LEVEL UP! crest when they reached one. An officer at the level cap shows LEVEL CAP instead of XP: promote them to keep learning. A line says what the captain's maneuver did, for example how much extra damage it dealt or how much damage it stopped, or that it was not called for. After a win it also says which dossiers the battle dropped, or NO DOSSIERS FROM THIS WIN. A raid result has the same crew in a column at its right, for the raider.

Recruiting

Press RECRUIT on the OFFICERS screen. An officer joins you once you hold enough of their dossiers: 10 for a Common, 20 Uncommon, 40 Rare, 80 Epic, 160 Legendary. A recruit gives dossiers of one officer.

The odds are on the screen (ODDS). The roll picks a rarity, then one officer of it:

The featured officer. Each week (from Monday 00:00 UTC) the Elite recruit features one officer, an Epic one week and a Legendary the next; the screen shows who and counts down to the next. When an Elite roll lands on the featured officer's rarity, the dossiers are the featured officer's.

Duplicates become dossiers. Dossiers of an officer you already have go toward their next promotion. Dossiers of an officer at rank 5 become Insignia (see Promotion).

The reveal. Each new officer steps to the middle in turn, rarest first, with dossier cards beside. Fleet Admiral Voss, live, tells each new officer's backstory, with the words under her; SKIP STORY moves on. Hear it again any time with HEAR THE STORY on the officer's screen. RECRUIT AGAIN repeats the recruit, VIEW OFFICER opens the officer.

Where tokens, dossiers and Commendations come from

Recruit Tokens and Elite Tokens recruit; Commendations pay for promotions. A message says what each activity paid.

Training Data levels an officer at once (LEVEL UP on their screen; 60 XP each). An officer's story pays it each time you play a part: 50 for a Common officer, 60 Uncommon, 75 Rare, 100 Epic, 150 Legendary. Each step your alliance's operation reaches pays its members 40.

Signal dossiers go to an officer of your own faction, Common to Rare. A contract's go to an officer of the contract's faction: Common to Rare, Epic too from Honoured, and the Legendary too at Exalted. A contract pays by the standing you have with its faction after the claim: 60 Commendations at Neutral and 40 more for each tier. Weeks turn on Monday at 00:00 UTC.

Battle dossiers drop only for a win, against the Tide or another commander, from level 10. The officer is rolled at the Standard recruit's odds. An Archivist below deck raises the chance, to 50% at most.

Signals, contracts, incursions and operations are their own chapters: Signals, Faction Contracts, Tide incursions, Alliance Operations.

Promotion

A promotion raises an officer one rank: a new star, a higher level cap, stronger ratings, maneuver and ability. Press PROMOTE on the officer's screen; the promotion card shows NOW and AFTER and what it costs, ticked where you have enough.

C/U/R/E/L: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary.

The Commendations, resources and time are a Common's. An Uncommon costs and takes x1.5, a Rare x2, an Epic x3 and a Legendary x4: a Legendary's last promotion is 8,000 Commendations, 4,000,000 minerals, 1,000,000 helium-3, 80,000 antimatter and 5 days.

It is a job in the Academy queue. Everything is paid when you press PROMOTE, the job waits its turn in the queue, and the officer takes the new rank when it ends. Meanwhile they keep serving in their seat. A promotion under way cannot be stopped; one still waiting can be removed, and everything it took comes back.

The Academy sets the highest rank. Without an Academy officers stay at rank 1. A Mark 1 Academy allows rank 2, Mark 2 rank 3, Mark 3 rank 4 and Mark 4 rank 5. The card says when yours is too low, with GO TO ACADEMY.

Insignia. An officer at rank 5 needs no more dossiers. Any more of theirs you receive become Insignia instead: 1 for each Common dossier, 2 Uncommon, 4 Rare, 8 Epic, 16 Legendary.

Insignia buy dossiers of any officer below rank 5. Once you hold some, an officer's screen shows 1 DOSSIER beside HEAR THE STORY: one of that officer's dossiers for 2 Insignia (Common), 3 (Uncommon), 6 (Rare), 12 (Epic) or 24 (Legendary). Hold the pointer on it to see how many you have.

The Academy

The Academy is a building of your base: one per base, from commander level 15. It promotes and trains your officers. Build it and raise its Mark like any building, through the build queue; it draws 60 power at Mark 1 and more at each Mark.

What each Mark costs to build or upgrade to:

Click the Academy in the Base View: its panel says what it gives now and what the next Mark needs, and OPEN ACADEMY opens the Academy screen. UPGRADE ACADEMY there takes you to the Base View.

The queue. Promotions and training share one queue. It holds as many jobs as the Mark's places, and runs one at a time: the next starts the moment the one before ends. It keeps running while you are offline.

Training. An officer who is not in a seat can train: press TRAIN on their tile. They learn 1,000 XP an hour until they reach their rank's level cap. STOP ends it early and keeps the XP so far; REMOVE takes out a job still waiting. HIDE OFFICERS IN SEATS keeps the screen to the officers who can train. Officers in seats learn by serving instead.

If a raid destroys it, the Academy's queue waits, no training or promotion can be started and its rating bonus is gone until it is repaired. Ranks and XP are never lost, and the jobs carry on from where they stopped once it stands again.

Officer stories

Every officer has a story in three parts. When an officer reaches rank 2 (Lieutenant), part 1 of their story appears as a gold STORY signal on the sector map and in the Signals panel, with the officer's name; part 2 comes at rank 3 and part 3 at rank 4, each once the part before is played. A part has no time limit.

1. Send a deployed fleet to it from the Signals panel, as for any signal.
2. When the fleet arrives, the story card opens. Voss tells what is there, and you choose one of three.
3. When the work is done the fleet flies home, and Voss tells what came of it.

Each choice is named for its story; under the name the card gives its terms, and every story's three are of these kinds. They pay the officer of the story:

The rarer the officer, the likelier the ambush. XP stops at the officer's level cap, and dossiers of an officer at rank 5 become Insignia. A story is never lost: if the ambush beats your fleet the story opens again for another fleet, and the same choice meets the same ambush. A story does not count as a signal for contracts or operations.

The roster and the collection

The OFFICERS screen's ROSTER shows all 96 and how many you have recruited. The tabs are ALL, TACTICAL, ENGINEERING and SCIENCE with their counts; RARITY, FACTION and SORT (power, level, rarity or name) narrow and order it. An officer you are still collecting shows their dossiers so far; one you have shows level, stars and where they are (a fleet's seat, BELOW DECK, IN TRAINING, PROMOTING or AVAILABLE). Click one for their screen.

The COLLECTION tab counts the officers you have recruited, of any rarity. Milestones raise every officer's ratings for good:

Each faction's whole set of eight gives a title and a portrait frame, and no ratings:

Press WEAR on a finished row to wear its title on your profile and after your name in chat, in place of any title you wore. A faction set's title also rings your profile portrait in that faction's colour.

Fleet Admiral Voss

She knows most of these people. She gives you your first bridge at level 10, tells each new officer's story as they join you, and narrates every officer's story, live, when your fleet reaches it.

Away teams, the base commander, hull specialists, the Tide's commanders and what finishing a story gives are in the next chapter, Away Teams and Command.