Difference between revisions of "Hunters"

Revision as of 20:03, 19 May 2014

Hunters are attack ships sent by the (infected) Federation to destroy the Daedalus. They will come at you relentlessly. Be prepared.

They will be announced when they appear, and their numbers (but not their types) will be shown on the Alert Bar.

Each new wave will take 1 cycle to adjust, after which they will fire at the Daedalus at the end of each cycle for a random amount of damage (~2 on average, including hit chances). They may also fire at partol craft, or even at each other (with the Meridon Scrambler research), but mostly target the Daedalus.

To get rid of them, you either have to kill them, or move the Daedalus to outrun them.

Note: Old Hunters catching up to the Deadalus after movement are announced again, but will resume firing at the end of the cycle as they are not new. Watch the numbers to decide whether new ones have appeared along with them, because those will wait.

Fighting the Hunters

Patrol Ships

Patrollers, when used with enough , are by far the most effective way to kill hunters. You will have a hard time if you have no characters with Pilot skills.
See Piloting for details.

Ship Turrets

You can enter these turrets and fire at the hunters, but they are ineffective. It costs 1 to fire, with only 30% base accuracy to hit, and low base damage. TODO: Minimum 2. Maximum 4?

Their efficiency can be improved with an Invertebrate Shell for double damage, and accuracy boosts like the Targeting Assist project, but mostly they should only be used to finish off already wounded hunters, or numbers too small to warrant taking off for (1-2).

Ship turrets have 4 shots each before they have to recharge, which is done automatically between cycles.

There are six turrets located on the Daedalus: Two in the front, next to the bridge, two in the middle, connected to the front ship bays, and two in the rear, connected to the engine room. Their arrangement on the screen, as shown below, is easier to remember if read from bottom to top:

	Rear Bravo
	Center Bravo
	Front Bravo
	Rear Alpha
	Center Alpha
	Front Alpha

Moving the Daedalus

You may simply move the Daedalus to outrun the hunters. This will get rid of ~50% of the standard hunters (more with Trail Minimizer), all asteroids, and all d1000 cubes. Only Trax cannot be shaken this way, and thus have to be shot (as do Aracks, so you can move in the first place).

While the Deadalus is moving, even Hunters which follow cannot fire at it unless they are Trax. (The others are left behind, and only catch up afterwards.)
This means a ship with an active Commander could avoid damage indefinitely, as long as it has Fuel and is able to take care of Aracks and Trax.

On longer voyages, moving at least once in this way should be the #1 response to hunter/asteroid/cube waves, as shooting them all down will become increasingly taxing and ineffective compared to the ability to cut their numbers through movement.

Note: The distance or direction of movement does not affect the result.

List of Hunters

Day			Enemy	Strength	Damage	Details
1+			Hunter	6	1-3	Standard Hunter. 50% of standard hunters will follow when you run. This is reduced by 25% with Trail Minimizer, but it's unclear whether it reduces it to 25% of the original count, or by a relative 25% (to 37.5%).
5+			Trax	10	1-3	Cannot be outrun. Trax will always follow the Daedalus, and even fire while it moves. Not affected by Trail Minimizer.
5+			Arack	6	?	Prevents the Daedalus from moving. (Does not apply to PILGRED Reactor - you can still jump to Sol or Eden.)
5+			Asteroid	20	≤20	Will collide with Daedalus 6 cycles after it initially appears (5 cycles if they appear after the Daedalus moves) and will cause as much damage as strength that it has left. Asteroids will ignore the plasma shield. Does not follow the Daedalus. You should simply move away from them.
10+			d1000	30	1-? x3	Attacks the Daedalus 3 times per cycle. Does not follow the Daedalus. You should simply move away from them.