Squadron

Squadrons or Squads are multiple very small vessels that accompany some of the ships. Fighter and Bomber squadrons are automatically deployed around the ship to defend it on spawn. Drones will only deploy when launched by the player. Squadrons never attack a certain side of a ship and therefore always ignore armor.

Squadrons generally do not benefit from neither the weapon nor utility cooldown granted by implants, crew and upgrades. However, there are CAG crew members and squad implants that are specifically designed to help them last longer and regenerate faster.

Commanding Squads


Like Drones, who are only deployed and attack once commanded to do so, Fighters and Bombers will remain idle defending, until they are commanded to attack and will not attack nearby ships on their own. To attack an enemy or defend an ally, target them (default key: T) and then activate the ability holding the squadron (usually 3).

Squads can be recalled (default key: R). Fighters and Bombers will resume defending their mother-ship, while Drones enter it again unless they are able to defend it, like the Disruptor's Heal Drones or the Paladin's Defense Drones. For more detail see Respawn Mechanics below. Squads will automatically return when their target is destroyed or became untargetable (ie. jumped away or cloaked). Recalling an already recalled squad will retrieve them back into the ship, where they will be repaired (?).

A lot of information on active squads can be found condensed in the ability bar (see image). Above the ability is an icon for the current action (red arrows: attacking, blue shield: defending), along with a short description consisting of the specific action (ATTACK, DEFEND, REARMING, REFUEL) and the target's name. Below that is an icon for the squadron type, including the remaining ammo for bombers. While active, the number of ships in the squadron is shown as a segmented orange circle around the ability icon. Dead ships will be grayed out counterclockwise. Ie. in the image, one of the Paragon Fighters was already destroyed, while the Charge Bomber squad is still intact. While traveling and attacking, squadrons use up fuel. When sent away, the yellow inner part of the ability icon will turn black, from right to left, as fuel is used up. Once empty, the Squad will return with the action description REFUEL. Ie. in the image, the Fighters are about 75% full, while the bombers had just returned and are still empty. Fighters and bombers can refuel and rearm at any allied ship, not only at their mother ship.

Attacking Squads
Small craft squadrons can not be manually targeted (except by the Paragon's Minigun), instead, all interaction is tied to the target they are currently assigned to. Usually, aside form other small craft, the only danger to squads are Point Defense systems. Note, that each PDS have a certain range and will attack any small craft nearby, even if it is not targeting the ship. A squadron will therefore last longer if sent to an isolated target, instead of groups of tightly clustered enemies. However, any AoE attack will also hit squadrons, thou usually for reduced damage. Most notably, these include the Colossus' Flak, the Pioneer's Void Charges and Gravity Nuke and the Paladin's Plasma Field. Additionally, the detect abilities from the Hunter, the Venturer, the Disruptor and the Ranger will also damage squadrons.

Respawn Mechanics
When bomber or fighters are destroyed the ship will replenish them automatically, provided that they are idle and currently defending their mother-ship, instead of attacking an enemy or defending an ally. The time this takes is dependent on their cooldown, however, they respawn faster if there are still some left. If the entire squadron is destroyed, the player must wait for the entire cooldown duration, after which the whole squad will respawn at once.

When recalled before the entire squad is destroyed, Drones will enter their mother-ship for repairs, going on a shortened cooldown.

Fighters
Fighters will automatically engage any enemy squadrons defending or attacking the target they are sent to, including their mother-ship. Fighters are also forced to engage other fighters before engaging any other small craft. This means it would be wise to have fighters available to defend drones and bombers where possible. This can be achieved by sending fighters to the same target as the player's or their ally’s drones or bombers. Fighters will chase retreating enemy bombers for a short duration.

However, fighters deal fairly little damage to their actual target, so they are mostly meant to defend your or your ally against attacking squadrons, to take down enemy squads before they can attack or to keep Drones from buffing an enemy. Still, sending them to attack will keep the enemies Point Defense busy, allowing you and your allies to hit Missiles more reliably and draining their energy. Finally, a ship will only be repaired in its home base or forward station if it does not take damage. While the damage of the fighters may be low, its enough to keep the ship form being repaired.

All ships that use Fighters can be found in the Category:Fighter Squadron.

Bombers
Unlike fighters, Bombers cannot attack enemy squadrons, however, they deal substantially more damage to enemy ships. They are good for taking out a damaged enemy who has ducked into cover to make a jump. However, they are not fast, so the player should sent them out preemptively. Additionally, Bomber squadrons are highly susceptible to enemy fighter squads. If a player sees, that they have been engaged by enemy fighters, they should retrieve them immediately.

All ships that use Bombers can be found in the Category:Bomber Squadron.

Drones
There are many different kinds of drones available. Unlike Fighters and Bombers, Drones fulfill more specific roles and have distinct abilities, instead of dealing flat damage. There are two broader categories of Drones: support drones and offense drones.

Support Drones, like the Disruptor's Repair Drones, the Superlifter's Tugboat Drones or the Paladin's Defense Drones, should only be sent to allied ships to support them. While these will in fact deal damage if sent to an enemy ship, their DPS is negligible, their cooldown is long and their abilities are completely wasted if sent to an enemy. The long cooldowns also mean that timing is key, to have them ready and on the target when they are needed.

Offense Drones should be sent to enemy ships to apply a wide range of debuffs. These range from simple slows, ie. from the Colossus' Slow Drones over health leeching, ie. from the Protector's Syphon Drones to debuffs that empower other abilities, but do not much on their own, like the Infiltrator's Ion Drones,

All ships that use Drones can be found in the Category:Drones.