Hunting

Hunting wildlife is an activity you can perform on a planet, once you have charted the body and discovered what wildlife exists in its ecosystem. Before charting you should decide which gear you want in your inventory, you can do this from the "me" window (the window with your name) in the gear section.

All players start with personal weapons of a kinetic damage type, with skills allowing additional weapons of specific types to become available. You can also add medicine consumables and grenade consumables to your inventory as you acquire them. The number of slots you have available to carry gear is dictated by the suit you are wearing, with the default suit providing 17 gear slots. Therefore, you need to decide carefully which types of weapons and consumables to add to your inventory, as they all use a different number of slots (consumables always using one).

Different weapon types such as melee or assault rifles can have their statistics increased based on your own personal EIDOS stats. For example, the higher your speed stat the more accurate sniper rifles will be for you.

Once you have defined your personal inventory, you can start hunting on a planet you have charted from the helm window. Find the planet in question within the system section and choose the contextual option to "hunt".

The main reason to hunt wildlife is to obtain their body parts which are often required for missions, can be used in crafting and can be valuable. You may also decide to capture wildlife and train them to be a companion, which is covered in a later section.

The Basics

Hunting works very different to traditional spatial combat, even though many of the widgets in the interface will seem familiar.

Firstly, hunting operates within a terrain map and uses an action point system, instead of a time-based turn system. This means you can take as long as you want to perform actions and a new turn will immediately start once you have used all of your action points (AP). The terrain is presented in a one-dimensional vertical layout and you can explore infinitely in a positive direction from your starting position. Actions you can perform at any point are also listed and state if they are valid for the given conditions.

The general flow of hunting will see you move across the terrain and attack using the weapons you defined in your personal inventory.

All of the results of the last turn are added to a combat log, so you can interrogate what wildlife did, what crew did and confirm the actions you performed.

Hunting will only end if you are killed during combat, in which case you will receive a temporary reduction to all of your EIDOS stats.

Interface Overview

The interface for hunting uses a widget based system, with each widget providing specific contextual information.

Shields, Armour & Vitals

The way damage is dealt during hunting is different to spatial combat. While a creature has shields you cannot damage the creatures armour, and you cannot reduce the vitals unless you supply enough damage to hit through the targets armour. This means if wildlife has an armour rating of 5 you will need to deal 6 damage to reduce the creatures vitals by 1. Some weapons (and grenades) can break armour (noted as armour break), any time you successfully perform armour break, the creatures armour will reduce by 1. This allows you to slowly reduce the armour of a heavily armoured creature.

Header

The header at the top of the window states how many wildlife entities have been detected, how many friendlies there are and your remaining AP. A new turn will start once your AP reaches zero.

Terrain

The terrain widget is one of the most important widgets as it conveys the position of all entities (you, your ship, wildlife and your crew), their distances and if cover is present.

Yourself and crew will be highlighted in green and will always be visible regardless of distance. Your ship similarly will also always be visible and is decorated with a green background. You use your ship to retreat from hunting (ending the session) and all consumable scavenged are sent to your ship if it has available hold space (also listed). Any wildlife will be highlighted in red and will be visible based on detection range, current weather conditions and if they have been scanned or not (scanned widlife is always visible within the maximum range of 10,000m).

All the distances listed are relative to you and if partial cover or full cover is available, this is also shown with a half-shield or full shield icon. Cover increases the chance for all parties of an attack missing but can be destroyed with a grenade if required.

Lastly, any wildlife you kill will be denoted as dead and will no longer be highlighted in red.

Weapons

The weapons widget lists all weapons you have added to your personal inventory. You can switch to a different weapon by selecting the radio next to the weapons name and pressing the switch button. Each type of weapon requires a different amount of AP to switch to as well as reload - which is also noted. The range of the weapon is also stated, which is the maximum attack range as relative to you. If your weapon is not loaded you will not be able to fire it and must perform the reload action (or switch to a loaded weapon).

Actions

The actions widget is the most data heavy widget as provides the controls for all the different actions you can perform, the cost of the action in AP and if the action is valid and can be performed.

Brace: Bracing consumes 3 AP in exchange for starting with 4 AP next turn up to a maximum of 4 for humans and androids and 5 AP for clones.

Examine: The examine action will examine all detected wildlife and reveal their codex entry, if it isn't already been discovered. The codex entry for wildlife includes useful information such as starting vitals, weaknesses and speed.

Fire Weapon: The fire weapon action will fire the currently equipped weapon if it is loaded at a given target. You can view all targets by toggling to the "show targets" button and fire at a target using the associated attack button.

Move: The move actions simply allow you to move around the terrain in either a positive or negative direction in 500m increments.

Reload Weapon: The reload weapon action will reload the equipped weapon for an AP cost related to the weapon type.

Retreat: If you are on the same terrain section as your ship, you can use the retreat action to end the hunting expedition.

Scan: Performing the scan action will reveal any wildlife within a 10,000m radius and keep track of them regardless of detection range within this radius.

Scavenge: If you have killed wildlife and are on the same terrain section as the dead creature, you can use the scavenge action to scavenge wildlife part consumables, which are automatically added to the hold of your ship (if you have space). You are always guaranteed to recover a consumable but rarer consumables will be of course less likely.

Summon Ship: Summoning the ship will move the ship to within 1,000m of your current location - allowing you to retreat as needed.

Wait: The wait action simply consumes 1 AP with no other effects. This is commonly used if you want to progress to the next turn without performing any action (possibly due to not enough AP).

Crew

The crew widget lists your security crew that have joined the hunting expedition. For each crew member you will be able to see their portrait, name and statistics. The statistics shown are shield (S), armour (R) and vitals (V), the higher level your crew, the higher these statistics will be. You can also view the gear your crew is carrying by clicking the chevron toggle below their statistics.

If a crew member's vitals reach zero, the crew member will die and will be removed from the expedition.

Crew operate under their own accord and will automatically attack wildlife, heal and use consumables as necessitated. They will also manage their own inventories taking the weapons best suited for the conditions and wildlife present (as well as complimenting your inventory).

Consumables

The consumables widget lists any consumables you have added to your personal inventory - which could be either grenades or medicine. To use a consumable, select the associated radio option next to the consumable and press the use button. All consumables require 1 AP to use.

Medicine comes in all different varieties but generally heals your vitals or removes saturation. When using medicine it will apply the same effects to any other crew member on the same terrain section, if they are of the relevant race to benefit (such as medicine for humans or android parts for androids).

Grenades randomly damage all wildlife on the same terrain section and can also destroy terrain cover.

Status

The status widget both provides a visual representation of your current statistics as well as numerical readouts. Vitals will generally not be reduced until your armour is broken and armour will now receive damage until your shield is disabled.

Saturation

The saturation widget provides a infographic representation of your current saturation's as well as numerical readouts. Each different saturation effects you differently depending on your race once it reaches 100%.

Arc: Once arc saturation reaches 100% your shields will receive damage at the start of every new turn.

Bio: Once biogenic saturation reaches 100% you will be slowed if you are either a human or clone. When slowed, you will start every turn with only 1 AP until the saturation falls below 100%.

Molten: Once molten saturation reaches 100% you will be slowed and receive damage to armour and then vitals at the start of every turn. When slowed, you will start every turn with only 1 AP until the saturation falls below 100%.

Nuclear: Once molten saturation reaches 100% you will be slowed and receive damage to vitals at the start of every turn if you are an android. When slowed, you will start every turn with only 1 AP until the saturation falls below 100%.

Weather

The weather card states the current planet type and the current weather. Weather can effect a number of different things, for example, on an ice planet different weather can reduce detection range. On a lava planet, different weather can cause damage over time from falling debris and lava showers. The effect the weather induces is stated on the weather card. When the weather does change, this is stated in the combat log and the music will dynamically change as an additional cue.

Combat Log

The combat log contains the actions perform my yourself, wildlife, crew and any other information (such as saturation effects) that occurred during the last turn.

Codex

The codex allows you to browse codex entries of wildlife found on the planet, so you can determine their weaknesses and review their starting statistics.

Capturing Wildlife

If you have built a faction Reserve structure, you can capture wildlife to store them there for later training. To capture wildlife you will need an X-Net consumable, which is a type of consumable used to stun and capture wildlife. Be sure to add this consumable to your gear before starting the hunt. You will also need to be in a ship with the wildlife pens perk, such as the Ark class of ship and you will need space in your pens to store the wildlife. With all of this in place, to capture wildlife use an X-Net consumable while on the same terrain step as wildlife to attempt to capture them.

Wildlife is easier to capture if charmed, stunned or slowed. Grenades, personal weapons and even consumable can help trigger these effects.

Training Wildlife to be Companions

If you have wildlife stored on your ship you have captured, you can take them to a Reserve on the same planet type they are native to. Simply orbit the reserve, view the wildlife in your pens and use the contextual option to home them in the Reserve. Once you have wildlife in Reserve, view the structures details by navigating through the command window.

When viewing the details of the Reserve it will list any crew at the Reserve, wildlife and companions. If you are in a ship that can land, you can use the train button against wildlife to begin training as an idle activity. Once a creature is fully trained it will convert to a companion which you (or your faction mates) can then decide to take and enter into your roster.

The morale of the wildlife has a strong influence on what level a new companion will start at, additionally, the lower the morale of wildlife the more likely they are to kill each other, escape or otherwise die. The same applies to a companion both in a Reserve or on your ship. To improve morale of wildlife you can deposit their favourite food into the Reserve or home complimentary wildlife.

Companions

Based on the size of companions dictates how many companions you can have in your roster at any one time, with larger companions consuming more space. A companion can help with personal combat, charting and gathering or any mix of these activities. When you view the details of a companion from the command window it will list all the capabilities the creature has and as the companion levels, its capabilities will grow.