Enemies

Flies the lanes either side of the gate in small groups, minding its own business. Shoot one and the whole group turns on you — and remembers you.

Health

30

Speed

90 u/s

Damage

6 / shot

Cadence

1.5s

Range

150 u

Brings up the rear of some lane groups. Lumbers straight at you, turning its whole hull. The beam charges for a second first — the glow is the dodge. Orbit it.

Health

120

Speed

50 u/s

Damage

40 / beam

Cadence

4s

Range

500 u

Any hit sets it off. A ship close by starts a short fuse — the fuse is the dodge. The blast hits everything, other mines too.

Health

1

Trigger

90 u

Fuse

1s

Blast

140 u

Damage

35

Arrive in pairs, jink to spoil aim and flee from ships. Each lays its quota of mines, then leaves. Chase them early.

Health

60

Speed

190 u/s

Flees inside

450 u

Lays every

2.5s

Mines per run

8 each

Leads some lane groups and escorts a boss. Kites when it is hurt, charges when you are: rapid fire at range, a heavy ram up close.

Health

90

Speed

200 u/s

Damage

4 / shot

Cadence

0.22s

Range

250 u

Faded and fast, it comes for what a fight left lying: power-ups, Scrap and Cores. It parks on a drop and a bar fills — shoot it first and you keep the drop; after, it is gone.

Health

30

Speed

180 u/s

Spots loot

1,600 u

Steal

3s

Visit

2 at a time

Leads some lane groups, and fights whoever its group turns on. Dashes sideways to spoil your aim, but can never outrun you.

Health

30

Speed

210 u/s

Damage

5 / shot, ×3 burst

Cadence

2s

Range

300 u

Pirates in bands of three that come for any ship carrying materials. Each strafes straight through you, guns firing, and takes a cut of your hold on every pass — but it holds still and lines up first: sidestep the run and you dodge both the burst and the cut. Kill one to get back what it took, or bank your hold and the band lets you go.

Health

70

Run

520 u/s

Damage

6 / shot, ×3 a run

Takes

6 Scrap a pass, or 1 Core, or 2 Starglass

From

2 min in, 3 a band

A faction cargo hauler, flown down a lane in the middle of a bigger group, one down each lane at the same moment — the minimap marks it wherever it is. It carries no gun and minds its line until shot; then its whole group turns on you. Break it open for a heap of Scrap, richer the higher the tier.

Health

600

Speed

90 u/s

Escort

its group and 2 more Drones

Comes

every 3:00 on the clock, both lanes

Drift through in showers from one edge, and one at a time all match, never aiming. A bump hurts and Slows you. Large splits into medium, medium sometimes into small — big rocks pay the most Scrap, and every asteroid is cover. Not every rock is one: some are harmless and far off.

Health

260 · 100 · 35

Speed

100 · 130 · 160 u/s

Contact

30 · 18 · 8

Slowed

3s

Per shower

28–40 rocks

A drifting rock studded with crystal. It hurts on contact and stops fire like any asteroid, but it breaks whole, with no pieces, and pays Cores as well as Scrap: the only rock that does. Nothing marks it, so keep an eye out.

Health

100

Contact

18

Pays

Scrap and Cores

Turns up

10% of strays

A comet crosses the Expanse a couple of times a match — the minimap shows its line before it comes — and sheds glowing fragments behind it as it goes. They fire on nobody and hold still: hold Interact beside one to extract its Starglass, the material the heaviest boss needs, before it fades. Shot apart, a fragment is lost.

Health

20

Pays

1 Starglass

Extract

Hold 2s

Fades

1 min after it falls

A comet

24 fragments

Comes

6 min in, then every 8 min

Old wrecks lying dead in the two Salvage Yards, one in the far corner of either side of the Expanse. They fire on nothing. Shoot one apart for a scrap or two, if anything, and now and then a power-up — or hold Interact beside it to investigate it, for more Scrap or now and then a Core. Something sometimes lives in one, though, and what you wake comes out biting. A yard is laid whole again only once every hulk in it is gone, at the next restock, and the minimap marks a cleared yard with a clock to it. Later in a match the faction posts Drones to guard them.

Health

120

Investigate

Hold 2.5s

A yard

6 hulks

Restocks

once cleared, on the next 2:00

Guarded

from tier 3, 2 Drones

Something that lived in a Salvage Yard hulk, woken by a pilot investigating it. It bursts out lunging at whoever woke it, and its bite slows you to a crawl. It circles while its next lunge comes round, then strikes again, until it is killed or tires and leaves.

Health

90

Speed

200 u/s

Bite

20

Slow

75% for 5s

Warning

0.5s

Lunges

every 9s

Towed in a line behind its freighter. Shot open, a pod spills its salvage where it was — but every hit on one robs the convoy as a hit on the freighter does, and an escort who lands one is paid nothing.

Health

220

Per convoy

4

Tow

70 u

Launched in waves by a freighter that holds a grudge, it hunts only the pilots who robbed it — and whoever shoots it — and flies off once the grudge is gone. Lose it by leaving the convoy well behind.

Health

60

Speed

150 u/s

Damage

5 / shot

Cadence

1.1s

Wave

3 every 12s

Crosses the Expanse wall to wall towing its cargo pods, on the clock — along the north side, then the south the next time, by turns — and fires on nobody. Fly close and you are asked to escort it: stay near it and you are paid in Scrap when it gets out. Hit it and it holds a grudge — it raises a shield over the whole train and launches drones at you, dropping the shield for a moment each time it does.

Health

900

Speed

55 u/s

Escort pay

30 Scrap a minute

Escort range

400 u

Shield

×0.2 damage

Shield down

4s

Comes

1:30 in, then every 3:30

A battered civilian hauler that limps in over a wall with faction Drones on its tail, making for the gate. Your shots pass through it; theirs do not. Shoot down every Drone on it, then stay close while its coords upload, and it is saved — no escort home needed: it pays every pilot who came near it and flies on to the gate as battered as it was, where it is patched up while it patrols on guard, firing on every enemy in reach — a sent boss included — until its watch is over. Unsaved, it holds at the gate with the Drones still on it. The faction fights it as it fights your turrets, and a Guardian's Mending Field mends it as it does them. Lose it before it is saved and its cargo spills where it goes down.

Health

900, in at 60%

Speed

40 u/s

Chased by

5 Drones

Help range

700 u

Upload

6s within 300 u

Pays

15 Scrap + 30 XP each

On guard

2 min, 8 / shot every 0.4s

Range

650 u

Comes

3 min in, then every 3.5 min–5 min

Slow and huge, it keeps to its den in the dark. Come close and it opens its jaws, then lunges and bites everything in front of it — step off the line while they are open. Killed, it always pays Cores.

Health

1,200

Speed

55 u/s

Bite

45

Jaws open

0.7s

Bite reach

236 u

Den

1 a den

Frail and quick, it lurks in the dark round its den with its lantern dim. When the lantern brightens it is about to lunge along a line at you; it strikes the first ship in its way, then turns away. Killed, it may pay a Core.

Health

180

Speed

150 u/s

Lunge

25

Warning

0.65s

Lunge length

460 u

Den

3 a den

The biggest hull a team can send, and the slowest: it holds the most modules and costs the rarest material, so it comes one at a time. It hunts your team across the whole world and drains your counter while nobody is there to fight it.

Health

9,000

Speed

60 u/s

Modules

4

Drain

8 a second unhunted

Cost

220 Scrap, 5 Cores, 10 Starglass and up

Presets

Bastion

The cheapest hull, fast and frail, with two modules: cheap enough to send several at once. Kite it or kill it, but do not hide from it — with nobody to hunt it drains your counter from the gate.

Health

3,500

Speed

250 u/s

Modules

2

Drain

3 a second unhunted

Cost

80 Scrap and up

Presets

Hound, Mortar

A mid-sized hull with room for three modules. Whatever it carries, it comes out of your gate hunting your team, and every point of damage it deals comes off your counter — kill it fast, for the loot as much as to stop the bleeding.

Health

6,000

Speed

110 u/s

Modules

3

Drain

5 a second unhunted

Cost

140 Scrap, 2 Cores and up

Presets

Brood, Phantom