Avoiding combat

Hiding from REDACTED fleets

Starsector is a game primarily about spaceship combat but sometimes you really don't want to have that fight.

This could be for a multitude of reasons:

• Operating in a hostile environment, e.g. a system with a Warning Beacon.
• Smuggling.
• Conducting a mission that requires some degree of discretion.
• Etc.

This page is a compendium of different ways to avoid a fight when you need to.

Don't Be Seen

Evidently, the first thing to avoiding combat is to not be seen at all.

• Having low sensor profile & high strength is generally useful.
  • Sensor profile is the controllable component of the range that the player's fleet can be detected from.
  • Sensor strength allows the player to see any threats for the threats sees them.
• Abilities can also allow the fleet to be more easier or harder to be detected.
  • Avoid having the Transponder on outside of colonized system space.
  • Stop using Sustained Burn when near suspicious unidentified sensor blips, especially if large & moving (as this means that it's a fleet).
  • Consider approaching suspect & potentially dangerous unknown sensor blips with Go Dark, or use it to maximize stealthiness at the cost of speed.
• Consider using Terrain, as a lot of them offer sensor profile reduction.

Don't Be Found

Sometimes, a hostile fleet might catch a glimpse of the player fleet, and start moving towards the player location to investigate.

However, this can be done on purpose to bait away fleets from a location the player wants to access.

• Sensor Array can be hacked to gain false readings, which will distract the patrol fleets of the faction that controls it.
• Some Abilities can be used to temporary increase the player fleet's sensor profile to purposefully alert hostile fleets.
  • This is generally best done with something like Active Sensor Burst.
  • Hostile fleets within range will then start going towards the location/direction of the sensor reading to investigate.
  • The player can Go Dark and/or make use of Terrain to stealthy avoid the incoming fleets, then proceed to what they were patrolling.

Don't Be Caught

If a hostile fleet is too close & start giving chase.

• Once again, various Abilities are quite useful.
  • Emergency Burn to gain some breathing room.
  • Sustained Burn once you have some breathing room.
  • Interdiction Pulse once you have some breathing room to disable their movement abilities, then Emergency Burn yourself out of there.
  • Go Dark at a large enough distance will cause them to lose track and go in the direction of your last detected position.
  • Transverse Jump out of or into a system.
  • Reverse Polarity allows the player to travel against a Slipstream, which NPC fleets cannot.
  • Generate Slipsurge can be used opportunistically to slingshot hostile fleets faraway, difficult but comedic.
• Terrain can also be used to break off the chase.
  • Asteroid Belts, Nebula & Hyperspace Storms tends to affected larger fleets more negatively.
  • Using Emergency Burn to traverse through harsh terrain that can give NPC fleets trouble, such as a star's Corona, a Black Hole's Event Horizon, a Neutron Star's Pulsar_Beam or across a Slipstream.
• Dumping a sufficient quantity of loot (regardless of quality) can sometimes be enough of a distraction, causing hostile fleet(s) to stop giving chase & investigate the cargo pods instead.