Hi there fellow Star Traders: Frontiers players,

after some 120+ hours of playing early access version of Star Traders: Frontiers I decided to write up this basic guide to the two key elements of STF – combat between starships and crews. What you will find bellow is based purely on my experience, I certainly didn’t make any in-depth calculations on what talent or weapon gives you the biggest advantage in a given situation. I simply played the game a lot and I wrote down what works for me pretty well, so hopefully it will work for you too.

I don’t claim that I am a huge expert or anything and I am sure there are more knowledgeable players out there, so if you think you have better ideas or that I am giving inaccurate information do point it out.

I play almost exclusively on Hard difficulty, so this guide is written with that in mind. Anyway, let’s get down to it!

Change log
10th January 2018: Added information on retreating from combat to the Part III and examples of combat team composition to the end of Part I.

In STF, just like in any game with RPG elements, the most important part of every battle tends to happen long before you know you will even end up fighting it – when you build your characters and customise your equipment. The way you set up your ship and crew is therefore crucial part of your combat performance and if you find yourself performing poorly in combat, chances are that you underestimated the preparation.

As far as your ship is concerned, in terms of combat there are two basic factors you need to worry about: ability to deal damage (weapons) and ability to withstand damage (armour and shields).

Weapons: For most players the starting ship will likely be either Frontier Liner, Fidelis Cutter, Dragoon Cruiser or Cautela Heavylift. All of these ships start with a decent variety of weapons and some (for example Dragoon Cruiser) also have Reinforced Structures component that increases armour. Various weapon types have different range (torpedoes 5-4, missiles 5-3, plasma cannons 4-3, railguns 4-2, lances 3-1, autocannons 2-1 and grav cannons 3-1), so no matter how you end up setting up your weapons (the default set up for each ship tends to be rather balanced, which is not necessarily a good thing depending on how you want to play) there will be an optimal firing range for your ship, meaning the range at which your ship can do the most damage (note that later on we will see that the optimal range in actual combat becomes a relative term that also depends on what weapons does the enemy have, in terms of ship design however we can see the optimal range as a constant value).

The optimal firing range is something you should take into account and make it so that it complements the play style you prefer. For example if you wish to have a non-combat ship focussed on trading or exploration you should go for long range weapons such as torpedoes, since you will mostly be trying to keep away from the enemy and eventually retreat, which can be done only from the range 5. On the other hand should you for example prefer to get up close and board enemy ships, you will be better off spreading your weapons more evenly in terms of range, so that you can always fire at the enemy while you get closer and closer.

Another thing to take into account here are the Reactor Points (RPs) – basically the action points for your ship. Move closer or further away from the enemy costs 4 RPs, so the ships that prefer movement (non-combatants trying to flee, aggressive boarders or those who prefer shorter ranged weapons) should therefore prefer weapons that cost only two RPs to fire (for example torpedoes or Plasma guns), to maximise their firepower on the move. Those who prefer to sit back and keep firing have wider options, for example the 2 torpedoes and a missile launcher combination that will cost 7 RP to fire.

All ship weapons also come in several variants, with the better ones obviously costing more. You should continuously upgrade your weapons (even a noncombat ship should get level 7 torpedoes sooner rather than later) to keep up with the other ships you may encounter, since they will keep getting better as the time goes by. Certain weapons also seem more likely to produce specific negative effects on target. For example torpedoes seem likely to cause electric fires (causing damage over time), while plasma cannons seem to often cause engine failure (reducing RPs by 2 per effect).

Armour and Shields: Protecting your ship from enemy fire is also very important and while the best way to go about it is to avoid being hit in the first place (which is something your crew can help with through their talents) you will certainly take hits from time to time. Unlike weapons, which in their best variants cost several tens of thousands of credits at most, the armour components such as Reinforced Structures cost well over 100k credits even in their basic variants and so are significantly more difficult to acquire at the start of the game. Even so any player that wants to focus on combat should invest in armour and/or shields upgrades (shields being somewhat cheaper than armour) as soon as possible.

Each type of ship has a set amount of Hull Points (HPs) that represent its “health.” The better armour and shields the less amount of Hull Points your ship will lose when hit. Obviously the more HPs a ship has the more durable it is and the higher a chance it has in combat. While for example a Frontier Liner can certainly pack considerable punch with upgraded weaponry, it needs to end fights quickly due to relatively low amount of HPs that makes it unsuitable for protracted firefights.

To sum up, your ship is like a combination of your weapon and armour in a traditional RPG, meaning that you need to keep upgrading it and modifying it to suit your needs. Keep in mind that the starting equipment will not get you far in any RPG and STF is no exception.

The Crew: Members of the crew provide the ship with basic stats through their skills and also provide the player with tactical options during the combat through their talents. For the purposes of this guide we will divide the talents into a few categories according to what they do in relation to combat:

Offensive talents: Mostly increase your damage output, debuff the target in various ways, decrease the target´s chance to escape etc. Gunners are most important class for ship combat offensive talents (Firing Orders, Raking Fire, Bombardment, Boarding Assault etc) though Commander (Coordinated fire – basically a better version of Firing Orders) and few other classes have useful talents as well. I find Bombardment to a very useful starting talent in this category as it works well with Evasive Manoeuvres to protect your ship from damage.

Defensive talents: These either help your ship to avoid being hit or decrease the damage taken. Most important classes here are Pilots (Evasive Manoeuvres), E Techs (Boost Shields, Vigilant Scanners) and Engineers (Brace for Impact). Evasive Manoeuvres is a key defensive talent, so make sure to have at least 3-4 pilots with it at all times – especially in synergy with Bombardment it can often make weaker enemies miss most of their shots, which saves you a lot of credits.

Movement talents: Important especially if you wish to flee combat or board the enemy ship, the key classes being Navigators (Fast Getaway) and Pilots (Sharp Steering, Perfected Approach and the best talent for closing in – Twitch Surge). Twitch Surge will sometimes let you move two distance units forward and as such is a must for those who want to start boarding the enemy ASAP.

Boarding talents: While many of the classes have access to boarding talents, keep in mind that those who are not taking part in the actual boarding action can use their talents only if you are boarding from the range 1 (ie not through the Boarding Assault or Blood Game talents). Since there is no reason to take let’s say Engineers to a boarding action and they certainly have more important things to do keeping your own ship in one piece, I would say that these talents are worth taking mostly for the classes that will be doing actual boarding combat ie Soldiers (Ferocious Crossfire) and Combat Medics (Bio-Agent Bomb) as their boarding talents do additional damage to enemy crew, thus making further boarding attacks easier. Upon wining a boarding action you get two options by default (to panic the enemy crew – which is very useful - and sabotage a random component), so I tend to see the boarding talents as useful, but not essential.

Purge talents: These are extremely important as they let you remove (purge) negative effects caused by enemy action to your ship (electric fires, engine failure, hull rupture etc) and crew (crippling terror, radiation wash, aftershocks etc). Some negative effects are worse than others (electric fires doing damage to ship and crew over time, engine failure removing 2 RPs), but all of them make your ship less effective in combat and should be removed whenever possible. Crew Dogs (Failsafe Protocols), Mechanics (System Flush, Rushed Patches) and Engineers (Unrivalled Patch) are key classes for purging ship effects (Rushed Patches and Unrivalled Patch also do minor repairs to damaged components at the same time) while Commanders (Precision Action which removes both crew and ship effects, Steady Hands) and Quartermasters (Rallying Cry) are key classes for removing crew effects. Doctor class Treat Wounded talent does not purge crew effects, but lets you heal injured crew instead. Engine Reboot talent available to the Mechanics lets you fix the engine, which is very important since if your engine is disabled you are automatically defeated.

I strongly advice to always put out the electric fires right away, since the damage over time can easily kill your crew members (or for example cause heavy injuries to your boarding team). In any case you should invest in purge talents heavily regardless of whether you are running a combat or noncombat ship.

Victory talents: It is one thing to win a battle (which is what the previous talent groups should help you with), but your victory will become rather pyrrhic if you find yourself floating through the void in a wreck with several disabled systems that will cost you several tens of thousands of credits to repair and with badly wounded and demoralised crew third of which will desert you once you limp into a nearest friendly starport. Especially at the start of the game it is easy to get pretty much bankrupt with repair and medical bills that the combat brings and seeing your few crewmembers that managed to gain some experience leave due to low morale is pretty sad too. Fortunately the victory talents are here to prevent your tactical success from becoming a strategic failure.

The key classes in this case are Gunners (Loot Armoury), Engineers (Warfare Patch), Crew Dogs (Battle Damage Repair), Doctors (Medical Ward) and Commanders (Loyalty Rousing) as they let you fix your weapons/components, heal your crew and restore its morale for free and in the void (so you don’t have to risk crew desertions at a starport). Other classes have victory talents that let you make more credits off of the defeated ship (for example Mechanics with the Expert Scavenger talent), though what I find especially useful is the Magnanimous Victory talent of the Diplomat class that actually lets you slightly improve your relations with the faction owning the defeated ship (while preventing ransoming it). I cannot stress enough how important the victory talents are, so invest heavily in them to avoid the huge financial loses that combat tends to otherwise bring. You can never have too many victory talents.

To sum up, your crew is extremely valuable (only way to replace higher level members is to press members of a defeated crew into service) asset. Crew talents will let you mitigate all the main risks that combat brings (damage and injuries, demoralisation, repair costs) so it is vital that you develop your crew´s capabilities, just like it is vital to upgrade the ship itself. In general the more crewmembers you have on board the better, so make sure to maximise the number of crew that your ship can carry.

Preparing for crew combat: This topic is somewhat less complex. There are three factors to consider – weapons, armour and equipment (available only to officers). Key component here is the Weapons Locker that comes in four variants and I strongly suggest that you upgrade it to the level 4 ASAP as the quality of weapons and armour plays a huge role. I find it useful to have an Ex-Bounty Hunter contact at the start, because you can buy special weapons from him/her that are cheap (3-4k credits a piece) and mostly better than the level 4 weapons from a locker (especially Oslafige pistol and Vulture HMG are better than their weapons locker 4 counterparts, on the other hand Nakka blade from the weapons locker is better than the Officer blade) and having these weapons right at the start of a playthrough gives you some advantage.

As for the equipment – the officer you will most likely end up taking into crew combat at the start of the game will be your Doctor/Combat Medic. I find the Injector equipment very useful for healers as it buffs their initiative, thus often letting them heal badly wounded characters before the enemy has a chance to finish them. Regarding the armour, I find the contacts that sell combat armour tend to be a bit more difficult to find, though if you can get to them the armour they sell is also better than the one from the weapons locker 4. There are three types of armour – light, heavy and stealth – though in my experience it is best to give heavy armour to everyone on your combat team.

In general the crew combat works very much like combat in the Darkest Dungeon, so if you are a fan of DD like me, you will have no problems with adapting to the crew combat in STF. The basic rule is: party order is everything. The best tactic therefore is to mess with the enemy party order as much as you can while maintaining your own. If you can manage that against the human enemies (xenos are a different matter) you will have a significant advantage, which is important since in some story missions you will end up going up against enemies in crew combat that will likely out-level your own crew (assassins in the VIP protection missions for example). If you provide your combat team with the top notch gear and give them the right talents they will be able to take on enemies even several levels higher.

Crew combat talents: As I mentioned above you want to mess with the enemy party order while protecting your own. For that reason make sure to use talents such as Supressing Fire, Blowback (Soldiers), Hunters Challenge (Bounty Hunters), Barked Order (Commanders) that let you move the target back or forth (Suppressing Fire and Blowback move the target even if the attack itself misses). Equally important are talents that let your crewmembers attack and move back or forth at the same time such as Skewering Thurst, Blade and Hilt (Swordmen) or Fearsome Charge (Soldiers).

Remember that much like in DD the characters position in the party order determines what he or she can do (ARs/HMGs can fire only from positons 3-4, shotguns only from positions 1-2, pistols from positions 1-3, swords can be used from positions 1-2 etc, while the same goes for talents) and character that uses a move action cannot attack (or do anything else for that matter). The more the enemy has to move, the less damage your team takes. Mobility also opens many synergies (for example place a high initiative swordsman to position 1, use Blade and Hilt to attack and move back, allowing a soldier with a shotgun who started in position 2 to move up and use Blowback or Concussion Grenades which work only from the position 1, the swordsman can move up in the following turn with Skewering Thurst).

Healing in crew combat: You should never enter crew combat without a healer. That means you should avoid crew combat until your Doctor (since one of your officers should be a Doctor by default) levels up and can select a new talent, which should obviously be Field Surgery. Dual classing your Doctor with Combat Medic is useful, since it will improve his pistol skill and eventually will give him access to the Bio-Agent Bomb boarding talent, however purely in terms of healing I find Field Surgery to be better than E-Suture talent that Combat Medic can get. Moreover, unless you train another of your officers as Doctor at the start I think it is better to postpone dual classing your only Doctor after he gets the Medical Ward victory talent. In an ideal case you will have at least two doctors in your crew, one for combat and one for general doctor duties.

Crew combat and morale: Demoralised crewmembers (unlike the fearless xenos) will often miss their turns so it goes without saying that you should always go into combat with full morale as well as full health. This is relatively easy when you get into ground combat (during exploration or missions), but during space battles your combat team´s health and morale might suffer before you get them into action. Using ship combat talents to heal and restore morale might not always be an option, so while having a healer in the combat team is a no-brainer, it is highly advisable to have at least one character with morale restoring talent (such as Swordsmen´s Bladesman´s Rally).

Examples of combat team composition: the team you can deploy for crew combat consists of 4 characters. Characters listed as combatants are always going to be your best option and you can always look them up on the crew screen by using “fighters” filter.

Position 4: the position farthest away from the enemy is ideal for characters armed with an AR/HMG, so you are going to be best off with a Soldier class character here, ideally armed with a Vulture HMG and trained with Supressing Fire (debuffs accuracy and moves target back) and Full Auto (huge damage to positions 1 and 2, debuffs accuracy of the user for the following turn) talents.

Position 3: this is the farthest position from which pistols can be used, so I find it the ideal spot for your healer (who will most likely be a pistol user). Alternatively this can be a good spot for a character armed with a sniper rifle (typically Bounty Hunter or Exo Scout), since many relevant talents (Bio Agent Flachette, Sustained Fire, Shredding Shots) can be used from here. Moreover the talents that attack enemy morale (Barked Orders, Hunter´s Challenge etc) can also be used from this position. Therefore if you wish to multiclass your healer into some interesting combination that can make use of these specific talents (lets say Doctor + Bountry Hunter or Commander) this is the best place for him or her.

Position 2: depending on your talent set up this can be a good starting position for your mobile Swordsman (who will use Skewering Thurst or Devastating Charge to move forward and Slashing Retreat or Blade and Hilt to move back afterwards), shotgun wielding Soldier (Roaring Barrels) or a Pistoleer (most of his talents require position 2 or 3).

Position 1: Soldier class armed with a shotgun is right at home here (Blowback to move the target back with a chance to stun, Concussion grenades to decrease morale) as is the Swordsman. Pistoleer has a talent called Close-Range Barrage which works from the position 1 as well, however I find that it is primarily the Soldier and Swordman class that gets the best results here.

In general the positions 4 and 3 tend to be static, while positions 2 and 1 encourage mobility. As far as mobility is concerned you can use two swordsmen who can keep alternating in positions 2 and 1 with their advance/retreat talents while doing pretty high damage. If you decide to combine a swordsman and a soldier in first two position, keep an eye on their initiative in order to set them up in optimal way – for example if you notice that your swordsman consistently gets to act before the shotgun soldier does it is better to place the swordsman in position 1. That way the swordsman can use Slashing Retreat/Blade and Hilt to move back so the soldier can use Blowback or Concussion Grenades (both of which work only from position 1) on the same turn. If you prefer static approach even in the first two positions you can go with shotgun Soldier in position 1 and Pistoleer or another shotgun Soldier (who will keep using Roaring Barrels) in position 2.

Example of a highly mobile composition

4 Soldier w/HMG (Suppressing Fire, Full Auto)
3 Doctor/Pistoleer w/Pistol (Field Surgery, Fading Shot)
2 Swordsman (Skewering Thurst, Blade and Hilt)
1 Swordsman (Skewering Thurst, Blade and Hilt)

Example of a static composition

4 Soldier w/HMG (Suppressing Fire, Full Auto)
3 Doctor/Combat Medic w/Pistol (Field Surgery, Bio-Poison Slugs)
2 Pistoleer w/Pistol (Trick Shooting, Pinning Shot)
1 Soldier w/Shotgun (Blowback, Concussion Grenades)

Example of composition with emphasis on undermining enemy morale, party order and stunning

4 Soldier w/HMG (Suppressing Fire, Full Auto)
3 Doctor/Commander w/Pistol (Field Surgery, Barked Orders)
2 Swordsman (Devastatingl Charge, Blade and Hilt)
1 Soldier w/Shotgun (Blowback, Concussion Grenades)

Hopefully now you how some basic idea how to prepare for combat before it starts, so let’s move onto topic of what to do when you are face to face with an enemy.

While this might seem a somewhat counterintuitive statement in what purports to be a combat guide, the first advice I give is to always think twice before committing to a ship vs ship fight – avoiding ship combat is always safer and usually more profitable approach to the encounters in the void, especially at the start of the game when you lack both funds and victory talents.

When you encounter another ship and decision whether to initiate combat or not is yours or alternatively when the other ship forces you to fight or surrender you should always consider the following elements before you decide how to proceed:

State and combat abilities of your ship and crew:

Is your ship wholly intact or is it already damaged from previous encounters? Are some of the crew members already injured? Never commit to a fight unless your ship and crew is in top shape!

Is your ship actually geared for fighting or have you replaced many of the weapons with other components that serve other purposes? Did you upgrade your ship´s weapons and armour/shields or are you running with the default setup? Does your crew have enough combat, repair and victory talents to give you something to work with in a fight and to let you capitalize on the victory? If you are running a merchant ship and/or your crew doesn’t have enough relevant talents it is always better not to commit to a fight!

Type of the other ship, type and level of her captain and disposition of her faction towards you:

Always check the second tab of the encounter screen that will provide a basic overview of the enemy ship. Obviously it is good to have some basic idea about the various ship classes and to have an ability to identify them by their name and picture (Star Traders Wiki can be of help with this).

In general the Dragoon cruisers, Warhammers, Guardian Interceptors, Cautela HeavyLifts and Broadswords are tough ships that should be avoided unless your own ship and crew are geared for combat. Fidelis cutters, Liners and Defenders can still pack considerable punch, but are manageable even for less combat oriented ships. Finally the Jurors and Scout Cutters are pretty weak and will be an easy prey most of the time. Xeno ships (currently the only one in the game is the Terrox cruiser) are extremely dangerous and should be avoided by all but the most combat ready ships and crews. They always put up a fierce fight, but defeating them will give you a nice reputation boost with the local faction and with the Dredge Artefacts talent you can make a huge profit (that should more than cover the huge expenses you will incur when you repair your ship).

Type of the captain of the other ship is a significant element to consider as well. Merchants and Smugglers will never force you to fight while for example Zealots of a hostile faction will always do. Both Merchants and Smugglers will usually try to retreat from combat if you initiate it, giving extra importance to talents that decrease the chance to escape such as Targeting Lock and Scatter Shot. Especially the Smugglers tend to carry valuable cargo so it is always better to board their ships than to simply destroy them with weapons fire. Bounty Hunters on the other hand often use talents that will make your own escape more difficult should you attempt it.

The level of enemy captain is also an important (though not perfectly accurate) indicator of how tough a fight you are in for. Generally it is good to engage ships with lower level captains and avoid fights with more experienced than your own.

Finally the way that the faction of the other ship feels about you plays more important role than you might think. While surrendering is a viable approach to hostile encounters (see bellow), if your negative reputation with the faction you are surrendering too is too high, your captain will be executed (same applies if you lose the combat and survive, for example if the enemy disables your engine). This means you should be careful about making enemies (and frankly making enemies in STF is significantly easier than making friends), because the more factions are highly hostile to you the higher the danger that you are in whenever you take to the void.

The general context of the situation:

Are there friendly planets nearby that can provide medical aid and repairs? Are you close to finishing a highly profitable mission that might help you quickly cover the extra expenses that combat is bound to bring? Are you low on fuel in a hostile quadrant where most planets won’t let you refuel? These are also important things to consider before you decide whether to commit to a fight or not. Note for example that “non-consensual refuelling” from weak ships in hostile quadrants is a very viable way to solve fuel problems when you cannot refuel at the local planets and pressing defeated crewmembers into service on your ship is the best way to get high level recruits.

Once you have given some thought to the factors listed above you are ready to make the big decision on how to proceed:

Skip off the Void: Possibly the most useful talent in the game available to the level 11 Navigators lets you escape any ship bent on fighting you in exchange for some damage to you hyperdrive. In fact this talent has such a powerful impact on your ability to operate as a Star Trader that I tend to divide every playthrough to the time before and after I acquire it. It is generally advisable to give this talent to every Navigator that you have once they reach level 11. It is a must for anyone who wants to run a noncombat ship, but even a combat focused captain will appreciate an ability to pick his battles. Be mindful of the damage your hyperdrive is taking however, since in general you can use this talent only twice in row before your hyperdrive becomes disabled (you don’t want that to happen, trust me) – it is best to have it repaired after every use. Cost of the repair after one use tends to be in the ballpark of 1500-2000 credits, which is nothing in comparison with the repair costs after an average fight. However as a beginner you will have to survive in the void for quite some time without it.

Surrender: Giving up to a hostile ship is actually not as bad a thing as you might think – unless the hostile ship belongs to a faction that really hates you (see above), in which case you get executed. However if your relations with the faction you are surrendering to aren’t that bad and you are not carrying valuable cargo or a VIP (such as Valencia Faen) that you are supposed to protect, the consequences are actually pretty mild – the enemy ship takes your cargo (not your credits) and might kidnap/kill a VIP… and that’s pretty much it. Especially at the start of the game when you didn’t have time to make any real enemies yet and usually you don’t carry anything too valuable, surrendering actually is the superior option (especially since the repair bill after any hard fight can easily destroy you early on) and you should not hesitate to use it. There is also a Smuggler class talent Hidden compartment that mitigates the ability of the enemy to discover VIPs, which makes surrendering even less painful – all you need is to swallow your pride.

Fighting retreat: Oftentimes surrender is not an option and you lack Skip off the Void talent, so you are forced to enter combat even though you are aware that the enemy is stronger and/or the circumstances simply don’t suit you – again this will be a very frequent occurrence especially for the starting captains. In such a case your objective should be to end the combat by retreating as soon as possible while trying to minimise the damage you take in the process.

Note that all the “victory talents” cannot be used when you (or the enemy) retreat and combat ends in a draw. That means you will not get a chance to repair your ship, raise the morale or treat the wounded on your own and instead will have to pay for all these things at a friendly starport while giving demoralised crew members a chance to desert.

So what to do when you find yourself in a combat that you want to exit ASAP?

1) You start at the distance 5 from the enemy, so provided he doesn’t move closer all you need to do is successfully move away, move will cost you 4 RP as usual

2) Always use the remaining 4 RP to fire at the enemy, with each hit there is a chance you will decrease the ability of hostile ship to close on you/cause damage to your ship (with some luck you may even end up knocking out her engines/piloting systems and actually winning the fight)

3) Use Fast Getaway talent (starting level talent for navigators, again a must have at the start of the game) on the first turn, the bonus to retreat will hopefully be enough to get you away from the enemy once the first turn is over

4) If you fail to retreat or the enemy even manages to move closer on the first turn it means that your pilots are outmatched by the enemy. Your basic plan remains the same – retreat and use remaining RPs to fire while using talents that provide bonus to retreat/change distance (Fast Getaway, Sharp Steering) to boost your chance of getting out.

Should the combat last even after second turn you are really in trouble and should start using other talents depending on the situation – purges to remove negative ship or crew effects (Safety Protocols, Unrivalled Patch and Steady Hands are easy to get even at the start of the game) or protect yourself from further damage (Bombardment to suppress the enemy, Evasive Manoeuvres to dodge, Brace for Impact to limit damage taken)

5) If situation gets really desperate you may consider abandoning your attempt to escape and accept a full on fight instead

As noted before, once you get away you will need to seek repairs/spice/medical attention at a friendly starport, which will cost you substantial amount of credits depending on how much damage you took. It can be annoying, but until you get Skip off the Void and/or become more combat ready you will have to deal with it.


Committing to combat: When you feel ready for an actual all out space battle (or when you have no other choice left) there are basically two ways to go about it – moving fast to the boarding range and solving the situation through crew combat (details of which will be in the next part of the guide) or engaging the enemy with weapons fire from your optimal range.

a) Closing in for boarding action: this option can be surprisingly effective even for noncombat/weak ships provided they have a capable combat team. The key here is speed of your approach and evasion of damage (so that your combat team doesn’t suffer too many wounds even before they hit the enemy ship). You will be sacrificing 4 RPs to move/board, so the enemy will likely pour out significantly higher volume of fire than you will throughout the fight, making it even more important to close in and start boarding action ASAP.

1) Obviously you need to keep moving forward until you reach distance 1, at that point you can keep boarding the enemy at every turn with your movement action

2) As in the case of fighting retreat, always use the remaining RPs to fire, cease firing only if the enemy hull points get so low, that you might actually destroy them before you secure victory through boarding

3) Movement talents are your friends – use Twitch Surge (the best one for this purpose) on your first turn and in case you fail to close in or the enemy starts getting away follow up with other movement talents (Sharp Steering, Perfected Approach) or alternatively with talents that limit enemy ability to escape (Targeting Lock, Scatter Shot)

4) Depending on the situation, you may use Bombardment, Evasive manoeuvres and purge talents to protect your ship and crew from damage

5) Once you reach distance 3 you can launch boarding action through talent, however getting to distance 1 should be your top priority

Your boarding party will face the best enemy combatants during the first boarding attempt, however once you cut through them the fighting will get progressively easier since your combat specialists will start facing enemy non-combatants (E Techs, Pilots etc) – that means the enemy will be low skilled and without combat talents and as you cut them down you further diminish the capability of enemy crew to control their ship effectively. Ferocious Crossfire talent for Soldier class and Bio agent talent of Combat Medics are very useful victory talents that will damage enemy crew even further upon successful boarding, Panic the Crew option that is available on each successful boarding attempt is great for generally decreasing the ability of the enemy to hit your ship.

Through boarding you usually win by killing enough crew that the rest cannot control the ship (may take some time, but becomes progressively easier) or by killing the enemy captain (this is a bit random, sometimes the captain shows up during the first boarding attempt, sometimes he doesn’t show up at all depending on his/her combat capabilities I guess) in which case you win right away.

Winning through boarding action is the best way to make sure you will get to loot enemy cargo, so keep it in mind when you try to rob Smugglers or Merchants. If your combat team is good enough I also find boarding to be the superior way of dealing with Terrox cruisers.

b) Engaging the enemy with gunfire at your optimal range: This option consists of two equally important parts. The first one is dealing maximal damage to the enemy in every turn while minimising the damage you take, the second one is getting to a range in which you can (ideally) put out higher volume of fire than the enemy or (at least) equal volume of fire that the enemy puts out. The first part is largely achieved before the combat even starts through upgrading your ship weapons and training your crew with the right talents (see the first part for details), the second one is achieved through observing the enemy and manoeuvring in a way that prevents his best guns from being able to fire at you while allowing you at least relative supremacy of fire power at the same time.

1) On your first turn you mostly don’t know what to expect of the enemy (unless his ship is obviously weaker in which case you should focus on preventing him from escaping combat, or obviously stronger in which case you should either go for boarding or retreat) so you have to decide whether to start defensively or offensively. If you are loaded out with long range weapons (torpedoes, missiles) it is best to stand still and use all your RPs to fire. If your ship favours shorter range weaponry (such as plasma batteries or rail guns) you might start moving closer right away while firing what you can.

2) If you decide to be defensive, use talents such as Brace for Impact, Evasive manoeuvres or Bombardment, if you want to be offensive from the start go for talents that maximise damage such as Fire Orders, Coordinated Fire, or their weaker early level variants such as Raking Fire

3) As the first round ends pay careful attention to the actions of the enemy and compare volumes of fire of both ships at the current distance. If you find out that the enemy has higher volume of fire than you, try to change the range accordingly (ie. If you have two torpedo launchers while the enemy has two torpedo launchers and a missile pod you are obviously outgunned at range 5, but if you move to range 3 you negate the enemy advantage considerably – especially if you have a lot of weapons in this range group)

4) Once you find the optimal range in which you outgun the enemy (note that this might sometimes end up being range 2 or 1 in which case you may consider boarding) just spend all your RPs on firing your guns and use talents according to the situation to either mitigate damage you are taking or improve your own damage

This type of combat tends to end when ship loses engine/piloting systems, captain or too many of the crew members die, or one of the ships explodes. Note that prolonged gunfights will pretty much universally lead to considerable damage to your ship and loss of life and morale among the crew – make sure to have plenty of victory talents at hand to mitigate these problems as much as possible and don’t hesitate to press high level survivors of enemy crew into service if you lose high level characters in the fight.

When engaging in ship combat always pay attention to the condition of your engine and try to repair it whenever it takes damage. Losing your engine is the quickest way to lose a fight.

As we already covered in Part I, party order is everything, you absolutely need a healer and morale matters. When fighting the human enemies your aim should therefore be to keep their swordsmen and shotguners in the back (positions 3-4) and their machinegunners with ARs/HMGs in front (positions 1-2). That way you will make the enemy waste some of their turns as they struggle to get to positions where they can be useful. This tactic has a limit however, since once the enemy (or you) has only two combatants left the position restrictions on weapons and talents no longer apply (ie AR can fire even from positions 1-2 etc). Moreover the Xenos (or rather the Terrox Hunters that are the only type of Xenos currently implemented) are equally effective from all 4 positions, so when fighting them focus purely on dealing damage.

As you already know from Part I you should never enter a crew combat without a healer (ie Doctor or Combat Medic) being part of your combat team. In combat your healer should obviously prioritise healing to dealing damage, so only shoot with your healer if everyone is at full health.

Breaking morale of enemy combatants (again doesn’t apply to the Xenos as they are fearless) is an interesting option you can use to suppress them (low morale characters often skip their turn, so this can work as an alternative to messing with the enemy party order to some extend). Each hit undermines morale a bit, but since the enemy AI doesn’t use healing very effectively (and often there are no healers on enemy teams – learn from their mistake!) you will usually kill your targets before they become demoralised. Certain talents like Bounty Hunters´ Hunters Challenge forego physical damage to damage morale instead in addition to moving the target forward, so if you have a Bounty Hunter in your combat team you can make this a rather effective tactic. Once you demoralise an enemy to the point that he or she starts to skip turns make sure to prioritise other enemies with your lethal attacks – the demoralised enemy can be safely ignored until bigger threats are dealt with.

In general however – since you have a healer in your combat team and your combatants therefore take more hits than the enemy – morale will be bigger problem for you than for the enemy. In ground combat there are no victory talents, so if your characters end combat demoralised you will have to buy them spice and there is a risk they will desert. Ability to restore morale in combat is therefore very useful.

Retreating from crew combat: just like in the case of straship combat, your combat team might find itself clearly outmatched during an encounter. Typically this might happen early in the game when you draw a Xeno Combat card during the exploration. Since the xenos are very tough nut to crack for the lower level characters (especially if they are not equipped with higher level weapons and armour yet) you usually have two options. The first one is to stand your ground, fight a superior opponent and very likely lose horribly (thus risking the death of the members of your combat team, which likely includes your doctor) or try to get the hell out of there.

Unlike in space combat you can initiate retreat at any time simply by clicking on “Retreat” button. Success is however not guaranteed and especially against the high level opponents you will likely need several attempts before your combat team manages to extricate itself. Once you decide to retreat you should go all in – ie use retreat button in every turn of every character until you succeed. The only exception might be your healer, if some of your valuable characters are close to being knocked out it might be worth it to sacrifice one escape attempt to patch them up.

There is one important thing you need to keep in mind regarding the retreat: if you are on a specific story mission to protect a character that you have taken on board (Valencia Faen being a typical example of this) and you retreat from assassins during a story event (ie when you get a cut scene with short dialog about how assassins ambush your crew), the VIP you are protecting will be automatically killed even if he/she isn’t the part of the combat team and your mission will thus in in failure.

Finally, if you are playing on any difficulty with permadeath enabled I strongly suggest you use your captain in crew combat only as the last resort. Crew combat is significantly more dangerous to your captain than the ship combat, so if you make your captain a permanent part of your combat team (and let’s face it, who doesn’t like to see his captain doing some cool stuff in a firefight) don’t be surprised if your playthrough doesn’t last very long.

Anyway that’s about all I can think of right now. The guide is pretty long and even so it can be hardly called detailed as I barely scratched the surface of many issues. STF is a rather complex game after all. I hope someone will find this useful.

If you have any comments/threats/insults post them bellow.