Combat

Combat drains shields before hull, rolls a chance for a critical hit or a critical miss on every shot, spills cargo from destroyed ships into a container that will not last forever, limits return fire to armed ships with riposte on, and rarely spares an unescorted miner.

Every raider you meet is a bet; know the odds before you fire.

Shields, Then Hull

Every hit drains shields first; only once they are gone does damage spill into hull. The captain's log and every damage readout split each hit into what the shield absorbed and what reached the hull, and call out the exact volley that finally brings a shield down. Destroy a ship and it does not simply vanish; its cargo spills into a floating container, free for the taking by whoever reaches it first — but that container does not sit forever: it clears itself two hours after it first appears, so salvage left too long is salvage lost.

Critical Hits and Critical Misses

Every shot that fires has a chance to land as a critical hit, dealing one and a half times its normal damage, and a smaller chance to miss critically and deal nothing at all. In standard play a shot crits 10% of the time and misses critically 5% of the time; the tournament universe raises both odds, to 15% and 7.5%. Both sides of a fight roll the same dice, so an ambient raider lands criticals and critical misses exactly as you do. Neither roll decides a fight that was never close, but either one can decide a fight that was.

Riposte and Assist

A ship only fires back if it is armed and its riposte toggle is on; an unarmed miner never returns fire, no matter how long the fight runs. Assist lets an armed ally auto-join a fight at your side, turning a lone defender into a wall.

Bring an Escort

A lone kibby caught by a raider rarely lasts long — measured at roughly 30 to 40 seconds depending on how secure the system is; it has no guns and nothing to fight back with. Never send an unescorted miner into contested space. An armed ship on riposte is the difference between a close call and a lost hull.

The Crimson Corsairs are the raiders most commanders meet first, and an unescorted extraction run past the Expanse is exactly where that risk shows up. Turning your own guns on another commander carries its own consequences — see Piracy — and standing with either power, tracked as Reputation, decides who leaves you alone and who does not.

By the Numbers

Lone kibby vs a raider — 30-40s
Critical hit chance — 10% (15% in the tournament)
Critical hit damage — x1.5
Critical miss chance — 5% (7.5% in the tournament)

Every 5-second tick trades blows and regenerates shields. An unescorted kibby caught by a raider rarely survives more than a few beats.