At this level, any combat in space is not an easy task. Before engaging an enemy or even flying near an enemy, check on the enemy’s level or Tier. The higher the tier, the tougher the opponent.

Tier 5 is the highest tier in regular space areas, Kessel and Deep Space. Nova Orion spawn Tier 6 to Tier 10 ships.

You first missions will be against Tier 1 ships and may encompass the occasional Tier 2 ship. As you learn your controls, you will learn how to turn, pitch, and roll as needed. It is highly recommended that you use a joystick for this. Before engaging, target the enemy. As you put your crosshairs on the target you will observe a few things:

- Your speed indicator (light blue): Located on the left side of the HUD (Heads Up Display) tells you how fast you are going.

- Booster Status (green): Located on the left side of the HUD, next to the speed indicator. It shows how much power the boosters have available, if equipped.

- Capacitor Power: Located on the right side of the HUD, it tells you how much energy is stored in the capacitor and will decrease with each blast from your weapons.

- Radar: Located at the bottom center of the screen, it shows shield (blue) and armor (red) status, front (top) and back (bottom).

As the shields are drained and armor consumed, the red and blue bars will disappear. Damage to the shield shows as clear. The shield will regenerate over time. Damage to the armor is indicated in black and requires a space station repair.

Radar effective range is 2000 meters. Enemy ships on radar are marked as a red pinpoint dot at a range of greater than 1000 meters, and a larger red dot at less than 1000 meters. A flashing red dot indicates an enemy that is firing at you.

Effective range of nearly all enemy weapons is 550 meters. This is roughly the same distance that an enemy ship will aggro the pilot. If the dot is in the upper half of the radar, then it is above you. The further away from center a target is, the further you have to turn to engage it.

The outside edge of the radar (Shield status lines) represents items that are directly behind you. The closer to center of the radar an object is, then the object should be in your line of sight, forward of your ship. Friendly ships will appear as white or yellow dots. Ships in your group will appear light purple (group leader only) or green (representing group members). Active space waypoints will appear as triangles on the radar and grow as you get closer to them.

As you engage an enemy, you should first target it. When targeted, your targeting computer will display an estimate of where to fire in order to hit your target, based on target speed and flight path. Always lead your target (fire just ahead of it). Trust your computer. It is accurate to about 90%. Unless the target is in range, you are wasting capacitor energy by firing. Wait until the targeting computer changes the color of the leading crosshairs from red to pink. When pink, the target is in range and will likely begin firing at you.

Enemy targets that you are chasing will attempt to evade. TO turn inside your target, throttle back to 50% power (this will maximize your maneuverability) and lead your target. Fire when your fixed HUD crosshairs cross the targeting computers estimate.

When the target is destroyed, you will get a system message of a loot chip, and possibly a loot component that can be turned in to a shipwright for reverse engineering to make an uber component.

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