Dogfighting: a fight you can read.

Getting into a fight

A fight begins when a hostile craft comes within about 2.5 km of you and is after you. The pirates, the rival ships and the Vael warships can all start one. A shot that passes close to another pilot's ship also starts one.

In a fight, your craft drops into a combat drive. Her top speed falls to about 75 m/s, whatever her cruise speed, and she turns tighter and brakes harder. It takes about 1.5 seconds to drop into the drive and about 4 seconds to come out. The Slipstream is cut as soon as a hostile is within about 5 km, and the Vector Drive is refused.

You break out of a fight when the other craft is more than about 5 km away, when it is dead, or when you use the escape boost.

Your guns

• Pulse cannon: hold fire (left click, or RT on a pad). A bolt leaves the nose every fifth of a second. Each bolt does 130 damage, with a range of about 1,500 m. The guns are led a little onto a target near your sights. Aim close.
• Heat: each shot adds heat. When your guns overheat they stop, and they start again once they have cooled a part of the way. The Cooling stat decides how many shots you get before that.
• Railgun: some craft carry a railgun. It charges for about 1.6 seconds, and the glow warns the other pilot.
• Dart missiles: press place (right click, or LT on a pad). A pair of darts leaves each wing pod, and a dart does 520 damage over a range of about 3.2 km. Darts home on a target you have locked.

Locking on

Keep your sights on a target for about 1.5 seconds to get a lock, within about 3.5 km. The target's pilot hears a warning tone when you lock. A lock is kept for a short while after your sights drift off, then it is lost. Stealth makes locks slower to take.

Defending yourself

• Flares: press F. A pod of three flares drops out of your tail, hot and bright. A missile that sees them in its first second may chase a flare instead. Each pod is one chance. You carry up to five pods, and each reloads in about 7 seconds.
• Hard turns: a missile loses you if you slew across its nose faster than it can turn, when it is close. Break across a missile's line and keep moving.
• Shields: a shield takes hits first. It grows back after you have not been hit for about four seconds.
• Armour: every hit does less damage, depending on the Armour stat.

The escape boost

Press the Slipstream key (X on the keyboard, or the left stick press on a pad) in a fight to boost out. You go up to four times your top speed for about eight seconds, and you are out of the fight for about twelve seconds. The boost is ready again about twenty seconds later. In the sky, it costs a small share of your fuel. In space it costs none.

Damage and the end of a fight

Damage takes blocks off your ship, and the hull's weight falls. Losing the helm, the engines or the fuel with the hull already hurt sends a craft into critical. A fighter that goes critical burns, and then cooks off in a few seconds. Press the eject key (Backspace, or the D-pad right on a pad) to bail out with a parachute while there is still time.

A fighter that loses all its engines sheds her speed in space and drifts to a stop.

Carrier and hangar

A carrier keeps fighters in bays. A hangar shield, opened with U at the helm, is blue when open to your own craft and red when sealed in flight. Taxi a fighter into the launch box and jump to launch. To return to your carrier, press R to use the return autopilot.

Tips

• Watch the bolt, not the target. A pulse bolt is slow enough to dodge.
• Use flares before a missile is on you, not after.
• Boost out early, while you still have your shield and armour.
• Pick a fighter that suits how you fly. See all fifty fighters.

For the basics of flying a fighter, read Ships and fighters.

← Back to the wiki · Last updated 25 October 2026. Mantlenaut is in alpha, so things change.