The commander’s guide

Aircraft, drones and ships

Command aircraft, bomber drones and ships. Learn attack passes, fuel, refuelling bays, naval movement and sea mines.

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Air and sea

An air factory builds nine aircraft for every faction, from a light drone to the tanker, and a naval yard six ships, two per tier:

Aircraft and ships by faction and tier
Unit	Sunhearth	Mossglade	Moonveil	Cost
T1 air scout	Emberwing	Leafwing	Moonwing	90 / 180 / 10 s
T1 light drone	Firefly	Damselfly	Moonmoth	60 / 120 / 8 s
T1 ground-attack plane	Cinderwing	Briarwing	Shardwing	150 / 300 / 14 s
T2 interceptor	Sunhawk	Thornwing	Starling	250 / 520 / 20 s
T2 tactical bomber	Dawnfall	Acornfall	Nightfall	380 / 760 / 27 s
T2 bomber drone	Firefly Bomber	Damselfly Bomber	Moonmoth Bomber	180 / 360 / 18 s
T3 bomber	Solstice Bomber	Seedfall Bomber	Eclipse Bomber	680 / 1,400 / 36 s
T3 heavy gunship	Solar Bastion	Canopy Bastion	Astral Bastion	820 / 1,800 / 44 s
T3 tanker	Sundrop	Dewdrop	Stardrop	650 / 1,500 / 36 s
T1 gunboat	Copperwake	Reedwake	Crescentwake	120 / 240 / 12 s
T1 anti-air patrol	Dawnwatch Patrol	Canopywatch Patrol	Starwatch Patrol	112 / 225 / 12 s
T2 mine layer	Cinder Sower	Seed Sower	Star Sower	280 / 520 / 22 s
T2 anti-air patrol	Dawnwatch Patrol	Canopywatch Patrol	Starwatch Patrol	300 / 600 / 24 s
T3 cruiser	Dawn Dreadnought	Grove Leviathan	Lunar Sovereign	760 / 1,500 / 42 s
T3 anti-air patrol	Dawnwatch Patrol	Canopywatch Patrol	Starwatch Patrol	800 / 1,600 / 43 s

Aircraft

Aircraft fly straight over walls, rivers, barricades and cliffs, cruising 70, 80 or 90 metres up by tier. Left idle for ten seconds, an aircraft sets down on open ground (never on water).
In the air, only anti-air emplacements, the anti-air tanks and patrol boats, the Sunhearth Skywarden, interceptors and the petals’ turrets can hit them; ground blasts never reach them. The drone catcher stops drones, not piloted aircraft. On the ground it is the other way round: any ground weapon hits a landed aircraft, and anti-air does not. An order, or an enemy coming into reach, lifts it off again.
Passes. Ground-attack planes, bombers, interceptors and drones never stop over a target: they strike once as they come in, carry on past and turn in again for the next pass. Only the heavy gunship hovers over its target and keeps firing.
The air scout carries no weapon and sees 420 metres. The ground-attack plane strafes vehicles, ships, buildings and landed aircraft with five rounds a pass at 272. The interceptor fights aircraft in the air only, four missiles a pass at 400. The tactical bomber drops a stick of small bombs and the bomber a heavy shell with an 18-metre blast, at 208 metres, on anything on the ground or the water. The heavy gunship pierces armour with twin cannon at 352 metres. The light drone strafes ground targets at 160 metres and the bomber drone drops two bombs.
Repair depots do not dock aircraft, but a depot’s aura still mends what is near it.

Fuel and refuelling

Every aircraft carries fuel by its load: 80 seconds of flight for the heavy gunship, 90 for the bomber, 100 for the bomber drone, 110 for the tactical bomber, 150 for the ground-attack plane, the interceptor and the light drone, and 300 for the air scout (a bar under its health shows it, and the selection panel too). It burns fuel while it flies and fights, half as much while it waits in the air and none on the ground. With an empty tank it flies at half speed and sets down as soon as it is idle over land.
Home by itself. Below a quarter tank an aircraft flies home: to your nearest powered refuelling station with a free bay it fits, or to an air factory’s deck if you have no station. It lands, fills up and takes up its attack-move, patrol or move again. A new order from you cancels the trip.
Refuel by leaving aircraft idle over your own air factory or a refuelling station: they land and fill up in twelve seconds. An air factory takes any number on its deck; a station has 2, 4 or 6 landing bays by tier, and refuses aircraft when its bays are taken, it is unfinished, or it has no power. A new order launches them again.
The tanker refuels the emptiest of your aircraft within 60 metres in the air, one at a time, and keeps a fifth of its own fuel for itself.

Ships

Ships sail on open water only: an order on land sends them to the nearest water, and against a target on land they sail to a firing point within range. Each domain keeps its own formation, and ships keep two hulls apart. They cannot pass under a bridge, so on a river each fleet keeps to its own stretch between bridges.
Each boat launched from a yard takes a berth of its own past the mouth, or by the rally point.
The gunboat fires at 320 metres. The cruiser lobs four-shell bursts from its fore and aft turrets out to 600 metres, with splash.
A boat that cannot reach its target by water, or cannot see it from the water, gives it up and says so.
The mine layer has no gun. Select it and switch Mine laying on in its command card: it drops a mine every 28 metres as it sails, for 12 matter and 20 energy each. A mine arms after three seconds, lasts three minutes and deals 450 damage to every enemy ship within 25 metres. A side can have 96 at once, and the enemy sees them only where it has vision.
Ships are hit by anything that fires at ground targets. Water defences and mines hit ships only. Only the anti-air patrol fires at aircraft: 260, 340 or 440 metres by tier.

The factions carry their character onto the water and into the air: Sunhearth hulls are the toughest (15% more health and the heaviest armour), Mossglade’s the fastest (12% quicker), and Moonveil’s carry a regenerating shield.

A Mossglade naval yard on the river with two anti-air patrol boats nearby — A naval yard builds ships on open water. Leave its launch lane clear and use patrol boats to cover your fleet from the air. Open 4K view.

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