Combat basics

Combat in Estelar Online is ship against ship, in free flight. You fly with the mouse, fire with both buttons and try to keep hitting the same side of the enemy: every ship’s shield has four sides, and it’s the broken side that leaves the hull exposed. The same rules apply to everyone: pirates, match bots, other pilots and you.

Aiming and firing

Dragging with the right button flies the ship. A plain click doesn’t turn anything.
With the right button held, the left button fires the cannons. Shots go toward the amber dot of the crosshair, which stays in the center of the screen while you fly.
Dragging with the left button turns only the camera, without changing course (handy for looking around).

The two cannons fire alternately. Shooting costs no energy: only the weapon’s fire rate limits you, and that comes from your level, your attribute points, your equipment and the ship class. A shot flies at 80 km/s for 0.1 s, which gives a range of about 8 km.

Aim assist: with a hostile locked, near range and inside a 12° cone around the crosshair, the cannons converge on their own on the lead point (where the target will be when the shot arrives). The crosshair shows that point while the assist is engaged.

Locking targets

Command	What it does
[1] to [9] and [0]	Locks the hostile with that number on its marker (1 is the closest, 0 is the tenth). The same key unlocks
[T] by default	Locks the closest target
[Tab] by default	Cycles to the next target
Click the marker	Selects the target

Hostiles with a marker get a number: pirates up to 120 km and pilots up to 400 km, in any direction. Nothing locks on its own: a pirate that shows up or hits you only gives a warning. With a hostile locked up to 800 km away, the camera keeps it in frame and the ship’s nose lines up with it; the mouse adjusts on top of that. Killing the target unlocks it without jumping to the next one. Keys can be changed in SETTINGS › KEYS.

Four-sided shield

The shield isn’t a single number. Every ship has four sides: front, right, rear and left, and a shot comes in through the side facing whoever fired.

Each side of your ship has half of its total shield. The shield number on the HUD is the sum of all four.
A side absorbs damage until it hits zero. When it drops, the hull on that side is exposed for 3.5 s, with damage multiplied by 1.75.
A side starts recharging on its own 6 s after the last hit on that side, recovering 22% of its capacity per second.

In practice: keep hitting the same side of the enemy to bring it down and, on your end, turn and strafe so you don’t always present the same one. On the target marker, the cross around the diamond shows its four sides (top is the front). The COMBAT panel and the ring around your ship show your own four sides; a broken one blinks red.

When the hull drops below 30%, every shot that gets past the shield can damage a system (engine, warp or shield), and it stays damaged until repaired at a station.

Flip

Pressing [S] twice in a row (quickly) does the flip: the ship turns around in under a second. If there’s a hostile outside your forward view (up to 1,500 km), it turns toward it; otherwise it turns 180°. The maneuver has a 4 s cooldown. It’s how you answer someone who came up behind you, which is exactly the side you weren’t protecting.

Missiles, turrets and countermeasures

Guided missiles ([R] by default): buy them at the station (up to 8 on board, 400 ¢ each). Lock a hostile up to 600 km away and launch: the missile accelerates to 30 km/s, chases the target for up to 14 s and deals 35 damage on impact. Against another pilot, only when PvP applies between you.
Turrets (up to 3): modules that fire on their own, in 360°, at the nearest hostile in range, with less damage.
Countermeasures (ECM): a module that stops missiles from locking onto your ship; the missile flies unguided.

Turrets and ECM are equipment dropped by pirates.

In combat and protected arrival

Taking a hit puts the ship in combat for 15 s, and every new hit restarts the count. During that time there’s no warp, auto landing, tour, garage, kiosk, joining a match or logging out. The server is the one checking: if you want to escape, you have to fly.

When you come out of warp, the ship gets 15 s of protected arrival: pirates don’t target it and PvP doesn’t apply. The protection works at most once per minute, and firing ends it immediately. Within 50 km of a kiosk no pirate can reach you.