Captain (2.0)

**Note:** this article is under construction and the information may be incomplete.

**Captains** are a special type of crew member that provide unique bonuses to their ships, enable operations, and unlock the ability to use map commands with their captained ships.

## Obtaining

Tier 0, Tier 1, and Tier 2 Captains are commonly found at stations and can be hired like other standard crew members. Tier 3 Captains are not hired from stations and are instead recruited by completing the mission A Lost Friend, which is uncommonly offered by most stations.

The class of a Tier 1 or Tier 2 captain (primary class in the case of Tier 3) is influenced by the station the captain is hired from or mission is given from:

* Smuggler Hideouts provide Smuggler captains
* Military Outposts provide Commodore captains
* Trading Posts provide Merchant captains
* Mines provide Miner captains
* Scrapyards provide Scavenger captains
* Research Stations and Travel Hubs provide Explorer captains
* Casinos and Habitats provide Daredevil captains
* All other stations choose from classes at random

Captains can be moved to a "passenger" slot in the ship menu crew tab, where they will provide no bonuses but can also be freely transferred between ships. Captains obtained by an already-captained ship will automatically become passengers. Passenger and active captains can be swapped at any time the ship is available/controllable.

## Tiers

Captains are assigned a "Tier" rating upon creation that influences their class and perk selection as well as their salary. This tier does not change after hiring.

 Tier 1
 Tier 2
 Tier 3

## Classes

Bugs/notes:

* 2.2 beta adds Xsotan Hunter and Scientist classes. Xsotan Hunter attracts stronger xsotan (in the rifts), and Scientists increases the amount of research data you find in a rift. (Possibly they are exclusive to the 'Into the Rift' DLC ?)
* New buildings (Rift Research Centers) exist to accomodate the new captain classes.

## Perks

Captains are randomly assigned **perks** that impact their performance on map commands. The number of perks and distribution among positive, negative, and neutral categories is dependent on captain tier. Some perks cannot be assigned to captains with certain classes and some perks can't be assigned with an opposing perk--these are noted below.

## Uses

Captains have three purposes on a ship.

* To unlock operations in the galactic map screen in which the captain is sent on a mission with results based on profession and level
* To allow better automation within sectors, such as patrolling and defending sectors, or salvaging them
* To give bonuses to the ship they captain, such as additional turret slots or damage output

## Bugs/notes

Many perk effects become "better" (bigger for positive effects, smaller for negative effects) as the captain levels. As examples (this is not exhaustive!)

* Disoriented slows Travel by 12.5% at level 0, scaling to 1% at level 5
* Market Expert reduces Restock time by 0% at level 0, scaling to 50% at level 5
* Reckless reduces Scout time by 10% at level 0, scaling to 35% at level 5

**Careful** and **Reckless** warrant special mention as the impact they have on ambush chance is \*flat\*. Unlike other ambush-chance-impacting perks, this means that a Reckless captain can never have a 0% ambush chance and a Careful captain can frequently obtain a much bigger reduction than other perks would give when the base chance was already low. Some modifiers to ambush chance (like safe mode's) will still guarantee a non-zero ambush chance no matter what perk impact is.

## Leveling

Captains have an "experience level" that influences the impact of their perks.

The starting level of a captain is chosen based on Tier: Tier 0 and 1 captains always begin at level 0; Tier 2 captains start at level 0 or level 1, and Tier 3 captains start at level 1 or level 2.

Captains gain experience by completing commands and the amount of experience is determined by the total time of the completed command, with each hour of duration giving 30 experience points. The Educated and Uneducated perks apply a 120% or 90% modifier to this gain, respectively. Experience gain does not "roll over" upon leveling up, meaning a captain that completes a 6h command (180 experience) but only needed 10 experience to reach the next level will only receive 10 experience.

The amount of experience needed to reach each level is fixed:

 2
 3
 4
 5

## Autopilot

Without a captain, the only sector-wide autopilot command a player can issue to a ship is "refine." Having a captain on the ship allows the use of all other sector commands: mine, salvage, attack enemies, and patrol. All captains unlock all autopilot commands.

Non-sector-wide autopilot commands such as "mine this asteroid" or "escort this ship," as issued via strategy view, are available even without a captain.