Kestrel

The **Tarazed Kestrel** is a special ship only available after the player has defeated enough enemies in combat. It is a very powerful and customizable ship no matter which configuration the player picks.

## Shipyard Description

Several years ago, while visiting a sweat lodge in search of spiritual renewal, Tarazed's chief ship designer fell into a trance and journeyed to a reality separate from our own. There he saw visions of a strange starship. He returned with sketches of the ship and ordered his engineers to build it. After several years of development and testing, the Kestrel is now available for sale.

## Location

The Kestrel can be purchased at the following ports:

* Wayfarer, Tarazed (after completing the mission chain)
* Zug, Zubeneschamali (if the player has progressed far enough in the Free Worlds campaign and the mission chain has been completed)

## Outfit s

These are the standard outfits initially equipped on each Kestrel.

 Laser Rifle (15)

## Obtainment

In order for the player to acquire a Kestrel, you must first achieve 8000 Combat Rating points (just under a combat rating of 9) and receive the mission "Kestrel Testing" from Wayfarer, wherein you are required to travel to Umbral and disable the prototype. If you destroy or steal the prototype, you will fail the mission. After this, you are invited to name the ship and give input about changes to the final product. These changes mean that there are four potential Kestrel variants available:

* Higher Weapon Capacity
* Higher Shield Capacity and Hull Strength
* Higher Engine power and Maneuverability
* Higher Fighter Bay count

However, while these stats change, the ship outfits are constant for each potential model. Choose whichever option fits your play-style best.

## Variants

The Kestrel comes in one of four variants after completing the questline.

* Higher Weapon capacity - This variant will give the kestrel 12 gun ports (18 gun ports in v0.9.10 and earlier) in total, and adds 50 weapon capacity for a total of 430.
* More Shields - This variant gives the kestrel an extra 3000 shields and 1500 hull as well as an additional 10% heat dissipation.
* Better Engines - This variant gives 30 engine capacity and 100 extra fuel. It also reduces the drag by 1.0, which will increase the speed.
* More Bays - This variant gives 4 additional fighter bays (6 total), but it will also reduce weapon capacity by 20 tons and increase mass by 60 tons. Higher mass positively affects heat dissipation and negatively affects both turning speed and acceleration.

Remember that you can only choose one of these variants to be sold.

## Performance Information

The Kestrel is the most customizable ship in the game. Due to player choice in the mission string to acquire the ship, a Kestrel can fulfill a multitude of functions. In general the player should note that the ship's total outfit space doesn't change between variants, so the variant with the stronger hull and shields is the safest option if the player hasn't calculated exactly what outfits are going into the Kestrel. If the player has done this, the other variants can be extremely deadly. Overall, the Kestrel is one of the most powerful human ships in the game and one of the most powerful purchasable ships in the game.

The only detriment to the Kestrel is that it is acquired fairly late in the game due to the combat rating the player has to achieve in order to get the Kestrel mission. By the time the player has the mission for the Kestrel, the player may have already purchased a comparable or, arguably, superior vessel.

## Notes

* The Kestrel is also an Author Ship belonging to the main developer, Michael Zahniser.
* The Kestrel was the most powerful civilian ship in the original Escape Velocity game.
* The Kestrel made an appearance as a hidden ship obtainable in Escape Velocity: Nova. Upon finishing the game, the player was given the option to purchase one for an exorbitant amount of money.