Crew

Crews are the pilots for your vehicles. You can assign them to your units in the *Hangar -> Refit Army* tab

### Command crew and others

You start off with your Command Crew (Commander) and a few Non-command Crews. In order to be able to deploy a vehicle, you must have a crew manning it. Crews, including your command crew, have gunnery and piloting ratings which can take on values of rookie, skilled, veteran, or elite.

#### Commander

Your command crew is a special crew (marked blue) that represents YOU on the battlefield. If the vehicle piloted by your command crew is destroyed, all your other units will immediately evacuate from the planet.
Your command crew gains experience points (exp) through killing other units and trough other crews killing units (10% exp). Your commander will gain levels based on the amount of exp. The experience required to level can be determined by your current level multiplied by your next level times 250. Simplified in the formula below:

```
ExpRequired = CurrentLevel * NextLevel * 250

```

Your Commander will receive 3 level points per level until level 20. Above level 20 you gain 2 level points. For every level you get level points that can be spent to buy Piloting or Gunnery levels, merits, special commands or abilities from the the Headquarters menu.

```
Headquarters

```

#### Level

Any crew gains experience points (aka. exp) for every kill. In addition, your command crew will gain 10% of the points as well for any of your other crews kills. These crews have a probability of leveling with each kill. The probability is determined by how much exp they have at that point in time, so the more exp they have, the higher their chance of leveling. Upon leveling, they will randomly gain a level in piloting or gunnery until they have reached elite/elite. After reaching elite/elite, with every subsequent level they make they have a 25% base chance of getting a merit.
Crews will receive improvement after each level as follow:

```
Level 1: Default
Level 2-7: Gunnery and Piloting, 3 levels for each (rookie, skilled, veteran & elite)
Level 8+: Chance of getting merits until you have achieve a maximum 3 merits
3 merits: Experience gained is transferred to the commander

```

##### Piloting

A crew's Piloting skill level determines what complexity vehicles they can use. Any crew can pilot a Simple vehicle, but a crew must be Skilled or better in Piloting to be assigned to an Intermediate unit, and Veteran or better to pilot an Advanced vehicle. Meka requirements are one increment higher - Simple meka require Skilled or better Piloting, Intermediate meka require Veteran, and Advanced meka can only be piloted by crews with Elite Piloting.

##### Gunnery

Gunnery skill determines the accuracy of the piloted vehicle's weapons.
Main article: Guide:Frizz

##### Ranks

From lowest to highest, they are:

 Rookie (green)

 Skilled (yellow)

 Veteran (orange)

 Elite (red)

 Warped (purple)

##### Merits

```
  **Acti Master:** All Actis on the unit gain -1 Cooldown, +1 Charge, Regenerates +1 Charge every 10 Turns
  **Armorer:** Crew's unit receives +50% Armor, +5 armor / turn *(unavailable for Commander?)*
  **Battlefield Promotion:** Crew can pilot Command Units and deploy buildings
  **Beserker:** Crew does +1 Missile, +2 Ballistic, +3 Energy Damage
  **Eagle Eye:** Crew's energy and missile weapons receive +1 Range
  **Energy Specialist:** Crew's unit receives +30% Shield Recharge
  **Engineer:** Crew's unit receives +50% Shields *(unavailable for Commander?)*
  **Marksmanship:** Crew re-rolls any misses *(unavailable for Commander?)*
  **Packrat:** Crew's unit receives +100% Ammo, gives +1 Ammo/5 turns to all units in same square
  **Quick Reflexes:** Crew receives +2 Dodge
  **Rockhound:** Crew's unit can mine (efficiency +5%, yield +15%), salvage +5%, and transport ore (loses 4 Max Speed)
  **Speed Demon:** Crew's unit receives +2 Max Speed, +1 Cloak Speed (if unit cloaks)
  **Steady Hand:** Crew's unit receives +3 Controlled Movement,30% Survivability
  **War Hero:** Crew receives a -0.2 (1.1) CE modifier, +30% Survivability, +20% Self-salvage *(unavailable for Commander?)*
  **Bandit's bane:** Crew inflicts +50% Damage to NPCs

```

#### Recruiting

Non-command crews can be recruited from HQ->Units. The base cost of recruiting a crew is 4 command points (the Charismatic ability and Faction Combat Level 2 each reduce this by one point.)
There is a limit of recruiting 5 crews a day, and players with over 100 crews below Level 4 cannot recruit. Crews over Level 3 can also be bought at the Black Market or given to other players.

#### Cloning

Players over Level 75 can clone their Command Crew for 30 Level Points in the Headquarters panel. A Command Crew must have 3 merits in-order to be cloned. Cloning duplicates your Commander's skills and merits (but not abilities or commands). A clone takes on your Commanders name, plus a marker which designates how many other clones you have already created (clones start at 2, your commander is the original). Clones can be bought, sold, or given to other players. Clones have a CE factor of 1. Clones are not Commanders and do not trigger Commander-specific game mechanics. Level Points spent on a clone are not given back if you Respec your Commander; creating a clone will result in a permanent reduction in your Level Points.
Players who create clones now also have the option of taking a free Merit Respec when they create their clone. Players who created clones before this update have been refunded the cost of a Merit Respec.

#### Death

##### Command Crews

Command Crews cannot be killed.
If a unit piloted by a Command Crew is destroyed, that player may not deploy to a faction base for 10 minutes plus 1 minute for every 2,500CE of the force led when the Command Crew's unit was destroyed; the maximum penalty is 30 minutes.

##### Non-Command Crews

Non-Command Crews can die in combat. If a crew's vehicle is destroyed, there is a chance that the crew will escape unharmed:

```
50% -  base chance of escaping
+25% - Survivalist (Commander ability)
+10% - War Hero (crew merit)
+20% - Lone-eye Probe
+20% - Preserver Escape Pod
+10% - Survivor Escape Pod

```

The escape pod bonuses stack with each other, and with other Crew Survival bonuses.
-1% per point of overkill (damage inflicted in excess of the unit's current armor)
The Supreme General restricted ability eliminates this modifier.
If a crew fails that roll, then it goes to the cryogenic chambers or wherever until you go to Headquarters -> TerraBucks to revive them.

###### Revival Cost

```
Level <7 = 1-4 Command Points
Level 7+ = 1 TerraBuck

```

###### Warped Crews

When killing a Sha'Kahr queen you get the chance that one of your crews will get warped. The chat will display a message from the queen that they took the mind of that crew. The crew will change the name starting with *Warped*. The color of the crew changes the color to purple, Gunnery and Piloting Levels now read as: *undefined.*

Players owning warped crews still speculate on the actual buff such a crew receives.
The current consent seems to be that the crew gains +1 Gunnery level