Nuke

Nukes (also known as Capital Missiles) are a special module type that can be put into Nuke (or capital missile) slots. Unique among modules, nukes are used one-time only, after which you have to use another nuke. Nukes can be obtained by crafting them at the nuke slot (some nukes can be ship specific, but there is a range of universal ones), from encounters or by buying them from space stations. They can be added mid battle to the slot if crafted there or loaded from storage. Nukes tend to be very expensive due to their power. Most can completely change the tide of battle, either by destroying critical modules, killing off a lot of crew or by killing the ship outright. Do note however, the enemies also have nukes and *will* always use them. Some enemies even have unique nukes, such as ones that deliver boarders or some which you cannot normally obtain.

## Proper usage of nukes

When in battle, you can select any nukes you have in F5 quick selection menu near other weapons or select them manually from their slot. They are aimed much like regular weapons, except they only show their blast radius without a cone, since they are perfectly accurate (unless fired from a side facing tube or backward, where they will either fly above or below the target area, and in some cases travel far). Nukes don't require energy or bridge to fire and will fire immediately upon being given a target. Immediately upon firing a nuke its respective slot goes empty. You can immediately load or craft another one in that slot, with a build/install delay however. Newly installed nukes can be fired straight away.

Due to nukes having a fairly high cost, both credit and resource wise, it is best to use them when tactically advisable. Avoid nuking weak ships that you can take down with your regular weapons as it is a waste of a powerful weapon, instead focus on nuking large ships with high HP, ships with a lot of dangerous weapons or ships which your regular weapons are having trouble dealing with.

Nuke target priority is important, as is also knowing what your nuke is built for and how much damage it deals to what. Nuking things such as containers, hardpoint containers and other modules that aren't directly hurting you is foolish, so avoid targeting them. Power generators, very dangerous weapons and ECM modules are priority targets, as taking them down gives you a big edge in combat. Be wary however, some modules such as biotech weapons don't take much power to operate, so targeting their power generators may be unideal. Targeting point defences directly may also be beneficial if they are shooting down your own nukes and projectile weapons, especially if you have a projectile based build.

Be wary that nukes **can be destroyed by point defences**. Thus, for maximum effectiveness you should play around that: use multiple nukes (or other weapons that are targetable by point defences) at once, use better armoured nukes, use decoy nukes, take down point defences with other weapons or just aim at parts of the ship that are not covered by point defences. In most cases the nuke will get through fine, but do take into account that they can always be shot down if you aren't careful with targeting. Nukes are especially effective against ships that do not have PD turrets, but may be a waste in some cases against them.

## Nuke types

There are several different types of nukes in STtE, each with their own nuance and use case.

#### Anti-crew nukes

Anti-crew nukes nukes should always be targeted at the places with the most crew possible to maximise their effect. Bridges can be good targets for them as well, though in most cases they wont kill the crew outright. Do also note that most anti-crew nukes also deal a tiny amount of damage to modules as well, so they can be used as a last ditch method of disabling modules, though usually you'll just end up damaging modules by accident. They also have a large damage radius, so you dont need to be super precise with them.

#### EMP nukes

EMP nukes are usually found in 1 of 3 categories. EMP specific nukes, Shield breaker nukes and nukes with EMP side effects. EMP specific nukes (such as the DIY EMP nuke, rat EMP nuke and EMP 9000) have a large splash, ignore shields (in most cases) and will disable modules for longer than EMP weapons do. Target weapons or power generators with them. Shield breaker nukes (such as the DIY shield breaker nuke and the EMP 9000) specifically deal large amounts of damage to shields. In most cases they do not deal any damage to modules or hull, and are only made to break shields. Nukes with EMP side effects, as the name would imply, are nukes that have EMP as a side effect along with their main effect (these are nukes like the white death, "happy" type nuke, D-Exotics nuke and others which deal additional EMP alongside damage). The EMP is most cases is just a bonus side effect, but can be useful if the module gets repaired faster then the EMP runs out.

#### Monolith nukes

In general the most powerful nukes, Monolith nukes are durable, relatively fast and deal colossal amounts of damage to a ships hull specifically. They are best used to deal huge amounts of damage to a ships hull, and in some cases downright killing ships. They don't usually need decoy nukes to tank for them, in fact, in most cases they can be used to tank for other nukes in nuke barrages. They also deal module damage, but tend to deal a lot less compared to their ship damage. In most cases, if a monolith nuke is heading your way along with others, manually focus the PD turrets on the other weaker nukes, the monolith nuke will almost always get through and getting rid of the smaller ones minimises damage.

#### Incendiary nukes

Incendiary nukes cause fires in a large radius and serve to either distract crew by forcing them to extinguish fires, or more commonly disable and destroy modules due to crew not being able to get rid of the large fires in time. Most incendiary only nukes will have a high damage radius and will be one of your top priorities to take down. They come in many different forms (from weak ones like the barrel nukes to the incredible terran fire 2000), but will usually need to be fires in groups or in nuke volleys to be most effective. Some other regular nukes also cause fires, though usually not to the extremes of incendiary nukes (excluding the unknown capital weapon, which deals insane ship, module and crew damage, along with fires in a 4 wide radius!), which can help them deal additional damage.

#### Decoy nukes

As the name implies, these nukes are designed to tank damage and take fire away from other nukes. In most cases you'll either have them starting off or collect them from encounters and space stations, though in some cases can be made on ships (as is the case for the rouge rat, which can make the DIY decoy capital missile). They are usually faster than other nukes to draw fire sooner, but not by a huge margin. Monolith nukes can also serve as decoy nukes, but its usually unfavourable when used specifically as a decoy nuke.

#### General purpose nukes

The most common and general purpose of the nukes, they're the ones like the Ancient nuke, Tigerpaw industrial nuke, corrosion nuke and white death. They deal high module and ship damage in a wider area and serve the purpose of softening up ships. They can range from fairly weak ones (like the Speeder nuke and Plastics nuke) to downright unfair to fight (such as the white death and Industrial nuke). You'll tend to have these the most and use them the most, since they're the easiest to get and easiest to use. They also tend to have a lot of side effects, such as causing fires, dealing crew damage and causing EMP, so make sure to take those into account.

#### Boarder nukes

A very rare kind of nuke, one you'll most often find being used against you in special encounters, Boarder nukes carry boarders to their target with a higher chance of survival, faster and without causing damage to the crew inside if they take fire (unlike escape pods during regular boarding manoeuvres). Some carry only a single boarder, such as the armoured boarding shuttle and Tiger intruderbot nuke, while others like the Biotech burrower nuke carry several boarders. As of writing this, the tiger intruderbot nuke is the only obtainable intruder nuke you can use, the others are used in special encounters by the enemy.

#### Supernukes

A special category of nukes, Supernukes are nukes of various categories that are significantly stronger than normal nukes. They tend to have a lot of side effects, deal huge damage, are durable and are a major threat to ships. Examples of Supernukes include the Spearhead nuke, which is incredibly durable, deals the highest amount of damage to enemy hull (15 damage!) and is hard to stop, the Deathmatter which has a huge damage radius of 4, deals huge ship and module damage, is also very durable and can in some cases destroy an entire ship on its own using its side effects, and the unknown capital missile, which can very easily make hard encounters like the squid emperor boss battle a cakewalk with its 4 damage radius, giant fires, high damage and decent HP. They are also the rarest, and in most cases you will very rarely get them or see them.

#### Miscellaneous nukes

There are a few nukes that don't really fit into any category (such as the Tiger nuke battery ×8 and improvised probe nuke) and tend to either be weaker or too general to be in any specific category, or have a very unique function. In most cases, you'll have to use them yourself to find out, or use a reference link to the respective weapon for a better explanation of the weapon

## Nuke behaviour

Nukes have certain behaviours that you will see them display. They have health bars above them to better display their status, they actively home in on their target location and will usually ignore shields and never deflect. If fired directly in line or in the same vector as their target point, they will practically never miss. If fired from the side or backwards, they will usually miss their target location by a bit, so aiming lower/higher by a decent margin is advised. In most cases, if a nuke misses where it was targeting it will attempt to turn back to hit it, though usually once they pass their target they detonate a bit behind the target location. Nukes that can deflect (such as the "happy" type commercial nuke and the Tiger nuke battery ×8) will turn around to try hit their target again, or detonate right after they deflect due to their detonation behaviour.

AI nukes will usually fire straight away upon entering a battle, after a set time or when the ship reaches a low HP threshold, though it is critical to note that AI ships will *always* fire off their nukes. They will usually target generators, bridges and weapons, with generators being the most common one.