With Sentry and Exile, we introduced ships that will make assaulting outer regions easier than ever, but now we’d like to share with you two new command abilities that will vastly improve defense of both home and outer regions: tanking and sniping. Because they are command abilities, they are only useful for defense, but a ship with one of these commands active can easily mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Both abilities function along the same principle, just in opposite directions. A ship with an active tanking command loses X from its attack value while gaining X to its shields. While this can leave a ship without much damage, the increase to shields makes it perfect for holding outer regions, where defense matters more than offense. Conversely, sniping boosts a ship’s attack while reducing its shields by a commensurate amount. This would leave the ship highly vulnerable in an outer region, but it is perfect for defending a starbase, where destruction of your opponent’s ships is more important than the survival of your own.

Powerful as these commands are, players should expect to see tankers and snipers taking up position alongside ambushers. After all, no one said going into the outer regions was going to be easy.