Raid

Raid preparation illustration

Raiding uses marines to attack a colony directly for the purposes of plunder or to disrupt facilities. Raiding is a feature added in version 0.9.

Basics

The raid effectiveness is calculated as attacker strength / (attacker strength + defender strength), with a minimum divisor of 1. Higher raid effectiveness increases the loot acquired, industry disruption length and stability penalty from the raid.

Nearby fleets allied to the target may prevent raids, but only if they want to fight. Stations do not prevent raids on their own, but even a small fleet backed up by a station will block raids, and the station contributes a significant multiplier to ground defenses.

After a successful raid you will not be able to use markets/bar/etc. of a target for 60 in-game days even when trying to dock with the transponder off. Any subsequent raid will increase that penalty additively (the penalty is always the same - irrespective of type of performed raid or its strength). Case in point - plan accordingly what kind of raiding you are performing where to reap the most benefits from your other activities.

A given target may only be raided once per day. Raiding a market repeatedly will increase its defender strength temporarily.

There is a chance to not lose any marines on the raid, if the attacker's strength is sufficiently high.

Raiding can cause the colony to lose 1-3 stability, based on the number of marine icons assigned (see below). If a colony or installation is plundered and raided enough, the stability impacts are likely to result in the colony decivilizing.

Plunder

Post-raid plunder illustration

Try to acquire valuables, such as commodities, blueprints, and other items

The player can designate targets to raid from the provided screen. Usually this will be commodities of some kind, but ship weapons, AI Cores, industry items, blueprints (if a Heavy Industry or Orbital Works is present) and some mission-specific targets are also sometimes available.

Raid objectives screen, with marine losses tooltip

The player is provided a number of marine 'icons' (one for every 10% raid effectiveness) to allocate to different objectives. Assigning more marines to steal commodities will increase the number of commodities procured. Single-item targets such as AI cores, industry items and blueprints will require a specific number of icons to execute.

Leaving some icons unassigned will use those marines to conduct diversionary operations, reducing casualties; however, assigning them to a low-danger target can be more effective for this purpose.

The danger level is based on the raid objective and any commodity excesses or shortages present.

If your raid manages to cause deficit across some commodity or commodities - it will be visible as a "recent raid" condition on the relevant good(s) and will last precisely 90 days of in-game time.

Disrupt

Post-raid disruption illustration

Disrupt the operations of a specific industry or facility

Can only be executed if raid effectiveness is at least 40%.

Disruption duration has diminishing returns; you cannot disrupt a target industry for four years by conducting four raids that disrupt it for a year each.

Tips & Tricks

• Your raid strength can be boosted with the Tactical Drills skill & by using ships with a Ground Support Package.
• Commodity rewards from raids are small (but can still be situationally worthwhile), unless the target has a surplus of the commodity, in which case large volumes can be looted.
• Stability factors into the colony's ground defence strength. Consider a tactical bombardment, other destabilizing actions or triggering shortages to reduce an otherwise overwhelmingly strong target.
  • Piracy can reduce stability & cause shortages. Taking out Comm Relays is usually simple. Hitting any other allied colonies in the system can help other threats like pirates to build up & provide a handy distraction.
• Dedicated defensive ground facilities Ground Defences / Heavy Batteries provide a massive ground defence bonus, so consider disrupting these.
• While it is possible to raid without defeating the colony's station (if any), removing it greatly reduces ground defense strength.
• You cannot raid the same target again for exactly one in-game day.
• Raiding the same target repeatedly quickly will generate a stacking Defender Preparedness defensive bonus. This is often minimal after one raid but will stack very high after multiple raids. It does decay with time.
• Raiding a target with many defense fleets with minimal reputation loss can be tricky; you will need a distraction such as an expedition against them. Sit near the target with Transponder on, wait for the distraction to lure all the defense fleets a reasonable distance away. Go Dark and hit the target. Immediately toggle transponder back on.
• Raiding a spaceport is a good way to economically ruin the target market, potentially leading to its decivilization when combined with multiple other raids or bombardments.

Change History

0.95a

• Marine "units" based on raid effectiveness
  • Can select multiple objectives/which commodity etc to target
  • Raiding for commodities cause deficits at target colony
  • Raiding grants significant XP
  • In-system patrols will respond to a colony being raided (or bombarded)
  • Different objectives (commodities, special items,blueprints, etc) have different danger levels
    • Determines marine casualties
    • Source of commodity affects danger level, i.e. looting supplies from a Military Base is more dangerous than if the source is a Spaceport

• • Other factors affecting marine casualties:
    • Planetary Operations skill, hazard rating, reserves, high raid effectiveness (and very low raid effectiveness, too)
    • Repeated raids of the same colony
    • Marine XP level

• Spaceport: removed "No spaceport" accessibility penalty when under construction or disrupted

• Marine availability:
  • Marines harder to get in general - fewer available to buy
  • Mercs bar event gives 30-50 marines instead of 10 and the marines are elite
  • Now possible to find marines in cryopods while salvaging

• Marine mechanics
  • Have XP, gained from raiding, gives bonuses to RE/reduces losses
    • Hiring new marines dilutes XP

• • When transferring marines, the ones in your fleet keep all of the XP if possible
    • Buying X marines and then selling X marines will not affect experience level

• • Can leave marines in storage/cryopods and come back later; they keep any XP excess XP that wasn't kept by the marines in your fleet
  • Just selling marines loses their XP

• Added story option (50% bonus XP) that removes reputation penalty from raiding

0.9.1a

• Probability of at least one blueprint is raid effectiveness + 50% (was: raid effectiveness / 4)
  • (Assuming the colony has heavy industry and the faction has blueprints the player doesn't)
• Increased probability of modspec, weapon, and fighter LPC drops (similarly, RE + 50%)

0.9a

• Added to the game

Only up to date for version 0.95.1. It is likely still broadly correct but not verified for the most up to date data yet. Please double check the Version History.