Cloak

Many ships can hide using a cloaking device built into their hull. Cloaked ships do not show up on enemy scanners and are protected from enemy attack.

Cloaking is a ship ability that is available to many starships (see list below). It is activated by selecting the Cloak Mission. Cloaking consumes 1 KT of fuel for every 20 KT of hull mass (rounded down), with a minimum fuel consumption of 5 KT. The higher grade Advanced Cloaking devices don't consume fuel in order to cloak.

Cloaked ships will not attack planets, even if their primary enemy is set to the owner of the planet. Cloaked ships can attack primary enemy starships while cloaked. If they suffer no damage, or only shield damage, during combat, they will remain cloaked; otherwise, from that point they can be attacked by enemy ships or planets. A damaged starship will not be able to either initiate a cloak or maintain an active cloak; if the ship is damaged at the start of the turn the cloaking device will not consume fuel. Even repairing damage on a starship with supplies does not restore cloaking in that same turn.

Please note that being cloaked will interfere with many cooperative actions, such as cargo transfer with another player's starship in the same location. A cloaked vessel can send goods, but it cannot receive them save by its own action.

Cloaking emerges several times during the host order:

• Starships cloak at the very beginning of the host run, just after tow lock.
• Almost immediately after cloaking occurs, the Loki decloaks starships.
• Ion storms are resolved and can decloak starships.
• If a webmine drains all the fuel from a starship, the starship is decloaked.
• During movement, starships can hit mines and become damaged, which causes them to decloak. NOTE: This can leave them vulnerable to Intercept.
• After movement, glory devices can detonate and the Loki decloaks a second time.
• After the starbase refuel mission, the Loki decloaks a third time.

For more information on cloaking, please see the cloaking details page.

The following basic starships have the cloak advantage:

• Br4 Class Gunship
• Br5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat
• Bright Heart Class Destroyer
• D3 Thorn Class Destroyer
• D7 Coldpain Class Cruiser
• Dark Wing Class Battleship
• Deth Specula Class Frigate
• Dwarfstar Class Transport
• Fearless Wing Cruiser
• Lizard Class Cruiser
• Meteor Class Blockade Runner
• Red Wind Class Carrier
• Reptile Class Destroyer
• Resolute Class Battlecruiser
• Saurian Class Light Cruiser
• Swift Heart Class Scout
• White Falcon Class Cruiser

The following Campaign starships have the cloak advantage:

• Bright Heart Light Destroyer
• D3 Thorn Class Cruiser
• D3 Thorn Class Frigate
• Deth Specula Armoured Frigate
• Deth Specula Heavy Frigate
• Deth Specula Stealth
• Dwarfstar II Class Transport
• Red Wind Storm-Carrier
• Reptile Class Escort
• Saurian Class Frigate
• Saurian Class Heavy Frigate
• Vendetta Stealth Class Frigate

See also Out of Fuel , Super Spy and Priority Intercept Attack.

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