Clans and playing together

Clans#

A clan is a named group of pilots with a short tag, a shared treasury, its own chat channel and a ship livery. Clan members see each other as friendly in space, share loot rights on wrecks, and can boost each other with doctrine arrays. Clans can also declare war on each other and hold territory in Lawless space.

Open the Clan window with P, from the menu, or from the Clan service at any station. It has three tabs: My clan (once you are in one), Directory (every clan, with members and systems held) and Wars.

Joining a clan#

Clans are invitation only. An officer or leader can invite you by your exact pilot name, or with Invite to [TAG] on your pilot card. Your invitations appear at the top of the Directory tab: press Join to accept. You can only be in one clan at a time.

Founding a clan#

1. Open the Clan window and go to the Directory tab (it shows Found a clan while you are not in one).
2. Enter a name of 3 to 32 characters (letters, digits, spaces, apostrophes and hyphens) and a tag of 2 to 5 letters or digits. Both must be unique.
3. Press Found. It costs ₡1,000,000 from your wallet, and you become the clan's leader.

Ranks#

Treasury and bounty tax#

Any member can deposit credits into the treasury. Officers and the leader can withdraw. The leader sets a bounty tax from 0% to 50% (new clans start at 5%): that share of every bounty a member earns, including Bounty Office head prices, goes straight into the treasury. The treasury also pays for war declarations.

Livery, leaving and succession#

• The leader picks the clan's primary and secondary livery colors, and every member's ship is painted in them. Your clan tag shows next to your name in chat, on your pilot card and in space.
• Anyone can leave at any time. To come back you need a new invitation.
• If the leader leaves, leadership passes to an officer (or, with no officers, the longest-serving member).
• When the last pilot leaves, the clan is disbanded and its treasury is paid out to that pilot.

Clan wars and territory#

A clan war lets two clans fight each other anywhere, including Secure space, without the usual penalties.

1. Declare

   An officer or the leader opens the Directory and presses Declare war next to another clan. It costs ₡50,000,000 from your treasury. Only one war can run between the same two clans at a time.

2. Prepare

   The war is announced at once and becomes active 24 hours later, giving both sides time to get ready.

3. Fight

   For 7 days, members of both clans can attack each other anywhere without being flagged as criminals or losing security standing. Enemy ships show as war targets.

4. Settle

   Each side's kills and the value of ships it destroyed are tallied. When the week ends, the side that destroyed more value wins (equal value is a draw). A leader can surrender early, which hands the win to the other side.

• The Wars tab lists recent wars across the cluster, with each side's kills and the result.
• War kills and captured systems score on the Clan war board in Rankings (L).
• Remote repair can't be used on pilots at war with you, and a clan at war may engage the other clan's Flotilla crews freely.
• Read up on security and the law before you fight outside a war: Security and the law.

Holding territory#

Every Lawless system with planets has a Control Beacon near one of its worlds, named after the system. A clan captures it by keeping members within about 6 km of the beacon while no other clan is there. The capture takes about two minutes; if a second clan arrives, progress stops, and if a different clan starts capturing, it starts over. Progress slowly drains when nobody is near.

• The holding clan's colors and tag appear on the galaxy map's Clan territory layer, and the system counts toward the clan's total in the Directory.
• The holding clan takes 5% of every bounty earned in that system, paid into its treasury.
• Capturing a system scores on the Clan war board. Another clan can take the beacon from you the same way, so territory has to be defended.

Squads#

A squad is a group of up to 8 pilots flying together for a session: friends, clanmates or pilots you just met. Squadmates see each other's shield, armor and hull at a glance, find each other on the map and in Tactical, warp to each other and talk in their own chat channel. A squad is separate from your clan: you keep your clan, and a squad can mix clans and factions.

Forming a squad#

1. Invite a pilot

   Right-click (or long-press) a pilot's name anywhere and pick Invite to squad, press Squad invite on their pilot card, or select their ship and use Squad invite on the target card. The leader can also invite by exact pilot name in the Squad window (menu: More, Social, Squad). The pilot must be online.

2. They join

   The invite appears in their squad panel with Join, Decline and Block. It lasts 90 seconds. When the first invite is accepted the squad forms and the inviter leads it.

3. Fly together

   Your squad appears on the left of your HUD and the Squad tab opens in chat. Squadmates can be anywhere in the cluster, docked or in space.

The squad panel#

• One row per squadmate: name (the leader is marked), ship, three thin bars for shield, armor and hull, and where they are: the distance in your system, or their system and whether they are docked, in warp or offline.
• Click a row for its actions: Warp to, Target (when their ship is in sensor range), Route (plots a route to their system), Message, and for the leader Make leader and Remove. Your own row has Leave squad.
• In space, squadmates in your system get a squad marker, also beyond sensor range, and a row in Tactical tagged SQ. A squadmate beyond sensor range has a Warp button right in the Tactical row.
• The galaxy map's Your squad layer marks the systems your squadmates are in. Hover a system to see who.
• In space the squad sits in the left column of the HUD, above your Flotilla crews and Retainer wings when you have them out. Each block folds to its header (tap the title), and on a small screen they fold by themselves so nothing covers the chat, the quest tracker or the flight controls.
• The Squad window (menu: More, Social, Squad; Manage on the squad block) has the full roster with every action, invites by name, and your invite settings and blocked pilots.

Warp to a squadmate#

Warp to works for a squadmate in your system who is in open space and farther than the approach range: an ordinary warp that drops you out a short way from their ship, even beyond your sensor range. It isn't offered while they are docked, landed or in an atmosphere, in warp, jumping out, or inside a private Rift or Stronghold pocket. For a squadmate in another system, Route plots the way there.

Leading and leaving#

• Only the leader invites, removes pilots and hands the lead to someone else.
• Anyone can leave at any time. If the leader leaves, the longest-serving squadmate leads. A squad needs two pilots: when only one is left, it disbands.
• Your squad survives logging off and server restarts. A squadmate offline for more than 15 minutes leaves the squad, and a leader offline for 2 minutes hands the lead to the longest-serving squadmate online.

Combat and rewards#

• Squadmates are friendly: their ships show in the friendly color, your shots and modules don't affect each other, point defense covers each other's ships from missiles, and auto-retaliate never picks a squadmate. Their Flotilla crews and Retainers are friendly to you too.
• Doctrine arrays boost squadmates in range as they boost clanmates. A pilot gets at most one array of each kind (the strongest), so being in both a clan and a squad never doubles it.
• Rewards follow the usual rules for flying together (below): bounties are split by damage, every damaging pilot gets kill credit, and world bosses and events reward each contributor. In a squad, the first claim on a wreck is shared with your squadmates, as it is with clanmates.
• Security, law and clan wars are unchanged for everyone outside the squad.

Invites and privacy#

• In Settings, Gameplay, choose who may invite you: Anyone, Clanmates only or Nobody. The same page lists the pilots you blocked, with Unblock.
• Block on an invite declines it and blocks the pilot, the same Block as in chat: they can't invite you or send you private messages. They only ever see that you aren't taking invites right now.
• A pilot can send 6 invites a minute, and a declined invite can't be repeated to the same pilot for 5 minutes.
• Your position is shared only with your squadmates, only while they are in your system, and stops the moment you leave the squad.

Flying with friends#

You don't need a group to fight together: a friend can warp to you, help with a pirate or a world boss, and get paid for it. A squad adds shared status, markers, a chat channel and Warp to.

How rewards are shared#

Bounties

A pirate's bounty is split between every pilot who damaged it, in proportion to damage dealt. Your clan's bounty tax (and a territory holder's cut) comes out of your share.

Kill credit

Every pilot who damaged an NPC gets combat XP for the kill and progress on matching Job Board missions, not just the pilot who landed the last shot.

Wreck loot

The pilot who dealt the most damage has first claim on the wreck for 5 minutes, and their clanmates and squadmates share that claim. Anyone else who loots it early is flagged as a suspect for theft.

World bosses and events

World bosses, raids, strongholds and dynamic events track each pilot's contribution live (damage to the main target, less for its escorts, plus remote repair on other contributors). You earn your own reward, one per account, with at least 1% of the total contribution, or 0.25% while you rank in the top 20.

Supporting each other#

• Remote repair: the Barrier Projector and Nanite Projector modules repair the shields or armor of a locked ally. They work on any pilot in good standing who isn't at war with you, and healing counts toward world boss and event contribution.
• Doctrine arrays: the Siege, Rampart and Vector Doctrine Arrays broadcast a short boost (damage, defense layers, or speed and agility) to you, your clanmates and your squadmates within 15 km (one array of each kind counts per pilot: the strongest). They train Leadership, and each Leadership level makes them a little stronger. See Skills.
• Trading: the Trade button on a pilot's card drafts a private contract only that pilot can accept, and the Wallet service sends credits to a pilot by name. Transfers can't be reversed.

Finding and meeting up#

• Click any pilot's name to open their pilot card (faction, clan, level, top skills and security standing), with Message, Trade, Squad invite and, if you can, Invite to [TAG].
• Share a system name in chat, plot a route there, then select your friend's ship and use Warp to or Approach to join them. In a squad, the squad panel's Route and Warp to do this for you.

Flotillas: hired mining crews#

A Flotilla is a team of contracted mining crews flying real ships, visible to everyone in the system. They warp to a belt in your base system, mine real rocks and bring the ore home to your station hangar, even for a while after you go offline. The ore they deliver trains the Vanguard skill Flotilla.

A Flotilla is a convenience and a strategic layer, not a way to out-earn playing: it nets a small fraction of what you earn flying yourself, and a daily haul license caps it.

Getting started#

1. Hire at a Flotilla Office

   Dock at the station you want as your base and open its Flotilla Office service. You can run one flotilla, from one base, working the belts of that system. Each crew costs a one-off contract fee from your wallet.

2. Fund the payroll

   Deposit credits into the flotilla's payroll (up to ₡50,000,000). It pays wages while the crews work, fuel for each run, and repairs at the base. You can withdraw what isn't spent, and an empty payroll simply sends the crews home.

3. Choose a belt and policy

   Pick a belt, choose what happens when attacked (Flee to dock or Stand ground) and where the ore goes (Station hangar, or Sell at the station to its buy orders, never below 80% of the usual price).

4. Send to work

   Press Send to work. Use Recall, Retreat (everyone home now, out again after 10 minutes) or Regroup as needed, and Warp to flotilla or a HUD waypoint to join them.

Wages before the Flotilla level discount and danger pay. Every extra mining crew after the best one works at a reduced rate, so the smallest fleet that fills your license is usually best. From the game's own data

From the game's own data

Security, risk and the haul license#

License figures are the ore value your account's flotillas may cut, all your pilots together, before the crews' share and costs. From the game's own data

• Crown skimmers raid working flotillas, more often and harder in Contested and Lawless belts. Escorts drive them off; without escorts, standing ground loses ships more often.
• A destroyed crew leaves a wreck with part of its ore. You get back 25% of its contract fee as the crew's bond.
• Attacking a flotilla ship counts as attacking its owner, with the usual crime rules. You and your clan can't shoot your own crews, and escorts engage anyone who fired on the flotilla recently.
• Crews keep working until 16 hours after you were last online, then dock and wait. If your Charter lapses, they stand down in dock and nothing is lost.

Retainers: hired escort wings#

Retainers are wings of up to five contracted warships that fly with you anywhere in the cluster, warping and jumping gates with you. Commanding them trains the Vanguard skill Captaincy; at level 99 you lead ten wings of fifty ships.

Every station has a Retainer Hall (a station service; the Retainers window opens on its Hall tab). One or two companies keep a desk at each hall, so the hulls and prices on offer change from station to station. Every hall sells the Dartwing, the Captaincy 1 hull, so a new captain can always start right where they docked.

Ashwake Skirmishers

Light crews, quick contracts, cheap rates. They'll chase anything and hold nothing.

Brightlance Company

A disciplined line company. Dependable escorts at a fair price.

Redmark Irregulars

Raiders who work the Contested and Lawless edges. The cheapest heavy hulls, if you can find their halls.

Tallwater Pact

Defensive escorts sworn to the faction home systems. Expensive, and worth it.

Writs and mustering#

A Retainer Writ is an item: one writ is one ship and its crew for a set number of hours. Writs land in that station's hangar and never expire until used. Members can trade them on the market, in contracts or on the Writ market tab.

1. Buy writs

   Dock, open the Retainer Hall, pick a contract length and a hull you have the Captaincy for, and buy as many as you need.

2. Muster a wing

   In the same tab, muster 1 to 5 writs of the same hull into a wing. The writs are used up, the contract clock starts, and a refundable deposit per ship is charged.

3. Add hazard pay (optional)

   Paying another 25% of the writs' value raises the wing's morale and doubles how fast it recovers.

4. Give orders

   Use the My wings tab (it works docked or in space) or the hotkeys below. When the contract runs out, the wing heads home and the deposits of surviving ships come back to you.

List prices: each company charges a little more or less, and every hall adds a small spread. Longer writs cost less per hour. Deposits drop slightly as your Captaincy rises. From the game's own data

Captaincy#

Captaincy decides how many ships and wings you command and how many muster points you can spend. Each hull costs points per ship, so you choose between many light ships and a few heavy ones. Captaincy trains only while you command: hours with a wing out while you are online, damage your retainers deal to hostile NPCs, and victories (a strike target destroyed, a raid site cleared).

From the game's own data

Orders#

Morale#

Each wing has morale from 0 to 100. A wing musters at 70 (+15 with hazard pay), gains a little for every kill and every minute you spend in its system, recovers in dock, and drops 12 for each ship it loses. Below 60 it deals somewhat less damage; below 30 it refuses strikes and raids; below 15 it breaks and docks at the nearest station to rally.

Rules of engagement and rewards#

• Secure space: retainers never attack a pilot or a pilot's crews, except criminals, suspects, clan war targets and anyone who attacked you or your wings in the last 5 minutes.
• Contested space: strikes and raids on neutral pilots are allowed, but each new victim costs you security standing and flags you and the wing as suspects for 15 minutes.
• Lawless space: open season.
• Retainers deal half damage to pilots' ships, and at most five of one captain's retainers fire on the same pilot at once.
• Bounties and loot are split by damage: the companies keep their crews' share. You receive a prize share of 20% of your retainers' bounties, capped per hour (see the table). Retainers buy safety and reach, not extra income.
• If your Charter lapses, every wing stands down in dock with its contract clock paused. Nothing is lost, and the wings are ready again when you renew.

Chat#

On a desktop, chat sits in the bottom-left corner of the flight view. Drag its grip to move it (double-click the grip to reset). On touch screens, phones and windows narrower than 900 pixels, open Chat from the menu instead and it appears as a window.

• To message someone privately, click their name to open their pilot card and press Message, or select their ship and use Message on the target card. A PM tab opens for that conversation.
• Click any name in chat to open that pilot's card. Clan tags show in brackets before names, and Vanguard members carry a small badge.
• Messages are up to 400 characters. Recent history loads when you open a channel.
• Guest trial pilots can read chat but not send. Save your pilot to join in.

Discord and feedback#

The official XETODUS community lives on Discord. Find a clan, share screenshots, ask for help and hear about updates first. There's a Discord button on the title screen, the pilot-select screen and in Settings.

Sending feedback from the game#

Found a bug or have an idea? Press F8 in game or on the pilot-select screen, or use the Feedback button in Settings. You need to be signed in.

1. Pick a kind

   Choose Bug, Idea, Balance or Other. Each one prompts you with what helps most.

2. Write it

   Describe what happened and how to make it happen again, or what you'd like and why (3 to 2,000 characters).

3. Attach what helps

   In game, you can attach a screenshot of the view as it was when you opened the window. You can also attach technical details, such as your graphics preset, browser and device type, which help with bugs.

4. Send

   Press Send feedback. It goes straight to the XETODUS team.

Recruit a Wingmate#

Bring a friend into the cluster with your personal recruitment link. When they play for real (not just sign up), you both earn: they get a welcome pack, and you get exclusive squadron liveries, Aether and Vanguard time. Every reward is cosmetic, account-bound Aether or Charter time: never credits, items or power, and never tradeable.

1. Get your link

   Open Recruit from the menu. Copy your link, share it, or show the QR code. You can make a new link at any time; the old one stops working, but recruits who already signed up stay yours.

2. Your friend signs up

   They create an account through your link within 30 days of clicking it. The game greets them with your pilot's name.

3. They play, you both earn

   Milestones unlock from real play: verified email, Flight School, pilot level, hours across several days and time spent flying by hand. Progress shows in your Recruit window.

From the game's own data

The recruiter ladder#

A recruit who reaches the Wingmate milestone counts as qualified. Qualified recruits climb you up a ladder of exclusive cosmetics and titles.

From the game's own data

Fair play#

• Yearly caps per recruiter (any 365 days): 2,500 Æ and 180 Vanguard days. Cosmetics are granted once each and never capped.
• Vanguard milestone rewards are paid 14 days after your recruit's Charter payment, and a refunded payment reverses them.
• Recruiting yourself, your own other accounts or someone on a shared household device doesn't count, and some rewards are reviewed by staff before they are paid.

• Recruit a WingmateThe full program page: rewards for both sides, the ladder, caps and FAQ.
• Vanguard and the economyWhat the Vanguard Charter includes and how Aether works.