Aegis Reclaimer: Star Citizen's Secret Radar Station
The Reclaimer is a top-tier industrial heavy salvaging ship. It’s intended to be used to take apart deep space wrecks, stripping their hulls and then selling the gathered scrap for profit. But it’s also one of the rare non-combat ships that have the potential to shape the battlefield when it’s doing nothing but sitting on the ground.
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Key takeaways
The Aegis Reclaimer can be used as a powerful radar station and an austere aerodrome in Star Citizen.
The Reclaimer’s structure and emissions can be used to hide and deploy friendly ships, while it’s well-placed turrets are effective as anti-aerospace defenses.
Multiple Reclaimers can be used to form a radar picket to screen a high-value position, structure, or package.
Relevant specifications of the Aegis Reclaimer
The Aegis Reclaimer’s sensor systems include one Size 4 radar. Its support systems include three Size 2 computers and three Size 3 coolers. Its defensive systems consist of three Size 3 shield generators, one Size 6 manned weapon turret with a pair of Size 5 guns, and six Size 6 remote weapon turrets with a pair of Size 3 guns each. All of these components are powered by a single Size 4 power plant.
Although it has a disproportionately low hull hit point pool1, it does benefit from -5% physical damage reduction and -10% energy damage reduction modifiers.
In an idle state, a stock Reclaimer emits an electromagnetic (EM) signature of 19,306 and an infrared (IR) signature of 12,877. It has significantly more volume than an 890 Jump and no stealth modifiers, meaning its cross-section (CS) is just as big if not bigger than an 890 Jump.
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Characteristics of a Reclaimer radar station
The Reclaimer’s Size 4 radar is currently the most powerful radar in the game. Large military ships like the Carrack, Hammerhead, and Starfarer Gemini carry Size 3 or smaller radars. Meanwhile, Reclaimer’s radar is more powerful than those found on capital ships such as the 890 Jump and Idris, which are twice its tonnage.
Multiple computers, shields, and coolers offer the Reclaimer a good amount of redundancy. Because there are three of each, one of each can be kept offline either to lower the ship’s EM and IR signatures or help make the ship more resilient against distortion damage.
Its number and size of shields are particularly impressive. The stock shield generators supply it with a pool of 300,000 hit points of shielding total, but its three Size 3 shield generator slots can top out at providing a pool of 345,000 hit points after upgrades.2
One Size 9 torpedo from a Retaliator or Eclipse, or a Size 10 bomb from a Hercules A2, can eliminate a Reclaimer. But such a torpedo or bomb will eliminate every ship in the game except for the 890 Jump, which has a less powerful radar.
Turret size and placement offer good defense against threats and provide a high chance to intercept bombs and torpedoes.
Finally, the Reclaimer puts out roughly as much EM and IR energy as a Carrack, but it’s safe to assume that its massive CS is probably much closer to an 890 Jump.
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A radar station with a twist
With such a powerful radar the Reclaimer makes for an unparalleled radar station. Using the Reclaimer as a radar station requires a minimum of two crew to be operationally functional. The first crewman is the radar officer (RO), who sits in the pilot’s seat. The RO’s primary responsibility is to alert crew and security forces in the area of radar contacts and to scan and relay detailed information about those contacts. The second crewman is a tactical action officer (TAO) occupying the manned turret. In addition to being an extra sensor for scanning the skies, the TAO is primarily responsible for directing the weapons fire of other gunners.
It’s highly recommended to employ additional crew members to operate the remote turrets. As long as the multi-function displays are usable in the salvage operator seats, a support officer can also be included to manage systems and defend against distortion attacks.
Upgrade shield generators to distortion-resistant ones like the Gorgon Defender Industries FR-863. This will allow the Reclaimer to absorb a full burst from a Size 4 EMP generator like those found on the Avenger Warlock or Vanguard Sentinel. You may keep one shield, cooler, and computer offline to help further mitigate the effects of EMPs and other distortion damage. When suffering distortion damage, continuously power cycle these components so that at least one is constantly in a powered state.
Consider keeping some remote weapon turrets offline. This will make sure there are always weapons that can be quickly powered back up during an EMP attack and will increase the capacitor pools for active remote weapons. Any unnecessary components and weapons should be turned off, and the power triangle should be set to 50/50 between shields and weapons.
The Reclaimer’s Achilles heels are its single power plant and low hull strength. Fortunately, its power plant can absorb up to 20,000 distortion damage. The Reclaimer would have to experience the equivalent of seven Size 4 EMP bursts at point-blank range before its powerplant risks being shut down by distortion damage. Assuming the use of a single Size 4 EMP provides a window of 5 minutes and 14 seconds (314 seconds) to destroy ships dealing distortion damage.
It’s worth noting that the Reclaimer’s landing gear creates huge gaps of negative space beneath it on either side of its massive multi-tool arm. The Reclaimer’s mass and significant EM, IR, and CS signatures can be used to screen small ships parked under it, enabling friendly interceptors, fighters, and bombers to be covertly stationed there. Then those same small ships can be directed to intercept and interrogate any ships or vehicles detected by the Reclaimer’s radar officer, effectively turning the Reclaimer into an austere aerodrome.
Multiple Reclaimers can be used to form a radar picket. When forming a picket, a good standard would be to use at least three Reclaimers4. Each Reclaimer radar station should be no more than 8.7 km (8,700 m) from the center of the picket or “goal”. This will ensure that each Reclaimer’s radar has a 5 km overlap with its neighboring station. Additionally, multiple manned turret gunners will be able to see and engage any hostile entities approaching the goal from directly overhead. Reclaimers should always be facing outward, with their sterns facing the goal.
This seems like an oversight or erroneous game file data. It doesn’t make sense that an industrial ship with the second-highest mass in the game would have slightly less hull strength than a military explorer like the Carrack.
As of Star Citizen a3.17.2.
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On planetary and moon surfaces. In space, use five—positioning one “above” and one “below” the goal.