Somebody has to stay on the ship, and it is the least glamorous job in the game.
It is also the one that decides whether the crew inside walks out. This page is for the player at the monitors.
What the ship player actually has
Four things, and they are all information:
- The monitors, which show the facility and the surface from above.
- The map, which shows the layout and the crew’s position on it.
- The radar booster, which can be pinged and flashed from the terminal to make noise or stun something.
- The terminal, which handles buying, selling, scanning and routing.
The crew inside has none of that. They have their own eyes and whatever the light reaches. That asymmetry is the entire job.
How to read the monitors
Watch for three things, in this order:
Where the crew is. Follow the lights on the screen and keep the map of where they have been in your head. You are the only player who can see the shape of the whole building.
What is moving. Entities show up on the monitors as movement in rooms the crew has not cleared. Calling “something in the next room” before they open the door is worth more than any item.
Where the exits are. The crew cannot see the building from above. You can. When somebody asks where the fire exit is, you have the answer in seconds, and that answer ends the run more often than it starts it.
Call format
Short, specific, and about the next thirty seconds.
“Left hallway, one of them.” “Door on your right is locked.” “You are standing next to the fire exit.”
What does not work: long descriptions, speculation, and anything the crew cannot act on. The radio is not for conversation, it is for decisions.
Using the radar booster
If the crew bought a radar booster, the ship player is the reason it was worth 60 credits.
Pinging it makes a sound that guides a crewmate toward it, which is how you walk a lost player to the exit without leaving the ship. Flashing it stuns whatever is near it, which is a rescue button for the player inside who is about to die.
Both of those only work if somebody is watching the monitor and reading the map. A radar with nobody at the terminal is a decoration.
When to leave the ship
The ship player should come inside when any of these is true:
- The crew is down to one player. One inside plus one on the ship is a solo run and a spectator.
- The quota is close and the crew is slow. An extra pair of hands earns more than the information was worth.
- The moon is quiet. On a calm facility, the monitors are showing you nothing and the crew needs a third pair of hands instead.
Stay on the ship when the facility is dangerous, when the crew is splitting up, or when somebody keeps getting lost. Those are the situations where the view is the product.
Common mistakes
- Watching without talking. Information nobody hears is not information.
- Calling everything. If every room is a warning, the crew learns to ignore you.
- Micromanaging the loot. Your job is threats, routes and exits. What they pick up is theirs.
- Staying on the ship on a dead moon. If nothing is happening on the monitors, you are not needed there.
Related guides
- Terminal commands — every keyword the ship player can use.
- Radar booster guide — what the ping and flash actually do.
- How to play with 3 players — the crew size where this role is a real choice.