Laser Pods are a mechanic that was added on September 14th, 2017.
As of September 18th, the health of the laser pods has been increased from 30 to 60 shield points. The laser pod spawn rates has decreased to 3 times less than normal in survival. Laser pods now lose their claimed state if the previous owner is destroyed and revert to their unclaimed state until they despawn or are collected by another ship.
General:
In their unclaimed state, laser pods drift in space similar to gems. Also similar to gems, if not collected within a given time, the laser pods will despawn and disappear. Laser pods will drift in their unclaimed state, and will remain that way until any ship flies over it, claiming it as their own. The laser pods start out as a grey module in their unclaimed state, but once claimed, the laser pod will share the color scheme of the player's craft.
An unclaimed pod recovered from an asteroid
Claimed Laser pods are an autonomous craft that will follow the rear of a player's ship and will fire in the direction of the crosshairs when the fire button is pressed. However, if another enemy craft is in close proximity to the player's ship when the fire button is held, the laser pods will automatically aim and fire in the direction of the enemy craft, even if the player's ship is facing the opposite direction. Laser pods do not collide with other objects such as asteroids, team bases, other ships, and the player's ship, but they can be hit and destroyed by enemy laser fire. Laser pods have a non-regenerative health pool of 60 shield points, and explode when that pool is depleted. Laser pods have a rate of fire of 1 shot per second, and every shot delivers 8 points of damage.
A pod next to a fly for comparison
The number of laser pods a player can have corresponds to the tier/level of the player's ship. For instance, a tier 1 ship can have a maximum of one laser pod, but a tier 7 ship can have a maximum of seven laser pods.
Team mode:
Laser pods are not found within asteroids in team mode, but rather earned by donating gems to the allied base. One laserpod is awarded for every 100 gems donated to the base.
Strategy:
One use of the Laser pods is by using them as an ablative armor against the Odyssey, Aries, and Shadow X-3 main cannon shots. Since laser shots hit but do not penetrate ships, asteroids, bases, and Laser pods, a laser pod can be sacrificed by taking the blow of a tier 7's main shot so that the main ship survives undamaged and can retreat / keep fighting.
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