Stasis

A Stasis Field is a protective, impenetrable field that envelopes a ship when its shields have been depleted. In order to prevent the destruction of the ship, the ship goes into stasis right before hull breach. Stasis fields are deadly to life forms, so the pilot must be ejected from the ship in an escape pod. If an escape pod is not equipped, then the pilot is killed by either the vacuum of space or the stasis field, depending on how unlucky they are. After this happens, the player becomes a Spirit. In either case, the player can reclaim the ship once it has left stasis.

Both player ships and Slaves can use stasis fields, and every ship has the capability to use one. AI on the other hand do not have stasis fields and are lost forever once destroyed. The same is true of Fighters, though Drones can now be repaired once destroyed.

Types of Stasis

Heavy Stasis

Light Stasis

A stasis field exists in one of two states: heavy stasis, where the ship cannot be interacted with as the Shields regenerate, and light stasis, where the stasis field is lowered and the ship can be reclaimed. After being killed, a ship always goes into heavy stasis first. Heavy stasis appears blue and will remain for as long as it takes the shields to recharge, or until 5 minutes have elapsed - whichever is shorter. Following heavy stasis, the ship enters into light stasis and can then be reclaimed. Light stasis appears yellow and the pilot can dock their escape pod or spirit by getting close and pressing the R key. A prompt will appear, asking the pilot if they wish to reclaim the ship where it lay, or have it towed to the nearest applicable galaxy.

Additional Information

Here are further details on the nature of stasis fields and how they work:

Stasis Field Decay

Due to the caustic nature of stasis fields, a ship that has remained in stasis too long will decay, making it impossible to recover. A decaying ship will no longer belong to the player it used to and can be destroyed with any weapon in a single shot as the shields are no longer functional. Finally, a ship in its final stages of decay will eventually phase out of existence, its hull ground to dust by the stasis field.

Because of this, it is advisable to reclaim any ship in stasis before too much time has passed.

Slave Stasis

Slaves will enter into stasis when killed the same way as a player ship. Once a slave has entered light stasis, it can be reclaimed by targeting it and pressing the X key and clicking Leave Stasis. Slaves in stasis will continue to take up Remote Control slots and will still appear in the player's Possessions tab. Also through this tab, slaves can be told remotely to leave stasis or to be destroyed permanently.

Slaves in stasis will also decay like a player ship if left alone.

See also: Death, Death Debt, Suicide