Between Fights

Concept · Inside a fight

In short: Hull damage stays with the ship into the next fight. Shields recharge out of combat, and are usually, though not always, full again by the next hostile.

Hull damage carries from one fight to the next: a ship starts its next fight with the hull it finished the last one on, and keeps losing hull fight after fight until it is repaired or destroyed. In combat, hull repair cannot raise the hull above what the ship started that fight with, so it does not win back damage from earlier fights.

Shields recharge once the ship is out of combat, over a recharge time. The server keeps every battle in combat for 5 seconds, and reaching the next hostile takes some travel time on top, so shields are generally full by the next fight. They do not have to be: a ship that engages again quickly enough can start a fight with its shields only partly recharged.