Talents

Each Job provides a series of Talents representing the special abilities granted by the Job-specific training. As Characters progress through Job Ranks, more and more Talents become available.

There are many different types of Talents available to your characters, including talents that are useful before, during and after ship combat, during crew combat, those used while using Contact Services, and others used while traveling, landing, Exploring, Spying, Patrolling, Blockading or trying to access the Black Market. All talents that reference a skill use the skill level of the individual crew member using the talent. All talents that use attributes, use the attributes of the individual crew member using the talent as well.

Talent Types and Stacking
There are three main types of Talents -- Ship Combat Talents, Crew Combat Talents, and all Game Event Talents.

In Ship Combat, you can use a single Talent a turn. A Ship Combat Talent goes on Cooldown after use and cannot be used again until its Cooldown ends. Any buffs or debuffs from a Ship Combat Talent can stack. Therefore, you can use multiple copies of Evasive Maneuvers in a single combat and gain the stacked bonuses.

Crew Combat Talents cost a certain amount of Initiative to use and you can only use one when it is your turn. Crew Combat Talents do not go on Cooldown after use. Any buffs or debuffs from a Crew Combat Talent do not stack. Therefore, rebuffing yourself with the same ability does not double the effect but does reset the effect's duration.

The Game Event Talents are linked to a game event, such as landing on a world, making a hyperwarp jump, completing a Skill test such as Stealth or making a $5,000 credit or more trade. When such an event happens, a single Talent is selected from your crew and applied. Only one Game Event Talent can be applied to any given game event. These Game Event Talents go on Cooldown after use and cannot be used again until its Cooldown ends.

Ship Combat Talent Stars
Each Ship Combat Talent displays up to 5 stars in its icon bar. These stars indicate the Ship Combat ranges at which the Talent is valid. Your ship must be at one of these ranges to use the Talent.
 * Stars denote Ship Combat ranges 5-4-3-2-1, in that order from left to right.
 * A blue star means that the Talent is a self-buff, or has instant effect, on your own ship, and is valid at this range.
 * A red star means that the Talent is a debuff on the enemy ship (if any of your weapons hit this turn), and is valid at this range.
 * A black dot means that the Talent is not valid at this range.

Crew Combat Talent Weapon Requirements
If a crew combat ability makes mention of one of Blades, Pistols, or Rifles, then a weapon of that type must be equipped for that talent to be used. For example, the Strength of Steel Talent mentions the Blades Skill in its equation to restore Health and therefore can only be used if a blade is equipped. Buffs that rely on a non-weapon Skill, such as Evasion, can be used regardless of the weapon equipped.

Crew Combat Talent Dot Indicators
Each Crew Combat Talent displays two sets of 4 dots each. These dots indicate the Crew Combat positions at which the Talent is valid, and which friendly or enemy positions it may target (if applicable).

Left-side Bank of 4 Dots (Blue, Green, Black)
The left-side bank of 4 dots indicates friendly crew positions 4-3-2-1, in the same order you see them in a Crew Battle.
 * A green dot (on the left) means that this Talent is valid at this position, and self-targets its host (or the host's party).
 * A blue dot (on the left) means that this Talent is valid at this position, and may target other crew as shown in the right-side bank; see below.
 * A black dot (on the left) means that this Talent is not valid in this position. If the Talent is a self-buff, you can't do it from here.  If the Talent targets the enemy, you can't target them from here.

Right-side Bank of 4 Dots (Red, Green, Black, blank)
The right-side bank of 4 dots can indicate either friendly crew positions in 4-3-2-1 order, or enemy crew positions in 1-2-3-4 order, in both cases in the same order you see them in Crew Combat.
 * All-blank (on the right) means that this Talent is a self-buff, and automatically targets its host.
 * Examples: Pistoleer T1 Aimed Focus, Soldier T1 Discipline, and Swordsman T1 Rash Courage are all self-buffs.
 * A red dot (on the right) means that this Talent can target enemy crew in this position (in 1-2-3-4 order).
 * Examples: Soldier T1 Suppressing Fire can target enemy positions 1-2.
 * Exo-Scout T5 Burrowing Shots (with rifle, vs. Xeno crews only) and Spy T8 Sneak Attack (with pistol) can target all enemy positions 1-4.
 * All grenade Talents automatically attack both enemy positions 1-2, and thus are shown as (red-red-black-black).
 * A green dot (on the right) means that this Talent can target a friendly crew in this position (in 4-3-2-1 order, same as for the left side). Some Talents explicitly state that they target the entire party, or 2 friendly positions, and these show 4 or 2 green dots, respectively.
 * Examples: Most healing Talents (Combat Medic T1 Cleansing Purge, et al.) are 4-blue 4-green, meaning that you can stand in any position and heal any 1 friendly position (including yourself).
 * Some party buffs explicitly state "entire team", and show 4-green on the right: Combat Medic T1 E-Suture, Commander T1 Rallying Aura, Soldier T5 Backline Leader and T8 Frontline Brave, etc.
 * Military Officer T1 Tactical Edge shows (blue-blue-blue-black) (green-green-green-black), which means you can stand in positions 4-2 and target friendly positions 4-2 (including yourself). Note that if you're in position #2 and you target yourself, then this Talent will advance you into position #1 as part of its effect, and then this Talent is disabled as long as you remain in #1.
 * A black dot (on the right) means that this Talent cannot target this position. The order of the positions is implied by the color of the other dots (and there's always a minimum of 1 colored dot).