Cydroid Raid Flight & Combat Guide

A Cydroid is not a plane and it is not a hover drone. It sits between the two. All keys are rebindable except mouse steering.

Boost has its own fuel meter, separate from the battery that powers the raid. Holding the key drains fuel at any speed, even at top speed. Short taps keep fuel for the next manoeuvre.

The bank turn is the one habit that changes how the whole flight model feels. Roll with Q or E to tip the Cydroid onto its side, then pull into the turn while leaned over. Two things happen at once:

• The turn is sharper than a flat turn flown on mouse and throttle alone.
• You keep speed that a flat turn would lose.

Bank Kick is a stat you can raise with PIPs. It only pays off if you use the roll keys. If you steer with the mouse alone, an upgrade here gives you almost nothing. Learning the technique first makes the investment worthwhile, and it matters most on slower Cydroids.

Terrain and water: trees and hills block you, and most frames are slowed underwater. A few aquatic frames are faster below the surface, which can change the balance of raids on coastal, river or lake properties.

Every Cydroid uses the same stat sheet in four groups. Rarity affects most of it, and Jewels add more. You do not need to memorise numbers. Know which stat answers which question:

Radar signature vs telemetry range: signature decides whether another Pilot can detect you at all. Telemetry range decides how much they can read once you are detected. At long range a contact may show only its position. Closer in, shield and hull appear.

Shields take damage first and recover after a calm period. Hull takes damage once the shield is gone and does not recover during the raid. A Cydroid is defeated when hull reaches zero. Shield recovery uses a flat rate that scales by rarity, and a broken shield stays offline for its own recovery window.

Squad tip: focusing fire on one target gives a squad a better chance to reach hull before the shield returns. Splitting the same damage across two targets may let both recover. There is no group damage multiplier. It is just sustained pressure.

Weapon strength, shield and hull are balanced so evenly matched frames have time to react, but rarity matters: a much stronger Cydroid can defeat a lower-rarity one in a few shots. There are around twenty distinct specials. A sample:

Skirmishers (Moleh, Skimmer, Gambit and Caelifer) share a Blink special and a machine gun bonus that is strongest inside 20 metres and tapers back to normal by 50 metres. The gun is now usable the moment you land from a Blink.

Battery is the clock underneath the fight. Flight, boost, the beam, the scanner and specials all draw energy. If it runs out, your run ends. Heavier frames draw more.

Terrain is a real opponent. Hitting a tree or hillside damages your shield and hull, and damage is based on the speed directed into the surface, not the number on the speed gauge. A shallow scrape along a slope costs little; a direct hit at the same speed costs far more. Damage is a share of your own shield and hull, so a Common and a Legendary lose a similar proportion for a comparable crash.

• Trees are softer than rock or hillsides. Clipping canopy at speed costs a fraction of a ridge impact.
• Collision Forgiveness reduces both damage and the time you lose control. Knockdown Recovery shortens knockouts.
• Ramming uses the same maths against other Cydroids. A head-on hit damages both, and a side impact depends on who did the ramming.
• These numbers are deliberately harsh and still being tuned. Earth2 asks Testers to report collisions that feel wrong, with both frames and roughly how fast you closed.

When hull reaches zero the Cydroid stays in the raid as a disabled wreck, immune to further damage, and you get a short decision window. All E-ther already collected is kept. You have up to three options:

Rebooting: some hits, such as a charged shot, can send your Cydroid offline briefly. You lose manual control while a reboot bar fills, but you can still collect particles that drift within range.

• The raid is a fight over the field, not the kill. Do not chase a duel at the cost of collection.
• Fight in the trees. Trunks stop beams, and canopy is the kindest surface for a crash.
• Disengage to let your shield recover. It is a real move.
• Check the Owner column. Cydroids from the same Owner never hurt each other, and a pivot can turn an ally into a hostile.
• Boost near the ground is a gamble. Save it for escapes in open air.

• Cydroid Raiding for Beginners (RT9)
• Command Deck and Launcher 2.0.0 Setup Guide
• Cydroid Raid Rewards and Economy Explained
• Cydroid catalog

Source: Earth2 Reality Thread 9 announcement on earth2.io. Earth 2® is a trademark of Earth Version 2 Pty Ltd. E2 University is an independent community resource.