Pilot Skills

Pilot Skills is a system in Steambirds Alliance allowing players to gain permanent benefits after a plane's death based on how well they performed before the plane was destroyed. The player gains a skill point with each Pilot Rank achieved, then uses those skill points to purchase and upgrade stat-boosting skills.

Mechanics
Pilot Skills are organized into groups based on required Pilot Rank, and most skills have two mutually-exclusive options. Once a skill is purchased, additional skill points can usually be invested into the skill to improve its positive effects. On this page, skill level is represented in calculations as (L: 1-X) where X is the maximum level for a specific skill option.

Pilot Skills require varying amounts of skill points to learn and upgrade based on their tier. Tier 1 (Beginner) skills require 1 skill point per level, Tier 2 (Intermediate) skills require 2 skill points per level, and Tier 3 (Expert) and Tier 4 (Master) skills both require 3 skill points per level.

Many skills only apply their effects while certain conditions have been met. Examples of such conditions include, but are not limited to, proximity to other players, use of a specific Weapon type, and activation of a specific maneuver. On this page, condition-dependent skill options list their activation conditions in brackets.

Stat Interactions
The following order of operations has been observed concerning the interactions of multiple modifiers from Pilot Skills and other sources: Modifiers to Armor follow a somewhat different order of operations:
 * 1) Numerical reductions (-X) are applied to the initial base value.
 * 2) * Example: An Old Faithful with Laser 2-A has its Steam Recharge reduced to (0.4/s - 0.5/s =) -0.1/s while firing a Laser.
 * 3) Plane-specific base value multipliers which are greater than 1x are applied to the result of (1).
 * 4) * Example: A Paladin normally has a Steam Recharge of (0.4/s * 4 =) +1.6/s. With Sword 2-A, Steam Recharge is reduced to [ (0.4/s - 1/s) * 4 =] -2.4/s while firing a Sword.
 * 5) If the result of (2) is not negative, percentage increases (+X%) are added together, then applied to the initial base value (this is referred to as additive stacking). The resulting increment is then added to the result of (2).
 * 6) * Example: A Paladin with Sword 2-A (+50% Steam Recharge while not firing) and Level 5 Armor 2-A (+55% Steam Recharge) gains {0.4/s * [(50% + 55%) / 100% ] = 0.4/s * 1.05 =} 0.42/s Steam Recharge while not firing. This is added to the Paladin's 1.6/s Steam Recharge to produce a final value of 2.02/s.
 * 7) Percentage reductions (-X%) and plane-specific base value multipliers which are less than 1x are applied one at a time to the result of (3) (this is referred to as multiplicative stacking).
 * 8) * Example: A Quad with Level 10 Machine Gun 1-B (-75% Cooldown) and Level 5 Quad 1-A (-45% Cooldown) has Cooldown reduced to {100% * [ (100% - 75%) / 100% ] * [ (100% - 45%) / 100% ] =} 13.75% of its base value, a net 86.25% Cooldown reduction.
 * 9) Numerical increases (+X) are applied to the result of (4) to produce the final value.
 * 10) * Example: An Old Faithful using a Blaster has Old Faithful 1-A (-100% Steam Recharge while above 90% Armor) and Level 5 Blaster 1-B (+1.5/s Steam Recharge while not superspeeding). While not superspeeding and above 90% Armor, the Old Faithful has { 0.4/s * [ (100% - 100%) / 100% ] + 1.5/s = 0/s + 1.5/s =} +1.5/s Steam Recharge.
 * 1) Armor granted by the equipped Armor item is added to the plane's initial base Armor (15 for single-stick planes, 10 for twin-stick planes).
 * 2) Armor multiplier from plane level is computed. Percentage Armor increases from Pilot Skills (Paladin 1-A and 2-A, Bandit 1-B) are added on top of this multiplier before it is applied to the result of (1).
 * 3) Armor granted by Armor Stiffeners is added to the result of (2).
 * 4) Plane-specific Armor multipliers and percentage Armor reductions are applied one at a time to the result of (3) to produce the final Armor value.

Skill Weapons
Pilot Skills with the key phrases "Continuously fire gun" or "Fire blast from gun" add armaments, informally called skill weapons, to one's plane which trigger while the skill's conditions are met. Like normal weapons (as well as bullet-firing Secondaries and maneuvers), skill weapons benefit from multishot and are affected by damage modifiers; unlike normal weapons, they are not affected by modifiers to more specialized stats, such as ammo and cooldown time.

General Skills
General skills, consisting of the Armor and Engine families, provide universal benefits for all combinations of plane and weapon. They may be purchased immediately once the player has achieved the required Pilot Rank.

Engine

 * Engine 4-B increases the clip size of Machine Guns, Shotguns, Snipers, Swords and Arcs while at least 4 other players are nearby.

Plane Skills
Plane skills only grant their effects while flying that plane. Beginner-tier skills in this category generally require the player's highest level with the plane to exceed a specific threshold before they can be purchased.

Old Faithful

 * Both Tier 1 skill options halt passive Steam regeneration while Armor stays above 80%.
 * Old Faithful 4-A bypasses the Steam Recharge reductions of the Tier 1 skills, allowing for passive Steam regeneration while Armor stays above 95%.

Assault

 * Assault 4-B significantly reduces the time required to reload Shotguns while the Assault has less than 50% Armor.

Quad

 * Quad 1-A and 4-B significantly reduce the time required to reload Machine Guns, but have no effect on standard Lasers and Blasters.

Paladin

 * Paladin 4-B eliminates the need to reload Swords while active.

Hog

 * Hog 1-A significantly reduces the time required to reload Machine Guns while the Hog has less than 50% Armor.

Duster

 * Duster 2-A's Secondary Damage bonus has no practical effect --- the Duster's secondary ability, a multishot cloud, has no damaging component and the bonus does not apply to the Duster's maneuvers.

Shieldmaiden

 * Shieldmaiden 1-B triples the time required to reload Arcs which are discharged by the Shieldmaiden while superspeeding. However, discharging the Arc again outside of Super Speed nullifies the tripling effect and reinstates the original reload time.
 * Shieldmaiden 4-A significantly increases the clip size of the Shieldmaiden's Arcs for 2 seconds after a kill while superspeeding.

Dagger Knight

 * Dagger Knight 4-A reduces the time required to reload Sniper Rifles, but has no effect on standard Lasers and Wasps

Merlin

 * Merlin 1-A and 1-B shoot a small enemy-piercing blast on the Merlin's location after a warp. This function operates on a 1-second internal cooldown.
 * Merlin 2-A, 2-B and 3-A all increase the area covered by the plane's Wiper ability.

Engineer

 * All spawn stat modifiers apply to turrets deployed by the Engineer.
 * The Spawn Cooldown modifier provided by Engineer 3-B increases their fire rate by reducing the delay between consecutive turret shots.
 * The Spawn Health modifier provided by Engineer 4-A allows you to leave turrets alone for longer before they self-destruct.

Weapon Skills
Weapon skills only grant their effects while the appropriate weapon type is equipped. For Beginner-tier skills of this type, the player will need to reach a specific level on a plane that uses the weapon before they will become available for purchase.

Machine Gun

 * Machine Gun 1-A has a net zero effect on Machine Gun range - the Bullet Speed reduction's effect on range is nullified by the Range increase.
 * Machine Gun 1-B reduces the time required to reload Machine Guns.

Laser

 * Both Laser 2-A and 2-B fire three shots in parallel in the direction of aim.
 * Laser 2-A has a wide spacing (about 1 Quad wide) between adjacent shots. This skill weapon has a 5-volley clip and a 0.5-second reload time.
 * Laser 2-B has a narrower spacing between adjacent shots compared to Laser 2-A. This skill weapon has a 10-volley clip and a 1-second reload time.

Blaster

 * Blaster 2-A and 2-B fire six bullets radially outward. Blaster 2-A's bullets stun enemies (or deal extra damage to stun-immune enemies) while Blaster 2-B's bullets pierce through enemies.

Sword

 * Sword 2-A applies its Steam Recharge reduction before all other modifiers, including the plane-specific x4 modifier that raises the Paladin's base Steam Recharge from 0.4/s to 1.6/s.
 * Due to the nature of stat interactions, Sword 2-A causes the Paladin to lose 2.4 Steam per second while firing, ignoring all percentage-based Steam Recharge increases. Percentage-based Steam Recharge decreases (such as the -50% modifiers from Paladin 1-A and 1-B) still apply multiplicatively, reducing the rate of Steam loss while firing.
 * Sword 3-A significantly reduces the reload time of Swords while the player's Armor is below 50%.
 * Sword 4-A's name (Linked Health) and function pay homage to the sword beam mechanic in several Legend of Zelda games, in which swinging one's sword would shoot energy beams while at full health.

Sniper

 * Sniper 1-A reduces the reload time of Snipers while at least 2 other players are nearby.
 * Sniper 3-A increases the clip size of Snipers while at least 4 other players are nearby.

Shotgun

 * Shotgun 2-A reduces the time required to reload shotguns while at least 2 allies are nearby; Shotgun 2-B increases the clip size of Shotguns for 2 seconds after a kill.

Arc

 * Arc 1-A halves the clip size of Arcs. Arc 1-B instead eliminates the reload time of Arcs entirely, allowing them to be fired continuously like Blasters, Wasps and Lasers.
 * Arc 2-A halts passive Steam regeneration for 5 seconds after a kill while wielding an Arc weapon.
 * Arc 3-A significantly increase the clip size of Arcs while not superspeeding.