The Helm console is manned by the Helmsman, who is responsible for all functions related to movement of the Artemis. The ship's course and heading, its speed with both Impulse engines and Warp Drive, and even fine maneuvers such as docking are under the control of Helm. If the ship is equipped with Jump Drive instead of Warp, Helm is responsible for inputting the jump coordinates and activating that system as well.

The Helmsman also shares with the Weapons Officer the ability to raise and lower shields, and change the view on the Mainscreen. Along with the Captain and Weapons, it is one of the three most important roles in the game.

Helm: Abilities and Responsibilities

• Set heading
• Set impulse speed
• Set warp speed
• Set ascent/descent 
• Use jump drive 
• Initiate docking and undocking with space stations
• Control the main screen
• Raise and Lower shields 
• Monitor player Shield strength
• Monitor player Torpedo count
• Monitor player energy level

Helm: Basic Play

• Basic controls:
• Heading can be set by clicking on the desired heading, or with the horizontal cyan drag bar across the bottom of the screen, or the left and right arrow keys, or a USB joystick.
• Impulse speed can be set with the vertical yellow drag bar on the left side of the screen. Your speed from 0-100 will appear below the bar, with 100 being full impulse and 0 being full stop. The up and down arrow keys will also increase and decrease impulse respectively.
• Warp (if enabled) can be controlled with the green drag bar to the left of Impulse. Your current warp speed appears as a number below the bar. Warp 4 is as fast as you can go. Note that Warp 4 is not an absolute speed; ships that are faster at Impulse, like the Scout, are also faster at Warp.
• An even more efficient way to control Warp is with the number keys 1-4, or if your joystick is equipped with enough of them, the joystick buttons. Clicking on the same number key a second time will immediately take you out of warp and leave you at full impulse speed (100). Joystick buttons usually have to be held down to maintain warp.
• Reverse:  Clicking "Reverse" or pressing the Escape key will reverse the direction of Impulse travel, causing your ship to move backwards at up to full speed. (100 on the Impulse slider) Warp cannot be engaged while in Reverse, and Reverse cannot be engaged while at Warp.
• Ascent/Descent: Click on the large up and down arrows next to the climb indicator at bottom left, or the Insert/Delete keys.
• The ship can be set to climb above, or dive below, the sector plane. The climb indicator represents the current "height". Neutral indicates that the ship is holding is current height. Climb indicates that the ship is climbing. Dive indicate that the ship is diving. The climb or dive can be stopped at any point between the minimum and maximum ranges show on the Climb/Dive bar. There is a maximum distance above or below the sector plane, and it takes about 53 seconds at 100% maneuverability (independent of speed or forward/reverse movement) to travel from top or bottom or vice versa.  The vertical speed is affected only by the ship's maneuverability.
• If Jump Drive is enabled the Warp control section will be replaced by the Jump Controls, pictured below. See that section for more details.
• All stop: When at warp, pressing space will immediately bring you out of warp. When at impulse, space will bring you to all stop. 

• Docking: To dock with a space station move within 600 meters and click "Request Dock" or hit the "R" key.
• The station will drag you in with a tractor beam, which is much slower than your engines. If you are in a hurry you should move closer before clicking "Request Dock".
• The base will refuse to allow you to dock if enemies are within 1,500 meters of the base. Communications will receive a message explaining that "enemies are too close."
• As you dock, the ship will be rotated until it is facing away from the station. If you are in a hurry, try to dock from the side you want to depart from.
• Docking recharges the ship's energy, reloads weapons from the station's supplies, and replenishes damage control teams. Get Comms to radio in ahead to get a bonus to the speed at which this happens.
• While you are docked, certain other ship systems will not be available (you cannot get a weapon lock, and you cannot initiate or complete a jump) 
• To break dock, simply engage impulse or warp. Jump drive cannot be used while docked, the jump will "fizzle" without doing anything.
• As of Artemis 2.2, it is no longer possible to dock while at warp. You must come out of warp before you can initiate docking. You can still engage warp to break dock.

• Combat Maneuvering
• If flying using keyboard or joystick, or if you are dragging the maneuvering bar manually, the ship will continue to turn at whatever rate you leave it at - in order to stop turning, you must reset the maneuvering bar to the centre.
• Clicking a heading will bring the ship to that heading and stop turning, give or take network lag.
• Ships make tighter turns at lower speeds.
• Artemis's rate of turn is affected by damage to the maneuvering system and the amount of power that Engineering has allocated to maneuvering.
• The Artemis is generally more maneuverable and faster than enemy ships. Typical enemies seem to move at roughly half impulse, but Elites are faster than full impulse. Enemies typically will not use warp drive in combat. 
• Ascent and descent rate is affected by damage to the maneuvering system* and the amount of power that Engineering has allocated to maneuvering.

                         *not yet confirmed 

• Jump Drive
• Ships enabled with Jump Drive will display the Jump Control shown on the right. Heading is set with the blue horizontal drag bar, and distance with the green vertical bar. These settings can also be entered by pressing Tab, entering the direction in degrees, pressing Tab again, and entering the distance. The numeric boxes will update as the drag bars are moved, and can be clicked on to enter values.
• Note that the yellow horizontal bar is Impulse control. It has switched position with the green slider used by Warp.
• To activate Jump, click on "Initiate" or press Return and confirm (press Return again) when prompted. After a warm up of default 10 seconds, (5 for Ximni or Pirate ships) the ship will jump. All screens will black out and return after a few seconds.
• If you unintentionally Initiate jump, press Space or click Cancel when prompted. 
• The direction set for a Jump is independent of the ship's current facing, and is the absolute bearing, as shown on the Helm background or by Science's direction indicator. The ship can jump backwards, to either side, or in any direction relative to the ship's course at Impulse speeds.
• Ximni and Pirate ships have access to Combat Jump, a special short-range instant jump. The Combat Jump Control, located above the yellow and green drag bars, will only be available on Ximni or Pirate ships equipped with Jump Drive. In the image to the right, it is a vertical green rectangle, with a small arrow above and below it. This control will not appear on a TSN ship.
• To activate Combat Jump, simply click on one of the two arrows. The ship will jump, with no warm up delay, although the screens will still black out. Clicking the up arrow will jump 5000 m in the direction the ship is facing, while clicking the down arrow will jump 5000 m in the opposite direction. (About the range of the ship's torpedoes)
• Unlike normal Jump, Combat Jump does depend on the ship's facing. This makes it more intuitive and easy to use.
• After a Combat Jump, the rectangular indicator will drain, indicating that the Ximni ship's Jump Drives have "discharged". The drive must charge back up before it can Combat Jump again. The indicator will fill from bottom to top, and turn green when it is again full. The Jump Drives will then be ready for another Combat Jump. Recharge of Combat Jump takes about 10 seconds.
• Do not confuse this Combat Jump with the Combat Jump strategy described below. That strategy section can be applied to the Ximni Combat Jump, but is designed for a TSN ship, simulating this functionality by pre-setting the normal jump settings so they will be ready for an emergency jump. The Ximni Combat Jump makes that process even more efficient.  
• Ximni ships are designed for Jump drive, and use less power per jump than a TSN ship of the same size. Unfortunately, they sacrifice Warp efficiency for this design, making them use more power for Warp drives. Since Helm is responsible for selecting the ship type when setting up the game, you should make sure to select Jump drive if you are playing a Ximni ship, unless the crew is not comfortable with Jump drive. (At which time you may wish to play a TSN or Pirate ship)
• Pirate ships have the same ability to Combat Jump as Ximni ships, and a shorter countdown, however they use MORE energy per jump than TSN ships. This is because they lack the Jump coils that make Ximni ships so efficient with Jump drive.  
• USN Jump Drive Training:  http://cattail.nu/artemis/artemis_jump_drive.html.

• Terrain
• Nebulae restrict you to Warp 1, and obscure sensors.
• Asteroids will damage your ship if you collide with them.
• Mines will explode if you approach them too closely.
• Singularities will pull you towards them and destroy the ship if you get sucked in. Most enemies cannot escape a singularity. A gutsy captain with a skilled helmsperson can bring a warp-enabled ship close to a singularity and live to tell the tale. This can be an effective tactic for escaping anything but another warp-enabled ship. Only an insane captain (or a Ximni captain with Combat Jump charged) would order a jump drive ship to attempt this maneuver.

Helm: Advanced Play

Concepts

• Warp 1 is slow and efficient for a reason; an experienced helms officer should be spending a good deal of time using warp 1 to control the battle. Remember, the Artemis out-turns everything else, and no other ship has warp, so you should be literally running rings around the enemy.
• Dogfighting may be easier with the arrow keys or a joystick. A savvy pilot with fine control over the ship's speed and maneuvering can thread the firing arcs of multiple enemy vessels at a time, allowing Weapons to fire with near impunity.
• Foresight: A good pilot will be able to look ahead and figure out where the enemy is going to be and plan to be at a location that will intercept the target shield facing, or stay out of the weapon arc, or whatever the plan is. You CANNOT pilot on a moment-by-moment basis, you MUST be thinking ahead. (This doesn't mean you're not making moment-to-moment course corrections--see below--it just means that your fancy flying needs to be in service of a definite and consistent goal.) 
• Helm and Weapons should be working together closely with Engineering, since unfocused blasts to the enemy's shields will do nothing. You should choose one side and try and keep the weapon lock solidly on that half of the shield. You'll save time, energy, and maybe some space stations, too.
• Helm can see the weapons lock as a spinning red ring around a target. Helm can also see the targeting reticles used by Science and the Captain's Map, if in range of those targets. If the captain is using the Tactical screen to describe an attack plan, you will be able to continue to track his target once you get in range.
• Keep all your weapons on target: It is sometimes useful to not engage in a turning fight with an enemy. Even though the Artemis class ship can out-turn anything else, at best, you will be firing with one beam at a time during parts of your turn. And depending on which enemy you are fighting, and your skill level, this situation may continue for a relatively long time. And remember, the longer each fight takes, the more energy you are burning, and the closer the other enemies are getting to your starbases.
• It is often best to break away from a turning fight and either turn the other direction, or at least veer away for a few seconds to get a better angle. Yes, that means that you won't be shooting at the enemy for a few seconds, but once you get him back in your sights, you can do so with BOTH beams, and more quickly kill him and move on.
• And with good coordination, you may even be able to fire off a few rounds at another enemy ship while swinging around for the second pass on the first enemy ship.
• Remember that keeping the enemy on the fringes of your firing arcs is not as useful as flying straight for a few moments and then executing a hard turn to get him back in your full-powered arc. (Again, good coordination with ENG for more impulse/maneuvering power will make your job easier, but you don't want to be hogging all that power yourself all the time so try to learn how to do this with as little extra power as possible.)
• Another advanced tactic is keeping track of multiple enemies. Since you can click to turn, or even use a joystick, there is no reason that you can't focus on more than one thing at a time, which means that you should be aware of what the other enemies in the area are doing. If SCI has told you which ship is the battleship, are you maneuvering your ship into his aft firing arc? Can you coordinate a rapid target-switching maneuver to fire a couple shots at each enemy to get them to break formation and become less threatening for a few seconds?
• On turning rate and power levels to maneuver:
• Default turning rate is 10 degrees per second. That equates to 36 seconds to pull a full 360 degree turn.
• This turn rate is affected by the power level in the "Maneuver" system, and it scales directly with the power in the system.
• So at 300% power, your turn rate is three times as high as the default rate, or 30 degrees per second. At 200% it is double the default rate, and so on. 
• Zoom Ranges: At the different zoom levels, the compass ring has the following approximate radius:
  
  

  Zoom 1	Zoom 2	Zoom 3	Zoom 4
  1200m	2400m	3600m	5000m

Techniques 

• High Energy Turns require co-ordination with Engineering. Put maneuvering to a short burst of 300%, turn quickly, and then resume normal operations. Often used with other techniques, this can help gain a significant positional advantage.
• The J-hook is a simple technique. 

1. raise shields, since you're going to pass the enemies closely 
2. warp past the enemy and then drop to impulse
3. coordinate with the engineer to perform a High Energy Turn back towards the enemy you just passed
4. warp right up to the enemies' back door

• Kiting takes advantage of the enemy AI, which will generally head in a straight line towards the Artemis. Use this to lead enemies into minefields, asteroids, space monsters or even singularities.
• Monster-baiting is a dangerous technique but one which can pay dividends if used correctly. Fly at a medium warp factor past a space monster and keep your shields up - it will start following you. Fly near or through an enemy formation and increase warp to disengage. The space monster and enemy ships will often start attacking each other while you deal with other matters.
• Ramming can actually be quite effective if you need to separate a group of enemies before you engage, as you will literally push the other ships aside. (this will not damage the hull or shields of either ship, although some monsters deal damage in this way)
• Hovering close to a singularity is possible if you face away from it just outside the blue ring on the display, and engage approximately quarter impulse. Experiment to find out what works for your position and ship. You can also use the fact that the singularity pulls you towards it to make tighter turns. This technique is particularly useful in PvE because the AI is not good at dealing with singularities, though beware of Skaraan ships jumping away from the event horizon!
• Combat Jumping comes in a few forms:
• Panic Jump - With a jump drive, you won't be able to warp out if you start taking heavy enemy fire. Panic jumping usually just involves moving the jump range slider down to around 7-10km as quickly as possible and initiating immediately. Sure, you might not know exactly where you're jumping to, but the precious few seconds you save not fiddling with the sliders could save your crew's lives. You could jump further if you wanted, but 7-10km usually gives you room to breathe without blowing huge amounts of energy or accidentally jumping into an even worse situation.
• Tail Jump - An advanced combat maneuver, this involves moving at full impulse away from an enemy ship, inviting them to chase you. When they do, simply jump in their direction, making sure to overshoot. Since relative facing is maintained after a jump, this (when done correctly) will put you behind the enemy ship and chasing them. The hunter becomes the hunted!
• Vaulting - Similar to tail jumping, but using the terrain to your advantage. Flying towards a dangerous terrain feature like a minefield or a singularity, it is possible to make a short jump (but not too short!) through the obstacle and keep going. This has the added bonus of potentially kiting your enemies directly into the feature you just vaulted.
• Jumping can also require co-ordination with Engineering. More power into the Jump Drive will enable a faster Jump, and a shorter black out period after the Jump. For a Ximni ship, more power to Jump Drive will reduce the amount of time it takes the Ximni Combat Jump to recharge. As mentioned above, the Ximni can perform any of these maneuvers with their Combat Jump without having to set the Jump controls. Remember, the Ximni Combat Jump is a constant 5km.  

Official Help Text: This is a transcription of the official helptext from the game, brought up by pressing F1 

This is the helm station. Here you can steer the ship. You can adjust the impulse and warp drives with the vertical sliders on the left. You can adjust the turn rate with the slider in the bottom-center. You can also use the arrow keys for turning and impulse. Two big arrows let you climb and dive. 

If you have a USB joystick, you can use that too. The stick controls the impulse and turning; hold button 1 for warp 1, hold button 2 for warp 3. Finally, you can click the screen (inside the rosetta circle) to make the Artemis automatically turn toward whatever you clicked. 

You can also control a few other things. The buttons along the right side control the current view of the main screen. Below them are buttons for raising the shields, toggling reverse, and initiating a dock with a space station. One more button, Zoom, lets you toggle between 4 zoom levels on your display. 

The green arrow in the center of the screen is your ship. Red arrows are enemies; purple arrows are other player ships, and yellow rings are space stations. If 'Show Weapon Arcs' is on, the fat pie wedge in front of your ship represents your weapon arcs; your beams can only hit a target inside the arcs. Enemies also have weapon arcs, and a helms officer's job is to stay out of them. 

The Options button in the upper-left corner lets you return to the console choice screen, and exit the game. 

Hot Kys

• WASD or arrows: turning and impulse control (speed/heading)
• 1-4: warp toggle
• Space: stop warp (first press)/All stop (second press)
• Escape: Toggle reverse 

• Q: Raise/Lower shields
• K: Raise shield 
• L: Lower shields 
• R: Docking 
• Insert: Climb (hit Delete to go neutral)
• Delete: Dive  (hit Insert to go neutral)
• T: Zoom in
• Y: Zoom out
• Tab: select direction/distance for Jump
• numeric keys: enter distance/direction for Jump
• Return: Initiate/Confirm Jump.  
• H: Quick Jump forward (Ximni or Pirate only), added in v2.7.5
• J:  Quick Jump backwards (Ximni or Pirate only), added in v2.7.5

*Much of the information in the Basic and Advanced Play sections is duplicated from the Artemis SBSt bulletin boards athttp://artemis.eochu.com/forums.php#/help/. Permission to use this material is assumed from its being posted.

**This page was banged out very quickly and not all the information has been confirmed. If you find things you think are wrong they probably are; please make it better by fixing them.