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Beacons are a type of ordnance that are carried by TSN and Ximni starships. They are dropped behind the ship similar to mines, but they are not intended to deal damage. Instead, they carry a small but powerful electromagnetic broadcast transmitter, boosted by a ultrawave carrier signal. The range of this EM signal is sufficient to cover the entire sector. Designed originally as a distress beacon, the Bio Beacon has been modified to attract or repel xeno-organisms, or Space Monsters. Although Space Monsters do not respond to ultrawave communications, they can be affected by electromagnetic waves, similar to those produced by the central star of a solar system.
A beacon must be programmed during the torpedo loading process, using a selector on the Weapons console that will appear when the Beacon ordinance is chosen. The type of Space Monster to be affected must be specified, and whether the beacon will Attract or Repel that type of monster. Attract beacons can be used to lure monsters to a given location to ambush enemy vessels, while Repel beacons are typically used to protect bases or friendly ships from monster attack. Note, however that while Typhons are affected by Attract beacons, they are NOT affected by Repel beacons.
Once launched, a beacon appears as an anomaly on the ship's consoles, and it can be scanned and identified as a beacon by Science. The anomaly description will identify what kind of monster it is intended to affect, and whether it will attract or repel that monster. After a certain amount of time (research needed to determine exactly how long this is) the beacon will run out of power and cease functioning. Either before or after it runs out of power, a beacon can be picked up by the Artemis by flying over it, the same as any other anomaly. This will add it back to the Artemis's inventory and it can be reprogrammed and launched again.
Scouts and Light Cruisers, which are more lightly armed than other, combat-oriented classes of starship, are well suited for patrol and exploration missions that could make use of beacons. As of Artemis 2.7.1, Scouts (either TSN or Ximni) carry 8 beacons, the most of any class of ship. Light Cruisers (again, TSN and Ximni) carry 5 beacons, and most other ships carry 2. The Minelayer, curiously, carries no beacons, even though this would be in keeping with it's minelaying role. Version 2.7.0 uses an earlier loadout of probes, tags and beacons in which these numbers were not finalized and in many cases wrong, but this should not be a problem if you have updated your installation.
Starbases can produce and store these beacons. It takes 1 minute for a starbase to produce one. Thus, large numbers of beacons can be produced even faster than homing torpedoes, although they cannot be made from energy, as homing torps can. Beacons were added in Artemis 2.7.
Quick Stats
| Effect: |
Attracts or repels space monsters |
| Speed: |
3 |
| Fire Arc: |
Aft |
| Drop Distance: | At least 635 units behind the ship deploying them |
| Signal Radius: | At least 50,000 units |
| Signal Duration: | Unknown |
| Base Stores: | 0-4 (at start of game) |
| Build Time: | 1 minute (divided by build factor) |