Crews..or as we say down here in the south Krewe's!!

Rogue (not rouge) Crews

By: Robyn Piatt

a/k/a Robyn_P

There are two things to remember with crews. How bonuses are applied and how to use a crew for maximum effectiveness. 

Crew Bonuses

Each crew has a bonus, some have more than one bonus and some have bonuses that apply to specific or "Favored" hulls. 

Looking at some of the differences with crew bonuses.

Remote Raiders 

On this crew we see multiple bonuses. Some are specific and some are not.

The 30% ship combat speed is not specific and would apply to all ships in the fleet for the duration of the battle.The Drone bonuses would only apply to ships with Drones

Bullseye Brigade

On this crew we see a bonus where Cannons, missiles and torpedoes will always hit enemy ships. This bonus applies to all ships.

There is also a Favored Ship bonus.

The bonuses listed under the favored hull apply ONLY to the favored hull.  These ships get an extra bonus when using this crew. 

Junk Yard Dogs 

This crew has a bonus at the top but it's restricted.  The Bonus only applies to fleets in the base guard.  If you use this crew on any other fleet eg. in the FM, the bonuses are ignored. 

It also has a favored hull bonus for the Goliath.





There are also some instances where a bonus does not apply. These are defense bonuses. A defense bonus does not apply to a hull that has 100% defense handicap, these are some of the Conqueror and Defender hulls in play at this time. 

Hidden Bonuses

When looking at a crew, look at all of the bonuses and look at where a bonus may benefit you in an area of the game not necessarily in line with the bonus. A good example of this is the Salty Dogs crew. Although this crew at first glance looks like its just for ranking, there is a secondary bonus under the favored hull that is often forgotten. This bonus applies to any Forsaken hull and gives 15% Reload and Turn Speed. These extras can be particularly helpful if you are using a crew on a ship that is not fully ranked yet or one to which you want to add some reload (eg. Apollos).  

Doubling up on Crews

You can run a crew on your fleet and have another crew activated in a blank fleet slot in your base.  Lets say you are hitting a raid target and you are running a Demolition Squad crew.  You get hit by lag and your fleet dies.  When you bring your fleet back to your base, you remove the ships from the current fleet and add them to an empty fleet slot and load up a Grease Monkey crew. You repair your fleet using the Grease Monkey half repair and then remove them and put them back into the slot that has the Demo Squad. You then launch as normal. This allows you to use two crews at the same time, saving on damage and repairs. This process works really well during the VXP weekends.

Crew Matrix

I have created a matrix that lists all current crews as well as some key bonuses that can be applied in different applications.  Below is a sample page. You can access the full document on the TFC website here.

Hopefully this will help with deciding on what crew to use and when. Remember you can get a free crew daily from the Arena and from the Great Hall.  

If you are able to get Uranium on a regular basis then get into the habit of using crews. Some crews have bonuses that can make or break a TLC or a Raid. 

- Robyn - Who feels nekked if she is not sporting a crew on the fleet.