[PR] Complete Crew Guide: Part 3

Crew Compositions and Poker

Hello and welcome; I’m Parthalon. Today we are going to be talking about who goes on your crew, and how many of each.

So there’s five slots in a crew. Assuming you fill all five (and you probably should!), there’s only a certain number of different ways you can build that crew. It’s basically a ratio, but math was never my strong suit, so instead we have…

5:0 The Straight Flush - For when you want to do one thing and one thing only. This has the best (Adalian) bonuses to the one task that you are hyper-specializing in. Downside, you absolutely suck at everything else.

4:1 Four of a Kind - Okay, so maybe you want to occasionally do one other thing, and really, the diminishing returns on the fifth crew of the same class don’t help all that much. So you take just a splash of something else, to cover one shortcoming.

3:2 Full House - Taking the “do two things” approach to a more balanced conclusion, you have three of one class (which is almost as good as having five in practical terms) and you add two of a complimentary class (which is significantly better than having just one).

3:1:1 Three of a Kind - You want to come in strong on your main specialization, but be a little more balanced in you minor focus. So you take two minor focuses. Having even one of a class on a crew immediately makes you twice as good at that, so it’s the best bang for your buck while still being very focused on your key goal.

2:2:1 Two Pair - The opposite of the Three of a Kind approach. You have two minor focuses and just a splash of a third focus, so you can avoid that big missing class malus or to do something else on the side between your big jobs.

2:1:1:1 One Pair - You want to do almost everything at once, except one thing…usually, because you aren’t going anywhere and don’t need a pilot. This crew pictured here is an interesting example, because the “pair” is actually a Builder and a Refiner, so it’s as close to doing it all as you can get except for…

1:1:1:1:1 High Card - The most balanced crew you can do. Maybe more of a novelty than anything else, but in certain situations this might make the most sense, like for a solo crew flying out to bootstrap a new rock. The downside, you’re going to be mediocre at everything; a jack of all trades kinda deal.

So there you have it, a way to quickly identify, discuss, and plan your crew ratios.

Oh, and I also mapped the four most common classes on to card suits, so have fun with that bit of slang, I guess. You’re welcome.

Parthalon, over and out.