The Custodians that patrol the front shoot like enemies do: one weapon, a rough arc, and straight at you. The Herald Custodian does not. The Herald carries weapon mounts like yours, and fights them the same way.

What makes it different

Each of its mounts has its own weapon, its own level, its own reload and its own firing arc. Which means the Herald has exactly the problem you have in a heavy ship: if the side it is showing you is dry, it cannot hurt you until it turns.

And it turns. You will see things only players did until now:

  • It presents the loaded broadside instead of fighting with the same half of the ship all match.
  • It drifts to bring the other flank round without giving up position — the manoeuvre that links one salvo to the next.
  • It holds its missiles rather than spending them into a lit scatter bubble.
  • It holds the flank while it has a firing line, instead of circling you.

No hidden advantages

Its numbers come from the ship class, exactly as yours do: health, armour, evasion, turn rate and mount count are those of a player hull of that same class. It has no extra pool of health and it does not hit harder for being an enemy.

What makes it hard is how it plays — which means it can be beaten the same way: better aim, better broadside management, better use of range.

It exists in four hulls — Gunship, Corvette, Frigate and Cruiser — and all four fight on the same principles.

Where you will run into it

The Crucible has one: a level 22 Herald Cruiser, patrolling a remote corner of the sector. It is defensive: it does not attack on sight and it chases nobody. Fly past and it lets you past. Hit it and you have a cruiser-against-cruiser duel on your hands.

It pays 450 to 720 Nexite, and takes fifteen minutes to return once it falls. It is a rare find, not a harvest.

There is none on the entry front — Zeta System, the Alcyone Veil, Earendel. That is where you learn to fly, and it is not the place for this.

The last incursion wave

Wave nine stops being five ships and becomes one: a Herald Cruiser. It arrives on its own numbers, without the health budget that scales the rest of the waves.

It is a change of rhythm as much as of difficulty. The incursion had been growing wave after wave, and now, right before the base, it goes quiet and a single ship shows up. You understand it without a sign having to tell you: something different is coming.

Total health for that wave goes down. The fight does not: it arrives armed to the level of its tier, and it knows how to use what it carries.