Zoltan

Overview

With the majority of their bodies composed of pure, harnessable energy, the Zoltan are ambivalent towards the Galactic Federation. Whilst a deeply officious and obtuse people, they generally favor diplomacy over acts of aggression and are known for being fair and just in their dealings with others. Due to their alliance with the Engi, Zoltans often appear in Engi Homeworlds or the various Engi-Controlled Sectors of space, although they inhabit their own home systems as well. Being ingenious experts of technology, the Zoltan race pioneered a unique ship-based shielding technology which can be found on nearly every Zoltan vessel. These shields are very difficult to breach, however they cannot regenerate during a battle - unless a Shield Overcharger drone is deployed. Therefore, once they are impacted by enemy fire enough to deactivate them, Zoltan vessels must rely on conventional shielding systems. They and the Engi control many sectors, but they themselves are rarely seen outside them.

The Zoltan ability provides a single block of power to the ship system whose corresponding room they are currently standing in (no effect on subsystems). This is especially useful in reduced-power battles, or in battles against ships with Ion weapons, as their energy cannot be blocked by the Ion effect. For example, having two Zoltan in the shield system room will ensure that your ship will always have at least one layer of shields active at any time. The addition of Zoltan-provided power means maximum reactor power can be exceeded.

The Zoltan ability can also be used to "clean" power. Cloaking, Hacking, Teleporter, and Mind Control systems require a cooldown period after use that locks power into that system. By walking a Zoltan into a room with a system in cooldown, one of the power bars will turn from blue (cooldown) to yellow (Zoltan power). Leaving the room will empty the power bar, allowing that unit of power to be utilized elsewhere while the system is cooling down.

In Weapon and Drone Control systems, Zoltans provide power starting with the highest priority module (the left-most slot), and their power can only be redistributed by changing the priority of the modules.

Zoltan will explode upon death and deal 15 damage to all enemies in the room - allies are unaffected. While this ability was added with the Advanced Edition content, the ability still functions with the additional content disabled.

Special Abilities

+ Provides power to occupied system
+ Explodes upon death, dealing 15 damage to each enemy in room
- Maximum health is reduced to 70