Star Wars: Squadrons/Fleet Battles

Fleet Battles are the game's only ranked mode when played against other players. It is a strategic tug-of-war mode with various objectives to complete. The ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy's capital ship - either the MC75 or the Imperial Star Destroyer.

The game starts with the team's capital ship behind two frigates, and a pair of corvettes attacking each other in the middle.

Morale
Morale is the gauge at which indicates which side is defending and which side is attacking. Destroying enemies will increase your team's morale. Once your team has enough morale points, you will team will switch from defending to attacking.

Also shown is the shield (top, green) and hull (bottom, white) status of the current objectives.

Gain morale by completing objectives. Destroying the various AI fighters ("creeps") nets you a small amount of morale. Earn three times the morale by splashing an enemy player - or more accurately, every time an enemy player dies, whether due to a collision or by capital ship fire. Destroying the enemy corvette when it appears also likewise gives a lot of morale to the opposing team.

Managing morale is therefore a team effort. Is is very important thus to not just get kills, but to stay alive. Suicide attacks on enemy capital ships will only feed the enemy morale points, preventing you from completing objectives.

Points
Points are awarded to players as follows:

Corvettes
Corvettes are powerful and heavily armoured ships that attack each other in the first minute of the game. Usually the team that destroys the enemy corvette first goes on the attacking side. The corvette will begin attacking the enemy frigates. The Rebels receive support from the CR90, while the Imperials deploy Raiders. An infinite number of them can spawn throughout the game.

Corvettes are fairly small, are mobile, and have a lot of guns on them. Taking them down is best accomplished by bombers, torpedo-armed fighters, or interceptors with rockets. Flying past the shields of the corvette can be difficult due to the number of guns on them, and how tightly the shields hug the ship.

Frigates
Frigates are similar to corvettes, but usually don't move from their spawn locations. These two ships provide fire support to the team and have special attacks when your team is on offence, effectively making them invincible until the enemy team gains enough morale.

Most importantly to the attacking team, however, are how frigates repair and resupply the attacking team. If your team is defending, this functionality is unavailable. Frigates are fairly heavily armed with gun turrets and long range missile launchers - all of which can be destroyed to make subsequent attacks easier.

Flagships
Usually referred to as either the capital ship or the flagship, the Flagship is the target of the Fleet Battles game mode, and destroying the flagship is how you win.

Flagship armament includes a number of laser turrets, ion cannons for disabling attackers and targeting shield systems, and a number of warhead launchers. The ventral side of flagships also feature tractor beam emitters that can immobilize players flying under them - tractor beams can be broken out of by boosting free, or destroying the emitter. Destroying the emitter can be difficult as tractor beams can hit you through the capital ship's shields. The guns on capital ships do not respawn, so destroying its turrets is one way of chipping it down.

Flagships have three subsystems that are targets.
 * The power system helps keep the ship from receiving additional weak points. Weak points are purple sparkling sections of the ship that can be destroyed by starfighter gunfire to inflict upwards of 7% damage on the capital ship.
 * The left and right shields control the ship's shield systems, and allow it to soak up a ton of punishment. Flagships without shields are very vulnerable to proton torpedoes, proton bombs, and gun runs from the enemy team, especially when they target the flagship's guns.
 * The targeting system controls the automated guns, and losing this makes the flagship's guns far less accurate.

Destroying weak points with guns is the easiest way to destroy hull sections and deal damage. Weak points and subsystems aren't your only target, however - you can also simply attack the ship with proton bombs or lasers to destroy hull sections for a less efficient way of sinking the flagship. Attacking a destroyed hull section will prompt a verbal announcement saying to attack somewhere else.

MC75
The MC75 is the New Republic flagship. Like the Star Destroyer, it features a number of defenses, including a few ion weapons, tractor beams protecting its belly, and most guns facing the sides or above.

The biggest weakness to the MC75 is the centralized location of most of its subsystems. The power system (bottom), targeting (top), and both shield generators are all located amidships, not too far from each other. This allows a single bomber to potentially hit multiple subsystems in one or two passes. Combined with their extreme durability and speed, TIE bombers should not have too much difficulty attacking the MC75.

Imperial Star Destroyer
The Imperial Star Destroyer is very difficult to attack, as its subsystems are located far apart from each other. Additionally, as the Star Destroyer is mostly flat, it is very easy for as many as nine to eleven guns to fire at you if you approach it from the front - and you haven't even gotten into torpedo range against a subsystem, nevermind bombing range. When playing as the New Republic, you must therefore attack the Star Destroyer either from long range with ion or proton torpedoes, or from odd angles - like directly above or from below. Getting at its shield generators at the back end of the ship is extremely difficult. If you can lower the Star Destroyer's shields, a few gun runs on the ISD's turrets can make subsequent attacks easier. The turrets are rather predictably placed, but nonetheless difficult to attack, especially head on.

Strategies
Traditional fleet battle gameplay will feature a good mix of interceptors to deal with fighters, bombers to attack the capital ships, and a support for shielding, healing, and potentially other purposes. Fighters, being the jack of all trades class, can perform supplement interceptors or bombers as necessary.

Currently it is extremely viable to simply attack the AI ships for extremely large morale boosts, especially when using multi-missiles and bombers. If your opponent's frigates remain operational after losing yours, the enemy team can remain behind their fighters and gain as much morale as they need by attacking the AI fighters - attempting to cross the frigates while on defence will get you shot down. There is not much of a way to play against this strategy as of yet, though torpedo attacks against the frigates offer the best of a bad situation. Farming the AI fighters is a frowned upon tactic in Fleet Battles.

Post-Match Awards
At the end of the match, five players from either team are recognized for certain milestones.