Just a few questions relating to the Target Lock action. I've been playing since January and have always had this lingering in the back of my mind. It states in the rule book that Target Locks are not removed during the End Phase. So next turn what happens when you go to perform your action but your Target Lock is still there? Thanks for the help.

If you acquire a Target Lock when you already have a Target Lock, you lose the old one (Weapons Engineer lets you have two Target Locks, on different ships). You also lose your Target Lock if the ship you have locked is destroyed. Other than that, they hang around until you spend them.

ETA: Rules Reference p3, "Acquire A Target Lock":

A ship can maintain one target lock. If a ship acquires a new target lock, it must remove its old target lock.

Generally, you would then take a different action next round, such as Focus, and you would still have the Target Lock around to benefit from. This is one way to end up with both a Focus and a Target Lock for your attack, which is quite powerful.

wow thanks guys

4 minutes ago, RIP Yoda said:

And what about when you take for example a focus action and you still have a target lock?

What about it?

They have no interaction. You can have any number of focus, evade, and red TL tokens assigned to you in addition to your regular complement of one (or two if you're Redline or 1 +1 per Weapons Engineer) blue TLs.

4 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

What about it?

They have no interaction. You can have any number of focus, evade, and red TL tokens assigned to you in addition to your regular complement of blue TLs.

So say you had a target lock from a previous round and you haven't used it then you activate and take a focus. What EdgeOfDreams is saying is that you can essentially stack tokens without an upgrade. I thought you could only have an action at a time. And what happens if you have a previous target lock and then the next round you execute a red maneuver. Do you then discard that target lock?

You have misunderstood how actions work.

Ok then! Plz explain it to me oh wise master.

No seriously! This is hurting my brain...

7 minutes ago, RIP Yoda said:

No seriously! This is hurting my brain...

Once you have a Target Lock (blue) you keep it until you use it to reroll attack dice. Focus and evade tokens are removed at the end of each round.

Turn one you take a Target Lock during your Perform Action step. During the combat phase you don't spend for whatever reason. Turn two, you still have the Target Lock so as an Action you take a Focus. Now during the Attack phase you spend the Target Lock to reroll some or all of your dice. You then use your Focus token to change all your eyeballs into hits. Both the Target Lock and Focus tokens have been used and are removed from the table.

A ship can't perform the same action twice in one phase but you can have multiple focus and evade tokens assigned to your ship. Also note you can have multiple red target locks on your ship. This just means several enemy ships have targeted your ship.

Hope this helps. Grab a cup of coffee and sit down with the Rules Reference Guide. Read it section by section and don't skim it. It will answer most if not all of your questions.

1 hour ago, RIP Yoda said:

So say you had a target lock from a previous round and you haven't used it then you activate and take a focus. What EdgeOfDreams is saying is that you can essentially stack tokens without an upgrade. I thought you could only have an action at a time. And what happens if you have a previous target lock and then the next round you execute a red maneuver. Do you then discard that target lock?

I see where you're going wrong. You're thinking of target locks themselves as actions, but that's not right. Acquiring a target lock through the target lock action is (obviously) an action. But once you've got the target lock, you can use it whenever you like, whether or not you had actions that turn. A good strategy is to take a target lock when you know you're not going to get shots that round, because you can save it for later and combine it with a focus.

You're mostly right - usually you can't stack tokens without some kind of upgrade card, but target locks are the exceptions because they stick around. (There are also cards which allow you to keep your focus or evade tokens for longer than a round.)

It's also worth nothing that "acquiring a target lock" doesn't have to be an action. Some cards (like Fire-Control System) tell you to acquire a target lock - that's not an action, you can do it while stressed, you can do it even if you'd already taken the target lock action that round. Other cards might tell you to "perform a free target lock action", which obviously is an action.

In general, it's good to differentiate between effects that give you free tokens (like Soontir's pilot ability) and those which give you free actions (like BB-8). The former are more powerful because you get the token no matter what. The latter are blocked by effects which prevent you from taking actions - like stress or the Damaged Sensor Array crit.

1 hour ago, RIP Yoda said:

So say you had a target lock from a previous round and you haven't used it then you activate and take a focus. What EdgeOfDreams is saying is that you can essentially stack tokens without an upgrade. I thought you could only have an action at a time. And what happens if you have a previous target lock and then the next round you execute a red maneuver. Do you then discard that target lock?

Stoneface's advice is good (with the exception that the limit on how many times you can perform a given action is once per *round* not once per phase) - you've got a fundamental misunderstanding of how actions work, to wit:

Each ship has a Perform Action step in the activation phase, as long as it didn't bump or drive over/land on an asteroid. If it's stressed, it can't perform any actions, but otherwise, it can perform one action. Performing a focus or evade action assigns the relevant token. The action can be from its bar, or it can be an action from a card with the Action: header, either an upgrade or a damage card.

BUT.

That isn't the only way to be assigned those tokens. The tokens are assigned by the action, but they are not the action. Tokens are discarded when the rules say they are - for focus and evade tokens, this is during the end phase, for target locks this is when you use them. TLs aren't time-limited, and you can hold on to them indefinitely until you spend them for a given purpose (as a cost to fire ordnance, say, or to reroll attack dice).

ALSO.

THis isn't the only time a ship can perform actions. If it gets given a free action from somewhere, either of its choice or a specific action, it can do that as long as it's not stressed. These typically come from upgrade cards or pilot abilities, and are usually in one of two flavours - a specific action for free, as part of an upgrade card action (e.g. Expert Handling's free barrel roll action. Triggering EH costs an action, but it gives you the BR action free as part of executing it), or from an upgrade card or pilot ability (e.g. Push the Limit which lets you take an extra action after performing any action, at any time, once per round, then gain a stress, or Squad Leader which allows you to use your Perform Action step to give another ship in your squad an action).

And of course, upgrade cards and pilot abilities can always provide exceptions to these general rules. E.g. Darth Vader pilot can perform two actions during his Perform Action step, not one, or Tycho Celchu can perform actions whilst he's stressed. There aren't currently any exceptions to the rule that each specific action can only be performed once per round, however.

--

Given that you've misunderstood this fairly core part of the game, it doesn't seem unlikely that you might have misunderstood something else, and it's therefor a little difficult to give advice as the assumption that you understand the core rules well doesn't necessarily hold up.

This isn't intended as a slight on you btw. If you're new to the game, or have been taught the rules by a friend rather than learning them from the book yourself, it's very easy to misunderstand certain elements, and this forum section will always be happy to help clarify any questions.

Given that you've misunderstood this fairly core part of the game, it doesn't seem unlikely that you might have misunderstood something else, and it's therefor a little difficult to give advice as the assumption that you understand the core rules well doesn't necessarily hold up.

This isn't intended as a slight on you btw. If you're new to the game, or have been taught the rules by a friend rather than learning them from the book yourself, it's very easy to misunderstand certain elements, and this forum section will always be happy to help clarify any questions.

First of all I've been playing for 5 months and I have more than 10 expansion packs, so I'm not a noob. I know how you can be assigned tokens though upgrade cards and other pilots and I know you can only take 1 action. What i keep trying to tell you is that in the rules of play it clearly states that target locks are not removed during the end phase. My scenario is this. A ship has not used his target and it comes time for this said ship to perform it's action (still holding on to the TL) my initial thought was that it would be unfair given the ship could potentially have 2 attack modifiers. And in the rules of play it also says that you cannot perform actions while stressed so how is it fair to spend a TL that you have held onto from a previous round.

Because

6 minutes ago, RIP Yoda said:

My scenario is this. A ship has not used his target and it comes time for this said ship to perform it's action (still holding on to the TL) my initial thought was that it would be unfair given the ship could potentially have 2 attack modifiers. And in the rules of play it also says that you cannot perform actions while stressed so how is it fair to spend a TL that you have held onto from a previous round.

It's "fair" because it's allowed. If that ship acquired the target lock (by use of an action in a previous round OR some other means by upgrade cards or other pilots) you can spend the TL even if you are stressed.

You acquire a TL or focus as an action OR by other means. But spending the TL or focus is not an action. Because (generally) actions happen during the activation phase and spending TL and focus (generally) happen during the combat phase. Being stressed keeps you from performing an action but does not stop you from spending tokens.

Thank you all for helping me with this topic it's been something that always bugged me ! ?

Plz follow me

4 hours ago, RIP Yoda said:

my initial thought was that it would be unfair given the ship could potentially have 2 attack modifiers. And in the rules of play it also says that you cannot perform actions while stressed so how is it fair to spend a TL that you have held onto from a previous round.

That's the whole point of the game; to maximise your offensive output and defeat the other guy. In this stage of the game's development and release, having a TL and Focus is now generally the bare minimum you want to maximise damage; given the number of defensive modifiers that can be employed.

As for your query about stress; you cannot perform actions while stressed, this is true. But once the TL is acquired, having it sit there against an enemy ship is not an action. It just 'is'. The action was acquiring it via the TL action (noting there are other ways of acquiring a TL that don't need an action). Spending a TL, or a focus, or an evade is not an action.

16 minutes ago, Dr Zoidberg said:

That's the whole point of the game; to maximise your offensive output and defeat the other guy. In this stage of the game's development and release, having a TL and Focus is now generally the bare minimum you want to maximise damage; given the number of defensive modifiers that can be employed.

As for your query about stress; you cannot perform actions while stressed, this is true. But once the TL is acquired, having it sit there against an enemy ship is not an action. It just 'is'. The action was acquiring it via the TL action (noting there are other ways of acquiring a TL that don't need an action). Spending a TL, or a focus, or an evade is not an action.

Thanks this clears up alot