If Tie Phantom equipped with a collision detector performs a decloak over an obstacle, must it spend a charge from collision detector to be able to perform the evade action once the boost/barrel roll is complete?

If the answer is no to the above, must it spend a charge if it lands on the obstacle after decloaking, to perform the evade action?

no. decloaking is not a maneuver, it's a boost or barrel roll effect, just movement. the phantom can always take the evade action unless it's stressed. since collision detector lets you boost or barrel roll over obstacles, you would have to roll for damage unless it's a gas cloud and gain stress if it's debris, if you do not spend a charge. thus, decloaking over debris would prevent the phantom from performing the evade action, unless it spends a charge from collision detector.

gas clouds and asteroids make ships moving through them or overlapping them while executing a maneuver skip their perform action step. the perform action step is a part of the activation phase. the evade action granted from the stygium array ship ability has nothing to do with the perform action step.

Question. If I have a phantom with collision detector, and I decloak over a gas cloud (clearing the cloud), and I choose to NOT spend a collision detector charge... would I skip my perform action step during the activation phase, or still get it? I'd argue that the step is still skipped for that turn, but nothing would prevent any actions outside of it (like the post-decloak evade).

Given this ruling in the rules reference,

Quote

• Q: Do TIE Strikers (and Reapers) skip their perform action step if they overlap an asteroid or another ship with their Aileron's ability maneuver?
• A: No. It is only during the Execute Maneuver step that a ship skips its Perform Action step for overlapping a ship or obstacle.

You would not skip your perform action step unless you hit that obstacle while executing your maneuver during the Execute Maneuver step.

@emeraldbeacon

you do not skip your perform action step if you move over a gas cloud. you do skip your perform action step if you maneuver over a gas cloud, though.

it's under Obstacles on page 13 or the RR.

Just to note, you cannot de-cloak over or through obstacles UNLESS you have and use Collision Detector. De-cloak it is treated like a barrel roll/boost and you cannot boost or roll over or through obstacles.

42 minutes ago, shaunmerritt said:

Just to note, you cannot de-cloak over or through obstacles UNLESS you have and use Collision Detector. De-cloak it is treated like a barrel roll/boost and you cannot boost or roll over or through obstacles.

you don't have to spend a charge to do it unless you want to ignore the effect of the obstacle, as long as collision detector is equipped.

1 hour ago, shaunmerritt said:

Just to note, you cannot de-cloak over or through obstacles UNLESS you have and use Collision Detector. De-cloak it is treated like a barrel roll/boost and you cannot boost or roll over or through obstacles.

As @meffo said, Collision Detector lets you boost/roll over and onto obstacles, regardless of spending a charge; the second effect merely lets you ignore the obstacle's effects as well (you get all of the good, none of the bad). This gives Phantoms a LOT of extra mobility and versatility when it comes to decloaking, even if it comes at the risk of stress and/or damage.

Just to take the point @meffo and @emeraldbeacon were alluding to above to its logical conclusion : Collision Detector essentially makes it so you can no longer fail a boost/roll/decloak because of overlapping an obstacle. If you have no charges left (or really don't want to spend one) and misjudge a move such that you have no choice but to hit the obstacle, you must complete that move.

Hello,

Apologies, for some reason I was thinking it said MAY on the first part.