Deck Conn FTL Jump Guide

Launch screenshots of Deck Conn put an FTL jump panel next to HELM, with MARK / SPIN / DECOIL and a module readout. That is not flavour text. The game is a command sim about moving a nuclear corvette through a forever-war, and the jump is how you change the map without treating every smear as a duel. This page is how to think about that door. Pair it with Ship Systems and Controls. Do not invent a warp-minigame the store never described.

What the glass actually shows

On the command HUD you have already seen in press shots:

• Helm on/off and availability.
• An FTL block with jump-related toggles sitting beside sensors and magazines.
• A plot that can sit at a named place such as Alpha Centauri while you are still docked at a platform like Coyote.
• Fuel and auxiliary buses that will punish a jump you cannot pay for.

The launch kit talks about navigating sectors, investigating contacts, and returning from patrols. Jumping is the campaign verb that makes those sentences true. If you never touch FTL, you are playing a shooting gallery in one parking orbit.

When to jump

Jump when:

1. The HQ order is in another sector and your campaign fuel math still includes a way home.
2. A contact is a smear you cannot afford to light up, and the order was investigate-later, not fight-now. See tactics.
3. You have a prize or a wounded reactor and the current plot is a grave. Capture without an exit is a towing story that ends in a yard you never reach.
4. A standalone hunt such as the Raccoon Hunt scenario is over and you are done drilling.

Do not jump because the pixel art of a nebula looks nicer. Fuel is the patrol clock. The power planner should already have a reserve line for the return.

What not to starve before a jump

A jump is a systems event. Treat it like a weapons spike: pay, then return to floor.

• Fuel / auxiliary. If the FTL block shares a bus with AUXILIARY vents and pumps, do not discover that by jumping dry.
• Sensors. Jumping blind into a new sector is how unidentified contacts become the first sentence of a wreck report. Keep a passive picture.
• Reactor. START / STOP / SCRAM still matter. A jump with the plant in a state you would not accept at undock is a getting started failure, not an FTL failure.
• Helm. If helm is off or unavailable, you are not a ship that jumps. You are a station that wishes.

The systems tier list already ranks propulsion and fuel above vanity guns. FTL is that ranking with a bigger door.

Jump is not combat

Closing range on the plot and jumping out of the sector are different verbs. Combat is range, targeting, and capture-or-destroy. Jump is leaving the argument. Mix them only on purpose: kite until disable, then jump if the prize is not worth escorting. Do not jump mid-volley because you are bored. Turn-based games still punish the captain who ends the turn in a new sector with empty batteries.

After you arrive

1. Re-read the order. A new sector does not cancel HQ.
2. Re-fund sensors before you ping. Quiet intercept is still S-tier on the far side of a jump.
3. Check fuel against the yard, not against the next pretty contact.
4. Log whether the jump was for the order, for the prize, or for fear. Crew promotions should not go to the person who ran.

If a patch publishes jump costs or a named drive module, it will land on Updates. Until then, command the panel you can see: helm, FTL, fuel, sensors. That is the whole war in four labels.

Return to the Guides Hub when the problem is a fight, not a door.