All ships that sail upon the tide start to develope a DarkLight heart. A pulsing sphere of exotic matter at the center of the ship. Crews often comune with this mystic force, and soon learn how to gain its exotic aid during combat. The DarkLight can perform miracles. It must fill within a gravity well, and it can grow and diminish during combat - ships forced out of a system will dimish, while the closest ship to a departing enemy will grow thier fleet flagship's DarkLight..
The DarkLight once filled, can be spent to increase the points available for drone design and increase movement. It is a potent force, and should be used wisely.
New ships start with a DarkLight level of 2. Paying players can increase this level, free players may increase it, but only by a maximum of 2.
It is filled by sitting in a gravity well. At a rate of 1 per turn per gravity field - ie in field of 3 it increases by 3 each turn. Epic ships also fill DarkLight when not in a gravity well, filling by 1 per epic level per turn.
It is spent at player discretion when drones are created, or movement plotted. It will increase the effectiveness of the action by up to double. For instance, a 3 rack drone will have 9 points for design (3*drone rack), and this can be increased to 18 points by allocating 3 DarkLight (3 pts per DarkLight).
When you jump away from combat the DarkLight level (i.e. the max DarkLight for the ship) will reduce by 1. When it is at 0 the ship may enter a system, but not jump out unless it is victorious. i.e. it must either gain DL during combat from other ships jumping out, or remain in that system forever.
If you jump out when close to a friendly trade gate, and you have a colony in the system then you will not lose DarkLight.