Storms that come too close will merge. They will form a new, larger storm.
All ion storms decloak ships. Only advanced cloakers can cloak inside a storm.
Storms of class 4 and higher affect uncloaked ships (except those that have an ion shield):
- The storm will pull the ship along its course, with 75% of the storm's speed.
- The ship will take damage and lose crew.
Ion storms hide minefields. If an ion storm covers a minefield's center, and it is larger than the minefield, the minefield will become invisible to Mine Sweep. Only your own minefields remain visible. See IonStormsHideMines.
See Ion Storm Effects Formulas.
► Note: If a ship is pulled off-course by an ion storm, it will automatically try to reach its waypoint again. If, for example, a ship is sitting in orbit of a planet with Warp 9, you will most likely not see it move. After the storm pulled it away, it will move back to the planet. You will only see that it consumes fuel, and that it may hit mines while moving. To prevent the ship from moving back to the planet, set it to warp 0.
