Você pode encontrar mais informações na seção Starship Travel no capítulo 4 Sistemas :
All transit time is divided by the rating of the ship's spike drive. A drive-1 rated ship would make the course in the base time, while a drive-2 rated ship would require half the time [...]
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A drive cannot drill more hexes in a single jump than the rating of the drive.
E também desempenha um papel no combate (seção Starship Combat ):
Each ships captain writes down what metadimensional phase his ship will occupy and what phase his guns will target. All ships can fly and shoot into 'real space', phase 0. The maximum phase into which they can fly or shoot is equal to their spike drive rating.
Assim, uma nave com uma classificação de acionamento mais alta que a do oponente pode evitar maiores danos em combate.