One of the major changes from previous editions of Starmada is the nature of damage resolution. While there is still some randomness in the system, some things are deterministic: for example, a ship with nine hull boxes will never lose any of its systems until at least three boxes have been checked off. This optional rule allows players to change that.

The first step is to determine the ship's damage factor. This is done by multiplying the ship's hull size by 29% and rounding to the nearest integer. If the ship has fragile systems, multiply by 17% instead; if the ship has reinforced systems, multiply by 67%.

The game is played normally, with the following exception:

Do not perform damage checks as described on p.14 of the Starmada Nova Rulebook. Instead, each time a ship checks off a hull box, roll one die and consult the following chart. The results are added to a running total for each of the four damage types. Whenever this total reaches a multiple of the ship's damage factor (as determined above), check off one of the appropriate damage boxes or shield dice icons.

Roll    Thr    Wpn    ECM    Shields
1        1        3        0        0
2        2        0        2        0
3        3        0        0        1
4        0        1        3        0
5        0        2        0        2
6        0        0        1        3

EXAMPLE: A ship with a hull size of 12 has a damage factor of 3 (12 × 0.29 = 3.48). It suffers three hull hits, so three dice are rolled, coming up 2 3 and 5. As a result, 5 is added to the ship's “thrust” total; 2 is added to the ship's “weapons” total; 2 is added to the ship's “ECM” total, and 3 is added to the ship's “shields” total. Therefore, one thrust box and one shield die icon are checked off.

As in the standard game, a maximum of four boxes/icons can be checked off of each grouping; i.e. you should never check off the last thrust, weapon, ECM, or shield box.

Damage to ship systems is always resolved as described on p.15 of the Starmada Nova Rulebook.

If using the Bank-Specific Damage advanced rule, do not track “Weapons” damage as above; instead conduct damage checks as described on p.26 of the Starmada Nova Rulebook.