Natural hazards

Natural hazards in Everspace are unique phenomena localized to random zones and typically have a negative effect or can make gameplay more challenging. Once the second level of the Sector Scanner Perk, most will be marked on the sector map with. Some are not as major and do not affect the whole zone, and are not marked on the sector map. There are several types of hazards.

Marked

 * Electric storms are lightning storms that damage the shield (but not the hull), but also charge the ship's energy core.
 * When the player first comes across one, it is explained by HIVE.
 * Electric storms will damage the spawned Splitter Ancients from the Ancient Friends glyph until they are at 1 hp, but will not kill them.
 * Electric storms can also spawn in small 'bubbles' in a zone, but do not cover the whole area. They commonly spawn with a few resources scattered inside them, similar to other points of interest.


 * Solar Storms create a mild inertia effect and constantly damage the ship's shields until depleted then continuing on to deal hull damage whenever in direct sight of the sun, but only for brief periods of time. If the player takes cover behind something facing the star, the ship will not be damaged as long as it shadows the whole ship. All entities in the map are affected by the storm's damage.
 * Solar storms can be different colors.
 * Scanner Impairment in zones is a very thick cloud-like nebula that makes the ship's scanner much less effective. However, Okkar do not jump in after taking too long in the zone. Every zone with an Ancient structure has scanner impairment. Having a Sensor Relay device installed can restore some targeting ability and general sensor range.


 * Dark Nebula zones are a very dark green or blue. The main negative of this type of hazard is greatly reduced visibility, hindering exploration and looting. However, there are occasional lightning flashes that could illuminate points of interest to go to. The scanner is not affected. The unique track Electricity is played here.


 * Star Hazards are easily seen by the zone's close proximity to a star. While spending time in one of these zones, ship components have a chance to overheat. Overheated ship components are heavily debuffed, much like when damaged. The damage is temporary and limited to the time spent in the zone, but the overheated systems cannot be repaired and will not recover until the player departs. More and more overheat in a random order as the player spends more time in the zone, including Life Support, so being efficient and fast with exploration of the zone is recommended.

Unmarked

 * Mines can naturally spawn in or around certain points of interest, typically in places such as asteroid clusters, abandoned bases, or surrounding jump suppressors. If the player gets too close, they will explode, dealing 200 damage (slightly less than a normal Plasma Mine. Mines can be hard to spot, but continually flash red when in close proximity. They can be taken out from a distance, or if the player's ship is fast enough, can just be flown past to trigger them while avoiding most or all of the explosive damage.
 * The damage number is both the shield and hull damage. So if the player has less than 200 shields, they would take X shield damage (depleting it completely) and then also take 200 hull damage. However, there is damage falloff the further away the ship is from the mine.
 * Black Holes or singularities are somewhat commonly found in zones. They have a dangerously strong gravitational pull that can be difficult to escape, and if a ship is drawn in too far, it is destroyed instantly.
 * After an Ancient Warden is destroyed, it will almost instantly collapse into a black hole, but it is not permanent.
 * They are a good source of several units of Dark Matter and Dark Energy spawn around them.
 * Luring an enemy into a black hole is a challenge that awards $1,400 credits.
 * When inside the gravity well, a warning beep will be repeatedly played (which increases in frequency while getting closer to the black hole) and the above notification will appear (Singularity Warning).
 * Only one black hole can spawn per zone.