Homeworld 3 gives you two factions to play: the Hiiragarn Fleet or the Incarnate Fleet. While they do have similar ships, there are some unique ships in each fleet, like the Mine Layer Frigate on the Hiiragarn side. But after you construct the Frigate, how do you lay Mines with it? Here is how you can use this defensive move as the Hiiragarn Fleet in Homeworld 3.
How to Lay Mines in Homeworld 3
Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can lay mines in Homeworld 3:
- Construct a Mine Layer Frigate at your Mothership.
- Select the Mine Layer Frigate.
- Choose one of the three laying patterns from your hotbar on the bottom right (Box, Sphere, Wall)
- Click and drag in an area where you want the mines to be placed.
The three distinct laying patterns also have hotkeys that you can use for faster placement, these are the hotkeys for each pattern:
- Sphere: L-Shift + N key
- Box: N key
- Wall: Ctrl + N key
Once you assign the area and pattern, the Mine Laying Frigate will start placing the mines within it one by one, starting at the very center of it. Whenever a mine within that area explodes, the Frigate will replace it with a new one, and it will keep doing this until it is issued a new order, even if it’s engaged in combat.
Mines do not stay indefinitely and will eventually explode on their own if no enemy approaches them. However, if an enemy ship gets close enough to it then the mines start following the ship and will keep following even if the ship leaves the assigned mine area until the mine reaches close enough to explode and cause damage.
Because of this, Mines are incredibly effective against larger ships that tend to move at a slower pace. Other faster, more nimble Strikecrafts are able to outrun the mines after triggering them to follow. Anything the size of a Corvette or larger will not be able to get away in the same way.
Make sure your Mine Layer is protected when laying mines as it does not have any weapons to defend itself, and it simply serves to lay mines. I always prefer laying mine preemptively in Homeworld 3 before a fight is about to go down to ensure the Mine Layer has enough time to cover the area and is also safe from enemy fire.
