Formations

General
Formations are assigned to a fleet with the current formation displayed under fleet stats. The current formation can only be changed while the fleet is docked in the Fleet Bay menu.

The number of the ship corresponds to its numbered place in the formation with flagships getting a special icon. They will spawn in their numbered positions at the start of combat regardless of how many ships are actually used. In other words, the ship in position three will always start in position three at the beginning of combat.

Roughly half of the blueprint formations have been designed by players. Most blueprints can only be purchased in The Markets, while some can be obtained through farming NPC Targets.

Players automatically have three formations to choose from in the beginning, the remainder formation patterns must be discovered.

Trivia

 * The ability to switch formations was released in June 2015.
 * The Wedge was the original fleet formation in the game. Older players were allowed to keep it until changed, even if they did not have a Fleet Bay III.
 * The Common formations - Box, Wedge, and Line - were added by KIXEYE. The Uncommon formations were the result of a [contest https://community.kixeye.com/discussion/551516] that allowed players to decide new formations they would like to use, while the Rare formations were similarly the winning entries of a later [contest https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/759406].