How do I use the cleanup drones for cloaked mines?

[waybryson]

Hello, I've read that cleanup drones ca clear enemy mines in systems that you have taken.  Sadly, I can't seem to figure out how to do this.  My drones just sit next to the command center looking like lazy a bunch of lazy sods while my scout drones tell me there are hundrends of cloaked enemies hiding about.  I can use tachyon drones to sweep the system and then my fighters will clear them out once unmaked, but this is really time consuming.  It can also be near impossible if the mines were set around structures like gaurd posts that no longer exist.  I have a couple of systems which are flooded with cloaked mines and I would like to clear them out, preferably without having to do a manual sweep of the whole system :-)  Thanks in advance for any help.

[superking]

have you put the drones on free-ranging defender mode? that makes them autoseek mines to diffuse

[x4000]

With the mines that are cloaked, if I recall you also need something to decloak them first. DecloKers are the best, but you can get by with tachyon drones or whatever else. Permamines, which are most mentioned on the wiki, do not have cloaking and so the cleanup drones can do them on their own.  

[RCIX]

Stupid iphone keypad right?

[triggerman602]

what the hell is a EecloKer?

[FrostyThePyro]

Decloaker is what he men, i am almost positive.  Blue mask looking ship with like a 15000 tachyon range.

[quickstix]

If memory serves me correct, Scout Starships have tachyon beam emission as well (ie, can decloak enemy ships).

Slightly offtopic, 'Frontline Scouts' is a good role for Scout Starships. They're tough, so they take a pounding through blockaded wormholes, they decloak mines so your attacking fleet doesn't run into them, and as scouts they're cloaked and provide planetary summary information on enemy planets.

There's a bit of an art form to properly using scout starships, and even then they're not a commonly used ship. They're also a bit of an investment in the early game. That said, they're a great way to help decloak mines so your Cleanup Drones can get rid of them, as their toughness means they'll hang around longer than a tachyon drone.

[x4000]

Fixed my post -- the iPhone is certainly hurting my typography skills, that is for sure.

All good on the rest, quickstix is quite right about scout starships as well.  It's a good knowledge-free alternative that is often overlooked.  And using them for frontlines scout support is definitely one of their main roles.  Somehow I almost never manage to bring scouts to the front lines with me these days, but so it goes.

[waybryson]

Thanks for all the replies everyone!  I absolutely love this game.  One of the enemy AIs is REALLY fond of cloaked mines, so I think I will give the scout starships a go.  I can send two of those threw with my Raider wave to clear the immediate defences.  Then Bring up my my main fleet.  Out of curiosity, how would I go about building/unlocking the the decloaker?  Thanks again for all the help! 

[x4000]

Our pleasure! Glad you are enjoying the game so well. The decloaker is on the def tab in the command station/science lab.