Talk:Unkar Plutt/@comment-104.186.108.142-20180326045210/@comment-454133-20180326072050

Intelligence Agent is great, since it helps you plan out your blocks with a barrel roll.

Either Pattern Analyzer or Primed Thrusters will help with that positioning too.

Pattern Analyzer will allow you to perform an action only if you can perform an action when the Check Pilot Stress step would normally happen. For this reason, if you start the round stressed, Pattern Analyzer doesn't help because you need the Check Pilot Stress step to clear that stress with your green maneuver first (assuming you even did a green). Unlike effects like Tycho or Contraband Cybernetics, it doesn't let you perform actions while stressed; it simply moves the timing of when you receive maneuver-related stress.

In other words, PA lets you start a round unstressed, perform a red maneuver, and perform your action before getting the stress from the maneuver. You can even PTL off of that action, gaining 2 stress (1 from PTL, one from the red, since you've already done the red maneuver you're fine), though that's not usually great unless you have Inspiring Recruit etc to clear that stress.

Worth noting: PA doesn't help you if you bump into a ship, plow through an asteroid, or hit a Conner Net, since each of these effects explicitly instructs you to skip the Perform Action step entirely (while Advanced Sensors would let you get your action in, assuming you're not stressed before revealing your maneuver). However, PA does help you if you plow through debris, since debris doesn't make you skip your action -- instead you receive 1 stress token after the Check Pilot Stress step. You see where this is going -- PA moves your action before that step, so you get to do the action despite ramming through shrapnel.

I hope that helps!