Engineer Kerbals

[Capt. Hunt]

From what I have been able to find, Pilot Kerbals can use SAS, Scientists can reset experiments and also boost data, but what do Engineer Kerbals do? I heard something about them being able to fix stuff, but I haven't seen any indication of how to do that or what they can fix.

Edited May 5, 2015 by Capt. Hunt

[KatzOhki]

Repack parachutes, repair broken rover wheels and also help with mining operations.

[amorymeltzer]

From the wiki:

Level 0: N/A

Level 1: Repack parachutes

Level 2: Repair wheels

Level 3: Repair lander legs

Plus they help with heat. Underpowered IMO, but there's good integration with some mods (KER, etc.) that I kind of like.

[Geschosskopf]

The wiki article explains all: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Experience

In a nutshell, engineers can repack parachutes, fix flat rover wheels, repair busted lander legs, and get much higher production rates on mining and refining ore (IOW, it takes less gametime to do the job). There are a number of mods that give them additional things they can do, too.

The bottom line is that in career mode, pilots become useless once you get your 1st probe core with SAS built in, and scientists become useless once you're done with the tech tree. Engineers, OTOH, only really become useful towards the end of the tech tree when you unlock the ore stuff, at which point they're the only type of Kerbal you need.

[Capt. Hunt]

thanks, that's good to know.