Your eagle, Ikaros, is an extremely valuable companion. You can take control of Ikaros to recon the surrounding areas and find quest objectives, treasure chests, and more. When flying as Ikaros, hold down the left trigger to pause and look around the immediate area. When an enemy or special item is close to the center viewing reticle, a white circle appears (or gold circle if you’re near the current quest objective). Move so that it shrinks toward the center reticle. Once you do, the enemy or item is tagged. This is extremely useful for tagging hidden treasures underground, indoors, or underwater, as when you are no longer in the open you cannot summon Ikaros.
Ikaros is also very useful for scouting ships to see their type, level, and rewards. In addition, scouting with Ikaros lets you see the enemy archetypes, which is very useful when performing quests that require you to kill specific types of enemies.
While you are tagging enemies a white half circle near the reticle will appear, pointing you toward other nearby points of interest. If none appear then there are no more points of interest in the area. The precision of Ikaros’s sight improves as you find and synchronize with more viewpoints in the world.
Ikaros not only is useful for tagging but also provides combat support by harassing and attacking enemies that you’re focused on. This can provide an invaluable distraction when facing tougher foes. In addition, Ikaros can scout out recruits for your ship crew. Hover over an enemy in stationary mode to see what abilities they can provide to the Adrestia.