Starfinder Differences

[liamfisher]

The way I interpret it is a bit different from what I've read.  You can't pilot and have it be your engineer, then it effectively has an initiative and actions of its own.  But all its doing is just effectively giving you ranks in that skill with a set modifier.

But if you are just being the engineer, then you can make the roll with its modifier instead of your own if you want.  As it's not really an ally, just a boon that gives you 3 skills that it provides the ability to access.  That's why I don't think the clause "does not participate in combat" means you can't have it take it's own actions, for mechanical purposes it's just a skill modifier, not a real person.

I may be too lenient in how I read it, so I'm going to post on the thread the dev has been responding to make sure I'm not.

Thursty's answer confirmed it for me

 4) The hireling can't be employed in combat, but can they use engineering or mysticism to disarm traps outside of combat?

4) Yes. Outside of combat they can use these abilities (assuming the trap is detected)

The standard swap is there so you can't do two things at once with your character.

It's just worded poorly.