Ships
Your ship is everything. It determines how much you can carry, how hard you hit, and whether you make it home. Ships come in six roles, five tiers each, split cleanly between Federation and Pirate lines. Your alignment determines which fleet you can buy from, and which ones you would ever want to.
How Ships Work
Every ship has four core stats:
- Cargo Holds — how many units of fuel, organics, or equipment you can carry
- Shields — your first line of defense in combat
- Fighters — escort craft that engage in battle
- Torpedoes — offensive weapons for striking enemies
Tier determines the base power level. Tier 1 ships are available to anyone. Tiers 2 through 5 require XP milestones before the seller will deal with you.
Ships are purchased at starport ship sales terminals. Your old ship is traded in as partial payment. Any cargo that does not fit in your new ship is lost, so plan before you buy.
Federation Ships
Federation vessels are built by licensed shipyards and run clean. They favor cargo capacity and structural integrity over raw aggression.
Trading Line
Traders haul more cargo than any other class. If your goal is buying low and selling high, this is your line.
Nebula Merchant — Tier 1, no XP required The ship everyone starts with at one point or another. It does the job, handles decently, and nobody looks twice when it docks. Good for learning the routes before you commit to a bigger investment.
CoreStar Freighter — Tier 2, 2,000 XP A proper commercial hauler. The CoreStar line has been moving cargo across federation space for decades and the Freighter shows it. Workhorse engineering, not flashy, completely reliable.
TriStar Hauler — Tier 3, 8,000 XP Serious cargo capacity with enough shielding to survive the occasional rough sector. At this tier you stop being a runner and start being a merchant.
Vanguard Trader — Tier 4, 25,000 XP The preferred ship of experienced federation merchants. Carries enough to make large trades worthwhile and handles warp transitions cleanly.
Federation Galleon — Tier 5, 60,000 XP The largest trade vessel in federation space. Moving one of these through a sector turns heads. The cargo capacity borders on absurd, and that is entirely the point.
War Line
Federation warships sacrifice cargo for firepower and protection. Built for captains who want to fight, not haul.
Patrol Corvette — Tier 1, no XP required Light, fast, and built to engage before the target knows what happened. Standard patrol craft for federation space. Not impressive, but more than enough for most threats.
Strike Frigate — Tier 2, 2,000 XP A step up from patrol work. The Strike Frigate is designed for sustained engagements and does the job without being particularly elegant about it.
Battle Cruiser — Tier 3, 8,000 XP This is where the war line starts feeling like a real warship. Heavy fighter complement and enough torpedo racks to make most captains reconsider a fight.
Enforcer Dreadnought — Tier 4, 25,000 XP Federation heavy enforcement vessel. Slow to maneuver, impossible to ignore. The kind of ship that ends disputes by existing in the same sector.
Federation Battleship — Tier 5, 60,000 XP The apex of federation military shipbuilding. Capital class, full armament, and enough shielding to take a real beating. Very little cargo space, very few things that can stop it.
Balanced Line
Balanced ships split the difference. Reasonable cargo, reasonable combat, capable of adapting to whatever the galaxy throws at you.
Frontier Scout — Tier 1, no XP required The choice for captains who are not sure what they want yet. Decent cargo, decent shields, enough fighters to handle a scrape. A good ship to figure out your playstyle.
Pathfinder — Tier 2, 2,000 XP Multi-role and honest about it. The Pathfinder is the reliable middle option at every tier — not the best at anything, never embarrassing at anything.
Vanguard Ranger — Tier 3, 8,000 XP A versatile cruiser that has earned a reputation for surviving situations it probably should not have. Popular with captains who take their routes through mixed territory.
Horizon Cruiser — Tier 4, 25,000 XP Built for deep space work where resupply is rare and threats are unpredictable. Carries enough cargo to be profitable and enough firepower to be taken seriously.
Federation Odyssey — Tier 5, 60,000 XP Federation flagship configuration. Built for long-range operations in uncharted space. A ship you can spend a whole season in without wishing you had brought something different.
Pirate Ships
Pirate vessels come from salvage yards, black markets, and shipbreakers who ask no questions. They lean aggressive — more fighters, better escape ratings, less cargo space than their federation counterparts at the same tier.
Smuggling Line
Smuggling ships mirror the trading line in cargo capacity but carry heavier escape ratings. What they carry is often the question, not how much.
Shadow Runner — Tier 1, no XP required Built light and with as few transponder signatures as possible. Does not look like much, which is the whole idea.
Black Market Hauler — Tier 2, 2,000 XP Mid-sized and purpose-built for moving things that should not be moving. Reinforced holds, minimal external markings, and a cargo door that opens faster than most.
Plunder Barge — Tier 3, 8,000 XP Large capacity, ugly as a docking collision, and utterly indifferent to what you think about either of those things. It carries a lot and it gets there.
Marauder’s Fortune — Tier 4, 25,000 XP An elite smuggling platform with a reputation that precedes it. Captains who run a Marauder’s Fortune have usually been doing this long enough to know things most people do not.
Pirate Leviathan — Tier 5, 60,000 XP Maximum cargo in a hull that looks like it has survived things it should not have. The Leviathan hauls more in one run than most federation freighters manage in three.
Raider Line
Raiders are built to attack and withdraw. Light on cargo, heavy on fighters and torpedoes, with enough escape rating to break contact when things go sideways.
Cutthroat — Tier 1, no XP required Fast and direct. The Cutthroat does not have a lot going for it beyond speed and aggression, which turns out to be enough for a surprising number of situations.
Reaver — Tier 2, 2,000 XP A boarding specialist. More organized than the Cutthroat and better suited for extended engagements where the first pass does not finish things.
Warlord — Tier 3, 8,000 XP Heavy raider with enough fighters to overwhelm most standard targets and enough hull to absorb return fire while doing it.
Blood Talon — Tier 4, 25,000 XP Apex predator configuration. The Blood Talon does not win by being fast or clever. It wins by having more fighters than the other ship can handle.
Pirate Juggernaut — Tier 5, 60,000 XP Dreadnought class from the pirate yards. Slower than anything else in the raider line but capable of absorbing and delivering punishment that ends conversations decisively.
Corsair Line
Corsairs combine decent cargo with the best escape ratings in the game. The preferred choice for pirates who want to stay alive and profitable at the same time.
Rogue’s Gambit — Tier 1, no XP required The escape artist entry point. Not the most capable ship in any particular stat, but it will get you out of a bad situation faster than almost anything else at this tier.
Freebooter — Tier 2, 2,000 XP High-agility frame built for captains who plan to operate in contested space and need to disengage cleanly when the math stops working in their favor.
Blackheart — Tier 3, 8,000 XP The corsair line flagship for most mid-game pirates. Named for the shipyard that built the first one, which has been building them ever since. Reliable, respected, and feared in the right sectors.
Crimson Eclipse — Tier 4, 25,000 XP Shadow fleet configuration. Fast, capable, and carries enough cargo to make every successful run worthwhile. The preferred ship of pirate captains who have been around long enough to have opinions about ships.
Pirate Dominion — Tier 5, 60,000 XP Corsair capital class. Carries a full fighter complement, meaningful cargo capacity, and the highest escape rating in the game. A ship that is difficult to pin down and expensive to take on.
Choosing Your Ship
The right ship depends on your playstyle more than anything else.
If you are trading, cargo holds are everything. Move to the next tier of trader as soon as your XP and credits allow. The cargo difference compounds with every run.
If you are fighting, fighters and shields matter more than cargo. A well-equipped war or raider ship can hold sectors that softer vessels have to avoid.
If you are doing both, the balanced and corsair lines give you flexibility without fully committing to either extreme.
Upgrade the ship, not the dream. A tier 3 ship you can actually afford is more useful than a tier 5 ship that empties your bank and leaves nothing for cargo.