Starsector Ships Guide 0.8a

This guide will cover the basics of every ship type and size, offering too a bit of advice for fleet composition. Always try to figure whats right for you and dont be afraid to try new ships, fits and fleet composition. You can always check all the specific stats of every ship in game (Press ESC for the main menu, select CODEX, Ship Hulls).

Things to always consider when lookig a ship:
SPEED
It will determinate your max speed, in any direction. Being elusive, knowing how to flank, when to go in, when to disengage and recover, how to avoid damage its all based on your mobility and your piloting. Always keep on mind the speed and maneuverability of your ship.
SHIP'S LOADOUT
What type and size of weapons your ship can have. Also, your System/Special ability (F) and if any Hull mod is included. This, combined with speed, will dictate the playstyle of your ship. A very important thing is always to think about weapons orientation, flux/ammo managment, and ordenance points (OP). A lot of times you will not use all the weapons turrets slots in order to save OP for better optimization of your ship/role in fleet.
TANKYNESS/FLUX MANAGMENT
Ships can be armor oriented (Hull integrity, Armor rating) or shield oriented (Defense, Shield arc, Shield upkeep/sec, Shield flux/damage). Always consider your Flux capacity and Flux dissipation too, because they have an important role for tankyness but also for weaponry. You will need to find a good operative balance between them.
LOGISTICS
Remeber to check how many crew, supplies and fuel your ships need, and how many of those can storage. Its really important to plan your fleet's logistic and routes in advance to avoid problems.
FLEET COMPOSITION
Your ships need to work together, supporting each other. Always try to have a good balance of fast ship, big punchers and support. If not, you can be outmaneuver, you can lack damage to kill tanky ships or you can suffer degradation and malfunctions. In late game, a lot of small ships can overwhelm your fleet, Combat Readiness and high logistic costs (supplies, fuel, crew) will also be a factor. Be aware. Balancing your fleet performance is crucial.


>>> FRIGATES >>>
The smallest ships on the game, they are based on speed and maneuverability while being a bit weak. Hard to pilot and master, but really fun and useful overall. Always to be consider even in late game cause they have an important role to play in any fleet.

AFFLICTION - Amazing ship, fast, very strong front arc with 5 small turrets. Can cloak and disrupt, its a very annoying ship to deal with it and counter. You need good positioning and flux managment. Can be hard to pilot because of his hit and run nature.

BRAWLER - Slow ship with very good firepower. Its hard to make it work against frigates because you will get outmaneuvered. With good durability and his Damper Field ability, can also apply good damage against bigger ships.

CENTURION - Slow ship with solid defense and weapon versatility. Tedious to fly, will not performance well against other frigates. Not enough firepower for bigger ships either.

CERBERUS - Good frigate freighter, with a good to run ability.

DRAM - The frigate tanker, a specific fuel storage ship for your logistics.

HERMES - Half hauler half combat ship, very bad at both.

HOUND - Another freighter. Mediocre.

HYPERION - Crazy ship, Sonic's ride, fast and hard as fuck to pilot with amazing firepower. Can also blink. One of the best frigates, if you can pilot it.

KITE - Not very fast and low firepower, very weak overall. Can performance as an annoying little ship but thats all.

LASHER - Not very fast but amazing firepower. Strong front arc turret layout with 5 small ballistics + small 2 missiles and a burst ability, you can ruin any frigate and even bigger ships if you manage to land your hits. Maneuverability is the only weakness.

MERCURY - Cute useless ship.

MONITOR - A very slow and defensive oriented ship, with decent firepower. Great defenses with strong PD thanks to his dobule flak cannon and can absorb a lot of damage with Fortress Shield. Otherwise, it will be hard to land any of your hits on something and you will get outmaneuvered by anybody.

MUDSKIPPER - A civilian liner with good crew capacity and also good freighter overall.

OMEN - Fast high tech ship with mediocre firepower but amazing support skills. His EMP Emitter ability and tech Hull mods can offer you good advantages.

OX - Cool looking tug ship, his only function is to improve your fleet's Maximum burn to +1.

SCARAB - A bit slow but very strong overall frigate. Up to 9 small turrets (3 left side, 3 right side, 3 front), with strong shield and interesting ability, its a good solid ship.

SHADE - Powerful, fast and especial ship. Strong front arc with 5 turrets and EMP Emitter ability, can do a lot of damage. Like any other cloaky ship, can be tricky to fly but very good.

SHEPHERD - The best frigate freighter, also with valuable surveying and salvaging incorporated Hull mods.

TEMPEST - The best frigate. Really fast, strong shield and amazing firepower. Its just not the 1 small missile and 2 medium energy weapons with nice orientation, he also have 1 fighter slot with a special drone: 1 Terminator who is a fucking beast. Will crush any frigate and can do good damage to bigger ships too.

VIGILANCE - Decent speed and decent firepower, but not really great at anything. A mediocre combat frigate.

WAYFARER - A mediocre freighter.

WOLF - High tech frigate with good speed, amazing mobility and great firepower. A fun and powerful ship, with the ability to blink with 3 rechargable charges. Crazy mobility offer big potential: easy to flank with, avoiding damage, strategic positioning, chasing, and more.


>>> DESTROYERS >>>
A bit bigger, slower and with more punch than frigates, destroyers tend to be more specialized towards certain playstyles and roles in your fleet. They perform balance and well against smallest and bigger ships.

BUFFALO - The best destroyer freighter. Good speed and efficiency as hauler overall.

CONDOR - A destroyer carrier, this ship is pretty slow. Additionally to his 2 figthers bays, can have 2 small ballistics and a medium missile to combine with his ability for some kind of support. But its worse, at all aspects, than the other carrier on this ship size.

DROVER - The other destroyer carrier, also have 2 fighters bays and its much faster. His ability is really good, empowering your fighters potential and with the 2 small ballistics and 4 small missiles can support or defend decently.

ENFORCER - Slow ship, with good armor potential and amazing firepower. His Burn Drive ability is great to repositioning, charging in, or getting out and if used well enough will cover the not so good mobility of this ship. Therefore, can inflict a lot of damage if piloted well.

GEMINI - Half freighter half carrier, very bad at both.

HAMMERHEAD - A very solid and balanced ship. Good speed, good weapons and firepower potential with his burst ability. Always a nice option for your fleet.

HARBINGER - Really ridiculous powerful ship. With good speed, can cloak and his Entropy Amplifier ability combined with his strong front arc turrets can decimate almost any ship. Not easy to pilot but fun. As a cloaky ship you will try to find good positions to get in, nuke some poor bastard down and get out.

MEDUSA - Amazing destroyer with a strong shield and can pack good firepower too. This ship is also fast with great mobility thanks to the 3 rechargables blink charges offering great movement potential. Very nice overall.

MULE - Decent freighter who can defend himself almost decently. You never should choose your logistic ships based on defense but on hauler efficiency.

NEBULA - Civilian liner with good crew capacity but bad as freighter.

PHAETON - The destroyer size tanker, always good for fuel storage.

SALVAGE RIG - Specific ship, very economical but just for salvaging. Remember, the frigate Shepherd can also offer that salvaging support, plus survey and its an amazing freighter too.

SUNDER - A very good ship with a big problem. Its fast, with nice firepower and a burst ability to do a lot of damage. But his flux managment is a mess. The weak shield and energy weapons demands a lot of flux, stressing his very good flux capacity and dissipiation to the point it can compromise the ship perfomance. It can be really good if you keep in mind his problem and fit it properly.

TARSUS - Good freighter, like the Buffalo but a bit slower. Can slow your fleet down cause his Maximum burn is 8 .

VALKYRIE - Cool looking specific crew transport, not good and hard to find.


>>> CRUISERS >>>
Big specialized ships, with terrorific firepower able to destroy any ship on the game but without losing a lot of mobility. Be careful, they can be swarmed by fighters and a lot of small tricky frigates.

APOGEE - Not very fast and not very powerful overall. Its a survey ship, with great shield and good firepower, but just not enough to compite against other cruisers. Against frigates and destroyers will performance just fine.

AURORA - Amazing but delicate ship. Very fast with crazy mobility thanks to his ability, can maneuver like a small ship. On top of that, his firepower can be obscene: 10 well oriented weapons (7 small 3 medium) on the front arc. Because of that, and his not strong shield, flux managment can be a problem. It can be fit very offensive, becoming the best nuker of the game but delicate or more balanced between offense and defense bringing also great damage.

COLOSSUS - Big freighter, the best one in the game efficiency wise.

DOMINATOR - Slow bulky cruiser. If well used, the Burn Drive ability can help with mobility and positioning. With good armor, can be very tanky and absorb a lot of damage while still punching impressively hard and constant. His firepower based on ballistic weapons with missiles to support, can be devastating because flux will be designated just for weaponry. Really fun ship to fly specially if you try to fit it with high damage close combat guns, going balls deep, ramming and bullying other ships. Remember to be aware of small ships, dont let them swarm you.

DOOM - The biggest cloaky ship. Like all cloaky ships, can be extremly good if piloted correctly. Fast, with high mobility, his ability can slow ships down, being able to flank and find good openings for strong surgical strikes able to destroy any ship.

EAGLE - A bit slow, his ability will help to maneuver. Solid overall, good shield and good firepower, able to do nice amount of damage. A balanced ship, but its not good at anything especially.

FALCON - Supposedly a light cruiser, looks more like a big destroyer. the Falcon is not a good ship for his class type. Its fast and agile, but not more than others cruisers. His firepower is a bit weak, and there is nothing more going on for the poor wannabe something cool Falcon. Sad!

GRYPHON - This is a specialized missile cruiser. With decent speed and shield, the magic rely on his ability: he is able to replenish all the ammo for his missile weapons, once, during a fight. Yes, that means you will have the double amount of missiles to fire! And you can do some crazy stuff with that, like sabots and reapers everywhere. Or any other missile shenanigans. This ship can be really fun but maybe not that useful overall.

HERON - Very fast cruiser carrier, with decent shield and weak firepower to support or defend himself. 3 fighters bay and a great ability to make the drones more powerful with more punching power. Its an attack oriented carrier, but it lacks a bit of firepower for that and of course its not tanky, you need to rely on your mobility to avoid being hurt.

MORAS - The more defensive oriented cruiser carrier. Great armor, very tanky, can be a brick. Can also mitigate a lot of damage thanks to his ability but its also a pretty slow ship. With decent firepower too, can stay on the fight for a long time.

STARLINER - The biggest civilan liner with the most crew capacity of all ships, but bad as a freighter.

VENTURE - Half carrier half freighter ship. Its slow but can have decent support performance thanks to his active ability and missile options.


>>> CAPITAL SHIPS >>>
The biggest and more badasses ships of the game, slow as fuck Leviathans with amazing powers... but not that great to fly or sadly to have in your fleet at all. They are very tedious and expensive to maintain, easy to get tired of them.

ASTRAL - Biggest carrier in the game, is really slow and have a strong shield. 6 fighters bay for your drone swarm, 2 large missile to support and a lot of lasers all around your ship mostly to defend yourself against small ships. His recall ability for the fighters is pretty neat, specially for bombers to be rearmed and relaunched fast.

ATLAS - Superfreighter, there is no other ship with his cargo capacity, but its not the most efficient hauler.

CONQUEST - Technically a battlecruiser, this ship have good speed and the best mobility for a capital ship. With good flux dissipation, can have a great firepower. With a big but. All the big weapons are side oriented, so half of them are pointing left, and the others right. A lot of people just fit one side and the 2 large missile on the front, using the ship like an artillery plataform. Love it or hate it.

LEGION - A battlecarrier, slow but with Brun Drive to help with your maneuverability, but still not good mobility. Armor oriented, can tank a lot. His firepower is a combination of 4 fighters bay and a good and solid layout of weapons, mainly ballistics. Overall a good ship who can performance very well.

ODYSSEY - Another battlecruiser, this is the fastest capital ship. The Odyssey also have a mixed somehow weak firepower of 1 fighter bay, some medium missile and a big amount of lasers with an energy empowering ability. But again, the problem is the orientation of the turrets, very based on the left side. Hard to justify using this ship because of that and being pretty mediocre in general.

ONSLAUGTH - Slow, bulky, big rusty piece of junk looking ship. With most of the ballistic and all missile oriented to the front arc, in conjunction with the special double Thermal Pulse Cannon, the Onslaugth is a fucking beast of total obliteration while charging straight. The problem: every ship in the game can outmaneuver you pretty easy, so its hard to land your powerful hits. Like others slow/front ballistic oriented ships, is always funny to fit close range weapons, ramming in total destruction to please Khorne. You can also use it with long range ballistic weapons and hull mods to empower that type of playstyle further with good results.

PARAGON - The most powerful ship in the game. Slow as all capitals. Insanely strong shield, can handle almost any punishment you can imagine. A lot of energy weapons with range bonus and nice orientation to make his firepower a total lazor madness. Plenty of small turret options arround the ship to defend against small ships if you want to. Have fun being the master of the universe.