User:Zemurin/Best Ships

What are the best ships in the game? Which ships should you focus on? That heavily depends on what you're doing, your personal preferences, and your level.

Open the Ship List in a new tab/window and let's walk through the options.

Prologue

Starting Ship Selection

You start with 6 options:

Start Type	Starting Ships	Notes
Prospector	Frontier, Garnil, Skiff Mindus Manufacturing, Chisel Mk I, Skiff	Not really a contest. Garnil has more hull, more cargo, more speed and more acceleration.
Navy Officer	Akai Armory, Raptor, Cutter Frontier, Margil, Cutter	Both suck, Margil sucks less. Starting combat will be difficult and will cause hull damage. Raptor has shields, but it has next to no shields. Margil is all hull, which will take damage regardless, but there's more of it.
Wreckage Explorer	Mindus Manufacturing, Chisel Mk I SN, Skiff Frontier, Tugbit, Skiff	Virtually identical, dealer's choice. I'd go for Chisel Mk I SN as it's a rare (and only!) Mindus salvage vessel, just so you can say you had one at some point. Mindus are normally the mining ship manufacturers, not salvage or anything else.

Ending Ships to Exit Prologue

If you can, get three ships by the time you exit prologue. This isn't necessary if you're rushing, but getting three ships will allow you to run all main activities (Combat, Mining, Salvage) without having to swap turrets and use wrong hulls. Hulls have bonuses! see Ships.

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat	Frontier, Tergal, Gunship	The only gunship you can buy in the prologue with player level being restricted to 10, and at a Stranded station. Do not get attached to it, better ships await.
Mining	Mindus Manufacturing, Pickaxe, Hewer	The only Hewer you can buy in the prologue with player level being restricted to 10, and at a Stranded station. Same as before, it sucks but it's better than what you had.
Salvage	Utixon Corp, Rekkem, Scow,	The only Scow you can buy in the prologue with player level being restricted to 10, and at a Stranded station. Even more than the other two, Rekkem's only saving grace is two hardpoints so you can run a laser and a grinder at the same time. No armor, no shields, it's really bad.

Frontier

Congratulations! The world has opened and now proper shiphunting begins! Ships now cost actual money, and you will need lots of it. Fortunately - the larger the ship, the more cash it can generate!

Best Size-2 ships available in Frontier

Size 2 ships are really optional. If you can, you should save for size-3 ships. But if you're determined to get the best small ship, go ahead!

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat	Akai Armory, Shrike, Gunship, (default) Stellar Industries, Phalanx, Gunship RedStar Forge, Berdysh, Gunship	Normally, Shrike. If you want to try out a (M)-sized weapon, Phalanx. If you want to try an (M)-sized weapon on an armor-driven warship, Berdysh.
Mining	Stellar Industries, Carbo, Hewer	Largest bay available, 2 hardpoints. There are odd ships out there like Gale (single M-sized slot), or Foreman (drone bay), but at this stage these are not efficient.
Salvage	RedStar Forge, Otrub, Scow	Marginally better than Rekkem since it has armor. Again, odd ships are available like Kite (1M slot), Remnant (drones), but not that useful, yet.
Trade	RedStar Forge, Vagon, Ferry	You should not need a transport yet, but if you're dead-set on having one, at least pick one with largest cargo bay.

Best Size-3 ships available in Frontier

Size-3 ships are where hte game hits its groove. Each ship now serves a very specific role and there's no more turret-swapping. Also, the ships are powerful enough to leave unattended for long durations.

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat	Akai Armory, Cyclone, Corvette	Cyclone has the best combination of hull/armor, available hardpoints (1M, 2S) and raw speed. Other ships exist, especially the Maniple (4S) or Kamin (1M, 1S, armor) if you want to experiment. Drone ships at size 3 ar still not relevant or efficient.
Mining Drones	Utixon Corp, Moxe, Dregder	At this point it's useful to consider the eternal question: To Drone, or not to Drone. Moxe is a powerful ship with 6 drones (expandable to 12 in extremely ideal circumstances), that can carry the Drone quest by itself - serving as a combat vessel or a salvage ship if needed.
Mining No Drones	Mindus Manufacturing, Auger ERC-7, Dregder	If you decide to skip drones, Auger ERC-7 is the best out there, and Mindus Manufacturing will carry the mining ships from this point onwards.
Salvage Drones	Utixon Corp, Exdyne, Scrapper	Simmilar dilemma as with mining: Drones or not? Drones: Exdyne, no questions asked.
Salvage No Drones	Utixon Corp, Fultor, Scrapper Akai Armory, Osprey, Scrapper	No drones: Fultor for its large cargo bay. It is slow as molasses though. If that bothers you: No drones and fast: Osprey, the rare Akai salvager that's worth its weight in gold.
Trade	RedStar Forge, Bremya, Hauler	You still should not need a transport yet, but if you really want to go out and trade, again - pick the one with largest cargo. Speed and hardpoints do not matter.

Best Size-4 ships available in Frontier

Size-4 ships are dedicated upgrades over size-3. They are expensive, cost millions, often require maxed reputation, and will serve you well, for a long time.

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat Drones	Akai Armory, Tempest, Frigate	Not many options for a droned combat ship, and the Redeemer sacrifies too much. Drones serve as a distraction for enemies to shoot at while Tempest rails them from a distance.
Combat No Drones	Luminate Combine, Penance, Frigate Stellar Industries, Centurion, Frigate	These two ships are very similar, with 3M hardpoints. Centurion has a bit more shields, Penance has more cargo and speed. Player's choice.
Mining Drones	Mindus Manufacturing, Warden, Breaker	No competition as this is the only ship available. And it's a powerful one.
Mining No Drones	Stellar Industries, Ferrum, Breaker	Again no competition as this is the only ship available. Also very powerful.
Salvage Drones	Luminate Combine, Sanctifier, Wrecker	Again no competition as this is the only ship available in the category.
Salvage No Drones	RedStar Forge, Kuvald, Wrecker	Kuvals beats Scoria with a single larger hardpoint, at the cost of a bit of cargo and speed which isn't that bad.
Trade	Utixon Corp, Trundar, Freighter	At this stage, trade either matters or doesn't. Trundar is a snail but economy skill tree will give it some boosts. Cargo is huge and you can ferry thousands of bulks across the Intertrade.

Conquest

Welcome to Conquest! Let's rethink our options.

At this stage you should have 4 ships - one for each of the activities listed above. These ships have no better alternatives yet. Yes, you can go and buy some Obrix vessels, but you'd more likley than not be side-grading, when you should be focusing on getting the largest vessels there are.

So, don't side-grade, not yet. Later, when you have all size-5 ships you need, then go back and buy the best sub-5 ships if needed.

Best Size-5 ships available in Conquest

Note: Best two destroyers - the Terravex and the Eclipse - you will get for free over the course of the game. Assuming you don't want to wait that long and have plenty of cash, reputation and tokens to spare, buy one of the two below.

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat Drones	Marade Wharf, Rypper, Destroyer RedStar Forge, Varyag-R, Destroyer Luminate Combine, Inquisitor, Destroyer	Cyclone is a disaster with no L slots, so let's focus on the three that are good. Rypper has large bay but only 1L+2S slots. Varyag is more reasonable with medium bay and 1L+2M slots. Both are armored which is good. Inquisitor is similar to Varyag-R, firepower-wise with 1L+1M+2S slots but uses shields which are more finnicky. All three are ok choices if you're fine with fiddling with drones in combat. If you have no patience for that, skip all three.
Combat No Drones	Akai Armory, Hurricane, Destroyer Stellar Industries, Sparta, Destroyer	Again, Varyag is a disaster with no L slots, and the remaining two are both good. Hurricane has a bit more shields and turrret variety (L turrets are very slow to rotate), but there is nothing wrong with Sparta. Player's choice.
Mining Drones	Mindus Manufacturing, Maul, Harvester	No competition. Keep in mind that Sledge has 10 "hardpoint points" and this ship only has 8 points (5 hardpoint points + 3 points in the large drone bay) - (1L = 3 points, 1M = 2 points, 1S = 1 point). Number-wise Sledge is better, but this one can be more efficient.
Mining No Drones	Mindus Manufacturing, Sledge, Harvester	No competition, see above.
Salvage Drones	Utixon Corp, Gryp, Reclaimer	No competition. Again, similar to Maul vs Sledge, this ship has 8 points (5 hardpoints + 3 drones), Axcetor has 9 (9 hardpoint points). Less of a difference, and realistically, this is the ship to do Industrial Ops with.
Salvage No Drones	Utixon Corp, Axcetor, Reclaimer	With one less stat to focus on (drone power), and one hardpoint point more than Gryp, Axcetor can be a true beast, but it won't do Industrial Ops well.
Trade	Utixon Corp, Drometar, Carrack	The Paktar has speed, which is irrelevant, and has double weapons, which are even more irrelevant. Drometar has double the cargo space and can hit 10.4K cargo with proper crew and boosters.

Revisiting Size-4 ships available in Conquest

By now you should know two things - drones on small ships are no longer relevant (you have the Maul and the Gryp!), and best combat ships come from Obrix. So, let's drop the pretense and weed out drone ships.

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat	Obrix, Ramose, Frigate	Best hardpoint points and best shields, solid speed. Excellent ship.
Mining	Stellar Industries, Ferrum, Breaker	No change.
Salvage	RedStar Forge, Kuvald, Wrecker	No change.
Trade	Utixon Corp, Trundar, Freighter	No change.

Revisiting Size-3 ships available in Conquest

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat	Obrix, Syladon, Frigate	2M with best available hull and shields, barely beats the Cyclone.
Mining No Drones	Mindus Manufacturing, Auger ERC-7, Dregder	No change.
Salvage No Drones	Akai Armory, Osprey, Scrapper	Fultor is just too slow, but still remains an option.
Trade	RedStar Forge, Bremya, Hauler	No change.

Revisiting Size-2 ships available in Conquest

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat	Obrix, Petara, Gunship Obrix, Oryne, Gunship	Oryne and Petara are virtually identical, save for Oryne having 15 more cargo. Petara is vertical though. Player's choice.
Mining	Obrix, Eradon, Hewer	Eradon is the beefiest Hewer there is. Gale is technically heavier but with its 1M slot it can't get yield bonuses for laser+grinder equipped.
Salvage	RedStar Forge, Otrub, Scow	No change. Again, Kite is technically more powerful but same as Gale it loses te yield bonus because of its single 1M slot.
Trade	RedStar Forge, Vagon, Ferry	No change.

Revisiting Size-1 ships available in Conquest

Activity	Ships	Notes
Combat	Marade Wharf, Stinger, Cutter	If there's ever been a ship you would want when travelling about, it's the stinger. Don't wait buying it. It's the speed-racer of Vanguard Galaxy, nimble and stupidly fast. Yes, with lvl74 gear it can fight anything, including bounties.
Mining	RedStar Forge, Bur, Skiff Stellar Industries, Dolabra, Skiff Luminate Combine, Veinseeker, Skiff	Unclear why you'd want to own one at this stage, but if you do, Dolabra balances cargo capacity and speed, Bur has largest cargo, and Veinseeker is the fastest to zip aboaround with.
Salvage	Stellar Industries, Lacinia, Skiff RedStar Forge, Skrap, Skiff Luminate Combine, Reliqua, Skiff	Odd as it may be, but if you want a salvage skiff and don't mind traveling back to a sub-lvl25 system to get one, Lacinia has largest cargo, Skrap has excellent armor, and Reliqua has the speed.
Trade	Utixon Corp, Oxlo Mk I, Courier	Don't fall for the Vesper speed trick, that ship can't haul 50 pieces of ore. Oxlo is the best size-1 transporter.