Ships & Weapons
From nimble probes to planet-crushing titans — your fleet is your instrument of power. Understanding ship roles, weapon types, and armor matchups is essential for victory.
Ship Sizes
Ships come in four size categories, each built at different facilities.
| Size | Built At | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Small | Planetary Shipyard | Fast, cheap, disposable. Probes, scouts, fighters, interceptors, freighters, mining vessels. |
| Medium | Planetary Shipyard | Versatile mid-weight. Colony ships, EW ships, ice drills, repair ships. |
| Large | Orbital Shipyard | Heavy hitters and haulers. Cruisers, battleships, carriers, bombers, bulk carriers, excavators. |
| Capital | Moon Dockyard | Empire-defining. Dreadnoughts and titans. Moon-only construction. |
Recon Ships
Information is power. Recon ships explore the unknown and gather intelligence on your enemies.
Probe Small
Fast unmanned drone that auto-explores star systems. Send probes to map the galaxy around you — they reveal system contents and return automatically. No weapons, minimal HP, and the fastest normal ship in the game (speed 30). Light armor.
Requires: Probe Technology
Spy Probe Small
Stealth reconnaissance drone with greater spy power than a regular probe. It gathers intelligence about enemy planets; report detail depends on your espionage capability against the target's counter-intelligence. Spy Probes can also identify and blunt certain wormhole hazards, but this is not guaranteed and a successful probe is lost. Speed 28, light armor, no weapons.
Requires: Signal Intelligence
Stealth Ship Small Laser
Cloaked vessel with the strongest ship-based spy capability. Besides reconnaissance, it is the dedicated craft for Mine Sweep missions, contributes to mine neutralization during planetary attacks, and is used by Covert Mining, long surveillance, and Dead Zone expeditions. Armed with lasers for self-defense and carries a small cargo hold. Costs rare cryo-ice to build. Light armor.
Requires: Stealth Technology
Combat Ships
The warships of your fleet. From nimble scouts to unstoppable titans.
Small Combat Ships
Scout Small Kinetic
Fast patrol vessel and your first combat ship. If you configure a valid priority target for the fleet, surviving Scouts make a priority opening strike before the first normal combat round. Without such targeting instructions, there is no automatic Scout opening strike. Cheap to build in quantity, Scouts are useful for escort and reconnaissance support, but their light armor remains vulnerable to focused fire.
Requires: Orbital Mechanics
Fighter Small Laser
Dedicated combat craft with more HP and firepower than scouts. Laser weapons give balanced effectiveness against all armor types. Fighters assigned to a Carrier's fighter role gain extra attack and a chance to evade attacks while that carrier supports them. Rapid fire: 5x against probes and spy probes, 4x against torpedo frigates.
Requires: Laser Weapons
Interceptor Small Kinetic
The fastest conventional combat ship (speed 18). Designed to hunt and destroy other small ships. Rapid fire: 4x against fighters and 5x against scouts, probes, and spy probes.
Requires: Fighter Doctrine
Torpedo Frigate Small Missile
Fast but fragile glass cannon built to threaten capital hulls through numbers. Its light armor makes escort and timing important. Rapid fire: 3x against battleships and 2x against dreadnoughts and titans.
Requires: Torpedo Systems
Large Combat Ships
Cruiser Large Laser
Heavy balanced warship. The first real workhorse of your fleet — laser weapons provide consistent damage against all armor types, and medium armor provides decent survivability. Good against both light and heavy targets. Has rapid fire against small ships (5x vs scouts, 4x vs fighters, 2x vs interceptors). Cargo bay 150.
Requires: Cruiser Design
Carrier Large Laser
Mobile hangar platform with heavy armor, high durability, a 3000-unit cargo hold, and room to transport population. Before battle, each carrier can be assigned one support role: fighter wings gain attack and evasion, bomber wings gain survivability, or assault shuttles gain protection from planetary anti-air fire. Only a limited number of craft can be supported by each carrier. Rapid fire: 3x against fighters and 5x against scouts.
Requires: Carrier Operations
Battleship Large Plasma
Capital warship with devastating plasma batteries. Heavy armor makes battleships the backbone of late-game fleets, while plasma is particularly effective against shielded targets. Rapid fire: 4x against cruisers, 3x against missile cruisers, and 5x against interceptors.
Requires: Battleship Design
Bomber Large Missile
Heavy anti-structure craft. Bombers have 3x rapid fire against each planetary defense type and are essential for softening up fortified planets. Bombers assigned to a Carrier's bomber role gain additional survivability while supported.
Requires: Bomber Wing Doctrine
Missile Cruiser Large Missile
Heavy guided missile platform. Fires long-range salvos most effective against medium-armored targets. Has rapid fire against small and medium ships (5x vs fighters, 4x vs interceptors, 3x vs bombers). Heavy armor and a modest cargo bay (120). A flexible addition to any fleet composition.
Requires: Missile Systems
Capital Ships
Dreadnought Capital Ion
Massive super-capital warship. Dreadnoughts bring overwhelming firepower and durability to any engagement. Ion research gives individual ion hits a chance to collapse the target's current shield, making these weapons especially dangerous to shielded hulls. Has rapid fire against large ships (3x vs battleships, 4x vs bombers, 3x vs missile cruisers, 5x vs cruisers). Slow, expensive, and terrifying.
Requires: Dreadnought Design
Titan Capital Ion
The ultimate warship. Only one Titan per empire. Armed with ion weapons that devastate shields, encased in unique shielded armor (the only buildable ship with this armor type), and possessing massive HP (200,000), a Titan is a mobile fortress. Has extreme rapid fire against nearly everything (20x vs scouts, 15x vs fighters, 10x vs interceptors, 8x vs cruisers, 5x vs battleships/bombers/carriers/missile cruisers, 3x vs dreadnoughts). It takes enormous resources and time to build — including rare dark matter.
Requires: Titan Design
Special Ships
Specialized craft designed for specific missions beyond conventional combat.
Assault Shuttle Small Kinetic
Armored dropship for ground raids. Carries troops to enemy planets to steal resources and is exposed to planetary anti-air fire during an assault. Assault shuttles assigned to a surviving Carrier's shuttle role are protected from that anti-air attrition. Medium armor and kinetic weapons for self-defense.
Requires: Assault Tactics
Hacker Ship Small Laser
Electronic warfare specialist. During raids, hacker ships crack encrypted storage systems so more resources can be extracted. They are also used for cyber attacks and Dead Zone expeditions. Light armor and laser weapons make them fragile outside their specialist role.
Requires: Assault Tactics
Colony Ship Medium
Massive colonization vessel that establishes new settlements. Consumed during colonization — the ship becomes part of the new colony. Outside colonization it can carry up to 50 population on transfer and delivery missions. No weapons, light armor. See Colonization.
Requires: Colonization Technology
Engineer Ship Large
Construction vessel for building outposts on asteroid fields. Consumed during outpost construction — the ship is dismantled to become the outpost foundation. Medium armor, small cargo bay (100).
Requires: Outpost Engineering
Electronic Warfare Ship Medium Ion
Jamming platform armed with ion weapons and protected by medium armor. During combat, it disrupts enemy targeting and reduces incoming damage to its fleet. Jamming intensity changes from round to round; additional EW ships improve the effect with diminishing contributions.
Requires: Electronic Warfare
Mine Layer Small Kinetic
Deploys space mines in target systems. Mines damage fleets passing through, acting as area denial. Medium armor provides some protection during deployment. Kinetic weapons for self-defense.
Requires: Mine Warfare
Utility Ships
The workhorses of your empire — haulers, miners, and support craft.
Transport
Freighter Small
Standard cargo transport. Your first hauler — cheap and essential for moving resources between colonies. 500 cargo capacity and a separate 100-unit mining hold. After Basic Mining is researched, it can also mine ore fields. Light armor. Requires Orbital Mechanics.
Transport Shuttle Small
Shuttle fitted for extracting plundered resources during raids. Its raid extraction capacity is higher than the 300 units available on peaceful transport missions. Speed 8, light armor. Requires Transport Logistics.
Tanker Small
Specialized hydrogen fuel transport. Can only carry hydrogen but has 900 cargo capacity and very low fuel consumption (1.0). Extends fleet operational range. Light armor. Requires Transport Logistics.
Bulk Carrier Large
Massive cargo hauler with 3000 capacity — six times a freighter. Slow (speed 4) but the backbone of inter-colony trade routes. Medium armor. Requires Cargo Expansion.
Ore Freighter Large
Specialized bulk hauler with reinforced cargo bays. High capacity but restricted to ore and silicates only. More fuel-efficient than a bulk carrier. Medium armor. Requires Cargo Expansion.
Mining
Mining Vessel Small
Dedicated extractor for ore and plasma asteroid fields. Mining Vessels can occasionally break down during a cycle, so long operations carry extra risk. It carries up to 300 units in its mining hold. Light armor. Requires Mining Fleet Operations.
Gas Collector Small
Atmospheric scooping vessel for gas cloud and quantum field harvesting. 400 mining cargo capacity. Light armor. Requires Mining Fleet Operations.
Ice Drill Medium
Armored drilling vessel for cryo-ice and dark matter extraction from dense fields. It can suffer an occasional breakdown during a mining cycle, so long operations carry extra risk. 300 mining cargo capacity, medium armor. Requires Rare Resource Extraction.
Excavator Large
Heavy mining platform that boosts the yield of the whole mining fleet while it operates. It extracts ore, ice, gas, and plasma directly and can support the appropriate specialist miners in every field type, including quantum and dark matter. It does not extract biological fields directly. 500 mining cargo capacity. Medium armor. Requires Rare Resource Processing.
Support
Repair Ship Medium
Mobile repair platform. It enables field repair of damaged ships at planets, moons, and outposts even when an ordinary shipyard is unavailable, and it can restore outpost structures. If a Repair Ship survives a battle, a larger share of destroyed ships may return as damaged, repairable hulls. Medium armor. Requires Outpost Engineering.
Lunar Shuttle Small
Moon colonization transport. Consumed on use — establishes a colony on a moon. Light armor. Requires Lunar Operations.
Weapon Types
Five weapon types, each with different strengths against different armor types. Fleet composition matters — bring the right weapons for the job.
| Weapon | Light | Medium | Heavy | Shielded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinetic | 1.25x | 1.00x | 0.85x | 0.75x |
| Laser | 1.00x | 1.00x | 1.00x | 1.00x |
| Plasma | 0.90x | 1.00x | 0.90x | 1.25x |
| Missile | 1.10x | 1.05x | 1.05x | 0.90x |
| Ion | 0.80x | 0.85x | 0.85x | 1.30x |
The multiplier is applied when that weapon type damages that armor type. Rapid fire is a separate mechanic.
Armor Types
Each ship has an armor type that determines how much damage it takes from different weapons.
| Armor | Found On | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Light | Probes, stealth ships, scouts, fighters, interceptors, torpedo frigates, hacker ships, colony ships, freighters, transport shuttles, tankers, mining vessels, gas collectors, lunar shuttles | Minimal protection. Fast ships rely on speed, not armor. Kinetic weapons tear through light armor (1.25x). |
| Medium | Cruisers, assault shuttles, engineer ships, EW ships, mine layers, bulk carriers, ore freighters, ice drills, excavators, repair ships | Balanced protection. Missiles are slightly above neutral against medium armor (1.05x); kinetic and laser fire at full effectiveness (1.0x). |
| Heavy | Carrier, battleship, bomber, missile cruiser, dreadnought | Maximum conventional protection. Kinetic rounds have reduced effect (0.85x), plasma loses some bite (0.90x), and ion weapons are weak here too (0.85x). |
| Shielded | Titan | Energy barriers in addition to plating. Plasma (1.25x) and ion weapons (1.30x) are the strongest counters. |
Rapid Fire
Some ships and defenses have rapid fire — the ability to fire multiple times per combat round at specific targets. The full public matchup list is:
- Fighters: probes 5x, spy probes 5x, torpedo frigates 4x.
- Interceptors: fighters 4x, scouts 5x, probes 5x, spy probes 5x.
- Cruisers counter small ships: scouts (5x), fighters (4x), interceptors (2x).
- Carriers: fighters 3x, scouts 5x.
- Battleships: cruisers 4x, missile cruisers 3x, interceptors 5x.
- Bombers: missile, laser, railgun, plasma, and ion defenses 3x; EW systems 3x.
- Missile Cruisers counter small/medium: fighters (5x), interceptors (4x), bombers (3x).
- Torpedo Frigates: battleships 3x, dreadnoughts 2x, titans 2x.
- Dreadnoughts: battleships 3x, bombers 4x, missile cruisers 3x, cruisers 5x, interceptors 2x, fighters 3x, carriers 2x.
- Titans: dreadnoughts 3x, battleships 5x, cruisers 8x, missile cruisers 5x, bombers 5x, carriers 5x, fighters 15x, interceptors 10x, scouts 20x.
- Missile Defense: probes 5x, spy probes 5x, scouts 4x, fighters 3x, interceptors 2x, assault shuttles 2x.
- Railgun Defense: cruisers 5x, missile cruisers 3x, bombers 2x.
- Laser Defense and lunar Defense Platforms: freighters 4x, bulk carriers 4x, ore freighters 4x, tankers 3x, hacker ships 3x.
- Plasma Defense: battleships 4x, carriers 2x, dreadnoughts 2x, titans 2x.
Fleet Speed
When ships travel together as a fleet, the entire fleet moves at the speed of the slowest ship. A fleet of interceptors escorting a single freighter will crawl at freighter speed.
Plan your fleet composition accordingly — don't mix fast attack ships with slow haulers unless you need to.