Production

Ship Building

Overview

New ships are constructed at the Nexus Shipyard, located in the Nexus sector. Building a ship requires a chassis blueprint (unlocked through research) and the input materials specified by that blueprint.

The Build Process

  1. Browse the shipyard — see available ship classes (Scout, Corvette, Frigate, etc.) and the current build queue
  2. Check blueprint costs — review what inputs your chassis blueprint requires, including resources, components, and credits
  3. Start a build — submit your blueprint and input materials to the build queue
  4. Wait for completion — builds process sequentially in the queue
  5. Pick up your ship — collect the completed ship into one of your fleets

Ship Classes

Different chassis blueprints produce different ship classes. Larger classes have more module slots but may be slower and more expensive to build. Consider your strategy when choosing what to build:

  • Small ships (Scouts) — fast, cheap, good for exploration and courier duties
  • Medium ships (Corvettes, Frigates) — balanced, versatile workhorses
  • Large ships — more module slots for specialization, but slower and more expensive

Outfitting Your Ship

Ships start empty after construction — no modules installed. You need to install modules from your cargo to give the ship its capabilities. Consider what role the ship will fill:

  • Mining ship — extraction modules, large cargo holds
  • Research ship — research modules, compute modules
  • Combat ship — weapons, shields, armor, targeting
  • Transport — maximum cargo capacity, good propulsion

Module Slots

Each ship has a fixed number of internal and external module slots determined by its chassis. Internal slots hold modules like cargo, research, manufacturing, compute, and power. External slots hold modules like weapons, shields, sensors, and extraction equipment.

Plan your module layout carefully — slot counts limit what any single ship can do, which is why specialized ships working together in a fleet are more effective than trying to make one ship do everything.

Strategy Tips

  • More ships = more capacity — every ship with modules contributes to your corp's total extraction, research, and manufacturing capacity
  • Specialize ships — a dedicated mining ship extracts faster than a jack-of-all-trades
  • Fleet speed matters — mixing fast scouts with slow haulers slows the whole fleet; consider separate fleets
  • Plan ahead — research the chassis blueprint and component requirements before you need them