Pardus/Ships

Faction (Federation, Union, and Empire) ships are restricted to pilots that have joined that faction. All ships have another requirement, other than cost. In the case of Neutral ships it is experience level; in the case of Faction ships it is another sort of experience: Faction ranking.

Armor and Hull stats are interchangable, with respect to the default equipment; ships can be roughly compared to each other by comparing the totals of their Armor and Hull values. However, a ship with a more Armor offers potentially superior protection, as this armor can be upgraded.

For example, when comparing the Imperial Spectre to the Shadow Stealth Craft, the Spectre has 60 more total Armor+Hull, because although the Shadow has almost twice as much Armor, it has only a bit more than a third the Hull value. This advantage disappears when both are upgraded to *2 armors such as Tritanium; the Spectre ends up with 20 less A+H. Upgrade once again, to *3 armor, and the Shadow becomes clearly superior in defense, with 300 more A+H than the Spectre. All this upgrading comes at a price, of course, but the example shows that the Armor + Hull system allows for a more complex and varied approach to damage protection.

For more on ship statistics, see the Ship layout section of the Fighting page.

Neutral ships
All neutral ships are available to every player, regardless of faction. These ships are limited by how much exp you have. These ships are quite common since everyone can get them and they can be used to fill the holes in one faction's ship tree if players can't find a good ship to proceed in.

Sabre
New pilots The Sabre is the ship you'll start out with unless you are a ska'ri, in which case you will start out with a Rustclaw. It is a starter ship with just a gun mount to allow you to fight space maggots to rank/exp up to a better ship and get out of it. It is not recommended that you spend much money on this ship, since you will easily outrank it. You should just trade and do some basic fighting in this ship to get money for a new ship, and jump out of it. Pirates will target these ships because they symbolize that the player is new and doesn't know how to fight back or alert people of a pirate's presence. However, with its small size, being the third smallest in the game, it is often used as a way to train cloaking by more experienced players looking to jump into a large ship like the Liberator and retain the ability to cloak. It is a small tradition of to-be Scorpion pilots to jump into a sabre with a union cloaking device and train their cloaking in it.
 * General all purpose

Rustclaw
New pilots The Rustclaw is another starter ship like the Sabre but has the sole purpose of being a trader. The Ska'ri will start out with this ship. Its comparably large cargo hull is made for new players to trade in and make money to get into a new ship. It is also the ship that new players will get to build their first building in, since it will have the cargo space. It is not recommended for fighting, even though the ship's image may say otherwise, it has low armor and won't last long.
 * Small trader

Interceptor
New/learning fighters The Interceptor is a low-end fighter solely for the purpose of gaining rank and exp. It is the first neutral fighter, with a missile slot as well as multiple guns; it has low cargo capacity, making it also the first neutral ship unsuitable for trading runs. It is a fairly capable fighter but will not stand up when fighting other players. When fully equipped, very little space will remain in it making it hard to transport commodities. For that purpose, a magnetic scoop is advised.
 * Light fighter

Lanner Mini
Semi-experienced elayers The Lanner Mini is one of 2 ships that cannot equip any weapons or missiles! This makes it defenseless in combat, but it is rather difficult to destroy due to its small size and excellent armor. It also has slightly more cargo then the similarly-priced Harrier. The complete lack of weaponry makes it less popular then most neutral ships.
 * Medium Trader

Harrier
Semi-experienced players The Harrier is the first neutral hybrid, having large cargo as well as sufficient missile and gun mounts. It is a true hybrid, adequate at either of two tasks and excelling in neither. Harriers are the brunt of jokes about their shape. It is, however a very capable ship and a good ship for trading when neutral since no good trading ships exist at this point and the next one that comes close is about 67500 exp away.
 * Medium trade/fighter hybrid

Mercury
Middle class fighters The Mercury is the first PvP fighter in the neutral line of ships. It has high armor, a fairly small size, and a good number of gun and missile mounts. It has sufficient cargo to fit on enough guns and missiles, and can take a beating with the right armor. This ship is a very popular ship for ranking and skilling because of its good statistics.
 * Medium fighter

Hercules
Experienced traders The Hercules is a trade class ship with two guns mounts and ten missile mounts. It's pretty useless in fighting since it has low armor and is incredibly big. However, the two gun mounts can be used to fight off NPCs like space maggots. It's a good trader that members from all factions jump into since it has a nice cargo hull of 255. It's exp requirement makes getting this for a neutral pilot quite hard since you'll have to do it in a Mercury from 25000 to 79000.
 * Medium trader

Hawk
Experienced fighters The Hawk is a high-end fighter designed for skilling and fighting. It's held in hig regard in the community being the only ship aside from the Doomstar with 5 gun mounts. There are variations, PASC, Nighthawk, and NHD. It however, has no missile mounts, making ambushing less attractive in this ship. It is well suited to survive ambushes however, being small and having high armor. It's cargo is quite cramped, which puts off some people from getting the better weapons put on it.
 * Heavy fighter

Gargantua
Experienced fighters The gargantua is regarded as a fairly poor ship as a fighter, and an OK hybrid. It has about the same number of missile and gun mounts as the Scorpion, Dominator, and Gauntlet from all of the three factions, but it's other stats are inferior compared to these ships in the same class. Very few people are in this ship due to how poor it is statistically and prefer to use a faction warship.
 * Medium battle-ship

Behemoth
Experienced traders The Behemoth (BBB) is one of the game's best traders having the third best cargo space and a hull of 720 for explosives missions. This ship is a very popular choice for Neutral, Federation, and Union pilots since it has the highest cargo that they can get. It is jokingly called a "big brown box" (BBB) because frankly, that's what it looks like. Despite its looks, it is a very capable ship for traders and package rankers alike.
 * Large trader

Liberator
Very experienced fighters The liberator was designed as a battleship/trader hybrid, but it falls short of that excelling only at killing. It has the highest exp requirement of all the neutral ships making it only for the veteran players. It is a universal fighter used by all 3 factions but it is set up radically changes depending on what faction the pilot is in, due to special equipment. This is particularly true with the union, where it is set up with heavy shields, cloakers, counter measure equipment, and inferometers to make a heavy weapon laden tactical fighter.
 * Large battle-ship

Union ships
The Union is technologically impaired with ships, only having 8 exclusive ships. Their ships are fairly poor in general, but they do have a few that stand out. However, their ships can prove to be very powerful when properly equipped with the unique Union equipment. Don't underestimate their power even if their ships are poorly made.

Rustfire
Learning pilots The Rustfire (rusty) is the Union's equalivant of the Federation's and Empire's Wasp and Ficon. It is available at one further rank however, but it is worth it. It is a hybrid between a trader and a ranker with two gun mounts and a missile mount, although it seemingly serves no purpose. Pilots who fly it typically trade in it to make money for particle lasers, then rank up to a Marauder or a Junker. It's a well made hybrid that almost everyone who joins the Union gets into at one point or another.
 * Fighter/trader hybrid

Marauder
Learning fighters The marauder is a NPC combat ship designed for skilling and ranking/exping. It falls in the same class as the Interceptor and Mercury although it's usefulness is debatable. It's better than the Interceptor, with superior stats in the lines of cargo and armour, but lacks a missile mount, making it difficult to pirate or ambush in, and is slightly larger. It's severely behind the Mercury in stats however, lacking three missile mounts, much armor and hull, and cargo. It's recommended by many people to just exp up to a Mercury rather than to use this ship for fighting.
 * Light fighter

Junker IV
New traders The junker IV (junker) is a mid-level trade ship for the union. It offers a large cargo of 210, making FWE at this point better money than stocking. It has a strong hull, making explosive missions quite feasible at this point and the cargo allows it to package rank easily. Because it is the only trade ship available at this point short of exping to a Hercules, many pilots get in this ship after a Rustfire then make money and rank for a better ship such as an El Padre.
 * Small/Medium trader

Slider
Semi-experienced fighters The slider is a mid-level hybrid available at rank accountant. Many pilots looking for a combination of trading and fighting in the union choose this ship, although it will become outdated in fighting once they get to a rank requiring you to kill NPCs that require serious firepower and armor. Many people choose to use this ship as a hybrid package/assassination ranker, as it has high cargo space, strong hull, and good firepower. However, that is generally what people use it as, people looking to trade should look a rank lower at the Junker or a rank higher at the El Padre.
 * Fighter/trader hybrid

El Padre
Fairly experienced pilots The El Padre (Padre) is a mid-level trader for the Union. It is the highest level trader in the Union. The Hercules and Behemoth have more cargo space, and are often preferred. However, it still holds as a good midgame trader for a player who doesn't want to exp up to the Hercules. Its performance is quite good for its class.
 * Medium trader

Chitin
Experienced fighters The Chitin is one of the Union's best ships being regarded as the ultimate ambush craft. It's been held true to it's word by often serving in ambushes and combat. It's the Union equalivant of the Federation's and Empire's Nighthawk series and PASC. It's combination of 4 missile and gun mounts are reflected by the Union's ECCM making the NN-550's almost as effective as the Empire's MKII missile considering the opponent has an ECM.
 * Fighter (Ambusher)

Horpor
Experienced fighters The Horpor is an effective fighter/transporter ship having the gun mounts it needs to fight NPCs and the capacity to transport materials. It's not an incredibly popular choice, but people who use it are satisfied with it's performance. Many people use it to do package missions and assassination missions at the same time. It doesn't hold up well in PVP combat however, it's armor is somewhat low, it's a large ship, and it has no missile mounts.
 * Fighter/trader hybrid (Ranker)

Scorpion
Very experienced fighters The Scorpion is the pride and glory of the Union. It's considered as being one of the best battleship class ships in the game with all things considered such as price, rank, and equipment set ups. Like the Liberator, it's normally set up to be a tactical fighter with the ability to cloak, destroy buildings, fight, and ambush break. It's comparably better to the Dominator and the Liberator in stats, and is powerful enough to hold up to a Mooncrusher. Many pilots going into this ship choose to jump in a Sabre to practise their cloaking.
 * Large battle-ship

Wasp
Cost: 20,000

Adder
Cost: 35,000

Thunderbird
Cost: 121,000

Viper Defense Craft
Cost: 183,000

Babel Transporter
Cost: 532,000

Piranha
Cost:   556,000

Nighthawk
Cost: 2,000,000

Nighthawk Deluxe
Cost:   3,000,000

Mantis
Cost: 3,300,000

Extender
Cost: 4,100,000

Gauntlet
Cost: 8,900,000

Doomstar
Cost: 34,750,000

Ficon
Cost: 21,000

Tyrant
Cost: 38,500

Spectre
Cost:   190,000

Shadow Stealth Craft
Cost: 310,000

Venom
Cost: 964,000

Constrictor
Cost: 1,500,000

Phantom Advanced Stealth Craft
Cost: 2,720,000

Dominator
Cost: 3,650,000

Boa Ultimate Carrier
Cost: 8,250,000

Mooncrusher
Cost: 37,900,000