Starport: Galactic Empires/Ships

Antarean Speedstar

Great fuel efficiency offset by mediocre to poor everything else limit this ship's use to pure exploration. Its special, the Anti-Gravity Bomb, flings other ships away upon impact, although combat should be generally avoided due to the low maximum shields. (Note: with a Wisdom of 10 and three Intergalactics' Maps, the Speedstar uses only 2.5 fuel per warp, making it twice as good as the Dreamsower for moving cargo, with a cargo per fuel rating of 36.00.)

Avenger

This ship's prominent feature is its ability to cloak, leaving only a black outline against the stars and nothing on the minimap. While cloaked, the ship can fire AND receive damage, though the powerful Grav Cannon cannot lock-on. When using the cloak, auto-targeting cannons can still do you damage if you get too close to one, or are in the line of fire between the cannon and another player or NPC. As far as stats go, the important ones for fighting are quite sufficient, but the low shield max require that one rely on stealth.

Battleship

With better shielding and better armaments, this ship is a decent step up from the scout-class ships when looking to attempt combat. However, being in a tie for the worst fuel efficiency in the game, you had better have some warp fuel to burn.

Corporate Flagship

This ship, only buyable by heads of corporations, is decent in most areas but excels in none, and is thus replaced for any specialized job. It the one of the three ships with more than eight hardware slots, having 16, in addition to its 200 regular cargo slots. Its special weapon is the Tractor Beam, which is somewhat awkward to use, but potentially deadly.

Dreamsower

This ship boasts the largest cargo capacity in the game, along with the only energy-draining special. Those, however are the only things it can boast, being weak, slow, and handling sluggishly otherwise. For intersystem cargo movement, the Galaxy Whale is a better choice here, since twice the top speed means the job is done much faster for very nearly the same fuel cost. however, for moving cargo around within a system, this ship can be considered a decent candidate.

Garbage Barge

This is the standard ship for moving equipment. It the only ship besides the corporate flagship and intergalactics' ship with more than eight hardware slots, having 24, in addition to its 100 regular cargo slots. The barge itself is dirt cheap and players will often hire a barge for various jobs. Its defensive special weapon can knock out the steering of enemies' ships, giving you the time needed to escape. Having a low top speed but high acceleration, the barge is one of the easiest ships to maneuver.

Galaxy Whale

In order to move large amounts of cargo you want one of the three cargo ships; dreamsower, garbage, or the whale. Of these three, the whale has better shield and speed but costs much more. Its difficult to control and turn, so even the auto-pilot misses its target a lot. The galaxy whale has a fun and effective weapon called Repel that flings away nearby ships.

Imperial Starcruiser (ISC)

This ship requires a reputation above 5000 in addition to a massive 2 million in credits. Although expensive, its price reflects its features, with the best possible shields, speed, and energy regeneration rate in the game, and above average stats otherwise. Its special, the Photon Torpedo, has decent range and does heavy splash damage.

Intergalactics' Ship

This ship costs 10,000 admiral's tokens (10 USD), and is the only ship in the game that can be bought with real money. Thus, it is arguably the best in everything with 160 cargo holds and 16 hardware bays. While the corporate flagship has similar hardware and cargo space, it is much slower and is only available to CEOs. Beware! This ship's distinct purple glow will make you a target for other players, and dying means you lose this ship and must repurchase it. On the bright side, the Galactic Insurance Co. Reimburses you with 8,000 tokens upon losing an IGS.

Merchant Cruiser

This is the stock starting ship, and the only good thing about it is that it's free. Its Afterburners special is unique in that it affects your speed, but most experienced players immediately trade this in for either the Tyrolean Falcon, Garbage Barge, or Scout Marauder, since all three are buyable with starting money and materials.

Merchant Freighter

An overall improvement on the Cruiser, there is nothing to recommend this ship over other better choices except its special weapon, Point Defense, which can auto-target any projectiles in close proximity to your ship.

Scout Marauder

This ship has its fuel efficiency to brag about, along with having a speed comparable to the better ships in the game, while not being one. Its handling is just average, and its special weapon Reverse Guns is merely a slightly more powerful version of the stock Plasma Cannon that fires three bullets at a time, backwards. Referred to as the "taxi" by most players of the game.

Sethdar Cruiser

The top choice for players with a reputation of -1000 or lower, this fine ship can only be bought at the Pirate Bases in a galaxy. It handles and thrusts better than the ISC, but loses in a straight race. Its special weapon, the EMP Blast, can temporarily knock out the thrusters of enemy ships, leaving it floating in space with only its weapons and turning still functioning.

Tyrolean Falcon

This is probably a better choice for a starting ship for most beginning characters, being cheap, relatively fast, and having a the ability to eject other ships' cargo with the Cargo Disrupt weapon, as well as being able to generate shields by jettisoning cargo.

Vulture

With the worst fuel efficiency and speed, and poor everything else, this ship definitively claims the title of the most special-use ship in the game, with its Surface Missiles having the longest range of any weapon in the game plus an unlimited supply, which makes them perfect for assaulting planetary defenses. [UPDATE] Surface missiles have been nerfed; their range has been greatly reduced.

• Green is the best
• Blue is the closest runner-up to the best
• White is in between
• Yellow is closest runner-up to the worst
• Red is the worst

#While having a speed common with a few others, these ships move more quickly due to their superior thrusting power, and would win a race against a ship with the same speed, but less thrusting power. (The escape pod is the worst in some categories, while it is not an actual ship. For that reason, the worst purchasable ship's info is marked red as well)

Ship Statistics Comparison

Name	Base cost ($)	Maximum Shields	Maximum Cargo Holds	Hardware Slots	Top Speed (kps)	Turning (dps)	Thrust (kps2)	Energy Regen (twps)	Fuel per Warp (gpw)	Special Weapon
Antarean Speedstar	850,000	12,000	100	8	8,000	40	400	4	6	Anti-Gravity Bomb
Avenger	350,000	8,000	50	8	8,000	70	700	8	9	Cloaking
Battleship	330,000	14,000	50	8	8,000	70	700	8	10	Rail Gun
Corporate Flagship	970,000	16,000	200	16	8,000	40	300	8	8	Tractor Beam
Dreamsower	345,000	6,500	250	8	4,000	30	200	3	11	Flower Power
Escape pod	--	1,000	1	2	8,000	60	700	3	9	Proximity Warp
Garbage Barge	119,000	7,000	100	24	5,000	60	700	4	11	Inertia Disruptors
Galaxy Whale	595,000	8,000	160	8	8,000	60	400	6	9	Repel
Imperial Starcruiser	2,000,000	16,000	150	8	9,000	60	700	9	9	Photon Torpedo
Intergalactic's Ship	10,000 Tokens	16,000	160	16	8,000#	90	800	9	8	Fire Wave
Merchant Cruiser	98,000	7,000	45	8	4,000	60	500	4	9	Afterburners
Merchant Freighter	144,000	12,000	100	8	6,000	70	600	7	8	Point Defense
Scout Marauder	115,000	8,000	50	8	8,000	60	600	5	7	Reverse Guns
Sethdar Cruiser	1,250,000	16,000	110	8	8,000#	90	800	9	9	EMP Blaster
Tyrolean Falcon	91,000	8,000	55	8	7,000	60	600	8	9	Cargo Disrupt
Vulture	182,000	7,000	30	8	3,000	40	400	7	11	Surface Missiles