Starting Ship Observations

[The Hobo King]

Greetings Shipbreakers! I'm a relatively new player with about 33 hours in on 0.6.6.6.
After a rough start, I'm currently in a modified Ibex survey ship with plenty of cash to give me breathing room from the bankers. But that was after lots of fresh starts and horrible failures. My personal favorite start was when I hijacked a NASS patrol ship after getting saddled with the "Shipping Container" and no cash for a hardsuit. To do this, you have to chase it down in docking mode and hit the docking clamp as it tries to out maneuver you. Fun Fact: NASS Patrol Ships are unmanned, probably to save on costs.

Anyway, on with the observations!

The Ryokka TU-77a Salvage Tug:
This pod provides the safest and easiest start, but saddles you with the most oppressive payment schedule and mortgage amount. Good luck making those 17k payments every six hours!
As for features, it is a purpose built ship designed to get you out to the boneyard to scavenge and back again. You can strip derelicts for the high ticket items to sell for a while before settling on a ship to fix up. Its airlock has a small pressure chamber where you can get in and out of the pod without venting all your atmosphere into space. Speaking of atmosphere, it is a manual system with temperature control. You'll have to manually adjust the air pressure yourself at the pump. The pod can be easily upgraded with an NO2 system for fully automated atmospheric control for the main cabin. The only real downside to this starter ship is the crushing debt that comes with it, that and cargo space.

The Custom Box Sled:
This "ship" is literally a box cobbled together from recovered bulkheads and salvaged parts. I don't know why you would be in debt for this thing. For atmospherics, it has a single air pump welded to the side, but the "cabin" isn't connected to the airlock door, so you vent the whole thing to space every time you get in or out. But at least you can manually re-pressurize it. There is no heat though, so you'll be working in the cold. Starting with this ship is still pretty do-able, and the 11k payments aren't too crippling. A few good hauls will give you enough cash to have some downtime for other activities besides slaving away to pay the bills. Its a good start for those who like to get creative.

The Custom Retrofit:
Remember the box from before? This thing is even worse. Its just a shipping container with some controls and a couple boosters tacked on. Unlike the previous two pods, the only oxygen you get is what was inside the container when you closed the airlock door at the station. As you can imagine, this start is absolute suicide unless you're lucky and know what you're doing. But if you CAN manage it, the payments are a measly 5k a shift. Making this start work means virtual freedom to do whatever you want later... all you have to do is not suffocate or freeze to death before finding something with a heater and oxygen pump. Maybe pirate one of those aforementioned NASS Patrol ships?

[Blue Bottle Games, LLC]

Love this commentary! And I suspect a fair number of new players will appreciate the insight :)

[coreywaite]

Great descriptions! When these ships were first developed I thought they would either be too similar or one would be an obvious standout as overpowered. In practice, though, it seems like they all have their ups and downs and players will find a preference based on play style.

Personally I find the Box Sled is more than enough to get onto another ship and get a new derelict up and running. But I have like 100+ hours so I don't mess up too often anymore ha.

[Daemoro]

I know this post is over a year old, but it was still helpful.

On the playthrough I started yesterday I got the last ship mentioned here. The only thing different was that it had NO debt attached. I don't know if it's a bug or a "tweak" to the price. Either way it made this the perfect ship for this run. Since I don't have to worry about making payments I can stay out in the black basically as long as I want.

My intention was to NOT take over a derelict, but rather build on the ship I started with. No debt at all means I only need food water and air to survive. Everything else is profit! I was able to scrap and sell enough right off the bat for an EVA Suit and Helmet. Every part of my ship is being stripped off of a wreck. The only thing I haven't found so far that I need is a thermostat. She is slowly getting larger, soon I will have room for my reactor.

[Vitowns]

Originally posted by Daemoro:

I know this post is over a year old, but it was still helpful.

On the playthrough I started yesterday I got the last ship mentioned here. The only thing different was that it had NO debt attached. I don't know if it's a bug or a "tweak" to the price. Either way it made this the perfect ship for this run. Since I don't have to worry about making payments I can stay out in the black basically as long as I want.

My intention was to NOT take over a derelict, but rather build on the ship I started with. No debt at all means I only need food water and air to survive. Everything else is profit! I was able to scrap and sell enough right off the bat for an EVA Suit and Helmet. Every part of my ship is being stripped off of a wreck. The only thing I haven't found so far that I need is a thermostat. She is slowly getting larger, soon I will have room for my reactor.

Nice necro edit love ur comment tho i love building off my own ship too