easiest way to level up Starship Design?

[REDMVGE]

I don't really want to spend hours in this game building a ship but I need this to be able to buy better equipment. It asks me to buy X amount of unique parts, meaning it's mega expensive.

Any ideas on how to make this less expensive / less of a pain in the ass with flight check errors?

[Tenoshii]

Take a ship and replace each unique component with the cheapest variant you can find.

[Kitchen_tile]

How do you know whats unique

[Tenoshii]

Originally posted by Kitchen_tile:

How do you know whats unique

Just needs to be a different type of module. For example, you can't just add 5 engines, it'd need to be 1 engine, 1 reactor, 1 weapon, etc.

[-={LG}=-]

Originally posted by Kitchen_tile:

How do you know whats unique

If you haven't installed it onto a ship yet, it's unique. There's a lot of weapons.

[WeelieTired]

I did this today. Took a stolen pirate ship. Registered it. Changed out every component for the cheapest in slot. Added some stupid windows, 3 different cheap weapons, cheapest shield & 2 diff cheap engines… Unlocked the 15 for tier 3 in 10 minutes. Cost 15Kcr.
Had the point waiting, bought Tier 3.
Immediately went back to that ship design, took the thing apart. Removed everything I just hung before the level. Hung all kinds of weird “wing” parts, 2 diff radiators, engine extensions, mounts, 3 diff cheap weapons (1 each) next up engines.., different landing gear. New boarding bay & top hatch. New bridge. changed the 2x1 habs out for 1x1, diff habs, 2 diff kinds… just clicked all kinds of crap. 10 minutes and 35k later, g2g.
Now I’m grinding crafting to buy that when I level up.
NOW when I sell it for a loss I know the hulk helped me max out Starship design. Totally worth 60Kcr investment!