Starfield Ship Crafting

A guide to building your own ships in Starfield. Covers modules, manufacturers and shipyard locations

Ship Crafting in Starfield

It's easier than you think!

No resources, other than credits, are required. Just stop by a Ship Services Technician (or manufacturer's sales kiosk) and try it out!

It won't cost you half a million, either.

The very biggest Class C (before level 30 or so) - with a 29 power reactor, every possible build point used and a wide selection of habs - barely broke 200k. A starter ship can be crafted for well under 100k ... at least it could be if it weren't for one little problem.

You can't just "craft" a ship in Starfield, you have to buy an existing ship and then scrap it's pieces. So around 65 - 75k for the initial purchase, minus the 10-15k you'll get back from scrap ... that's sort of your baseline. But after that, 50-60k will probably do it for a Class A hauler. Maybe 65-75k if you want to go ham with the weapons. Either way, built right you can either get a ton of cargo space, or a major increase in space combat capability for just a little over 100k. That's less than 2000 looted coffee mugs. Plus this chisel, and that desk sculpture, and maybe this potted plant ... shut up Vasco, I'm busy looting. But yeah, you can walk out of the tutorial with over 30k of loot. The real trick is finding enough vendors to sell it all.

Regardless, you'll probably be ready to start looking at ship building about 5 or so hours in. Especially if you put a point in Ship Design. And you don't try outpost building - which is a voracious, giant, sucking black hole of a money pit.

General Notes

Level Restrictions

Many ship parts that have mechanics attached to them (shields, reactors, engines, etc) have more availability as you level up, with break points seeming to come roughly every 5 levels. I'm not sure this applies to weapons, as I have not seen my listing change in the 14 levels since starting this guide.

Max Power

One thing new crafters will trip over is the Max Power rating of modules. Instinctively, Max Power sounds like a good thing. In Starfield, it is the bane of your shipbuilding existence. Here, it is the amount of reactor power required to get the full results out of a module. So a shield with Max Power 6 requires twice as much power to get to 100% shields as a Max Power 3. Granted, the devs usually attach a stat increase as Max Power goes up, but it is important to note that these numbers can be at least a little deceptive.

An even bigger impact of Max Power is that your ship can only have 12 bars of power devoted to any one system: Weapon Group 0, Weapon Group 1, Weapon Group 2, Engines. This means if you build a weapon group with max power 4, you will only be able to fit 3 weapons to that group. Whereas someone who builds with max power 3 will be able to apply 4 weapons. This means the overall weapon group for the max power 4 ship is 25% weaker than its stats would otherwise apply.

This effect is significant on engines, as it can be the difference between fitting 4 max power 3 engines versus 6 max power 2s.

Shields and Grav Drive max at 12, too, but you can only have one of each of those, so the stacking limit doesn't matter since they can't stack.

Builds with 13+ max power on a subsystem will be marked invalid and cannot be saved.

Ship Stealing

It has been noted that an even cheaper way to start a ship build is to steal a ship. The use of electromagnetic weapons in particular helps with this by allowing you to disable, though there are ways to acquire a ship planetside or through quests.

The Frontier (Starting Ship)

While it is, of course, free - the Frontier is not a good ship. This makes sense, as it's effectively the minimum grade.

It's 14 power reactor is particularly egregious. If you're only going to make one change, it's this. With a 20 power reactor (which is available even without a single point in Starship Design skill) it can at least be flown at nearly full power (22 points is it's max, not counting the grav drive)

It's also lacking in engine capacity, though in fairness, with the standard reactor that small, you were never going to fully power your engines anyhow.

The weapons are the bare minimum available in the game, and with the power limit they won't be fully chargeable either.

The forums are full of people who leveled up a bit and get destroyed by the 1v3 fights that are common in this game. They're almost always flying the Frontier. If you're level 10, it's OK. If you're level 20, it's not.

Shipyards

I have found several shipyards available.

New Atlantis	Jemison, Alpha Centauri system	Deimos and Nova
Akila City	Akila, Cheyanne system	Hope, Stroud, Taiyo
Neon	Volii I, Volii system	Stroud and Taiyo
The Key	Space station, Kryx system	Stroud, Taiyo, smuggling
Cydonia	Mars, Sol system	Deimos and Nova
Paradiso Resort	Porrima II
Red Mile	Porrima III
The Den	Space station, Wolf system	Deimos, Nova, Smuggling
Eleos Retreat	Ixyll II	Hope, Nova, Stroud

Manufacturer specific shipyards
These offer special parts not available elsewhere. 2x2 and 2x3 habs, bigger cockpits, etc.

Deimos Shipyard [Deimos] - Deimos, of course! That's the second moon of Mars. Sol IV-b.
Stroud-Ekland Showroom [Stroud] - Neon Core, right in with the other merchants
Hopetown [Hope] - Valo system, planet Polvo
New Homestead [Nova] - Sol system, Titan (moon of Saturn)
Taiyo Astroneering [Taiyo] - Neon, Ryujin Tower (elevator at very end of Neon Core)

Habs

Habs

Habs are the interior of the ship. They are mostly decorative, though some have berths to hold more passengers and some have more stations to operate the ship.

A ship build is invalid if you do not have a hab path from the Bay to the Cockpit, and one from the Docker to the Cockpit.

Habs come with "A" and "B" versions. "A" habs only connect fore(front)/aft(rear)/dorsal(up)/ventral(down). "B" habs have all those connection points and add port(left)/starboard(right). Some manufacturers have "C" and "D" habs that have either port or starboard connectors, but not the reverse side.

Note that the list of habs always displays only the first alphabetical item in the hab list: Companionway and All-In-One Berth. If you use the "Q" and "T" keys while one of these is selected, you can cycle through the list for the rest of the habs. For example, if you press "T" while the All-In-One Berth is selected, it switches to Armory. Or if you press "Q" it switches to Workshop. This is true for all manufacturers. It's even true for the manufacturer special habs (like Battle Stations and Cargo Hall) which I'll write up soon.

1x1 habs:

• Companionway (default)
  
• Storeroom

2x1 habs:

• All-In-One-Berth (default, adds 2 passenger slots)
  
• Armory (Prison cell)
  
• Captain's Quarters (Nav console)
  
• Computer Core (adds 1 crew station)
  
• Control Station (adds 4 crew stations)
  
• Infirmary (Research and Pharma stations)
  
• Living Quarters (adds 2 passenger slots)
  
• Science Lab (Research and Pharma stations - yes, again)
  
• Workshop (Industrial, Spacesuit, Weapon stations)

3x1 habs:

• Engineering Bay

Types of Components

Bays

Requires one, and only one. Aesthetics are all you're going for here. The hull and mass numbers vary, but are too small to matter.

Most are either fore or aft entry, but Stroud has one with a side entry bay.

You can look inside a bay when building the ship and see if it has a boarding ladder or a hatchway to access the rest of the ship. This is important because there needs to be a fully walkable path through the habs from the bay to the cockpit.

Cargo

Pretty self explanatory. More space means the ship can hold more stuff. It's on a 1:1 basis, so 245 cargo score = 245 mass of stuff you can stick in the hold. Assuming you don't have the "Payloads" skill, which adds a multiplier.

The big issue here is mass. Cargo holds tend to be the heaviest things on your ship. Be sure to watch your ship's "Mobility" score as you add them. The biggest holds can take 10 - 20% off your mobility each.

Shielded cargo holds (available at The Key, The Den and Red Mile) have much lower capacity per mass, but help protect contraband from getting picked up by the authority's scans. Contraband on the ship - that is not in a character's personal inventory - seems to automatically be assigned to the shielded hold.

Cockpit

Requires one, and only one. This is largely an aesthetic decision, though cockpits do add to the ship's cargo space. It's negligible on bigger ships, but for your first build 200 - 300 cargo cap might matter.

Most cockpits are 5 hull and 2 crew stations. Some of the physically bigger cockpits have 4 crew stations.

Docker

Requires one, and only one. They don't have any significant stats and have mostly similar costs.

The docker must be connected to the cockpit via habs, and must be placed on the "outside" of the ship. "Outside" generally means the most extreme edge of the ship, though there is a bit of latitude to this as some structural elements (but not all) placed further "outside" will not flag the build as invalid.

Dockers come in dorsal/top, fore/frontal and port/left varieties. The port variety can be flipped to starboard, but the fore dockers cannot: no aft docking. Most dorsal dockers cannot be flipped, but the Deimos-proprietary (meaning you have to go to their HQ to get it) Slim Docker *can* flip to ventral, which is nice. Combined with a hatch bay (one with a door, not a ladder), it lets you have both your entry/exit points, the bay and the docker, in the same space.

The Nova docker has a 1x1 hab attached, which can be either useful or a pain depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

Engines

Engines are the first 'complicated' part of the build. Your entire ship has a mass value, and the engines need to be strong enough to drive that mass value.

Every engine has a class, A (lowest), B or C (highest). You cannot build a ship with engines of a higher class than your reactor. However, you may use lower class engines. Indeed, the C class engines tend to be inferior to some of the higher-end B units.

Another key element to engines is Max Power. However, while this sounds like a good thing - more power is better, right? - that's not how it actually works. Max Power indicates how many bars of reactor power required to fully drive the engine. Which means ... bigger is worse. Not only do you need more power, but there is a maximum of 12 engine power available. A build with 13+ potential engine power will be marked invalid.

Since most engines are Max Power 3, this effectively means a limit of 4 engines on a ship. Or 6 Max Power 2 engines. Or 2 x Max Power 3 + 3 x Max Power 2.

Engine Thrust turns into Top Speed. More is better, though in practical situations, linear top speed isn't nearly as important as mobility.

Maneuvering Thrust drives mobility and is the key stat (along with Max Power) of an engine. Max Power 2 engines top out just over 3000. The Class C Supernova has 6450, however due to its huge mass, it will often be outpaced by the Class B SAE-5330 (M.Thrust of 4830) for better mobility numbers.

The SA-4220 is an excellent Class A, Max Power 2 engine.

Engine Health is basically the hit points of your engine. More is better, but I wouldn't obsess over it. In practice, your hull is likely to go before you loss most/all of your engines.

Equipment

Pirate gear, available on the Key.

Comspike - requires Crimson Fleet mission progress, -25% to lock time (i.e. its faster), -20% cost to fire weapons in Target Mode
Conduction Grid - requires Crimson Fleet mission progress, increases shield regen by 25%, 50% less EM damage received
Scan Jammer - increases chance of scan evasion (by up to 50%) when using shielded cargo

Fuel Tanks

Requires at least one. Fuel feels like an abandoned mechanic in Starfield, since your ship auto-refuels at every jump. Worse, the tanks have some mass to them. Not like cargo holds or engines, but enough that you should be sparing with these. 200 fuel is likely all you need, and you could probably get by with 125 or so.

Gear

There's a calculation to determine how much landing gear is required. Smaller ships can get by with 3-4 points. Larger builds have required 12+ of "lander thrust".

Mass and hull stats are too small to worry about here. Lander thrust can vary from 1 to 4 points per piece of gear.

Landing gear can vary greatly in cosmetics. The Stroud lander is particularly well adaptable to almost any ship design as it comes in port, starboard and center varieties (use Z to "flip" between the three choices).

Grav Drive

Requires one, and only one. Can be located anywhere on the ship, does not have to be aft or even on the outside.

I'm not really sure what grav drive stats are for. I've never put more than 1 bar of power into my grav drive and it jumps in 8 seconds. They have some mass, making this a good place to skimp on.

Components - Engines (Part 1)

Engine	Class	Max Power	Thrust	Manu Thrust	Mass	Manu @ Max Engines	Level
Amun-1 Engine	A	2	5,660	1,550	100	9300	1
Ares DT10 Engine	A	2	5,660	1,800	90	10800	1
White Dwarf 1000 Engine	A	3	4,650	2,445	100	9780	1
White Dwarf 2000 Engine	A	3	10,500	1,785	98	7140	1
White Dwarf 2010 Engine	A	3	11,340	2,130	97	8520	1
White Dwarf 3000 Engine	A	3	15,270	2,820	96	11280	1
White Dwarf 1010 Engine	A	3	7,950	2,535	99	10140	4
Ares DT20 Engine	A	2	7,440	1,950	89	11700	7
Amun-2 Engine	A	2	7,440	1,830	99	10980	8
White Dwarf 1020 Engine	A	3	8,850	2,625	99	10500	10
Ares DT30 Engine	A	2	9,200	2,050	88	12300	12
White Dwarf 2020 Engine	A	3	12,180	2,400	97	9600	12
Amun-3 Engine	A	2	9,200	1,900	98	11400	14
Ares DT40 Engine	A	2	10,800	2,200	87	13200	19
Amun-4 Engine	A	2	10,800	1,960	97	11760	20
Ares DT50 Engine	A	2	12,400	2,430	86	14580	24
White Dwarf 2030 Engine	A	3	13,020	2,700	97	10800	24
White Dwarf 3010 Engine	A	3	17,670	2,940	95	11760	24
White Dwarf 3015 Engine	A	3	20,460	3,150	95	12600	24
Amun-5 Engine	A	2	12,400	2,040	96	12240	26
SA-4110 Engine	A	2	12,220	2,930	90	17580	27
White Dwarf 3020 Engine	A	3	19,920	3,060	94	12240	29
Ares DT60 Engine	A	2	14,000	2,600	85	15600	31
Amun-6 Engine	A	2	14,000	2,120	95	12720	32
SA-4220 Engine	A	2	13,820	3,060	88	18360	34
White Dwarf 3030 Engine	A	3	21,930	3,210	93	12840	36
Amun-7 Engine	A	2	15,400	2,200	94	13200	38
SA-4330 Engine	A	2	15,240	3,220	85	19320	43
Nova 1000 Engine	B	3	12,870	3,375	145	13500	5
Hercules DT110 Engine	B	3	14,220	3,300	145	13200	20
Dunn-11 Engine	B	3	14,220	3,150	150	12600	21
SAE-5110 Engine	B	3	14,070	4,440	140	17760	22
Nova 1010 Engine	B	3	14,070	3,540	144	14160	24
Hercules DT120 Engine	B	3	15,540	4,050	144	16200	26
Dunn-21 Engine	B	3	15,540	3,300	149	13200	27
SAE-5220 Engine	B	3	15,270	4,590	138	18360	28
Nova 1020 Engine	B	3	16,080	3,720	143	14880	31
Hercules DT130 Engine	B	3	17,670	4,050	143	16200	32
Dunn-31 Engine	B	3	17,670	3,600	148	14400	33
SAE-5330 Engine	B	3	17,670	4,830	138	19320	34
Nova 1030 Engine	B	3	18,060	3,915	142	15660	36
Hercules DT140 Engine	B	3	19,920	3,150	142	12600	38
Dunn-41 Engine	B	3	19,920	4,200	147	16800	39
SAE-5440 Engine	B	3	19,920	5,040	137	20160	40
Hercules DT150 Engine	B	3	22,170	3,750	141	15000	43
Nova 1040 Engine	B	3	20,190	4,200	141	16800	43
Dunn-51 Engine	B	3	22,170	4,740	146	18960	44
SAE-5550 Engine	B	3	22,050	5,340	136	21360	45
Hercules DT160 Engine	B	3	24,300	4,650	140	18600	48
Dunn-61 Engine	B	3	24,300	4,950	145	19800	50
Nova 1050 Engine	B	3	22,170	4,500	140	18000	50
SAE-5660 Engine	B	3	24,300	5,550	135	22200	51
Dunn-71 Engine	B	3	26,580	5,250	144	21000	56

Components - Engines (Part 2)

Note that 6 x SAL-6330 is the most powerful max maneuvering thrust currently available, by a fairly significant margin, more than one-third higher than 2nd place.

Engine	Class	Max Power	Thrust	Manu Thrust	Mass	Manu @ Max Engines	Level
Supernova 2000 Engine	C	3	17,670	6,450	334	25800	12
Amun Dunn X-100 Engine	C	3	19,530	6,600	340	26400	38
Poseidon DT210 Engine	C	4	26,040	7,600	336	22800	38
SAL-6110 Engine	C	2	13,600	3,800	300	22800	39
Supernova 2100 Engine	C	3	21,120	7,050	334	28200	46
Amun Dunn X-200 Engine	C	3	21,240	7,200	338	28800	48
Poseidon DT220 Engine	C	4	28,320	9,600	335	28800	48
SAL-6220 Engine	C	2	15,760	5,800	330	34800	50
Poseidon DT230 Engine	C	4	34,520	11,600	334	34800	57
Supernova 2200 Engine	C	3	25,770	7,650	333	30600	57
Amun Dunn X-300 Engine	C	3	25,890	8,400	336	33600	60
SAL-6330 Engine	C	2	18,000	7,800	340	46800	60

Components - Reactors

Requires one, and only one. Reactors seem complicated, but honestly comes down to just class and power output. They are reasonably massive - not cargo hold massive, but still enough to worry about. They're also one of the most expensive components ... though honestly nothing in shipbuilding is really expensive; even the highest end reactor is less than 50k.

Your ship class is equal to your reactor class. Therefore you cannot fly any ship with a class C reactor without Piloting 4, or a Class B without Piloting 3. However, there are some very nice Class A reactors if you take points in Starship Design.

Reactor	Class	Power	Mass	Lvl
330T Stellarator Reactor	A	14	23	1
340T Stellarator Reactor	A	16	25	1
Tokamak X-150 Reactor	A	20	30	1
114MM Toroidal Reactor	A	16	22	3
Tokamak X-050 Reactor	A	16	25	4
124MM Toroidal Reactor	A	18	24	6
Tokamak X-100 Reactor	A	18	27	9
350T Stellarator Reactor	A	18	28	11
134MM Toroidal Reactor	A	20	27	12
Tokamak X-120S Reactor	A	28	30	12
360T Stellarator Reactor	A	20	32	14
Tokamak X-200 Reactor	A	23	34	19
144MM Toroidal Reactor	A	23	30	22
370T Stellarator Reactor	A	23	37	25
154MM Toroidal Reactor	A	26	35	30
Tokamak X-250 Reactor	A	26	39	35
Spheromak DC201 Reactor	A	28	38	38
380T Stellarator Reactor	A	26	40	41
Spheromak DC202 Reactor	A	33	45	43
164MM Toroidal Reactor	A	29	42	46
Tokamak X-300 Reactor	A	29	45	51
Z-Machine 1000 Reactor	B	14	49	1
101DS Mag Inertial Reactor	B	16	46	12
Ion Beam H-1010 Reactor	B	16	52	14
DC301 Fast Ignition Reactor	B	18	52	16
Z-Machine 2000 Reactor	B	21	57	19
Z-Machine 2020 Reactor	B	16	57	24
102DS Mag Inertial Reactor	B	24	54	25
Ion Beam H-1020 Reactor	B	24	60	28
DC302 Fast Ignition Reactor	B	27	60	36
Z-Machine 3000 Reactor	B	28	65	41
103DS Mag Inertial Reactor	B	31	62	44
Ion Beam H-1030 Reactor	B	31	69	48
Z-Machine 4000 Reactor	B	35	75	49
DC303 Fast Ignition Reactor	B	35	69	52
104DS Mag Inertial Reactor	B	39	71	60
Theta Pinch A9 Reactor	C	18	85	10
SF10 Sheared Flow Reactor	C	20	81	17
Pinch 5Z Reactor	C	20	90	19
Fusor DC401 Reactor	C	29	90	20
Theta Pinch B9 Reactor	C	24	96	24
SF20 Sheared Flow Reactor	C	27	91	27
Pinch 6Z Reactor	C	27	102	30
Theta Pinch C9 Reactor	C	30	109	35
SF30 Sheared Flow Reactor	C	34	103	36
Fusor DC402 Reactor	C	34	102	38
Pinch 7Z Reactor	C	32	115	43
Fusor DC403 Reactor	C	38	115	49
Theta Pinch D9 Reactor	C	37	122	51
Pinch 8A Reactor	C	36	135	52
SF40 Sheared Flow Reactor	C	40	116	57
Pinch 8Z Reactor	C	40	129	60

Components - Shields

None required, no more than 1 installed. Shields can be tricky to evaluate. While more max health is obviously good, how often are you going to run the shield at max power?

For example, the tiny 10S shield has 310 strength and 3 Max Power. Meanwhile, the Class C SG-1000 has 730 strength and 7 Max Power. If we only operate at 3 bars of power - the two shields are effectively the same!

Whereas the SG-1800 has a whopping 1600 strength ... but requires a full 12 bars of power to get that result.

Shield	Class	Max Power	Health	Regen	Health/Power	Lvl
101D Guardian Shield Generator	C	6	680	5%	113	10
102D Guardian Shield Generator	C	8	850	5%	106	27
103D Guardian Shield Generator	C	10	1,095	5%	110	43
104D Guardian Shield Generator	C	12	1,350	5%	113	60
10S Protector Shield Generator	A	3	310	10%	103	1
11T Defender Shield Generator	B	5	505	7%	101	5
20S Protector Shield Generator	A	4	355	10%	89	1
22T Defender Shield Generator	B	6	640	7%	107	19
28T Defender Shield Generator	B	12	1,500	7%	125	24
30S Protector Shield Generator	A	5	420	10%	84	12
33T Defender Shield Generator	B	9	890	7%	99	41
40S Protector Shield Generator	A	6	520	10%	87	22
44T Defender Shield Generator	B	9	1,035	7%	115	52
50S Protector Shield Generator	A	7	650	10%	93	35
60S Protector Shield Generator	A	8	810	10%	101	51
Assurance SG-1000 Shield Generator	C	7	730	5%	104	19
Assurance SG-1800 Shield Generator	C	12	1,600	5%	133	27
Assurance SG-2000 Shield Generator	C	10	975	5%	98	35
Assurance SG-3000 Shield Generator	C	10	1,190	5%	119	49
Bastille S80 Shield Generator	A	3	325	10%	108	3
Bastille S81 Shield Generator	A	4	390	10%	98	9
Bastille S82 Shield Generator	A	5	455	10%	91	16
Bastille S83 Shield Generator	A	6	600	10%	100	30
Bastille S84 Shield Generator	A	7	730	10%	104	43
Deflector SG-10 Shield Generator	A	3	340	10%	113	4
Deflector SG-20 Shield Generator	A	4	375	10%	94	8
Deflector SG-30 Shield Generator	A	5	440	10%	88	14
Deflector SG-35 Shield Generator	A	12	685	10%	57	19
Deflector SG-40 Shield Generator	A	6	550	10%	92	25
Deflector SG-50 Shield Generator	A	7	715	10%	102	41
Deflector SG-60 Shield Generator	A	9	860	10%	96	56
Fortress A1 Shield Generator	C	6	705	5%	118	17
Fortress A2 Shield Generator	C	9	900	5%	100	30
Fortress A3 Shield Generator	C	11	1,215	5%	110	51
Marduk 1010-A Shield Generator	A	4	405	10%	101	11
Marduk 1020-A Shield Generator	A	5	485	10%	97	19
Marduk 1030-A Shield Generator	A	6	680	10%	113	38
Marduk 1040-A Shield Generator	A	7	760	10%	109	46
Odin 3030-C Shield Generator	C	8	805	5%	101	24
Odin 3040-C Shield Generator	C	9	995	5%	111	36
Odin 3050-C Shield Generator	C	11	1,315	5%	120	57
Osiris 2020-B Shield Generator	A	6	570	7%	95	16
Osiris 2030-B Shield Generator	B	8	830	7%	104	36
Osiris 2040-B Shield Generator	B	8	995	7%	124	49
Tower N400 Shield Generator	B	5	545	7%	109	14
Tower N410 Shield Generator	B	7	730	7%	104	28
Tower N420 Shield Generator	B	8	975	7%	122	48
Vanguard Bulwark Shield Generator	B	12	1,450	6%	121	1
Warden SG-100 Shield Generator	B	5	525	7%	105	12
Warden SG-200 Shield Generator	B	6	690	7%	115	25
Warden SG-300 Shield Generator	B	8	930	7%	116	44
Warden SG-400 Shield Generator	B	10	1,125	7%	113	60

Weapons - General

There are several types of ship weapons.

Laser
Ballistic
Missile
Electromagnetic
Disruptor/Particle Beam

Other than Missiles, these all come with either normal or turret varieties. Turret varieties reduce the accuracy (assuming the in-game loading screens are correct), and automate the weapon so that you don't have to - and indeed cannot - fire the weapon manually.

Your ship may have zero to three Weapon Groups. A Weapon Group is a single model of weapon - for example, the PB-100 Auto Neutron Beam. Even weapons that seem "close" cannot be in the same weapon group. The PB-100 Auto Neutron Beam Turret, despite its similar name, cannot be grouped with the PB-100 Auto Neutron Beam. You may have both on the same ship if you put them in different weapon groups.

While the tutorials and interface might make you think group 0 should be laser, group 1 ballistic and group 2 missiles - there is no actual requirement other than 0 to 3 weapon groups. So you can absolutely do missile, missile, missile if you want (just so long as you use 3 different missile models).

So long as you have ungrouped weapons, your build will be invalid. Using the Flight Check option, you assign W0, W1 and W2 to your weapon groups. This determines what key/control you use to fire that group.

If you don't have all 3 weapon groups assigned, you will get a warning ... but this warning does not invalidate the build. You can build with 0, 1 or 2 weapon groups if you wish, despite the warning.

Weapons - Lasers

Lasers have effective firing ranges from 1000 to 1500, depending on the particular weapon. They do significantly more shield damage than hull damage. There are three main groupings of fire rates, slow (around 1.5-2.5), normal (around 3.5-4) and fast (above 5). Many lasers have a variant called "Pulse", which is one fire rate class faster than the base weapon. Typically, anyhow. There's at least one pulse weapon that appears no faster than its base (but does a little more damage) - so be sure to check the stats before committing.

Lasers tend to be good candidates for turrets, as the lack of manual target selection is less of a problem in a scrum of undamaged ships ... most targets will have shields to knock down.

As with other ship devices, max power is very important. Max Power 4 means only 3 of that weapon can fit on a ship, whereas Max Power 3 can slot 4 weapons.

Lasers are boosted by the Energy Weapons Systems skill.

Turrets are boosted by the Automated Weapon Systems skill.

Weapon	Class	Max Power	Range	Fire Rate	Shield Dmg	Hull Dmg	Starship Design
Dragon 221 MW	A	3	1000	3.49	12	4
Dragon 221 MW Pulse	A	3	1000	6.65	9	4
Dragon 231 IR	A	3	1000	3.49	19	6	Rank 1
Dragon 231 IR Pulse	A	3	1000	6.65	13	4	Rank 2
Flare 15MW IR	A	3	1250	3.49	14	4
Singe 4MW	A	4	1250	3.49	22	7	Rank 2
Dragon 241	B	3	1000	2.5	23	7
Dragon 241P Pulse (turret)	B	3	1250	2.5	35.2	11
Dragon 241P Pulse	B	3	1000	5	15	5
Dragon 251 UV	B	3	1000	2.5	34	10	Rank 2
Scorch 60MW	B	4	1250	2.5	25	8
Scorch-S 80MW Pulse	B	4	1500	3	27.5	8.8	Rank 4
Scorch-P 60MW Pulse (turret)	B	4	1500	5	19.8	5.5	Rank 1
Scorch-P 60MW Pulse	B	4	1250	2.5	32	10
Blaze 2GW SX	C	3	1250	1.5	46	14
Blaze-P 2GW SX Pulse (turret)	C	4	1250	4	25	8
Blaze-P 2GW SX Pulse	C	3	1250	4	24	7	Rank 1
Dragon 261 SX	C	3	1000	1.5	43	13
Dragon 261 SX (turret)	C	3	1000	1.5	64.9	19.8
Dragon 261P SX Pulse	C	3	1000	4	20	6

Weapons - Ballistic

Ballistics have effective firing ranges from 800 to 1250, depending on the particular weapon. This makes them the shortest range ship weapons, so there's no question of your enemy being able to hit you if you're using ballistics. They are intended to be used on targets with shields down.

Ballistic weapons improve a lot with points in Starship Design.

As with other ship devices, max power is very important. Max Power 4 means only 3 of that weapon can fit on a ship, whereas Max Power 3 can slot 4 weapons.

Ballistics are boosted by the Ballistic Weapons Systems skill.

Turrets are boosted by the Automated Weapon Systems skill.

Weapon	Class	Max Power	Range	Fire Rate	Shield Dmg	Hull Dmg	Starship Design
KE-20 Cannon	A	3	800	3.49	6	20.4
KE-20A AutoCannon	A	3	800	6.65	4.8	14.4	Rank 1
KE-31 Cannon	A	4	1250	3.49	9.6	32.4	Rank 3
KE-31A Autocannon	A	4	1250	6.65	7.2	22.8	Rank 4
Mauler 104L Cannon	A	4	800	3.49	4.8	15.6
Mauler 104L Autocannon	A	4	800	6.65	3.6	10.8
KE-42 Cannon	B	3	1250	2.5	10.8	37.2
KE-42 Cannon (turret)	B	4	1500	2.5	20.15	64.8	Rank 3
KE-42A Autocannon	B	4	1250	5	7.2	24	Rank 2
KE-49 Cannon	B	4	1250	2.5	15.6	51.6	Rank 3
Mauler 106S Shot-Cannon	B	4	800	1.75	16.8	57.6	Rank 4
MKE-4 Gauss Gun	C	3	1250	1.5	18	61.2
MKE-4A AutoGauss Gun	C	3	1250	4	8.4	28.8	Rank 1
MKE-9 Gauss Gun	C	4	1250	1.5	22.8	74.4	Rank 2

Weapons - Missile

Missiles have a long effective range, as much as 4000. They hit shields and hull equally. They have large damage numbers, making them - particularly in combination with Particle Beams - an interesting choice for fighting from a distance and just never bothering to get much under range 2000.

As with other ship devices, max power is very important. Max Power 4 means only 3 of that weapon can fit on a ship, whereas Max Power 3 can slot 4 weapons.

Missiles are boosted by the Missile Weapons Systems skill.

Weapon	Class	Max Power	Range	Fire Rate	Damage	DPS	Level	Starship Design
Atlatl 270A Missile Launcher	A	3	4000	1	47	47	1
CE-09 Missile Launcher	A	3	4000	1	36	36	1
Infiltrator SC-01 Missile Launcher	A	3	3750	1	41	40	1	Rank 1
Vanguard Tempest CE-13 Missile Launcher	A	6	4000	1.5	30	50	1
Tsukisasu 13K Missile Launcher	A	3	4250	1	38	38	11
Atlatl 280A Missile Launcher	A	3	4000	1	82	82	25	Rank 2
CE-19 Missile Launcher	A	3	4000	1	77	77	35	Rank 3
Tsukisasu 19K Missile Launcher	A	4	4250	1	78	78	41	Rank 4
Infiltrator SC-02 Missile Launcher	A	3	3750	1	65	65	51	Rank 4
Atlatl 270B Missile Launcher	B	4	4000	1	68	68	5
Atlatl 290B Missile Launcher	B	10	4000	1	96	96	16	Rank 3
CE-29 Missile Launcher	B	3	4000	1.25	58	73	17
Tsukisasu 25k Missile Launcher	B	3	4000	1	52	52	25
Hunter Mag-350 Missile Launcher	B	3	3750	1	55	55	30	Rank 1
Atlatl 290B Missile Launcher	B	4	4000	1	141	141	38	Rank 4
CE-39 Missile Launcher	B	3	4000	1	104	104	44	Rank 3
Tsukisasu 33k Missile Launcher	B	4	4250	1	96	96	52	Rank 4
Hunter Mag-450 Missile Launcher	B	3	3750	1	90	90	60	Rank 4
Atlatl 270C Missile Launcher	C	4	4000	1	149	149	10
CE-49 Missile Launcher	C	3	4000	1	96	96	24
Tsukisasu 40k Missile Launcher	C	4	4250	1	82	82	30	Rank 4
Devastator 1500 Missile Launcher	C	3	3750	1	68	68	35	Rank 1
Atlatl 280C Missile Launcher	C	4	4000	1	264	264	43	Rank 3
CE-59 Missile Launcher	C	3	4000	1	153	153	49	Rank 3
Tsukisasu 50k Missile Launcher	C	4	4250	1	136	136	57	Rank 4

Weapons - Electromagnetic

Electromagnetic weapons are good for disabling and stealing ships. They do system damage directly without needing to specifically target systems. Reports are they have a chance to not apply when firing through shields, so they are probably best equipped with at least one laser weapons group.

As with other ship devices, max power is very important. Max Power 4 means only 3 of that weapon can fit on a ship, whereas Max Power 3 can slot 4 weapons.

Unlike other weapons, EM do only 1 point vs shields or hull.

Weapon	Class	Max Power	Range	Fire Rate	EM Dmg	Starship Design
Spark 750 Suppressor	A	3	1000	1.5	30
Nullifier 1750 Suppressor	A	3	800	1.5	48	Rank 3
Firebolt 4000 Suppressor	B	3	800	1.25	47	Rank 2
Fulminator 8000 Suppressor	C	3	800	0.8	58

Weapons - Particle Beams/Disruptors

After that EM weirdness it's good to get back to something that's more clear. And Particle Beams are pretty clearly awesome. In fact, I wonder if the devs really thought them through with respect to lasers.

Take the basic Class C laser, the Dragon 261 SX. Compare it to the basic Class C particle beam, the PB-300 Alpha. Both require no special skill (beyond the Pilot 4 all Class C requires). Both are Max Power 3 and Fire Rate 1.5. The laser does a tiny amount more damage to shields (43 vs 41). However this pales in comparison to the massive 13 vs 41 difference versus hull. By itself, that seems to be stretching the edges of balance. But to add to that, the particle beam has range 3000, compared to the laser's 1000. WTH!

As with other ship devices, max power is very important. Max Power 4 means only 3 of that weapon can fit on a ship, whereas Max Power 3 can slot 4 weapons.

Particle Beams are boosted by the Particle Beam Weapons Systems skill. I assume it also boosts Disruptors, but I've seen no text actually saying so.

Weapon	Class	Max Power	Range	Fire Rate	Shield Dmg	Hull Dmg	Starship Design
Disruptor 3300 Electron Beam	A	3	3500	3.49	13	13
Disruptor 3300A Auto Electron Beam	A	3	3500	6.65	8	8
Disruptor 3310 Proton Beam	A	3	3500	3.49	18	18	Rank 1
Disruptor 3310A Auto Proton Beam	A	4	3500	6.65	13	13	Rank 3
PB-30 Electron Beam	A	3	3000	3.49	13	13
PBO-30 Auto Electron Beam	A	3	3000	6.65	9	9
PBO-40 Auto Electron Beam	A	4	3000	6.65	14	14	Rank 4
PB-50 Proton Beam	A	4	3000	3.49	21	21	Rank 3
PB-100 Neutron Beam	B	3	3000	2.5	23	23
Disruptor 3320 Neutron Beam	B	3	3500	2.5	20	20
Disruptor 3320 Neutron (turret)	B	3	3500	2.5	31.9	31.9
Disruptor 3320A Auto Neutron Beam	B	3	3500	5	13	13
Disruptor 3330 Helion Beam	B	4	3500	2.5	30	30	Rank 2
Disruptor 3330A Auto Helion Beam	B	4	3500	5	19	19	Rank 3
PBO-100 Auto Neutron (turret)	B	3	3000	5	17.6	17.6	Rank 1
PB-100 Auto Neutron Beam	B	3	3000	5	14	14
PB-175 Hellion Beam	B	3	3000	2.5	29	29	Rank 2
Disruptor 3340 Alpha Beam	C	3	3500	1.5	38	38
Disruptor 3340A Auto Alpha (turret)	C	3	3500	4	19	19
Disruptor 3340A Auto Alpha Beam	C	3	3500	4	17	17
PB-300 Alpha Beam	C	3	3000	1.5	41	41
PB-100 Auto Alpha (turret)	C	3	3000	5	24.2	24.2	Rank 1
PB-300 Auto Alpha Beam	C	3	3000	5	19	19

Manufacturer Cosmetics

Deimos parts have a sleek and angular look to them; like fighter jets.



Taiyo parts are rounded, smoothing off the rough edges normal in Starfield spacecraft design. It can look a bit bulbous:



But there are better implementations of Taiyo, as well:

That's a Nova mount on the front, but otherwise all Taiyo.


Stroud parts tend to have an clean industrial look to them. Very workmanlike, not a lot of decorative stuff.



Hope parts tend to have a scrappy, make-do-with-what-you've-got look.


Nova is a bit difficult to describe, it's sort of what we would probably consider "normal look". Kind of like the old American space shuttles. Sleek like Deimos, but without the angles and racing fins.

Of course, you can always mix and match parts. The base habs look pretty similar other than the outside detail, so if you paint them it's hard to tell the difference. Deimos base habs are more angled at the edges, while Taiyo is rounded, but the differences are not that big.

General Ship Crafting Interface Notes

A couple of tricky things about the ship building interface:

The same key does both "Add" and "Attach", which will drive you crazy. It all depends on what your mouse is pointing at when you hit the key. If "Attach", the list will be limited to what is valid to place at the spot where your cursor was when you hit it. Whereas with "Add" you get the full list and free positioning. So make sure your mouse isn't pointing at anything when you hit the key!

At first, I found it extremely frustrating to position ship parts, but then I found out the "R" and "F" keys allow you to move up and down levels rather than trying to shift the levels manually.

The ship will reposition its center as you build it, you can start building from any part of the ship you want.

When dorsally mounting weapons and special equipment, you may need to use the "Equipment Plate" structural component to attach to a dorsal (topside) module connector.

Similarly, the "Horizon Weapon Mount" structural will let you add up to 2 weapons to a port/starboard module connector.

Also, I find the "Nova Weapon Mount" structural to be quite useful in attaching weapons to the front of my ships.

You can rename your ship in the Flight Check window. As far as I know, this is the only place you can rename the ship. It's not obvious, though, look down at the bottom of the Flight Check window to see you can hit the "G" key to rename.

[Drake Ravenwolf]

Here's a spreadsheet using the numbers listed above and with some additional sorting/analysis on my part - feel free to use:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qlhflo6zahwag06h1yzky/Starfield-ShipDesign.ods?rlkey=en5sp9jpwwb65saswchf8fodo&dl=1

[Drake Ravenwolf]

Eh... correction, if you take into account the fewer engines required for a 3 power engine the most thrust for the least mass engine becomes the B Class: SAE-5660 Engine

[Drake Ravenwolf]

The SAL-6330 Class C engines might have the highest "Manu @ Max Engines" but it also comes with a lot of mass... if you divide that value by the mass the engine comes with you get an efficiency value where the SA-4330 Engines come out on top

[kabage3000]

This is formula I use for weapons. But manual vs auto/pulse vs turret is probably more critical to play style. I like auto/pulse but they do need cool downs. Turrets probably critical in 3+ enemies but those are few and far between. Manuals are slower but can be fired without cooling down.

Damage per second per power unit. --- (Shot speed * dmg ) / power units .

Too much coffee this am I guess.

[kabage3000]

Fantastic. Super guide I've picked all my favorite parts per power unit finally. Just one thing thing missing the only 2 power weapon I know of. It has the best dmg per sec per power unit. The Vanguard Obliterator Autoprojector. I usually only want 8 power per weapon type but I do use 5 of these and only 1 4 power unit on mouse 2. Saving like 2 power units on weapons. Yes 6 would be better with no mouse 2 but I have to keep the spastic mouse 2 finger something to do.
Thank you for your work.

[Kraft51]

nice comprehensive guide, a few things you missed though is the 2x2, 3x2 and 3x3 hab variants. otherwise great work

[Tucklis]

This guide is going to help me massively, thank you

[sarg]

Major updates to Weapons - Missiles, Reactors, Shields and Engines!

Orici this should deal with the concern you raised.

Minutia Man, missiles are updated now.

[JRaines94]

Here's a great website for ships and locations:

https://inara.cz/starfield/ships/

[Minutia Man]

This is a good introduction to ship building. I'm looking forward to building my own ship.
BTW you didn't populate the "Weapons - Missiles" section with any info, just the header?