Ship design handbook for Polaris Sector

Charts containing different values to help design ships, not available in game: DPS on weapons, Energy per space used, etc.

Introduction

***WORK IN PROGRESS***

First off, I will apologize in advance if there are grammatical errors. English is not my native language and even if I pride myself in expressing correctly, I am sure errors will happen. If you notice any of these, please comment on it and I will gladly amend them.

What is this guide about?

A simple (I hope), guide with charts to help while designing ships in Polaris Sector. I will assume you know your way around and as me, you're tired of calculating specific data for components in every ship you design. I couldn't find anything like this at the time of creation of this guide, so if you know of a better place to see this information, let me know so I can stop doing tables and get back to playing.

All data was taken directly from the game, at the first iteration of this guide I have yet to finish it so there are a few missing end-modules. Bear with me, they will be added as soon as these dreaded Logans stop being a threat and I can spare all my research into the final modules.

I also suspect this will be a guide that will need constant updating, so I will do my best to keep it up to date. I think Polaris Sector is truly a jewel, and it is one of these games we will keep playing even after several hardware upgrades. As such, a guide for it is wortwhile. Feedback is not only accepted but encouraged, so thank you in advance.

Weapons

What is this?

Weapons are reported as single gun data in the game. It means you seldom have the full information to have an impact on your design; the purpose of this chart is to give you the actual information of the turret plus weapon of choice and to compare it against other options, for every available turret. What will you find in the charts here:

Aug 2024 update: There is something like armour threshold (since active reidium) which blocks 2 points of damage from each hit (for a fighter), so, does not matter how much DPS paired laser have, even in 4x (in 6x6 turret) because all of that will be blocked by armour. Not even saying about blocking dmg for ships (blocking 5 points) which makes ion cannons completely obsolete. (Credit to lukasz.poczciwy)

Ship classes

Ships are divided in sizes:

Light ships are pretty much fighters: Fighter, Interceptor, Heavy Fighter and Gunboats.
Medium ships are Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer and Freighter.
Heavy ships are Cruiser, Battleship, Battle Satellite and Battle platform.

Range

This is the reported range of the weapon plus the effect of the turret, varying from 3% to 5%. Missiles have this estimation applied too, until proven otherwise.

DPS

Damage per second; this is important specially on missile batteries and weapons with shotgun effects: the DPS reported here estimates a 100% impact of all the shells of the salvo. In example, a weapon with reported damage of 10x12 is accounted as 120 damage and divided between the recharge rate for calculation purposes. This is not expected to be realistic on missiles. Nevertheless, is still an useful tool to compare against other weapons.

*Please be aware that as fighters don't reload missiles outside their mothership, DPS data for fighter pylons is just their payload reported, not an actual DPS.

Power

How much power does the weapon actually need? This accounts the number of barrels + turret consumption. Suffice to say, this is the actual number you'll see while designing your ship.

Energy Efficiency

Want to run a power-efficient ship? This is for you! This column shows how much energy is required for every point of damage-per-second, to standarize and compare between weapons. Just remember, the lesser the number, the less cost per damage you inflict. Not surprisingly, Missiles are by far the best in this category.

Light ship 1 x 10 small pylon

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun	1000	2.3	50	22	Your average Joe gun, fighter size
Heavy Ion Gun	1200	3.8	60	16	This might be the best choice to use on your standard fighter, during the whole game. You see, even if you tink there will be somewhat better guns ahead, they tend to become increasingly expensive, and the motto of mass producing is go cheap. Alas, the thing about all this is that... there aren't really better guns after this, comparing DPS and Range
Three-beam Ion Gun	1000	4.0	70	18	This might be the best choice to use on your standard fighter... as well. For the same reasons listed above, pick either this or the Heavy Ion gun and stick with it
Plasma Mini-gun	1300	2.3	250	108	Way too much energy for a mere 100 increase in range, with almost half the DPS. Stick with the Heavy Ion
Gravitation Micro-gun	1200	2.7	75	28	I really don't see any reason to use this other than the homing shell, which isn't that much of an advantage on a fighter. Stick with the Heavy Ion
Laser	450	2.0	25	13
Paired Laser	450	3.0	30	10	If for some reason you choose to use a beam instead of guns, this could be your option. Still, you need to counter somehow its short range
Heavy Laser	525	2.5	40	16
Plasma Missile	700	25.0	0	0	First option for a hunter if you want to use missiles, with homing capabilites. (Fighter vs Fighter)
AP-Torpedo	1400	192.0	0	0	First option if you intend to design a fighter-bomber (Fighter vs Ships)
AP-Missile	800	40.0	0	0	Better version of the Plasma Missile (Fighter vs Fighter)
Thermonuclear Torpedo	2000	288.0	100	1	Your weapon of choice for fighter bombers. (Fighter vs Ships)

Light ship 2 x 9 medium pylon

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun	1000	2.3	50	22	Your average Joe gun, fighter size
Heavy Ion Gun	1200	3.8	60	16	This might be the best choice to use on your standard fighter, during the whole game. You see, even if you tink there will be somewhat better guns ahead, they tend to become increasingly expensive, and the motto of mass producing is go cheap. Alas, the thing about all this is that... there aren't really better guns after this, comparing DPS and Range
Three-beam Ion Gun	1000	4.0	70	18	This might be the best choice to use on your standard fighter... as well. For the same reasons listed above, pick either this or the Heavy Ion gun and stick with it
Plasma Mini-gun	1300	2.3	250	108	Way too much energy for a mere 100 increase in range, with almost half the DPS. Stick with the Heavy Ion
Gravitation Mini-gun	1300	3.2	90	28	I really don't see any reason to use this other than the homing shell, which isn't that much of an advantage on a fighter. Stick with the Heavy Ion
Gravitation Micro-gun	1200	2.7	75	28	I really don't see any reason to use this other than the homing shell, which isn't that much of an advantage on a fighter. Stick with the Heavy Ion... just in case the message hasn't gotten trough
Laser	450	2.0	25	13
Paired Laser	450	3.0	30	10	If for some reason you choose to use a beam instead of guns, this could be your option. Still, you need to counter somehow its short range
Heavy Laser	525	2.5	40	16
IR Laser	1500	1.2	60	50	Very nice range... with low DPS. This could have been love...
Maser	675	3.2	120	37	Shortish range, goodish DPS, horrible energy efficieny. Just.. meh
Plasma Missile	700	25.0	0	0	First option for a hunter if you want to use missiles, with homing capabilites. (Fighter vs Fighter)
AP-Torpedo x2	1400	384.0	0	0	First option if you intend to design a fighter-bomber; now with two torps! (Fighter vs Ships)
AP-Missile	800	40.0	0	0	Better version of the Plasma Missile (Fighter vs Fighter)
Thermonuclear Torpedo x2	2000	576.0	100	1	Your weapon of choice for fighter bombers, twice the punch! (Fighter vs Ships)
Thermonuclear Missile	900	60.0	0	0	I suposse this is an upgrade for the AP-Missile, but you should use the missile below at this stage(Fighter vs Fighter)
Thermonuclear MIRV 5 mini	600	75.0	0	0	It seems there is consenus on steam forums about the MIRV being the better Point-Defense weapon... still, I would use it on capital ships only. If you want to use it in on a fighter, here's your weapon of choice for massive fighter battles, Macross/Robotech style (Fighter vs Fighters)
Photon Missile	1000	80.0	0	0	Fast as the AP-Missile, but with twice the punch (Fighter vs Fighter)

Light ship 3 x 8 large pylon

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun x2	1050	4.5	100	22	Your average Joe gun, fighter size. This is, however, a quite though Joe.
Heavy Ion Gun x2	1260	7.5	120	16	Time to retrofit your fighters... with this baby. Hands down the best choice for a fighter. To put it in perspective, it has a better DPS than all but one capital ships 3x3 turret weapons, cheaper than all of them, the best energy efficiency and even the range is not too shabby, either. The only other weapon that could improve the offensive stats for your fighters is... three single-barrel Heavy Ion Guns glued togheter
Three-beam Ion Gun	1050	4.0	70	18	At this size, it is no longer a good option. the humble Ion Gun is better with the extra barrel
Plasma Gun	1575	3.5	500	144	Not too bad but not too good, either. It sucks energy like if there's no tomorrow
Plasma Mini-gun	1365	2.3	250	108	Way too much energy for a mere 105 increase in range, with almost half the DPS. Stick with the Heavy Ion, now with two barrels!
Gravitation Gun	1785	4.3	120	28	Very good range, homing shell, affordable energy efficiency and decent DPS. A rasonable option at this size if you're tired of Heavy Ions or want better range in your fighters
Gravitation Mini-gun	1365	3.2	90	28	I really don't see any reason to use this other than the homing shell, which isn't that much of an advantage on a fighter, the full Grav gun is better.
Gravitation Micro-gun	1260	2.7	75	28	I really don't see any reason to use this other than the homing shell, which isn't that much of an advantage on a fighter, the full Grav gun is better
Laser x2	473	4.0	50	13	The 2-barrel version gives you the best DPS among beam weapons... with one inch range
Paired Laser	473	3.0	30	10	Use common Laser instead, if you absolutely must
Heavy Laser	551	2.5	40	16
IR Laser	1575	1.2	60	50	Very nice range... with lowest DPS. This could have been love...
Concentrated IR Laser	1733	1.3	80	60	Very nice range... with low DPS. This could have been concentrated love...
Maser	709	3.2	120	37	Shortish range, goodish DPS, horrible energy efficieny. Just.. meh
Heavy Maser	788	3.6	180	50	Shortish range, goodish DPS, horrible energy efficieny. Just.. heavier meh
Plasma Missile x2	700	50.0	0	0	First option for a hunter if you want to use missiles, with homing capabilites. (Fighter vs Fighter)
AP-Torpedo x3	1400	576.0	0	0	First option if you intend to design a fighter-bomber; the three-torp arrangement allows you to use it instead of Thermonuclear... same punch with more chances, at a lower range. Choices, choices... (Fighter vs Ships)
AP-Missile	800	40.0	0	0	Better version of the Plasma Missile (Fighter vs Fighter)
Thermonuclear Torpedo x2	2000	576.0	100	1	Your weapon of choice for fighter bombers, best range of them all and draw-best DPS as well (Fighter vs Ships)
Plasma MIRV 6	600	90.0	0	0	An improvement over the Thermo MIRV5 mini, but it gets late to the party. Use Thermo MIRV 6 instead (Fighter vs Fighters)	Thermonuclear Missile 900 60.0 0 0 I suposse this is an upgrade for the AP-Missile, but at this stage you are in the MIRV era (Fighter vs Fighter)	Thermonuclear MIRV 6 800 108.0 0 0 Better than the MIRV5-mini. Here's your weapon of choice for massive fighter battles, Macross/Robotech style (Fighter vs Fighters)	Thermonuclear MIRV 5 mini 600 75.0 0 0 Do not use this. Let me elaborate: do not use this on this size, what about using a 1x9 weapon paired with a 2x8 of this one? (Fighter vs Fighter)	Photon Missile 1000 80.0 0 0 Fast as the AP-Missile, but with twice the punch (Fighter vs Fighter)

Light ship 3 x 3 turret

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun	1000	2.3	150	67	Your average Joe gun, undersized and underpowered
Heavy Ion Gun	1200	3.8	160	43	Still good DPS... but I wouldn't suggest to use this on a turret. As the main weakness of a fighter is its point-Defense, this turret of your gunboat should be used with beam weapons, always
Three-beam Ion Gun	1000	4.0	170	43	Same as above. Really
Plasma Mini-gun	1300	2.3	350	152
Gravitation Micro-gun	1200	2.7	175	66	Homing shots... why are you still here? Use Lasers in this turret!
Laser	450	2.0	125	63	When I said to use lasers in this turret... I didn't mean this one
Paired Laser	450	3.0	130	43	Now this is what I was talking about. Rate of fire is best at this size and DPS is good, too. Hopefully if you have a squad of gunboats armed with these, no one should die from missile attacks, if they remain close enough
Heavy Laser	525	2.5	140	56	Longer, slower, heavier shots do not justify to use this instead of a paired laser
Plasma Missile x18	700	54.0	100	2	There are no MIRVs for this turret, so this is your weapon of choice if you want a spitfire on space
AP-Torpedo x12	1400	197.4	100	1	Mixed feelings about this. It would work as a gunboat vs Capital Ships, but it feels like an overkill, at the expense of the gunboat versatility. I suposse it depends on your tastes
AP-Missile x12	800	57.6	100	2	It might help when enemy fighters are shielded, versus the humble plasma missile. Less missiles, with more punchy heads
Thermonuclear Torpedo x9	2000	222.1	100	1	Mixed feelings about this. It would work as a gunboat vs Capital Ships, but it feels like an overkill, at the expense of the gunboat versatility. I suposse it depends on your tastes

Medium ship 3 x 3 turret

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun	1900	4.5	1100	244	Your average Joe gun
Heavy Ion Gun	2100	6.0	1400	233	Overweight average Joe gun
Laser	800	4.3	400	94
Paired Laser	800	9.1	600	66	Best Point-Defense, cost wise. Useful vs both Missiles and Fighters
Heavy Laser	950	6.7	700	105
UV Laser	600	3.7	700	189
Excimer Laser	600	5.0	1100	220	One of these can shot down and entire missile salvo by itself; not very good vs fighters, resource and energy expensive
Plasma Missile x5	1300	30	100	3
AP-Torpedo x3	2100	98.7	100	1	Good DPS but it feels like launching torpedos from a sub
AP-Missile x3	1800	28.8	100	3	Best Point-Defense Missile, above this and missiles are slow, below this and they are expensive and too few
Thermonuclear Torpedo x2	3500	98.7	100	1	Don't be fooled by the DPS and range, most missiles won't hit unless they overwhelm the enemy ship defenses
Plasma MIRV 6	1300	21.6	100	5
Thermonuclear Missile	2000	14.4	100	7
Thermonuclear MIRV 6	2000	25.9	100	4
Photon Missile	2200	19.2	100	5	Fast as the AP-Missile, but with less overall power. Bad idea (Fighter vs Fighter)

Medium ship 4 x4 turret

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun x2	1957	9.0	2200	244	With two barrels, this is your best choice at early game for this size
Heavy Ion Gun	2163	6.0	1500	250	Overweight average Joe gun
Three-beam Ion Gun	1957	8.0	1700	212	This one will give you a slight advantage in the early-to mid game
Plasma Gun	2575	6.9	2200	318	The first good choice if you intend to build fast ships that kill from afar
Gravitation Gun	2781	6.7	2200	326	Homing shots and decent DPS. However this is the most energy hungry weapon at this size. (Power per effective damage)
Anti-Meson Gun	1339	30.0	2450	82	Very good DPS, feels like loading a sail-vessel cannon, and shortest range at this turret size, though
Concentrated Anti-Meson Gun	1339	45.0	2700	60	50% more damage than its predecessor, but more energy efficient. Shares the same other flaws
Anti-proton Gun	3296	13.4	3000	224	First good range gun for this turret size. Energy consumption is still affordable
Laser x2	824	8.5	800	94
Paired Laser x2	824	18.2	1200	66	Best Point-Defense, cost wise. Useful vs both Missiles and Fighters; this 2-barrel version rocks at this turret size vs every other beam weapon.
Heavy Laser	979	6.7	800	120
UV Laser	618	3.7	800	216
Excimer Laser	618	5.0	1200	240	One of these can shot down and entire missile salvo by itself; not very good vs fighters, resource and energy expensive
IR Laser	3193	3.0	1700	568	This laser will be your weapon of choice of you prefer sniping ships. However, you need a lot to destroy anything larger than a corvette
Concentrated IR Laser	3270	3.3	1800	540	IR Laser on steroids
Maser	1133	17.1	2200	128
Plasma Missile x9	1339	54	200	4
AP-Torpedo x6	2163	197.4	200	1	Good DPS but it feels like launching torpedos from a sub, this 6-salvo version starts being useful
AP-Missile x6	1854	57.6	200	3	Best Point-Defense Missile, above this and missiles are slow, below this and they are expensive and too few
Thermonuclear Torpedo x4	3605	197.4	200	1	Don't be fooled by the DPS and range, most missiles won't hit unless they overwhelm the enemy ship defenses
Plasma MIRV 6 x3	1339	64.8	200	3
Thermonuclear Missile x3	2060	43.2	200	5
Thermonuclear MIRV 6 x2	2060	51.9	200	4
Photon Missile x2	2266	38.4	200	5	Fast as the AP-Missile, but with less overall power. Bad idea (Fighter vs Fighter)

Medium ship 5 x 5 turret

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun x2	1976	9.0	2400	267	5 x 5 turrets are too valuable to use with this gun, unless you're playing swarm, cheap ships
Heavy Ion Gun x2	2184	12.0	3000	250	This might be an option; watch the energy consumption
Three-beam Ion Gun	1976	8.0	1900	237	This one will give you a slight advantage in the early-to mid game
Plasma Gun	2600	6.9	2400	347	The first good choice if you intend to build fast ships that kill from afar
Gravitation Gun	2808	6.7	2400	356	Homing shots and decent DPS
Anti-Meson Gun	1352	30.0	2650	88	Very good DPS, feels like loading a sail-vessel cannon, and shortest range at this turret size, though
Concentrated Anti-Meson Gun	1352	45.0	2900	64	50% more damage than its predecessor, but very energy efficient. Shares the same other flaws.
Baryon Gun	3640	12.0	2900	242	Way better at sniping than the IR laser, but with increased energy cost per damage point
Anti-proton Gun	3328	13.4	3200	239	Keep using Baryon instead
Boson Gun	1872	10.5	20400	1943	Do not be scared by the energy consumption, this is a very special weapon. If you are getting beaten by swarms of enemy fighters, use just one of these in your ships. I repeat, JUST ONE. Then watch the fireworks!
Laser x2	832	8.5	1000	118
Paired Laser x2	832	18.2	1400	77	Best Point-Defense, cost wise. Useful vs both Missiles and Fighters. However, why would you want to use a PD weapon on a large turret?
Heavy Laser x2	988	13.3	1600	120	The 2-barrel version improves the DPS quite a bit, but still not the best idea to use a laser on one of these turrets
UV Laser x2	624	7.4	1600	216
Excimer Laser x2	624	10.0	2400	240	One of these can shot down and entire missile salvo by itself; not very good vs fighters, resource and energy expensive. Not a very good choice for a 5x5 turret
IR Laser	3224	3.0	1900	635	This laser will be your weapon of choice of you prefer sniping ships. However, you need a lot to destroy anything larger than a corvette. Use in smaller turrets if possible
Concentrated IR Laser	3270	3.3	1800	540	IR Laser on steroids, same recommendations as above
Maser	1144	17.1	2400	140
Heavy Maser	1222	18.4	3400	185
Plasma Missile x12	1352	72	400	6
AP-Torpedo x8	2184	263.2	400	2	Good DPS but it feels like launching torpedos from a sub. Use clusters instead of turrets
AP-Missile x8	1872	76.8	400	5	Best Point-Defense Missile, above this and missiles are slow, below this and they are expensive and too few. Use clusters instead of turrets for this
Thermonuclear Torpedo x6	3640	296.1	400	1	Don't be fooled by the DPS and range, most missiles won't hit unless they overwhelm the enemy ship defenses
Plasma MIRV 6 x4	1352	86.4	400	7
Thermonuclear Missile x4	2080	57.6	400	7
Thermonuclear MIRV 6 x3	2080	77.8	400	5
Photon Missile x3	2288	57.6	400	7	Fast as the AP-Missile, but with less overall power. Bad idea (Fighter vs Fighter)

Medium ship 6 x 6 turret (Energy Guns)

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Ion Gun x4	1995	18.0	4500	250	6 x 6 turrets are too valuable to use with this gun, unless you're playing swarm, cheap ships... even so, use the heavy version instead
Heavy Ion Gun x3	2205	18.0	4400	244	Like mounting a machine gun on the Big Bertha barrel... I suposse this might be an option
Three-beam Ion Gun x2	1995	16.0	3500	218	Mmh.... no. use Heavy Ion if you have to. Or better yet, spend more research on guns!
Plasma Gun x2	2625	13.8	4500	325	25% more range than the Heavy Ion... with worse DPS and more energy per damage point
Gravitation Gun x2	2835	13.5	4500	334	Homing shots, but DPS falls short compared to Heavy Ion more barrel. Good range
Anti-Meson Gun x2	1365	60.0	5000	83	Now we're talking: the 2-barrel version makes this is the weapon of choice for DPS, if you can survive long enough to get that close to an enemy vessel
Concentrated Anti-Meson Gun x2	1365	90.0	5500	61	Anti-Meson on steroids. The best energy per damage point amongst energy weapons. Sadly, the range is as bad as the previous one
Baryon Gun	3675	12.0	3000	250	Lowest damage of energy weapons for this size, but longest range. Reasonable energy consumption
Heavy Baryon Gun	3990	30.0	25500	850	Yes, this has even more DPS and range than the regular one, but... the energy consumption skyrockets, and the final DPS is just half of the Anti-Meson... go figure
Anti-proton Gun x2	3360	26.8	6100	228	Energy-efficient heavy Baryon substitute	Boson Gun 1890 10.5 20500 1953 Do not be scared by the energy consumption, this is a very special weapon. If you are getting beaten by swarms of enemy fighters, use just one of these in your ships. I repeat, JUST ONE. Then watch the fireworks!. Try mounting this on a 5 x 5 turret	Heavy Boson Gun 2100 16.2 100500 6222 I honestly don't know. I haven't dared to equip this in a capital ship yet. Energy consumption is just insane, and not the DPS nor range are particularly impressive. Exclusive for this turret size

Medium ship 6 x 6 turret (Beam & Missile)

Laser x4	840	17.0	1700	100
Paired Laser x4	840	36.4	2500	69	Best Point-Defense, cost wise. Useful vs both Missiles and Fighters. If you absolutely have to use a beam weapon on the largest turret... let it be this one. It's final DPS is even better than the maser, and the range of the maser doesn't compensate the extra cost
Heavy Laser x3	998	20.0	2300	115	The 3-barrel version also improves the DPS quite a bit, but still not the best idea to use a laser on one of these turrets
UV Laser x3	630	11.1	2300	207
Excimer Laser x3	630	15.0	3500	233	One of these can shot down and entire missile salvo by itself; not very good vs fighters, resource and energy expensive. Not a very good choice for a 6 x 6 turret
IR Laser x2	3255	6.0	3500	585	This laser will be your weapon of choice of you prefer sniping ships. However, you need a lot to destroy anything larger than a corvette. Use in smaller turrets if possible
Concentrated IR Laser x2	3334	6.7	3700	555	IR Laser on steroids, same recommendations as above. However, this might make sense in this turret if you're overloading the whole ship with this type of weapon
Maser x2	1155	34.3	4500	131
Heavy Maser	1234	18.4	3500	190
Plasma Missile x18	1365	108.0	500	5
AP-Torpedo x12	2205	394.9	500	1	Good DPS but it feels like launching torpedos from a sub. Use clusters instead of turrets
AP-Missile x12	1890	115.2	500	4	Best Point-Defense Missile, above this and missiles are slow, below this and they are expensive and too few. Use clusters instead of turrets
Thermonuclear Torpedo x9	3675	444.2	500	1	Don't be fooled by the DPS and range, most missiles won't hit unless they overwhelm the enemy ship defenses. As the IR laser, makes sense to use in here if you're swarming this type of weapon on the ship, still... use a cluster instead of this
Plasma MIRV 6 x6	1365	129.7	500	4	This missile splits into 6 lesser missiles each (36 total), and each one acquires a new target. I am not too conviced beacuse before splitting they first need to go thru the PD defenses and then the damage output of every small missile is the lowest
Thermonuclear Missile x6	2100	86.4	500	6
Thermonuclear MIRV 6 x4	2100	103.7	500	5	This missile splits into 6 lesser missiles each (24 total), and each one acquires a new target. I am not too conviced beacuse before splitting they first need to go thru the PD defenses and then the damage output of every small missile is lower compared to their couunterparts.
Photon Missile x4	2310	76.8	500	7	Fast as the AP-Missile, but with less overall power. Bad idea (Fighter vs Fighter)

Medium ship 4 x 4 missile cluster

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Plasma Missile x18	1300	108.0	10000	93
AP-Torpedo x12	2100	394.9	10000	25	Good DPS but it feels like launching torpedos from a sub. This is as powerful as a 6 x 6 turret
AP-Missile x12	1800	115.2	10000	87	Best Point-Defense Missile, above this and missiles are slow, below this and they are expensive and too few
Thermonuclear Torpedo x9	3500	444.2	10000	23	Don't be fooled by the DPS and range, most missiles won't hit unless they overwhelm the enemy ship defenses. As the IR laser, makes sense to use in here if you're swarming this type of weapon on the ship
Plasma MIRV 6 x6	1300	129.7	10000	77	This missile splits into 6 lesser missiles each (36 total), and each one acquires a new target. I am not too conviced beacuse before splitting they first need to go thru the PD defenses and then the damage output of every small missile is the lowest. Use it as Point-Defense, Ideally.
Thermonuclear Missile x6	2000	86.4	10000	116
Thermonuclear MIRV 6 x4	2000	103.7	10000	96	This missile splits into 6 lesser missiles each (24 total), and each one acquires a new target. I am not too conviced beacuse before splitting they first need to go thru the PD defenses and then the damage output of every small missile is lower compared to their counterparts.
Photon Missile x4	2200	76.8	10000	130	Fast as the AP-Missile, but with less overall power. Bad idea (Fighter vs Fighter)

Medium ship 6 x 6 missile cluster

	Range	DPS	Power	Energy Efficiency	Comments
Plasma Missile x54	1300	324.1	25000	77
AP-Torpedo x36	2100	1184.6	25000	21	Good DPS but it feels like launching torpedos from a sub
AP-Missile x36	1800	345.7	25000	72	Best Point-Defense Missile, above this and missiles are slow, below this and they are expensive and too few
Thermonuclear Torpedo x27	3500	1332.6	25000	19	Don't be fooled by the DPS and range, most missiles won't hit unless they overwhelm the enemy ship defenses. As the IR laser, makes sense to use in here if you're swarming this type of weapon on the ship
Plasma MIRV 6 x18	1300	389.0	25000	64	This missile splits into 6 lesser missiles each (108 total), and each one acquires a new target. I am not too conviced beacuse before splitting they first need to go thru the PD defenses and then the damage output of every small missile is the lowest. Still, if you think on swarming missiles, this is the way to go
Thermonuclear Missile x18	2000	259.3	25000	96
Thermonuclear MIRV 6 x13	2000	337.1	25000	74	This missile splits into 6 lesser missiles each (78 total), and each one acquires a new target. I am not too conviced beacuse before splitting they first need to go thru the PD defenses and then the damage output of every small missile is lower compared to their counterparts.
Photon Missile x13	2200	249.7	25000	100	Fast as the AP-Missile, but with less overall power. Bad idea (Fighter vs Fighter)

Heavy Ship Weapons (Cruiser, Battleship, Stations).

(Pending).

Engines

Power Output per energy spent Unit

Simply put, you want to know how fast your ships will be depending on how much energy they consume. Usually, as engine spaces are fixed, the constraint is not space, but energy spent on engines. The higher, the better.

Light Ship Engines (Fighters, Interceptors, Heavy Fighters, Gunboats)

(Pending).

Medium Ship Engines (Corvettes, Frigates, Destroyers, Freighters)

	Power per energy spent
Thermonuclear Rocket Engine (TRE)	1.19
Dual TRE	1.38
Ion Engine (IE)	1.71
Impulse Rocket Engine	1.16
Magnetic Force Engine (MFE)	1.10
Inertial Propulsion Unit (IRU)	0.88
Anti-gravity Engine (AGE)	0.76

Heavy Ship Engines (Cruisers, Battleships, Stations)

(Pending).

Generators

Energy Output per Area Unit

Simply put, you want to compare the reactor that gives you the must bang for your buck; as area is the usual scarce commodity in design, this factor compares how much energy you will get per unit assigned. The more, the merrier!

Aug 2024: Important to note is that Thermonuclear reactor is by far the heaviest one, and if energy amount is not the problem (carefully planned design), to get more speed for specific design, it is sometimes more useful to sacrifice raw amount of energy generated for lower weight (sacrificing sometimes one turret, or one fuel tank) (Credit to lukasz.poczciwy)

Light Ship Generators (Fighters, Interceptors, Heavy Fighters, Gunboats)

(Pending).

Medium Ship Generators (Corvettes, Frigates, Destroyers, Freighters)

	Energy per area unit
Nuclear Reactor	83.33
Thermoelectric Generator	133.33
Thermonuclear Reactor	209.88
Muon Fusion Reactor	172.22
Chromoplasma Reactor	180.56
Field Energy Generator	194.44
Gravitational Energy Generator (GEG)	244.44

Heavy Ship Generators (Cruisers, Battleships, Stations)

(Pending).

Shields

Shield points per energy spent

Shields are tricky in Polaris. In one hand, you have the raw point that actually stop damage from hitting the ships' hull, but in other they also stop a percentage of missiles & torpedos actually hitting. For the purposes of this handbook, I am ignoring completely the percentage of missiles, as a couple of lasers will perfectly make short work of these. In here, you will see how much shields you get compared against energy invested, as once again it seems to be the limiting factor. Once again, the more, the merrier!

Light Ship Shields (Fighters, Interceptors, Heavy Fighters, Gunboats)

(Pending).

Medium Ship Shields (Corvettes, Frigates, Destroyers, Freighters)

	Shield points per energy spent
Electromagnetic Shield	0.09
Two-phase Shield	0.10
Ion Shield	0.15
Proton Shield	0.07
Warp Shield	0.05

Heavy Ship Shields (Cruisers, Battleships, Stations)

(Pending).

Specials

(Pending)

[Chetanoo]

Thanks

[Canek]

It's been such a long time... I'll ad your comments into the guide, thank you for the feedback.

[Xantus]

About reactors - important to note is that Thermonuclear reactor is by far the heaviest one, and if energy amount is not the problem (carefully planned design), to get more speed for specific design, it is sometimes more useful to sacrifiec raw amount of energy generated for lower weight (sacrificing sometimes one turret, or one fuel tank).

By the way, great idea about such nicely provided chart.

[Xantus]

You have completely forgot that there is something like armour threshold (since active reidium) which blocks 2 points of damage from each hit (for a fighter), so, does not matter how much DPS paired laser have, even in 4x (in 6x6 turret) because all of that will be blocked by armour. Not even saying about blocking dmg for ships (blocking 5 points) which makes ion cannons completely obsolete.

[Canek]

Certainly! Eventhough I find it very enjoyable it seems it didn't really went well for the devs. One can only hope...

[Pengan]

I went bananas on this game after realising that there were no fuel-tankers from start, and the ship design system was unintuitive as hell with no ingame help. No fuel-tankers ? Why make game super-hard on normal???? This game might be good when a total-conversion-mod comes out.

[Canek]

Running another game already! I should have a spreadsheet this month.

[Alice]

Im sorry to hear that. I wish you the best! and take your time. <3

[Canek]

Will try. I have to say the original file was lost so I need to redo the sheet again.

[Alice]

Okay! I guess um armor point per weight maybe? I just wanted to see the different stats of the armor. Keep up the good work! ;3