The Five Frigate Types and How Ranks Work
A frigate is larger than a personal starship but smaller than a freighter — a fleet vessel you can command once you own a freighter. You never pilot one. Their job is to go on expeditions and bring back resources and units, and since expeditions run in real time whether the game is open or not, they function as income that accrues while you’re away.
Sending them out and calculating success odds is covered separately in the fleet expeditions page.
What you need first
- A freighter.
- A Fleet Command Room built aboard it. Each additional Command Room raises the number of expeditions you can run at the same time.
- Fleet cap: 30 frigates.
Hiring one
Warp into a system and you’ll find NPC freighters escorted by frigates. Hireable ones carry an icon. Fly close, open the Starship Communicator from the quick menu, talk to the captain, and hire their services. Not every frigate that spawns is available.
Prices run roughly 1,500,000 to 12,500,000 units depending on class.
If you defeat or force the surrender of a pirate dreadnought, the surviving pirate frigates become hireable — a strong class of combat vessel.
What each type does
Every frigate is born with one mandatory +15 trait matching its specialism. While not on an expedition, each accumulates something you collect by landing on the frigate.
| Type | Fixed trait | While docked | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combat | Combat +15 | — | Warps in to assist during nearby space combat, deploying friendly sentinel ships |
| Exploration | Exploration +15 | — | Its Artifact Scanner locates an Ancient Ruin in the current system |
| Industrial | Industry +15 | 2 Magnetised Ferrite per 30s, capping at 100 after 25 minutes | — |
| Trade | Trading +15 | 1,000 Units every 30s, capping at 125,000 after 62m 30s | Roughly 120k Units per hour, for free |
| Support | Expedition Fuel Cost −15 | 2 Condensed Carbon per 30s, capping at 100 after 25 minutes | Specialises in saving fuel rather than raising stats |
Separately there are Organic frigates. Include one on an expedition and it can bring back tech, upgrades, or storage slots for Living Ships.
Rank and class are two different things
These get confused constantly.
Rank rises with the number of completed expeditions, specifically at 4, 8, 15, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55. The rank itself isn’t displayed, but the expedition count is, so you can work it out.
Each rank-up gives:
- +1 to each of the four stats, plus 2 more distributed at random → +6 total
- One detrimental trait removed, or if there are none, one beneficial trait added
At 55 expeditions the frigate is maxed and stops improving. (The “progress to next rank” dial disappears.)
Class (C/B/A/S) depends purely on trait counts:
Class score = beneficial traits − detrimental traits
5 is S, 4 is A, 3 is B, anything lower is C. So four beneficial and one detrimental scores 3 — a B-class ship. After reaching S a frigate keeps gaining stats but no longer gains new traits.
The vessel’s designation changes with class. A combat frigate goes Interstellar Frigate (C) → Interstellar Corvette (B) → Interstellar Battleship (A) → Interstellar Dreadnought (S).
What to check before buying
Stats climb on their own with use, so look at what can’t change.
- Appearance — permanently fixed. If you’re going to be looking at this fleet for a long time, it may matter most.
- Fuel consumption — effectively fixed too. Two frigates of the same specialism can differ by 8–12 tonnes (up to 16 with detrimental traits); Support ships sit around 2–5. A thirsty frigate raises the cost of every expedition it joins.
- Base stats — a frigate with expeditions already logged has ranked up, so its displayed numbers are inflated. Subtract trait bonuses and 6 per rank-up to see the real base.
Damage and repairs
A frigate damaged on an expedition returns flagged in red. Sending it out damaged risks further damage and outright loss, so repair first.
Two ways in:
- Fly over and land on one of its landing pads — the captain marks the damaged components
- Use the Frigate Teleporter from the Manage Fleet console
Damaged components can be inside or outside the ship but are always reachable on foot. Repair materials can sit in your exosuit, starship, or freighter inventory.
| Component | Repair cost |
|---|---|
| Cooling System | Gold ×20, Oxygen ×5 |
| Master Circuit | Platinum ×5 |
| Photovoltaic Panel | Gold ×20, Oxygen ×10 |
| Power Distributor | Gold ×10 |
| Pressure Chamber | Silver ×50 |
| Servo Arm | Pure Ferrite ×25, Ferrite Dust ×10 |
| Thermoregulator | Gold ×20 |
| Tiny Motor | Platinum ×5 |
Gold, silver, and platinum all come from asteroids, so stockpiling while flying through space keeps repairs painless.
FAQ
How many frigates before this is worth running? With three or fewer, expeditions are scheduled much shorter (roughly 1–4.5 hours). Keep the fleet small for quick repeat runs, or grow it for larger hauls.
Should I dump low-class frigates? Not necessarily. Class is only a trait-count difference, and running expeditions strips detrimental traits one at a time, so class rises on its own. What doesn’t improve is fuel consumption — that’s the stat that keeps dragging on the fleet.
Is Support always a good pick? No. Its fuel saving is a flat value rather than distance-scaled, so on long expeditions the ship burns more than it saves. It’s clearly worth it on short runs, and it’s useful filler for pushing a flotilla’s star rating up a tier.