Starship Classes and Slot Expansion — Upgrading and Acquiring
A starship’s type sets the direction of its performance; its class sets the magnitude. Types are covered in The Nine Starship Types — this page is about acquiring one and growing it.
One conclusion up front: you don’t need to hunt for a naturally-spawned S-class. Buying a ship you like and upgrading it with nanites is usually faster.
Classes (C < B < A < S)
Class determines two things: stat bonuses and slot caps.
| Class | Stat bonus |
|---|---|
| C | Under 20%, if any |
| B | 20% or more |
| A | 35% or more |
| S | 50% or more |
An S-class ship doesn’t automatically have max slots. Class sets the ceiling; you still expand slots separately.
Class odds depend on the system’s economy rating, not the ship type — wealthy systems roll better classes, while outlaw systems are mostly C-class. (These figures are community-measured, so treat them as a guide.)
You can upgrade class
At a space station’s Starship Outfitting Terminal you can raise a ship’s class with nanites. That means you don’t need to hunt for a naturally-occurring S-class — buying a ship you like and upgrading it is usually faster.
Costs at the Standard purchase difficulty:
| Step | Nanites |
|---|---|
| C → B | 10,000 |
| B → A | 25,000 |
| A → S | 50,000 |
| C → S total | 85,000 |
These costs change with your game’s purchase-cost difficulty setting — they can be much higher (212,500), much lower (28,050), or free. Post-upgrade stats are fixed by the ship’s seed, so you can preview them at the terminal before paying.
Slots and expansion
Ship inventory now has two tabs: Cargo and Technology. Max slots by class (cargo+tech):
| Type | C | B | A | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shuttle | 50+25 | 80+40 | 90+50 | 110+60 |
| Fighter | 50+30 | 70+40 | 80+50 | 100+60 |
| Explorer | 60+30 | 80+40 | 90+50 | 110+60 |
| Hauler | 60+30 | 80+40 | 100+50 | 120+60 |
| Solar | 50+30 | 70+40 | 90+50 | 110+60 |
| Interceptor | 60+30 | 80+40 | 100+50 | 120+60 |
| Corvette | 60+30 | 80+40 | 100+50 | 120+60 |
| Exotic | — | — | — | 105+60 |
| Living Ship | — | — | — | 120+60 |
Every type reaches 60 technology slots at S-class. And visual size has nothing to do with slot caps — a small-looking ship of the same type and class upgrades to the same maximum. The smaller numbers you see on type tables are just starting values.
You expand at the Outfitting Terminal, one slot at a time for Units (starting around 3 million per slot and climbing toward 75 million). A Storage Augmentation item opens one slot for free. Living Ships use Spawning Sacs instead.
How to get ships
- Buy from NPCs — talk to pilots landing at stations and trading posts, check the stats, and buy. Price depends only on type, slot count, and class — not on installed tech or reputation. Trading in your current ship gives you 70% of its value.
- Crashed ships (free) — found via distress signals and planetary charts. You can claim one for 0 units and keep your existing ship. The catch: damaged tech and slots need repair materials, fuel is empty, and a repaired weapon does half the damage of an undamaged one.
- Scrapping — dismantle a ship at the Outfitting Terminal for items and upgrade modules. Selling those modules to a technology merchant is the standard beginner nanite loop (claim a free crashed ship → minimal repair → scrap → sell modules). Living Ships can’t be scrapped, and you need free exosuit slots to receive the payout.
- Fabrication — combine salvaged parts with a Reactor Core bought from a merchant. The finished ship’s class is set by the class of the Reactor Core. Only Fighter, Hauler, Explorer, and Solar can be fabricated — not Exotic, Living, or Interceptor.
- Interceptors require a separate process: find and repair a crashed Sentinel ship on a Dissonant planet.
- Living Ships come from the Void Egg questline for the first one, then 10,000 nanites each.
The order to do it in
- Crash site → minimal repair → scrap → sell modules to build up nanites.
- Pick one ship you actually like. Type is hard to change later; class and slots are just money.
- Upgrade the class with nanites. Class is what raises the slot ceiling.
- Buy slots with units, one at a time.
The order matters. Buy slots before raising class and you’ll hit the ceiling having spent for nothing.