This guide covers two main topics: a high-level overview of each faction, and a breakdown of notable ships within two separate categories.

As an aside before I begin, each faction has a Tech Level (TL). I'll describe the general tech level as TL0, such as the Civilian faction, and list other factions as relative to that. TL affects the types of weapons available and broadly will improve general performance as it increases, but this is an extremely loose rule. A laser might be high tech, but a rock moving fast enough will do more damage.

TL0

This faction can be considered the base-line all other factions are measured against. In practice... this generally means they're the worst option of all.

Pros:

• High capacity magazines. You can generally fire for a longer period of time with this faction.
  
• More upgrade variety available
  
• Wide variety of ship and special weapon types

Cons:

• Expensive for what you get
  
• Projectile speed is poor
  
• Overall armament is light. The slightly higher health does not compensate.
  
• Often overly specialized

Civilian ships are really the bare-minimum benchmark when it comes to combat capability. Their fighters are merely passable, but they do make it up for civilian ships with far better capacities and mining capabilities than any other faction. Their capital ships suffer greatly from their disinclination towards combat, seeing fairly good health but are extremely under-gunned for their size and cost.

They do have two standout ships of note. The Ton(R) is a railgun armed gunship that can be extremely deadly to fighters in small quantities, but the over-specialization is also its primary weakness especially as better options are available. The Anubis is a heavy corvette that not only provides a respectable missile battery, but also stands are possibly the best trading ship escort corvette in the game owing to its extremely high base health and frigate cannon.

TL0

This faction is one of the two pirate factions in the game. Broadly, they focus on crude upgrades from stock civilian craft, such as bolting on shields or additional guns. If you want dakka, the Beggars have you covered.

Pros:

• Bullet spam
  
• High health

Cons:

• Slow
  
• Damage rapidly drops off as ship size increases due to the armor system
  
• Lack of secondary weapons
  
• Killjoy

Beggar ships are very much designed for extortion and shakedowns. They focus very heavily on fighters and gunships that strap as many chainguns as possible onto a given hull. This, together with their habit of bolting on shards of asteroids or proper shields onto their ships, makes them generally tough for their size and deadly towards lighter fighters but unable to match up as sizes increase.

Looking at Beggar capital units, they take a decidedly sadistic bent, epitomized by the frigate Killjoy. While this frigate is not particularly fast or even tough, it mounts a heavy railgun battery that has the unerring ability to find and destroy the player in a swarm of fighters. From 7.5km away, far outside any competing weapon range. Using only one to two shots in anything less than a corvette and frighteningly few to matter in anything larger given its range. These are usually paired with LittleBigJoys and their dual beam emitters which, while unable to deal significant damage to peers, do strip shields and blind you.

There is one standout ship of note here, and it's not the Killjoy. The Beggar destroyer, while being nearly immobile and somewhat pricey, mounts *three* destroyer-grade railguns and three solid shields bracketing them. It is effectively an artillery fortress that performs extremely well on the defensive and can generally work with any fleet composition, though it'll have a few problems fighting other destroyers.

TL0

This faction is the second pirate faction and represents a splinter group of the Miners' Union (MU) with a radically different design philosophy. Their ships are build around speed first, firepower second, and armor as not even a consideration.

Pros:

• Fighter spam
  
• Speed

Cons:

• Durability
  
• Damage output
  
• Lack of secondary weapons

Reborn ships are built around the paradigm of fighter swarms. Their main line of ships all the way through corvettes make it a point to mount their basic Fury light fighter. Even their destroyer is extremely fast for a destroyer, but the tradeoffs required to do so make it solidly the worst destroyer in the game.

Their larger ships tend towards utilizing either cannons or missiles. Massed missile fire is extremely deadly, but can be countered, and the missile carriers are decidedly fragile especially compared to the Beggar Killjoy. Their larger ships tend towards simple cannons, delivering solid hits from extremely slow projectiles.

In general, unless fighters are a threat, the Reborn tend to be easy to deal with. The major threat comes in the form of the beam-armed Wraith gunship which deals a surprising amount of damage with its overcharged civilian-grade beam emitters on a frame that can not only keep up with anything but take a few hits.

There's no ships that stand out in particular here, as even the Wraith ends up as more of a swarming gimmick that can be better replaced with other ships.

TL-1

This faction is not quite pirate, not quite mercenary. They were, briefly, disposable soldiers in the last war, and their ships show it. The general design philosophy is firepower delivered cheap. It's not fast, it's not durable, and it's often not even flexible, just firepower for cheap.

Pros:

• Specialized designs can provide very good performance

Cons:

• Slow, fragile

Fighters use poor velocity last-gen weaponry, meaning most shots miss.

Kind ships are likely the first ships the player will get access to build rather than buy. Their fighters are simply bad -- they put a lot of bullets into space, but not as many as a Beggar ship for about the same cost, and most of the bullets miss due to the poor quality chainguns. The gunships are largely similar, mounting nearly fighter-grade chainguns or short-range plasma bombs for anti-capital roles... but are simply too small to matter, and exemplify the suicide tactics.

Kind capital ships are generally newer (with the exception of the Dropper) and ultra-specialized. I used to call them the faction of gimmicks, but with Ashes Kind take second place. They suffer from the fleet/player split I will get into later, but the Mendoza is a stand out destroyer. Fairly cheap, mounts a spinal cannon that makes it very effective against enemy capitals, enough health it doesn't die quite like a Kind destroyer ought, and some point-defense cannons to guard it against missiles but generally helpless against fighters.

TL-1

The second-wave of colonization in this space, the MU represent a rag-tag group of asteroid miners that lost the last rebellion. They aim for cheap ships that incorporate small asteroids in their construction and, as a result of the arms race VD2 lands smack in the middle of, prioritize performance despite their low tech which leads to some... crude, but effective, options.

Pros:

• Cheap
  
• Tough
  
• High firepower

Cons:

• Large standard deviation in option quality
  
• Crude
  
• Short range

MU ships generally try to nail down devices that perform on par with TL0, but using last-gen hardware, especially corvettes and down where they could see results from new construction. Their transport ship, the Ola, is competitive as though it can carry only one cargo pod it does so much faster than the Civilian Caterpillar. They also uniquely can use the Tug miner that hauls asteroids back to base for processing directly, presenting a huge advantage to miners especially in contested fields. Note that as field yield is a factor of how many ships are in the field and Tugs pop in and pop out, you can use more Tugs on a single field than a miner-in-place arrangement.

Their fighters are par. Pricing is cheap but not ridiculously so, and they tend towards short-range scatter and plasma guns. Flight performance varies, but in general while there may be better options a MU fighter will at least hold its own.

Their gunships and corvettes are where the MU really shine. The Raider is the best fleet gunship, hands down, and the Marauder is arguably the best fleet corvette as well. Both options are extremely durable for their size and have a wide array of hard-hitting weapons. The Raider pairs these benefits with a speed that has no right on an asteroid that size, while the Marauder trades its speed for an array of long-range missiles.

The weakest part for the MU are their capital units. Effectively both the frigate and destroyer are spinal mass drivers throwing asteroids. Damage is not terrible, but their rate of fire and projectile speed are poor. These ships also loose all capability of self-defense for these weapons, making them extremely niche artillery pieces that can only target non-railgun heavy units.

Standouts as mentioned are the Raider and Maurader, but the Flint comes in as an arguably second place for best fleet fighter.

TL0

Bounty hunters drawn for the metaphorical gold rush, Pride ships are arguably the best 'civilian' grade combat ships are the market. Very well suited to punching down, Pride ships mix up their paradigm in each size class, but all are fitted with proprietary high-velocity ammunition that makes them far more dangerous to faster targets then their paper stats would suggest.

Pros:

• High velocity ammunition dramatically increases DPS against fast targets
  
• Generally best all-around performance on the civilian market

Cons:

• Expensive
  
• Suffers from over-generalization

Pride fighters are solid entries. The high-velocity ammunition gives them quite the bite in their weight class. The Grim represents the best fleet fighter available, and an extremely solid player fighter when paired with Overdrive. It matches four high-velocity light guns with two physical shields and the cheapest fighter price tag in the game, meaning it bites like a heavy fighter, tanks like a gunship, flies like a scout, and can be bought like second-hand trash.

The gunship's performance drastically differs as it's highly customizable, but is generally a tanky monster well-suited to close-in combat. The corvette is relatively fast and hits fairly hard, but is almost over-specialized at hunting gunboats. The frigate is perhaps the most disappointing: The Drake over-specializes in an array of plasma throwers that would grant it a short-range anti-capital capability (rather than the punching-down of all other Pride ships) that would give it a solid niche... but the arrays are mounted to the front hammerhead in such a way that the majority of any shot will miss. If one tweaks those projectors to gimbal even slightly, it becomes a very solid short-range anti-capital brawler that spices up any Pride formation.

Finally, Pride destroyers are solid and reliable. They're fantastically well-rounded with even their main guns utilizing high-velocity ammunition, though this does lead them to being better suited to brawling with frigates.

As mentioned, the standout here is the Grim light fighter, which is quite possibly the best fighter in the game.

TL+1

The military in these remote reaches of the Oort cloud, the TSF paradigm can be largely summarized as "fights like the next bigger class, in this size's package". Given the history of the Correa, that's not a metaphor.

Pros:

• Generally peak performance, especially offense/defense

Cons:

• Very expensive
  
• Difficult to acquire

First off, military surplus. Three TSF ships are available as surplus and can be bought with no prerequisites: the Bonnie, the Perez, and the Ray. The Bonnie is a fresh coat of paint slapped on the military grade light fighter -- it hits like a medium or heavy fighter from anyone else while still flying as you'd expect. The Perez and Ray have both lost significant parts and performance and are downgraded to civilian-grade, making them likely not a good investment compared to other options for their cost.

Their fighters are solid, but the Perez in particular is especially good as a player fighter. Its speed isn't bad, it's armed with three turreted heavy repeaters firing military-grade high-velocity ammunition (1.5km/sec compared to Pride's 1.3km/sec or civilian <1km/sec) and a secondary forward-facing shield granting temporary invincibility from that direction. It can be thought of as a gunship in a corvette's hull, and has the price tag to match -- but as with the other military options, sometimes you need the peak performance in a given size no matter the cost.

Their gunships aren't particularly notable. They're very solid gunships on more than capable of taking on corvettes and are armed with basic autocannons.

The corvettes are solid all-rounders with a few varieties to play with. Generally, expect a corvette to be equivalent to anyone else's frigates. Generally also can be refitted with railguns.

Their capital ships are where the TSF really hit their stride. Very heavy weaponry, very heavy armor, average speed. Most of these now additionally come with railguns by default as they're designed to fight Outsiders rather than strictly humans.

No particular standouts here, though the Perez deserves a mention as the best fighter and the Correa as the heaviest ship one can purchase through the Shadow Traders.

TL+2

Included in the Ashes DLC, this faction represents the bleeding edge of human R&D. Incorporating outsider tech, this faction is entirely built on gimmicks. I'll not list their ships out as they can be largely summarized as "Good choice for a player ship (not the gunship), terrible if not worst choice for a fleet ship".

TL-2

The first settlers in this region that were pushed out by the MU, the Diggers are included in the Big Red DLC. Their tech is effectively entirely obsolete, relying nearly exclusively on being able to manufacture from their carrier and bury enemies under weight of numbers rather than fight on their own merits. As both DLC are incompatible, I would generally recommend using Ashes vs Big Red.

TL+?

Not playable, these represent the alien antagonists. Very broadly Outsider ships are incredibly fierce. Their capital units utilize high capacity energy barriers -- plate-like shields that cover the bulk of the ship which grant them effective invulnerability (it takes an enormous amount of firepower to bring one down) and can only be penetrated by railguns.

Broadly, ships have two categories in which they can be judged.

How does the ship manage as a player ship? Players can use the secondary weapons and launch bays, as well as make more focused use of the ships individual strengths and weaknesses. Player ships need to perform well alone, though may have problems when used in quantity. Ashes ships exemplify this: their gimmicks can be incredibly powerful under player control, but the AI is incapable of using them and the ships are individually extremely expensive.

How does the ship manage as a fleet ship? In contrast, a fleet ship needs to provide the best performance for the credit when used en masse. There are several ships that individually may not be very good, but due to various factors perform *fantastically* when used in numbers.

- This fighter is really just the best. It's one of the fastest fighters in the game. The two large shields give it inordinate durability for its size. The four high-velocity cannons let it hit fast-moving fighters more reliably than any other faction. The $20k price tag is cheaper than any other option. Pair this thing with armor to dramatically reduce incoming damage from fighters and Overdrive and you've got a combination that is unbeatable, though perhaps not capable of winning every fight.
- While very expensive, this fighter provides top-tier performance. As a fighter-class ship, it's also compatible with Overdrive. A Perez with Overdrive is more than capable of engaging and beating frigates, though the armor system makes that somewhat tedious. In general, the heavy-weight guns let it stay competitive longer than other fighters. The price tag firmly places this in player ship territory as its performance does not make up for it when used en masse.
- Very much an honorable mention, the Skyhawk isn't a standout on this list. It offers a mid-road price tag, guns heavier than the Grim, merely okay durability, and fairly good speed. The weight of the guns lets it engage heavy fighters where the Grim may need to take its time, and generally its performance stretches across a wider envelope without the stark tradeoffs of moving to a heavy fighter.


- While there's not really any 'good' gunship for a player, the Pilar is probably the best of the bunch. It's highly customizable so can easily end up an anti-fighter turret monster or a close-range beam brawler. Somewhat slow, it's fairly durable, and its heavier missile armament gives it the punch to clear the skies of fighters in a hurry. Fully upgraded it can be expensive though.
- More of a fun side ship than a solid main, the Ton-R is mounted with dual railguns for anti-fighter duty. Powerful one-on-one, especially as each shot will send a fighter flying, but the low rate of fire, low damage (compared to corvette or frigate grade railguns), and lack of armor found in civilian designs means it doesn't deal with crowds well.
- Like the Perez, the best gunship by raw performance at a ridiculous cost. If you can get one, it'll hunt corvettes without much trouble and give frigates a bad day.
- While this is the best fleet gunship, it's capability as a player ship is decidedly way less. The scatter guns require you to be close, meaning single-target at a time. The wide array of munitions are difficult to balance and use alone, and while durable is very liable to getting ganged up on by fighters.


- Despite not being a particularly standout ship, the Eagle is both in the Pride shop which makes them easy to come by and can mount corvette grade missiles, turning it into a fairly competent artillery ship. The secondary plasma cannon is not likely to see use, but occasionally can help you get out of a scrape with a Wraith or LittleBigJoy. The guns on it are very much geared towards gunship hunting -- they'll work on fighters, but you'll want to supplement your fighter defense with gunship missiles.
- Very expensive, but this is literally an older frigate reclassified as a corvette. You can't beat that.
- Odd to see a civilian ship here, but the Anubis is shockingly competent. You can't get a better escort for your trade fleets. This edgy Geb has eight spinal long-range missile launchers and a frigate-grade cannon, making it a stolid rear-liner.
- Barely making this list, the Marauder is merely a par player corvette. Relying heavily on upgrade missiles, it provides a wide array of weapons to bear on any targets. The heavy twin turrets and missile launchers give it an edge against peers, but the sluggish speed and spread of damage types hurt this ship when flown by a player. One honorable mention is that while the description might imply that it can't dock anywhere but a MU dock, what actually happens is that instead you'll use auto-dock at any non-MU port which is substantially faster.


In general frigates are going to be more limited by your play rather than what you want. Most players will often end up with a Horus by dint of it being the heaviest ship purchasable on the open market... that isn't the handicapped Drake (which is only rarely in stock).

- The spinal beam makes it very effective against similar targets. Just... bring escorts, and hope nobody shoots you.
- Maybe I shouldn't have listed the TSF here at all and just assumed they were a thing. It's big. It's expensive. It carries railgun turrets that murder things.
- Severely handicapped by default, the Drake really isn't good at much other than point-blank blitzkrieging to an enemy frigate and hoping it doesn't die by the end of the battle. If you tweak the main plasma cannons with the slightest bit of gimbal it becomes a short-range brawler that excels at defending a point in space against corvettes and frigates.


- The Kind destroyer is both actually good and probably the first unlocked destroyer. Its spinal weapon is a monster, and it packs enough armor plating to not be suicidal. Definitely appreciates escorts though.
- A solid choice, the Brig is a defensive destroyer that one-hit-kills fighters from sniper range and convinces anything bigger to look elsewhere. Pair this already durable tank with the nearly-as-cheating-as-Overdrive Active Repair and you have a nearly unstoppable fortress.
- In a world of destroyers that either barely qualify or specialize, the Priam is a generalist. It fights everything well, from fighters on up, and the slight weakness in its offensive power is more than offset by this versatility.

- It's cheap. Ridiculously cheap. That by itself would make it #1 on a list of fighters by dint of fleet fighters being swarmers, and cost is king. That it is also durable enough you lose *far* less of them than even the #2 pick makes them even more economical, and then that they have the guns to still win fights? No contest, next group.
- If you can't get a Grim, get a Flint. There's substantial tradeoffs -- it costs a fair bit more and it doesn't bite quite as hard. Upside? It's even more durable than a Grim, and all factored in dies very slightly slower... making purchasing and replacing the Flint far more economical than any other option in the game bar the Grim.

There is no third option, as the next best is anything you can build with the caveat you can't spam build them and you *will* lose them at a far higher rate than either of these.


- There's only one option here. The MU raider is hilariously the best fleet gunship. It's cheap. In numbers it's nearly indestructible. Those hard hitting guns multiply *fast*, meaning a wolfpack of these things chews up corvettes and frigates like nobody's business and will happily nip at destroyers. The AI doesn't care about the weapon variety and uses them all very well, meaning each Raider watches all the others' backs, synergizing fantastically. All other options just aren't economical.


- Finally there's a slight bit of choice. The Marauder is the best, hands down. Treat this corvette like a frigate -- it'll be part of your wall of battle exchanging fire against opposing capital ships. It can't much maneuver, but you get a combination of artillery ship and mid-range brawler in a single package that's durable enough to die slowly. It's also cheap enough that you can replace three of these for a single frigate.
- It's stupid. Really stupid. It's cheap though, and while it's not a good traditional ship a swarm of these is pretty ideal for taking care of an entrenched Brig on the cheap.
- The entire Rhino series is actually kind of like cut-down Marauders: wide array of heavy hitting weapons, some durability, and a larger price tag. The RhinoT is an anti-capital torpedo ship and is absolutely designed to punch up. While it may not work in mid-game fleet mixes, if you can build them in bulk, they represent a very viable paradigm of targeting heavy units with more replaceable corvettes.


- There isn't one. The best fleet frigate is the one you have, not the one you want.


- Much like with frigates, the best destroyer is the one you have, not the one you want. Each of these three are a solid choice. Destroyers are big enough losing them is less of a concern and it's more about their performance when they take the field. Unless it's an Envy, in which case you definitely need to worry about losing it... or if it'll actually kill anything.