Modifying your ship in Starfield can be a bit of a hassle given how unexplained it is. However, once explained, it’s really just a bunch of finicky mechanics. To improve your ship crafting, you’ll need the ship engineer perk and a lot of credits. As you earn credits, you will be able to upgrade your vessels and put more powerful modules into them. By upgrading your ship, you will slow it down until you can acquire a better reactor. In addition, you’ll need the piloting perk as the bigger the ship, the better the reactor.
When talking about these upgrades and modifications you are putting yourself into two separate categories. The first category is ship upgrades like modules and reactors which are subtle increases to your design. These are less flashy and appear inside the internals in order to make your ship more effective. Alternatively, the second category is ship modifications that change the physical appearance of your vessel. These modifications can make the mass and size of your vessel more potent at the cost of needing a higher reactor classification.
Keeping both of these in mind, ship modification and upgrading need to be balanced unless you want an unoptimized ship. In order to keep your vessel well-rounded, you’ll need to constantly upgrade its perks, modifications, and upgrades. You have several ways to make your ship incredibly powerful if you keep an old military idea in mind! Each point of the triangle represents defense, offense, and speed for ships. By adding cargo capacity as a fourth variable, you can create a diamond.
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Ship Upgrade Perks
There are two perks that you are going to need in order to increase your ship modification abilities. The first one is the piloting perk which allows you to have increased reactors on your ships. These reactor classifications are important because you need to have more reactor energy to have better weapons and parts attached to them. The second major perk you’ll need is ship engineering which allows the player to add modifications to stock ship designs. This perk allows you to create completely wild designs that are capable of making your ships much more potent.
Piloting
The first perk you can acquire to make ships more effective is piloting. This perk increases your effectiveness in a ship and reactor class. At level 3 you can use B classification reactors, and at max level, you get C classification reactors. This piloting perk additionally increases your energy efficiency, your turning speed, and forward acceleration. You can upgrade the piloting perk by destroying enemy ships you’ll encounter during your time in space. Additionally, you can go to the Vanguard flight simulator and exploit the kill system to get the perk finished quickly.
In terms of ship modification, this perk is important for the fact that it makes your reactor more potent. The higher your reactor’s potency, the more parts and energy you’ll be able to have. The smaller ships can be used to start a classification reactor, which will work well until you upgrade it. If you want to have any of the better hauler ships, this perk will help you pilot the larger vessels quickly and efficiently.
Rambler Model Ship
Starship Design
This perk allows you to add modifications and upgrades outside of what a ship design initially has. For instance, if you want to put cannons on an unarmed ship you will need to have this Starship Design perk. Unlike the piloting perk, you will need to have six skill points in the science skill tree before you have access to this perk. This means you can get it before level ten, but you will have a lot to miss from the other skills. It seems odd that the ship engineering perk is so far in the skill tree, however, it can be incredibly useful for your ships.
Starship Design is by far the best perk to take if you want to make your own custom starships. In this sense, you’ll need to have both piloting and ship engineering if you want to make the biggest and best ships available. Unfortunately, even when you have these perks you’re going to have to deal with the next big obstacle: starship design credits. With all your experience, you’ll need a small fortune to produce some of the best designs.
Credits and Resources
Besides perks, the major item you’re going to need for ship design is a lot of credits. This may seem like a relatively simple thing to come across, but some ship modifications can cost upwards of fifty thousand credits to put in. Between each of the modification systems, you have a lot to do. Increasingly, the better you want to make your ship, the more you’re going to need to burn into it credit-wise. Ship design, like building a house, or building an outpost, requires credits and resources to make things work well. Credits will be primarily used in two ways.
Ship Services Technician
The first thing credits are primarily used for is to buy template ships which can range from a couple thousand to a couple hundred thousand credits. Some ship templates will be better than others, but they can be unlocked by each of the factions and what you do for them. In the second method, credits are used for the direct purchase of modifications and upgrades to put in these templates. These upgrades can cost anywhere from a couple of hundred credits to fifty thousand and differentiate legal from illegal modifications. Each method of credit spending will equate to a very cost-committed build that should make you the best pilot in the cosmos!
Ship Templates
There’s an incredible amount of ship templates you can acquire across multiple different factions. Each faction will have different ship types that come in the form of classifications. Every ship usually has an edgy name or something that is vaguely comparable to what the ship is good at. Each of these ship templates is okay in their stock form but can be upgraded for better effect. The best aspect of early game templates is that they’re cheap, and are better than the basic craft you acquire. However, the better ships are hidden behind factions like the UC Gladius, and the Pirate’s Eclipse craft.
These ships can be broken down into three major categories with a bunch of different sub-categories throughout them. You have the basic attack-oriented vessel, cargo-oriented vessel, and ships based on speed and exploration. Templates will usually be based on these three concepts but from there, you get hybrids and all-arounders like your starting craft. Despite these templates being potent, what you really want is to modify and upgrade your own custom craft. This comes from the fact that you can make your own fantasy vessel that’s better than anything else you find!
Ship Template – Galileo
| Attack Style Ship | Attack, Speed | Light and Fast |
| Cargo Hauling Ship | Defense, Endurance | Heavy and Steady |
| Exploration Ship | Fast, Defensive | Endurant and Efficient |
Ship Reactors
Finally, the last major aspect of ship crafting that you’re going to have to have is a proper ship reactor. These reactors come in three different classifications with the weakest being A to the strongest being C. Each of these reactors has the ability to increase the distance your ship moves in, as well as the amount of weight and cargo that can be on the vessel. Every one of these reactors can be made more useful through the piloting perk that’s available at level one. It’s recommended that you take this as one of your starting perks in the beginning as it can be upgraded easily with the Vanguard test!
These reactors can be purchased once you have the proper license to do so, which comes with the perk. You need to keep in mind that these reactors also designate what class of ships you are able to personally pilot. This requirement means that in the beginning there are just some ships that won’t be able to be piloted by the player. Once acquired though, generally, these ships are incredibly valuable and can be stolen for money! That being said, your personal ship can be made even better when it has the best level of reactors inside of it.
Increased Reactors
Ship Reactor classifications
| Classification A | Base Skill | Basic Reactor |
| Classification B | Piloting 2 | Improved Reactor |
| Classification C | Piloting 4 | Max Reactor |
Service Technicians
One of the best places you can go to upgrade your ship is different city Service Technicians. These individuals are great because you can buy templates from these individuals which is incredibly helpful. Additionally, you can buy ship modifications as well as sell them from your inventory. Finally, these technicians are generally close to a trade authority station where you can sell some goods from your inventory. You can also register vessels and sell them to these technicians, making them great to find on each planet.
Service technicians can generally be found in two places; in the spaceports, and in their specialized maintenance rooms at spaceports. They can be found near trade authority stations where you can sell some of your goods. Additionally, these technicians are perfect since they can repair your ship without the use of ship parts. Most importantly though, service technicians are where you need to go for the ability to modify your ship!
Shadow Hound Vessel
Modifying Your Vessel
When you choose the modification and upgrading option from service technicians, you’ll be able to remove and add parts to your ship. Additionally, this allows you to change what ship you’re using as your home, and what upgrades you want to add to it. Lastly, this screen allows you to sell ships and register the ones that you have recently acquired. These vessels can have every part of it swapped out and added new ones on but not without limitations.
You will have to keep your reactor class in mind for how much weight and firepower you can add to your ship. Every aspect of this vessel will have to have its modifications balanced out unless you end up underpowered or sluggish. It is this aspect of modification that leaves certain ship ideas unoptimized unless you have better reactor classifications. Beyond this, you have the ability to paint and change out your parts so that you can make your ship more personalized.
Upgrading Ship Modules
In this same menu, you’ll have the option to upgrade the modules your ship is utilizing. This is as simple as clicking on the system you wish to change and will pull up a list of available parts. From here, you’ll require a massive amount of credits as some of the higher-end parts can be relatively expensive. Ship upgrades can make your weapons more powerful, or specialized, shielding more potent, and grav drives more effective. All of these upgrades add to the mass and energy required of the ship’s reactor, which makes piloting especially potent.
-source: Arekkz Gaming
Some ship modules on certain ships will be left empty; to add to them, you’ll need to have the ship engineering perk. These perks will help you add to the creativity of your designs and not need to just stick to basic designs. Before you have this, you’ll be limited to outfitting new upgrades and parts on the same stock systems. After that, you can add all the new upgrades to Your ship making them ultimately more balanced. Because of this, ship modification can be incredibly long-winded, but due to its utter creativity, you can build almost anything.
Efficiency Perks
You can add to your ship’s effectiveness by taking any of the many ship perks that add to its basic effectiveness. There are perks that add a bonus to the damage, cargo hold, shielding, speed, and hull of your vessel. They don’t add to the creative aspects of the ship design, however, they can make your starship deadly by nature. Keep this in mind, you don’t want to skip out on them if you’re looking forward to space combat!
| Ballistic Weapon Systems | Increased Ballistic Weapons | 1st Tech Tree Level |
| Targeting Control Systems | Unlocks Targeting Controls | 1st Tech Tree Level |
| Energy Weapon Systems | Increases Energy Weapons | 2nd Tech Tree Level |
| Engine Systems | Increases Top Speeds | 2nd Tech Tree Level |
| Payloads | Increases Cargo Hold’s Capacity | 2nd Tech Tree Level |
| Shield Systems | Increases Shield Capacity | 2nd Tech Tree Level |
| Missile Weapon Systems | Increases Missile Damage | 3rd Tech Tree Level |
| Particle Beam Weapon Systems | Increases Particle Beam Weapon Damage | 3rd Tech Tree Level |
| Starship Engineering | Increases System Durability | 3rd Tech Tree Level |
| Automated Weapon Systems | Makes Automated Weapons More Effective | 4th Tech Tree Level |
| EM Weapon Systems | Increases EM Weapon Damage | 4th Tech Tree Level |
A long Hauler and a personal favorite of mine
