Captain's Edition adds various new enemy classes and reworks how some existing enemy classes behave. In addition, Captain's Edition also adds space stations that also come with their own classes. The following details the various new and old ship and station classes.
(Note that most/all prefixes, such as "badly-armed", are relative to the ship. Even strong ships with detrimental prefixes may still be quite strong, and weak ships with beneficial prefixes will likely still be weak.)
Light Ship Classes[]
Light ship classes make up the bulk of the ships you will encounter. In most cases the player cruiser will easily outclass these ships.
Fighter[]
Nothing special here. Fighters are pretty average vanilla ships; they can never have AE systems.
Bomber[]
Bombers have pretty average stats, but slightly favour offensive systems. Their weapon system caps are higher than most other ships, and some bombers can have up to 10 bars in weapons.
Hunter[]
Standard ships with weapons dedicated to injuring and/or killing your crew, such as anti-bio bombs/beams, fire bombs/beams, and stun bombs/beams. Make sure to keep your medbay online when fighting hunter-class ships.
A very rare Crystal Hunter with the "(Resupply)" suffix, giving it more fuel, ammunition, and drone parts.
Assaults[]
Another very generic ship class that slightly favours defence over offence. Their shield system caps are higher than most other ships, and some assaults can have up to 10 bars in shields.
A rare AI Assault with the "Reinforced" prefix, giving it more hull points.
Invader[]
A basic AE ship class. Can have clonebay and teleporter, but only has an average amount of crew. Invader crews will board more relentlessly than other enemies.
Instigator[]
Low tier AE ship that always comes with a Mind Control system installed.
Outrider[]
Low tier AE ship class that can have a hacking system and a clonebay.
Hacker[]
Hacker class ships will always have a hacking system pre-installed when playing with CE.
Interceptor[]
Small but agile ships with less hull points but vastly increased engine power. They evade your attacks a lot, but their shields cap out earlier than other ships.
Medevac[]
Badly armed medical ships that always start with medbays and often have teleporters as well. Weak in combat, but harder to board. Most medevacs will also have an advanced life support (oxygen) system, making it harder to kill their crew with the Radiation Projector augment.
Troopship[]
A Rebel Troopship with 4-slot Crew Teleporter
These ships don't have a lot of weapons, but always have teleporters and a lot of crew. Troopships will generally board more relentlessly than other enemies.
Minelayer[]
Found in minefields hazard, these ships are responsible for laying the mines there and most often equipped with one or two minelauncher.
Cargo Ship[]
Weak and badly armed civilian ships. Often encountered in piracy events, where they tend to flee. Cargo ship layouts often feature a lot of empty rooms for cargo storage.
Freighter[]
A Rock Courier Ship armed with a cloaking system.
Late game civilian ships with a lot of hull but few weapon mounts. Often encountered in piracy events, where they tend to flee. Freighter ship layouts often feature a lot of empty rooms for cargo storage.
Miner[]
Comparably weak civilian ships. Always have a weak drone system and attack drones they use for mining.
Repair Ship[]
Always has a drone system and comes with system repair or hull repair drones equipped. This can become a problem if the ship tries to escape, as the player might be unable to out-damage the enemy drones. Repair ships have fewer weapon mounts and weak weapon systems, but their drones make it very hard to suppress their systems.
A Mantis Gunboat armed with Kaz'trt Light Burst Artillery
Drone Carrier[]
Carry a lot of drones that harass you and defend their ship. Might not have conventional weapon systems and instead rely entirely on drones to attack.
Fabricator/Factory Ship[]
Found only in the Automated sector, these are rebel AI ships that build or repair other AI ships that are stationary and often have repair drones.
AI Ship[]
An Engi or Zoltan ship that are found in their respective sector and have AI crew instead of Engi or Zoltan crew.
Courier Ship[]
The smallest class of the diplomat ship. The Rock variant are equipped with mixes of Rock and Crystal weaponry along with the Crystal Vengeance augment, while the Zoltan variant are completely unarmed...
An Energy Beam ship armed with beam weaponry
Emissary Sloop[]
More powerful than the courier ship, these diplomat ship are equipped with more advance system and have more hull point.
Spotter/Defender[]
Garrison ships that focus on defence. They will only appear in events where you encounter planetary artillery or fleet artillery. Their main function is to mark you for artillery strikes, after which they will often retreat.
Broodship[]
Sends wave after wave of cloned boarders, but might not have conventional weapons installed. Can pose a serious threat to your crew.
Gunslinger[]
Small ship that have Adv. Targeting Computer augment and sometimes armed with laser weaponry
Ironclad[]
Outdated ship design that relies on heavy armour plating to resist damage.
Fireship[]
Primarily attacks with fire-based, and ammo consuming weapons.
Barge[]
Barges are specialised weapon platforms unique for each faction. Barges will be completely dedicated to certain weapon types or strategy most favoured by its factions; for example,
- The Rebel variant is the Rebel Laser Barge, which favors burst laser weaponry and occasionally packs a Chain Vulcan.
- The Rock variant is the Rock Missile Barge, which favors missile and heavy laser weaponry along with Rock Plating augment.
- The Crystal variant is the Crystal Shard Barge, which favors crystal weaponry and have three stacks of Crystal Vengeance augment (90% chance to break off a crystal shard to your ship)
- The Engi variant is the Engi Ion Barge, which favors ion weaponry (including effectors) and come equipped with the Waveform EMP artillery.
- The Zoltan variant is the Energy Shield Barge, which have advance shield system and one or two Shield Charge Booster augment.
- The Mantis variant is the Mantis Teleporter Barge, which always have teleporter and favors bomb weaponry and the Sha'k Internal Teleporter artillery.
- The Slug variant is the Slug Stealth Barge, which always comes with Cloaking and Titanium System Casing, sometimes stealth drones, but in earlier sectors may be shieldless.
Barges have fewer hull and engine power than comparable ships, but their offence can make them a threat.
Gunboat[]
These ships come equipped with their faction's unique artillery system (for example, Mantis gunboats carry a Kaz'trt Light Burst Artillery). However, aside from that, these ships are pretty average.
Beam Ship[]
Zoltan ship that are armed with Verdict Focus Beam artillery system and additional ion or beam weaponry.
Medium Ship Classes[]
Medium ships are a step between normal ships and cruisers. They usually have significantly more hull than smaller ship classes, but still might not always pose a threat to a player cruiser.
Light Artillery Cruiser[]
Advanced ship with various systems that also has artillery installed.
A Militia Light-[Artillery] Cruiser with the "(Transport Refit)" suffix, all-around lowering it's stats.
Missile Cruiser[]
Large ship that primarily attacks with missile weapons.
Corvette[]
A step up from Interceptors, these ships still feature advanced engines, but also pack a lot of weapon power and have strong hulls.
Destroyers[]
Huge ships with large crews dedicated to conventional offence.
E.W. Frigate[]
Huge ships with large crews that can have various AE systems installed.
Heavy Fighter[]
A step-up from the normal fighter, this militia ship can occasionally be packed with teleporter.
Ramship[]
Heavily armoured vessels that might trigger ramming events in order to deal damage to the player. The player's engine power determines the chance of avoiding collisions, with five or more engine bars allowing the player to take a blue option that avoids being rammed.
Auto-Terminator[]
Unlike other Auto-Ship, this advance bounty hunter ship is equipped with oxygen and teleporter system. However this ship may not have any weapon system, opting to attack with its drones.
Heavy Ship Classes[]
Few factions have access to these Ship classes. Most of these ships are only fielded by the Rebel fleet.
Cruisers[]
These are tough, large ships that have lots of crew, lots of weapons, high health, and often many additional systems. They might easily match the players cruiser and can be hard to destroy. Fleeing is often the better option when encountering them.
A Rebel Tech Cruiser.
Lifter[]
A Cruiser that has been refitted for transport rather than combat. Still a powerful adversary.
E.W. Cruiser/Tech Cruiser[]
The AE variant of the standard cruiser. Can have various AE systems installed and starts with a clonebay. Some of these cruisers will rely on a backup battery to generate power, and won't be able to power all their systems if the battery is depleted or destroyed.
Stealth Cruiser[]
Comparable to cruisers, but sometimes rely on stealth to avoid damage.
A peaceful Pirate Stealth Cruiser.
Auto Cruiser[]
Large automated ships that can be further customised for certain tasks, such as combat or repair.
Auto Planet Miner[]
Large automated ships that are equipped with Tool XL Industrial Beam artillery system.
Battleship[]
Battleships can only be encountered when getting caught by the pursuing Rebel fleet. They will outclass the player in almost any system but engine power, and pose a high threat. Fleeing is often the better option when encountering them.
Stations[]
Stations differ from ships mainly due to the fact that they do not move. Therefore, stations cannot evade attacks and any shot fired at them will hit. On the other hand, stations also have a lot of hull and crew, and are usually better armed than ships. Their doors, medbays/clonebays and life support are also often above average, making it harder to board kill their crew.
Auto Turret/AI Drone Harbor/Auto Controller[]
AI controlled weapon platforms, only equipped with weapons and shields. Might dish out a lot of early damage in a fight, but can be quickly subdued once disarmed. When this ship dies, it has a chance of saying "I don't blame you" or "Why". This is actually a reference to the portal 2 turret, which says the exact same thing when dying.
Auto Satellite/Auto E.W. Platform[]
More complex AI stations that can have various systems. These ships have engines (though they still have no evasion), and might attempt to self-destruct by overloading their FTL cores. The self-destruction sequence activates a timer, in a similar manner to ships that attempt to flee; once they "jump", an event is triggered that deals damage to the player. To prevent this, it's best to target their engines, because while their helm is often lvl 2 or 3 to damage buffer, their engines are always lvl 1, and a single system damage is guaranteed to take them out.
Supply Station[]
The most common type of station, right next to the Outpost. Average stats, and lots of empty rooms, presumably for storing supplies.
A Rebel Supply Station with the "(Resupply)" suffix, giving it even more fuel, ammunition, and drone parts.
Drops more supplies than normal upon being destroyed, and much more than normal upon it's crew dying.
Outpost[]
The average bread-and-butter station. Has a lot of hull and crew and is often slightly better armed than ships, but can not move (No engines or Piloting) and therefore will be hit by every shot you fire. All Species have outposts, but Most notable is the pirate outposts/Blackmarket. It is shown to be decorated with ship parts and the pirate paintjob.
Checkpoint[]
The average AE variant of a space stations. Very much akin to outposts, but features a clonebay instead of a medbay.
E.W. Platform[]
Stations with slightly weaker weapon systems that can have various AE systems installed.
Medical Station[]
Basically a medevac that can't move. Will always have medbays and teleporters, as well as advanced life support and strong doors. Hard to board, but generally badly armed.
Drone Harbour[]
Sends out plenty of combat drones as its primary means of attack. Can pose a significant threat.
Shield Station[]
Favours defence over offence and starts with strong, augmented shields. May also equipped with Shield Overcharger drone.
Broodstation[]
Relies mostly on boarding and cloning its crew. It will board extremely relentlessly with many crewmen, but can be quickly neutralized by taking out its clonebay. They are found in the hands of the Mantis.
Hive[]
Similar to Broodstation, but have Medbay instead of Clone Bay
