Ships

Ships are the central feature of Elite Dangerous, and are used to traverse space and perform a variety of different tasks. There are a variety of designs to suit various roles. Many ships were inspired by the classic wireframe and polygonal models of previous Elite games.

Each ship has access to a range of different modules which they can fit to help specialize as traders, smugglers, bounty hunters, pirates, etc. All ships have been designed with the ship interiors in mind and for future gameplay opportunities.

As of Elite Dangerous: Beyond Chapter Four (3.3), there are 38 playable ships and 6 playable fighters, each built by one of several manufacturers with their own unique styles. Initially, there was a planned total of 30 playable ships with multiple variants in addition to some non-playable ships.

All commanders begin the game with a Sidewinder MkI. The player may upgrade components or purchase an entirely new ship based upon their needs and available funds. New ships can only be purchased at Stations with the Shipyard service, and modules can only be changed or upgraded at stations with the Outfitting service.

People can join other ships as a hologram with multicrew. Nearly all ships and stations are standard fitted with the GalNet system for market information, galactic news and communication.^[1][2]

Available Ships

All ships available to players are presented below. Some ships require attaining a specific rank with the Federal or Imperial navies before they can be purchased.

Small

Small ships are designed to dock with small Landing Pads.

Adder

Cobra MkIII

Cobra MkIV

Diamondback Scout

Diamondback Explorer

Dolphin

Eagle MkII

Hauler

Imperial Courier

Imperial Eagle

Sidewinder MkI

Viper MkIII

Viper MkIV

Vulture

Medium

Medium ships are designed to dock with medium Landing Pads.

Alliance Challenger

Alliance Chieftain

Alliance Crusader

Asp Explorer

Asp Scout

Federal Assault Ship

Federal Dropship

Federal Gunship

Fer-de-Lance

Keelback

Krait MkII

Krait Phantom

Mamba

Python

Type-6 Transporter

Large

Large ships are designed to dock with large Landing Pads.

Anaconda

Beluga Liner

Federal Corvette

Imperial Clipper

Imperial Cutter

Orca

Type-7 Transporter

Type-9 Heavy

Type-10 Defender

Other

The following spacecraft can be purchased by players, but are not classified as conventional ships.

Ship-Launched Fighters

Ship-Launched Fighters can only be deployed from Fighter Hangars installed on suitable ships. They cannot be customised in Outfitting apart from their Livery, and they lack their own Frame Shift Drives.

F63 Condor

Gu-97

Taipan

XG7 Trident

XG8 Javelin

XG9 Lance

Capital Ships

Capital Ships are large jump-capable ships that cannot be directly piloted by the player. Capital Ship owners can customise their vessels' available services and Livery.

Drake-Class Carrier

Comparing Ships

Specifications

Outfitting

Ship Roles

Multipurpose

Multipurpose ships are a jack-of-all-trades in that they can easily be fitted for whatever role the player needs; whether it be hauling cargo, ship-to-ship combat, or exploring the stars, multipurpose ships can do it all. Multipurpose ships usually can do most jobs just as well if not better than comparable ships targeted towards those jobs. They, while considered multipurpose, sometimes lean into a more specialized role. The Imperial Courier, for example, is called multipurpose while ending up being a superb combat and exploration vessel, as it isn't very good at trading/mining.

Combat

Combat ships are usually faster, more agile and more heavily armed than other ships of the same size. The exception to this would be gun boats, which have more weapon mounts designed for turrets, but sacrifice their agility for them.

Freighter

Freighters are typically slow, cumbersome and lightly armed, but provide extreme hauling capabilities. Useful for traders and smugglers alike.

Explorer

Exploration ships typically come with large default jump ranges, large Fuel Tanks for ships of their size, and should be fitted with lots of low class Internal Compartments for scanners to optimize jump distance. These ships are designed to be able to equip the multitude of scanning equipment needed for an expedition, then fly long distances into the void without the need for regular refuelling through the use of Fuel Scoops.

Passenger

Couriers who fly passengers and valuable items with small storage requirements have a special class of ships available to them. These ships are elegant and fast, designed to quickly and comfortably get from one system to the next. You can think of them as giant space-limousines.

Ship Interiors

We're designing all the ships with the interiors in mind. How the cargo is unloaded all of that sort of thing, how damage occurs. That's because another thing we are doing is, again down the line, is that you will be able to walk around inside your ship. You'll be able to get out of your ship, walk around inside space stations, other vehicles. All of that sort of thing. We've shown the damage on the ship, the damage models. Imagine looking at that from inside the ship outwards seeing your cargo fly out into space, seeing the flames trying to fight them. All of those things that we plan with time, they won't be at the first release, because we want to do them right, we want to do them well. All of these will be done as updates. The game has to be structured in a way to allow it from the start. So we're designing the ships so that they work that way and so that when we come to do it, it's not a problem.

— David Braben, December 2012^[3]

All playable ships in Elite Dangerous were designed in such a way that fully-modeled interiors can be added to them in future updates. Combined with other potential features, such as Space Legs, this would enable players to move around within the entirety of their ship, rather than remain confined to only the cockpit. During the very early stages of development for the game, David Braben expressed a desire to eventually implement ship interiors in order to add more complex gameplay opportunities such as boarding and stealing other ships, and manually repairing both external and internal ship damage. Ship interiors have not yet been confirmed to be in active development.

NPC-only Ship Types

Capital Ships

There are currently two types of Capital Ships in-game: the Federation's Farragut Battle Cruiser and the Empire's Majestic Class Interdictor. Both vessels are Battlecruisers. They are heavily armed, can launch several fighter squadrons, and are piloted by NPCs. However, Frontier said in their roadmap that they intend to add the "availability of giant ‘executive control’ ships to players" in a future content update.^[4]

In The Commanders Livestream, a viewer asked "any chance of playing capital ships in the future?", David Braben answered: "it's on the list, but a long way down it, because there's a lot of gameplay to make it work. The issue is what we call the difference between direct control and executive control. Where rather than flying by the seat of your pants you're giving orders to a giant ship. Because you can't expect it to change course very rapidly and that sort of thing. So it's certainly a long-term possibility, but it's long-term."^[5]

Megaships

A Megaship is a class of massive ships that travel through the galaxy, and are utilized in a wide variety of roles.^[6] Comparable in size to most stations, and in some cases much longer, a number of Megaships are also equipped with docking facilities for small, medium, and large vessels. All services normally available at stations are on offer, with the exception of the Shipyard. Currently, only NPCs can directly control Megaships, but certain Player Groups can petition for Community Goals to construct new Megaships, and those with docking facilities are usually placed under the control of the sponsoring Group's Player Minor Faction. Even more rarely, a Player Group may be permitted to relocate their Megaship to a different location, as with The Gnosis.

There are various types of Megaships:^[6]

• Bulk Cruiser
  • Asteroid Miner
  • Agricultural Vessel
  • Bulk Cargo Ship
  • Dredger
  • Prison Ship
  • Science Vessel
  • Survey Vessel
  • Tanker
  • Tourist Ship

• Flight Operations Carrier
  • Detention Centre
  • Rescue Vessel
  • Wells-class Carrier^[7]

• Generation Ship

Thargoid Ships

The Thargoids are known to have at least three ship types in their arsenal: Thargoid Scouts, Thargoid Interceptors, and Thargoid Motherships. Of these, both Scouts and Interceptors have been encountered thus far, whilst old logs retrieved from the Intergalactic Naval Reserve Arm's Carmichael Point base attest to the existence of Motherships.

Thargoid vessels employ radically different technologies from human ships, among them the ability to interdict ships during hyperspace transit and to make hyperspace jumps without leaving an identifiable wake signature. Their powerful offensive and defensive capabilities also make them deadly opponents in combat.

Development Notes: Fleet Hierarchy

The fleet-class ships that are available to the game's major factions follow a hierarchy.^[8]

Cruisers (Battlecruisers, Battleships, Interdictors)

Long range, independent ships that are capable of controlling entire systems. Heavily armed and capable of deploying large fighter squadrons. The capital ships already shown are an example of this class. In the Empire they are usually known as “Interdictors” – named after the first successful class of cruisers. Currently the most common and most successful Imperial Cruiser is the Majestic class – generally referred to as a “Majestic class Interdictor”. As ships that can also carry out ambassadorial missions they can be used for ‘soft’ power projection, as well as hard, the same goes for the Federation's most common and successful Cruiser, named the Farragut Battle Cruiser.

Frigates

These are large ships designed for escort duties. The actual vessels vary greatly between navies, but are all designed to engage multiple small, fast enemies (typically fighters and missile swarms) and are loaded with point defence batteries. They will also have some anti-ship capability, but are not designed to go up against other warships.

Destroyers

These are anti-warship vessels, but are generally no longer used in the front line, though some are still in service.

Carriers

Carriers are designed for the deployment of fighter squadrons. They have been considered obsolete and phased out of the fleets of the major factions due to the popularity of Cruisers, but small navies still make use of them and some have even been converted into transporters.

The 34th century saw the resurgence of Carriers with the introduction of the Drake-Class Carrier, a product of Brewer Corporation.

Transporters (Couriers)

Armoured warships designed specifically for transporting valuable assets and cargo quickly and safely.

Corvettes (Cutters)

Light multi-role warships, capable of reconnaissance, incursions and escort missions. These small warships are also popular with smaller factions, organizations and even wealthy individuals due to their adaptability. The Federal Corvette is a slower Corvette-class Ship with more maneuverability and firepower, while The Imperial Cutter is a lighter and faster Corvette-class ship, players will be able to get their hands on these ships in the game (assuming they can make the right contacts).

Fighters

Small short-range craft that generally cannot operate independently due to having no jump capability. Their main roles include the defence of stations and the large warships that they are deployed from. Commercial fighters are typically jump-capable and are therefore much more flexible than their faction-specific counterparts.

Drones

Small automated ships that have largely been phased out due to the existence of effective counter-measures. The closest setting-modern analogue would be Limpets, which are used almost purely for logistical/support tasks such as field repairs rather than direct combat, though some can be used for sabotage.

Videos

Elite Dangerous Ship Scale 2019 edition

Designing the Future - The Ships of Elite Dangerous

Elite Dangerous - Cockpit Interiors

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Gallery

ED Ship Chart v3.0

Ship Size Comparison

ED Ship Size Chart 3305 Edition

Group of ships

FDL vs Boeing 747-400

Station docking with a Boeing 747 and Imperial Courier

Elite Dangerous Ships and Boeing 747-123

Elite Dangerous Ships and Aircraft Carrier

Type-9 Heavy walking pilot scale

Cobra walking pilot scale

Anaconda walking pilot scale

Viper walking pilot scale

Asp Explorer and horses scale

Corvette and Farragut scale

Megaship in New York scale

Majestic Class Interdictor ship scale Dubai

Type-10 with Diamondback Explorer and SRV

Anaconda ship size comparison

Alliance Chieftain and Boeing 747

Anaconda interior

Damaged Anaconda

Viper MkIII interior cutaway

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References

1. ↑ Newsletter #22 http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=dcbf6b86b4b0c7d1c21b73b1e&id=f72c0f91b2
2. ↑ Tourist Beacon 0249
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM0Gcl7iUM8
4. ↑ Newsletter #29
5. ↑ Elite Dangerous 2.3 - The Commanders Release Livestream
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Frontier Developments Forums - 2.3 The Commanders Beta - Changelog
7. ↑ Galactic News: Zeus Bureau Appeal Concludes
8. ↑ Newsletter #7