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Please help with verifying or updating older sections of this article. At least some were last verified for version 3.10.
This article is for the PC version of Stellaris only.
A ship is a spaceborne vessel controlled by an empire. They are the primary way of interacting with objects and entities in the galaxy via specific ship orders. Ships are classified into civilian and military vessels, the former being controlled individually while the latter form fleets. All ships must be constructed at a Starbase or Orbital ring with a shipyard module, or with Federations enabled a Mega Shipyard or a Juggernaut. Each shipyard module can construct or upgrade one ship at a time. Ships can be repaired at any controlled, operational starbase above outpost level.
Contents
- 1 Civilian ships
- 1.1 Construction ship
- 1.2 Science ship
- 1.3 Colony ship
- 1.4 Transport ship
- 2 Military ships
- 2.1 Upgrading ships
- 2.2 Ship size
- 2.3 Naval capacity
- 2.3.1 Naval Coverage
- 2.4 Fleet command limit
- 2.5 Ship rank
- 3 Fleets
- 4 Colossal ships
- 4.1 Colossus
- 4.1.1 Toxic god
- 4.2 Juggernaut
- 4.3 Star-Eater
- 4.1 Colossus
- 5 Shipsets
- 6 Cloaking
- 7 References
Civilian ships[edit | edit source]
Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 3.10. |
Civilian ships represent all unarmed vessels of an empire and are controlled individually. Their shields, armor, and core components are automatically upgraded once the next tier component tech is unlocked at no cost, and they do not need to return to a Starbase to receive component upgrades. Each civilian ship, excluding transports, has a monthly maintenance cost of 1 energy. Construction and Science ships cost 100 alloys to build.
Civilian ships use the evasive fleet stance by default, meaning that they will attempt to escape the system whenever a hostile fleet enters it. They can also be set to a passive stance to ignore hostile fleets.
Construction ship[edit | edit source]
Construction ships are used to build every space structure. They are not used up during construction, meaning that they can go on to do other tasks after they have finished their building project. Construction ships also have a Fleet Order that makes them build mining and research stations automatically. Construction ships can construct the following:
Build order | Base cost | Monthly upkeep | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Outpost | 75 per hyperlane from closest owned system 100 if not Machine Intelligence 150 if Machine Intelligence | 1 Energy | The Starbase is a space station used to claim star systems and expand your borders. It can only be built in orbit around a star. The full cost is dependent on which star system is being claimed. |
Mining Station | 100 Minerals | 1 Energy | Mining Stations are used to collect Minerals, Energy Credits and Strategic Resources from uninhabited planets, stars and asteroids. Mining Stations that collect Energy do not cost any upkeep. |
Research Station | 100 Minerals | 1 Energy | Research Stations are used to collect Physics, Society and Engineering research data from uninhabited planets, stars and asteroids. |
Observation Post | 100 Minerals | 1 Energy | Observation Posts can be built in orbit around planets inhabited by primitive civilizations to study their society. |
Megastructure Site | depends on Megastructure | 5 Energy | Megastructures are truly massive construction projects only possible in the zero-g environment of space. |
Available only with the Overlord DLC enabled. |
Tier 3 Bulwark subjects can construct Battlewright construction ships, which provide all friendly ships in the same system 5% Daily Hull Regen.
Science ship[edit | edit source]
- See also: Surveying
Science ships are the primary method of exploring the galaxy and the stars and systems within it. They require a scientist to operate.
Once crewed, the science ship can conduct a survey of individual objects within a system. During these surveys, it can discover resources present on a celestial body (i.e.: planets, stars, asteroids, etc.). A survey may also result in the discovery of an anomaly. The science ship can also investigate debris left after a space battle which may yield research points or possibly even unlock unique technology options.
Available only with the Overlord DLC enabled. |
Tier 3 Scholarium subjects can construct Arctrellis science ships, which penalize all enemy ships with AI combat computers in the same system with −25% to Accuracy, Fire Rate, and Ship Speed.
Colony ship[edit | edit source]
- See also: Colonization
Colony ships allow an empire to settle habitable planets or megastructures in owned systems. When ordering the construction of a colony ship, the player is given the option of choosing the species or sub-species of the pop(s) that will be sent to the new colony. Pops are neither consumed nor transported in this process. Once constructed, the colony ship may be sent to any habitable world within an owned system to start a colony. Colony ships take one year to build and their upkeep cost is maintained throughout the whole colonization process. Colony ships can also be built through the interface of the planet to be colonized, which automatically queues the colonization order as long as the path is not blocked.
The cost of a colony ship in an organic empire depends on the government and the empire's primary species class.
Primary species | |||
---|---|---|---|
Biological | |||
Lithoid | |||
Robot | 400 Alloys |
Empires with the Corporate Dominion or Private Prospectors civics can also construct Private Colony Ships, which cost 500 energy instead.
Empires with the Calamitous Birth origin can also construct Lithoid Meteorites, which cost 500 minerals instead and have no upkeep cost.
The Frontier Spirit ruler trait reduces the cost of colony ships by −35%.
Transport ship[edit | edit source]
- See also: Land warfare
Transport ships are the space based form of assault armies. An army embarking from a planet will automatically generate a transport ship to house it, with the option to automatically "deploy in orbit" being enabled by default on all worlds. While armies have an upkeep cost, transport ships cost no additional energy to maintain. Transport ships are collected in fleets like military ships, but cannot be combined with military ships and are not listed in the fleet manager.
During war, transport ships must be carefully escorted by a military fleet since they are unarmed. Their only purpose is to carry assault armies into enemy planets so that they can occupy them. Transport fleets use the passive fleet stance by default, and can be set to use the aggressive stance, which will cause them to follow a military fleet and land on enemy planets with similar or less army strength. Additionally, some special projects require a transport ship to be completed.
Military ships[edit | edit source]
Please help with verifying or updating this section. It was last verified for version 3.10. |
- See also: Space warfare
Military ships represent the armed vessels of an empire. Military ships require both Energy and Alloys as monthly maintenance. Military ships have a number of base stats, but derive most of their stats from components. A military ships components can be customized via the ship designer.
Military ships are classified by their hull size, which determines their base combat stats, base cost, and available sections. There are five regular hull sizes available: Corvette, Frigate, Destroyer, Cruiser, and Battleship; the Apocalypse expansion adds a sixth regular hull size – the Titan. Empires with the Progenitor Hive origin can construct more powerful Offspring versions of Corvettes, Destroyers, Cruisers and Battleships, while empires with the Become The Crisis ascension perk eventually are able to construct Menacing Corvettes, Destroyers and Cruisers.
Titans can only be built at a Citadel-level starbase with a Titan Assembly Yards or a completed Mega Shipyard. The other regular classes can be built at any starbase or orbital ring with a shipyard module, or at a Mega Shipyard or Juggernaut.
Except for Titans, each ship class has a Voidcraft technology: Standardized <class> Patterns, which reduces build cost by −5% and increases build speed by +25%. Each class also has two Voidcraft hull improvement technologies: Improved <size> Hulls and Advanced <size> Hulls, which each add +10% hull points. Corvettes and Frigates share these technologies, rather than each having their own.
Some non-playable factions have access to unique hull sizes not usually available to players. Fallen Empires have Battlecruisers and Escorts, presenting an almost direct upgrade to Battleships and Corvettes respectively. Pirates, Marauders, and associated factions use Raiders, Pirate Frigates, Pirate Cruisers, and Galleons.
Upgrading ships[edit | edit source]
Whenever a design is updated, military ships of that design must be upgraded manually at a starbase or orbital ring with a shipyard module, Mega Shipyard, or Juggernaut. The cost of upgrading a ship is the difference in construction cost between the new design and the current one. If the newer design costs less of a resource than the current one, then the upgrade cost for that resource is 0: resources cannot be gained by refitting a ship. Each ship upgrades individually, with multiple ships being upgraded simultaneously if the starbase (or equivalent) contains multiple shipyards.
When upgrading a ship, the system attempts to use the current version of the same design name. If no design of the same name exists, then the upgrade process retrofits them to the most-recently saved design of the same ship class instead.
Ships obtained from events that contain components not yet researched should not be allowed to upgrade; upgrading these ships replaces the unresearched components with the latest researched ones, even if those are inferior.
Ship size[edit | edit source]
Each class of military ship uses a certain amount of naval capacity and fleet command based on its "size". The regular military ship classes have the following sizes:
Ship class | Size | Unlocking Tech |
---|---|---|
Corvette | 1 | Corvettes |
Frigate | 1 | Space Torpedoes |
Destroyer | 2 | Destroyers |
Cruiser | 4 | Cruisers |
Battleship | 8 | Battleships |
Titan | 16 | Titans |
Naval capacity[edit | edit source]
Naval capacity represents the number of military ships that an empire can effectively support. Going beyond this limit will increase ship maintenance costs by a percentage proportional to the exceeded capacity. For example, if an empire exceeded its naval capacity by 50%, it would increase the maintenance cost of each ship by 50%. An empire's base naval capacity is 20 and is modified by the following:
Maximum Naval Capacity may never exceed 9999 but empires can still build over it as long as their economy supports the upkeep costs.
Titans have a strict build limit, with a base of 1 allowed per empire; every 200 Naval Capacity increases an empire's Titan cap by 1, up to a maximum of 20 Titans at 3800 naval capacity.
Offspring ships have a strict build limit too:
- Every 10 Naval Capacity increases Offspring Corvette cap by 1
- Every 20 Naval Capacity increases Offspring Destroyer cap by 1
- Every 40 Naval Capacity increases Offspring Cruiser cap by 1
- Every 80 Naval Capacity increases Offspring Battleship cap by 1
Naval Coverage[edit | edit source]
Naval coverage is equal to twice the naval capacity used and is used to calculate power projection.[1] Power projection adds monthly influence based on the ratio of naval coverage to empire size. If naval coverage equals or exceeds empire size, power projection adds +2 monthly influence; imperial authority empires gain +3 monthly influence instead. If naval coverage is less than empire size, power projection is scaled by the percentage ratio. For example, with naval coverage of 50 and empire size of 100 (i.e. 50%), power projection would add +1 monthly influence, or +1.5 monthly influence for imperial authority.
Fleet command limit[edit | edit source]
Fleet command limit determines how large any one individual fleet in an empire can be. An empire's base command limit is 20, increased by the following:
Ship rank[edit | edit source]
As ships partake in battle, they will increase their rank. Ships start with zero experience. Ships gain +5 experience every day they are in combat and +0.1 experience every day they are suppressing piracy.
Ranks are classified as follows:
Rank | Exp Points | Damage | Hull Points | Evasion |
---|---|---|---|---|
Regular | 0-99 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Experienced | 100-999 | +10% | 0 | 0 |
Veteran | 1000-9999 | +20% | +5% | +5% |
Elite | 10000 | +40% | +10% | +10% |
Ship starting experience can be increased by the following:
Fleets[edit | edit source]
A Fleet is a group of military or transport ships operating as a single unit and can be assigned a Commander to act as an admiral or general respectively. Military fleets each maintain a fleet template accessible through the fleet manager and can be assigned a home base to return to automatically. All ships within a fleet must remain within the same system and will synchronize their FTL methods to remain together, though ships can be merged with a fleet anywhere in the galaxy. Merging can either be performed manually between specific ships, or automatically by reinforcing a fleet with missing ships in its fleet template. Reinforcing immediately begins building the most amount of ships possible at the nearest available starbase, with ships entering transit mode to try and reach the same system as their target fleet as soon as they are finished building. Manually built military ships will instead attempt to automatically merge with any fleets in orbit around the same starbase, splitting off into a new fleet if no fleets are found or if none have sufficient fleet command limit available.
Colossal ships[edit | edit source]
Colossal ships are are spacecraft built on a gargantuan scale and represent the apex of an empire's economic, scientific, and military might. There are three classes of colossal ships: the Colossus, the Juggernaut, and the Star-Eater. Distinguishing them from regular ships, each Colossal Ship requires a citadel with the Colossal Assembly Yards building to be constructed and all colossal ships apart from the Star-Eater have a hard limit on how many an empire can construct in a manner similar to megastructures, though they can be rebuilt if lost. Integrating a subject with a colossal ship in its navy will grant the ship to the overlord, bypassing the limit, however these additional ships cannot be rebuilt once lost.
Colossus[edit | edit source]
Available only with the Apocalypse DLC enabled. |
The Colossus is a single-purpose weapons platform built around a Planet-Killer weapon slot, a weapon of mass destruction capable of affecting an entire planet or habitable megastructure. The technology to construct such a vessel requires the Colossus Project ascension perk followed by an extensive research project. Each Fallen Empire has a 10% chance to start the game with a Colossus and can build more if they have awakened.
Colossi are unable to attack enemy fleets, as they lack the weaponry to do so. During space battles, a Colossus will follow direct orders and will maneuver straight to its designated target. This means that the Colossus will do things such as going straight through an ongoing space battle to fire upon an enemy planet, unless its stance is set to Evasive.
An empire that owns a Colossus gains the Colossus casus belli, allowing them to declare a total war on other empires. Similarly, any other empire can use the Stop Colossus casus belli to declare a total war on the Colossus owner. During a total war, any systems captured by either side will be immediately annexed and the war can only end in the total destruction of either side or a status quo.
- If a Colossus is destroyed during a total war, nothing happens. The war is still a total war.
- If a Colossus is built during a regular war, nothing happens and the Colossus can be used as normal. If one side is totally destroyed by the Colossus, the war ends and the war goal is not enforced. The same is true if an empire that owns a Colossus is dragged into a regular war, such as due to federation or defensive pact.
Using a Colossus causes large amounts of war exhaustion on the targeted empire, and gives it +50% ethics attraction towards Militarist and Xenophobe, allowing the diplomatic and political climate of a region to grow increasingly hostile over time.
The Colossus Project ascension perk grants access to a special project which unlocks both the ship and one weapon. After the special project is halfway completed, the empire is prompted to choose a starting Colossus weapon from those they could research (except Deluge Machine). The empire can later research other types of Colossus weapons and retrofit it into their Colossus via the ship designer.
Colossus weapons can only target planets, ringworlds and habitats. Targeting a planet with a pre-FTL civilization requires the Aggressive Interference Native Interference policy.
A Colossus can carry the following weapons:
Weapon | Effects | Opinion when used (stacks up to 5x) | Requirements for research | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Global Pacifier | If used on a Holy World the Holy Guardians will awaken and declare a war on the perpetrator | ||||
World Cracker | Pacifist |
| |||
Neutron Sweep | |||||
Divine Enforcer | AI worlds can be targeted and turned into broken worlds | ||||
Nanobot Diffuser | Driven Assimilator | Can be used on pre-FTL worlds but will give −40 opinion with every empire that isn't Xenophobe or Fanatic Xenophobe | |||
Devolving Beam |
| Ancient Relics DLC | |||
Deluge Machine |
| Hydrocentric ascension perk |
Toxic god[edit | edit source]
Available only with the Toxoids DLC enabled. |
The toxic god is a unique Colossus that can be unlocked as part of the Search for the Toxic God situation and does not count towards the single-Colossus limit. It has a weapon that turns habitable planets into Toxic Worlds. Unlike the player-built Colossus the toxic god is armed with strike craft, energy weapons and regenerative hull tissues. Using it has the same Opinion penalties as World Crackers.
Juggernaut[edit | edit source]
Available only with the Federations DLC enabled. |
The Juggernaut is the mobile center of operations of an entire empire, equipped with shipyards that can construct, repair, and upgrade ships the same way a starbase can. It has 10 times the hull points of a Titan and features six Hangar slots and two turreted Extra Large slots. It also has its own set of aura components, which are significantly more powerful than the Titan's auras.
Juggernauts have two shipyards and can thus build or upgrade up to two ships at a time. It cannot build Titans or colossal ships, but it can upgrade or repair them. The Juggernaut can also upgrade itself and will automatically start repairing itself after a battle. It cannot be repaired or upgraded at a starbase. Juggernauts can retreat and go Missing in Action to reappear at the nearest friendly starbase like all regular fleets. Fleets can set a Juggernaut as their homebase, though the target location of a "return to homebase", "repair", or "upgrade" order will fail to update in real time if the Juggernaut is still in motion.
Federation fleets, the Galactic Defense Force, and the Imperial Armada can all have a Juggernaut each, which will consume 32 naval capacity on top of filling out the navy's single-Juggernaut cap. This makes three the most amount of renewable Juggernauts available to a single empire, if they are both the president of a Federation and the Galactic Custodian and have passed Federation navy contribution and Galactic Defense Force resolution respectively. Forming the Galactic Imperium will kick the player from their federation, negating the Juggernaut they can gain from the Federation fleet.
Fallen Empires spawn with the Juggernaut technology but do not have access to the single-Juggernaut cap and cannot build them.
Star-Eater[edit | edit source]
Available only with the Nemesis DLC enabled. |
The Star-Eater is a massive superweapon used by the Crisis Aspirant after reaching the fifth tier of the Become the Crisis progression level and declaring war against the Galaxy as an Existential Threat. the main weapon of a Star-Eater is a Star Cracker that targets the core of a star, collapsing the celestial body into a black hole and destroying the surrounding solar system while collecting massive amounts of dark matter to fuel the Aetherophasic Engine. Reaching the final crisis level grants the Crisis Aspirant two Star-Eaters as well as the technology to build more. Unlike Colossi, Star-Eaters are equipped with regular weapon slots and therefore can engage in regular fleet combat and will always cost an unchanging amount of dark matter to build regardless of the design. Star-Eaters do not require components to be fully powered in order to save a design.
All fleets present (including other non-firing Star-Eaters) except the firing Star-Eater will go MIA. If a system contains multiple stars, firing upon any of them destroys all stars in the system. Cracking a star grants dark matter based on the galaxy size:
Galaxy size | Dark matter |
---|---|
Tiny | 3000 |
Small | 2500 |
Medium | 2000 |
Large | 1500 |
Huge | 1000 |
Shipsets[edit | edit source]
Shipsets are a single visual and audio theme shared between all spacecraft built by a given empire, with thirteen playable shipsets representing each of the twelve organic species phenotypes in addition to a thirteenth Imperial set representing the Galactic Community. The shipset choice can be customized during empire creation, but unlike namesets will be forgotten by any empires founded by the same species. Randomly generated empires will always match their shipset to their phenotype, similar to namesets or Machine portraits, however the Humanoid phenotype will default to Mammalian ships if the Humanoids DLC is not installed. The Imperial set will always be used by both the Galactic Defense Force and by the Imperial Armada. Starbases, stations, Juggernauts, and Colossi have unique models and effects for each set, while Star Eaters and megastructures instead apply a shipset skin over the base model.
Crisis, Fallen Empire, and Pirate ships act as separate shipsets not normally available to the player. The Marauders will use the Pirate shipset, however the Great Horde will use Mammalian models as a fallback for civilian vessels not included in the set.
Cloaking[edit | edit source]
Available only with the First Contact DLC enabled. |
Cloaking allows a fleet to become invisible and ignore closed borders and will not become MIA if war is declared against the system's current owner. It also allows a Science Ship to conduct Active Reconnaissance. However most cloaking components will disable shields and even the ones that don't impose certain restrictions on shields. A ship can only cloak every 120 days and will automatically decloak if attacking. Ships and fleets that are cloaked are marked with horizontal stripes on the galaxy map.
Each ship has a Cloaking Strength, and each fleet has a Cloaking Strength determined by the lowest one of all ships in the fleet. It determines what penalties a fleet will suffer while cloaked as well as how easy it is to detect.
Cloaking Strength can be increased by the following, up to the maximum of 10:
- +1-5 by cloaking ship Auxiliary components, depending on the size of the ship and the level of the component. A ship without a cloaking device can't cloak, even if it would gain additional strength from other sources.
- +1 from finishing the Subterfuge tradition tree.
- +1 from the Trickster admiral trait.
- +1 from the Obsidian Veil dark matter edict (Only with Astral Planes DLC enabled).
- +1 from the Astral Cloaking edict (Only with Astral Planes DLC enabled).
- +1 from the Material Liberator admiral trait (Only with Galactic Paragons DLC enabled).
- +2 from the Guerilla Tactician destiny trait (Only with Galactic Paragons DLC enabled).
- +1 from the Criminal Heritage civic.
- +2 from the Enigmatic Engineering ascension perk.
- +2 from forming a covenant with Whisperers in the Void.
- +3 if the fleet is inside a Nebula.
A cloaked fleet will be detected if it is within the sensor range of a starbase with Detection Strength higher than or equal to the fleet's Cloaking Strength. Cloaked fleets are also visible to empires that have max Intel on the empire.
References[edit | edit source]
Game concepts
Exploration | Exploration • FTL • Unique systems • L-Cluster • Pre-FTL species • Fallen empire • Spaceborne aliens • Enclaves • Guardians • Marauders • Caravaneers |
Celestial bodies | Celestial body • Colonization • Terraforming • Planetary features • Planet modifiers |
Discovery | Discovery • Anomaly • Archaeological site • Astral rift • Relics |
Species | Species • Traits • Population • Pop modification • Species rights • Ethics • Leader |
Governance | Empire • Origin • Government • Civics • Policies • Edicts • Factions • Technology • Traditions • Situations |
Economy | Resources • Planetary management • Districts • Buildings • Holdings • Jobs • Designation • Trade • Megastructures |
Diplomacy | Diplomacy • Relations • Galactic community • Federations • Subject empires • Intelligence • AI personalities |
Warfare | Warfare • Space warfare • Land warfare • Starbase • Ship • Ship designer • Crisis |
Others | Events • The Shroud • Preset empires • AI players • Easter eggs • Modifiers |