Buying ships in-game

As soon as you’ve earned some money, you can buy your first own ship in the ‘verse. The most important places to go for that are the big ship dealerships on the individual planets. There you can look at ships, step inside, compare them and of course buy them.

New Deal (Lorville, Hurston)

Probably the best-known address is New Deal in Lorville on Hurston. This dealer offers the widest selection of ships in the game: from light starter ships and freighters to specialized industrial or combat ships, you’ll find almost everything the ‘verse currently has to offer here.

The shop is in Teasa Spaceport, right in the main terminal.

Other ship dealers

Of course you don’t necessarily have to travel to Lorville. Other capitals also have dealers that carry certain types of ships, depending on which manufacturers and specializations fit the region. Some shops only have a few models, others focus on special roles like mining or combat.

Trying out and comparing ships

In the showrooms you can step into every ship and check its equipment before you invest your hard-earned aUEC.

Look out for:

• Cargo capacity
• Access to the cargo hold and its layout
• Weapons
• Role (solo, multi-crew, industrial, combat)

Payment and delivery

You buy the ship directly at the terminal in the shop. Your new ship is then ready in the next hangar and is permanently assigned to your account.

At least as long as no future update to the persistence system changes anything: at least once, at the transition from alpha to version 1.0, all items and ships earned in-game will be wiped. After 1.0, persistence is supposed to be permanent, and with it your fleet.

Which ships to buy in-game

There are lots of ships to buy in Star Citizen, and this selection is only my personal opinion. I’m sure everyone will see it a bit differently. And if you like a ship more because of its looks or its manufacturer’s reputation, go for that one. Stats change quickly, but Drake is forever.

Daily driver - Drake Cutlass Black

A relatively cheap upgrade from most starter ships that’s well suited for lots of different jobs. It can hold its own in combat and carry some cargo too. You can fly it alone or put a friend in the turret, which is fitted with two S3 weapons.

FPS / medic - Anvil C8R Pisces Rescue

This ship lets you take a respawn point along for a very low price. Go to the terminal in the ship and transfer your imprint to the medical bed inside. If you then die on an FPS mission, you wake up very close by and can take revenge for the unplanned interruption.

But respawning in this bed uses up MedGel worth 50,000 aUEC. If you don’t have any left on board, you’ll have to go back to your starting location after all.

Combat ship - Anvil F7C Hornet Mk 2

A medium combat ship with two S4 weapons out of the box. It can take a bit more than the light ships without getting as sluggish as the heavy fighters. That lets you handle quite a few bounty missions with ease.

Alternatively, the light Aegis Gladius for 2,262,330 aUEC or the heavy Mirai Guardian MX for a whopping 6,284,250 aUEC would also be interesting. Both ships are also available at New Deal in Lorville, among other places.

Mining ship - MISC Prospector

If you want to try ship mining, you have two options: the cheaper Drake Golem and the MISC Prospector. But the Golem’s mining laser can’t be swapped. That makes the Prospector the more flexible platform, which can be adapted to whatever mining materials you’re after. You can also swap the Prospector’s ore pods for those of the Mole, which increases its capacity to 48 SCU.

Salvage ship - MISC Fortune

More than half a million cheaper than the Vulture, the Fortune is a very good and affordable starter ship for trying out salvage. With a single salvage laser, you strip the hull about as fast as with the Vulture. And you get to skip loading the material by hand: your two output printers place the finished boxes on the two side cargo grids, accessible from outside.

Cargo ship - ARGO RAFT

An easy ship to load, thanks to the cargo grid that’s accessible from outside and the built-in tractor beam. It can carry the biggest 32 SCU containers and is perfect for small and medium hauling missions.