Starfield Build Theory: Ship Scavenging: Part 1

 

Ship Scavenging: Part 1

 

Introduction

One of the methods I use to build my ships is to cannibalize the parts from one ship to make another ship. There are several advantages to this, the first being that you can very quickly change manufacturers/style without a great deal of cost. You can also build a nice starter ship that, over time, you can add to and upgrade into your end game beast.

For this discussion, I am going to do a very quick and easy transition from a Crimson Fleet Phantom II to a HopeTech Hopper custom build. If you have 10k credits and a Phantom II, this should take you about five minutes. This is a really basic example of scavenging one ship to make another. I might cover the entire process of scavenging the parts to make an entirely custom ship in a later article

 

Head Canon/Lore

The HopeTech Hopper is a small, light, short-range fighter designed to quickly intercept incoming enemies. It is HopeTech's answer to the Deimos Achilles and even shares many of the same components that make the Achilles a successful platform.

 

Assembly

Step 1: Group Select the Landing Bay, Landing Gear, Reactor, Grav Drive, Fuel Tank, Shield, and Weapons and pull them aside. Move the weapons to the side so that they are not in the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2: Delete the rest of the Phantom II.

Step 3: Change the NG-20 Landing Gear to the Wide format and snap it to the bottom of the Grav Drive.

Step 4: Attach a HopeTech 2x1 Hab to the Front of the Grav Drive. Flip the Landing Bay and snap it to the bottom of the 2x1 Hab.

Step 5: Attach a 1x1 Hab and Armstrong 10 Cockpit to the top of the 2x1 Hab. Snap a Hope-11 Docker to the Front of the 2x1 Hab

Step 6: Attach Fuel Tank to top of 1x1 Hab. Attach Shield to top of Reactor.

Step 7: Attach Horizon Weapon Mounts to the front snap points of the 2x1 Hab. Attach the weapons to the Horizon mounts. You can do it however works for you. I snapped one Ballistic to either side, the Laser to one side, and the Missile Launcher to the opposite side from the Laser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 8: (optional) Group Select everything but the Landing Bay and Fuel Tank. Open the Color menu. Set all three colors to one pictured below. If you like the default colors or want to add your own flair to the build, ignore this step.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost to Build: 6,547 Credits and a Crimson Fleet Phantom II

Final Build

 

Upgrade Path

Obviously, the HT Hopper is a starter ship with all of the potential for expansion that you could ask for. If you want to maintain the same general shape, you can upgrade Reactor, Grav Drive, Engines, Shield, Fuel, and Weapons pretty easily. B-class internal components are all the same size as A-class, so you could make a deadly little stinger.

There are also two open snap points on the 1x1 Hab. You can add cargo or more Horizon mounts. Whatever suits your fancy and will fit. Just make sure that you balance mass to your engine strength.

Alternatively, you can expand this little beast into something larger and more imposing. Add Habs, upgrade to C-class, you name it.

For the character that I built this on, I upgraded to a B-class 102DS Reactor, exchanged the default weapons for PBO-100 Auto Neutron Cannons, and upgraded the Shield to a Warden SG-200. As the character gains levels and points in Ship Design, I will eventually reach a 104DS Reactor and some powerful B-class shield. I'm not worried about cargo on this character. The default cockpit cargo, so that I can store a supply of Ship Parts, is all that's needed. Because of that, I have a secondary weapon in the form of CE-29 Missile Launchers, mounted on Horizon Weapon Pods snapped to the 1x1 Hab.

Another possible way to go is to expand upon the size of the vessel and make it into an A-class Cargo/Passenger Hauler. I don't want to go too deep into the components, but there is an image below of how it might possibly turn out. Ultimately, the end result should be something custom to you. These are just examples of the process of taking a basic, scavenged build and making it into something more customized.

 Example Upgraded Builds

And that's all I have to say for now. I hope that you enjoyed the essay. If you happened to get something from it, even better. Keep on building.