Everspace 2 offers several different ships to pilot, but they all fall under three classes – Light, Medium and Heavy. There are nine ships in total, each with strengths, weaknesses, and Ultimates that make them worth trying. Let’s take a look at each of their loadouts. Stat ranges vary based on the ship’s tier – the higher the tier, the better the stats, but you’ll need to be a higher level and speed more money to acquire them.
All Ships and Their Loadouts
Light Class Ships
Scout
The Scout is your de facto Light Class ship. It comes with two Primary Weapon slots, two Secondary Weapon slots, and three slots for Consumables. It can also equip two to four Devices and hold 15-25 Cargo.
In terms of stats, it offers a 20 to 35 percent bonus to shields and a 40 to 70 percent bonus to armor. You also get between 160 to 3467 base hull HP and 730-806 handling. The ship’s speed ranges from 95 to 100 meters per second, making it the second fastest ship in its class. Its Expertise is Weapon Range, which can provide up to 50 percent range for weapons (which works absurdly well with its Special).
Special: Ranger
Every 100 meters from an enemy, deal four percent increased damage.
Ultimate: Shadow Strike
Your ship becomes invisible and gains 300 percent weapon damage. After firing a shot, it will reset for one second, alerting enemies to your ship, and allowing them to target you. Reposition quickly and look for another moment to strike, preferably with railguns.
Passives
True to their name, Scouts have a 25 percent reduced enemy detection range and a 30 percent increased weapon range. When using Shadow Strike, you gain 100 percent increased regeneration for boost energy and can’t be detected by mines. Once the Ultimate ends, you have five seconds of invincibility, letting you reposition quickly out of harm’s way.
Vanguard
The Vanguard is a hit-and-run style Light Class ship with two Primary Weapon slots, two Secondary Weapon slots and three Consumable slots. It can also equip 2-4 Devices and carry 15-25 Cargo.
It provides a shield bonus of 20 to 35 percent (which increases based on its Special – more on that below) and a 10 to 18 percent bonus to armor. Its base hull ranges from 130 to 2817, and its handling ranges from 790 to 872. You’re also looking at speeds of 100 to 105 meters per second.
The expertise increases the critical chance of rear attacks, by up to 450 percent. Long story short, if you can get behind an enemy, they’re as good as gone.
Special: Overcharges
When flying above the normal speed, your shield will overcharge, allowing it to increase up to 200 percent. It will then reduce to 100 percent but provides some much-needed survivability in that window.
Ultimate: Time Extender
Slow down time around the ship, making it even easier to outmaneuver foes and get behind them.
Passives
On top of 50 percent Web effect reduction, ensuring you don’t remain snared, the Vanguard receives up to 20 percent cooldown reduction for its Support devices based on the percentage of Overdrive. If you fly behind an enemy close enough, weapon damage is increased by 20 percent, and Time Extender will restore all energy for weapons and boost, making it much easier to DPS or flee. If all this wasn’t enough, you can also activate cruise drive in the presence of enemies if you need to get some distance.
Stinger
You like Devices. They make you feel safe and generally more powerful than your enemies. Handling in the 690-762 range doesn’t bother you, though survivability is an issue. Behold the Stinger, which comes with a 50 to 88 percent bonus in shields, a 30 to 53 percent armor bonus and 180 to 3901 base hull HP. It’s arguably the tankiest of the Light Class ships (not counting an overcharged Vanguard), though it’s the slowest at 90-95 m/s speed.
It has two Primary Weapon slots, two Secondary Weapons lots, four Consumable Slots, two to four Device slots and space for 15-25 Cargo. Its expertise is added hardpoint duration, increasing fire rate and energy consumption when using a Warfare device. This bonus goes up to 75 percent depending on the amount of expertise.
Special: Device Master
All devices gain +1 to their levels, and using a device results in an additional hardpoint for your primary weapons for five seconds.
Ultimate: Void Swarm
Send a bunch of angry micro-bots at your enemies while resetting cooldowns for all devices. When the micro-bots return, their damage will heal your hull and armor.
Passives
Given its Device-oriented nature, the Stinger offers a 20 percent reduced cooldown on Warfare and Support Devices. When using a Device, you’ll restore 25 percent of total shields. When your shield depletes, the Stinger will cloak for five seconds. Finally, you can get a 25 percent increased Void Swarm radius, allowing even more hapless fools to be caught in their wake.
Medium Class Ships
Interceptor
As a Medium class ship, the Interceptor caters to those who want to shoot their Primary Weapons…a lot. Whether it’s increased damage, less energy consumed while firing, and so forth, the Interceptor has you covered. It also has decent survivability with its 260-5634 base hull, 60 to 106 percent shield bonus and 100 to 176 percent armor bonus.
Its expertise is Weapon Energy Consumption, which reduces the energy consumed by your Primary Weapons by up to 20 percent. While you can’t quite out-maneuver some foes due to the 480-530 handling, the Interceptor is still decently fast with an 85-89 meters per second ship speed.
You can also equip three Primary Weapons, three Secondary Weapons, and two to four Devices. Having slots for three Consumables and 18-30 Cargo also isn’t too shabby.
Special: Power Converter
When your weapon energy is empty, the Interceptor’s passive allows it to use boost energy for firing weapons. Again, it’s good for those who want to keep firing their weapons constantly, but not as great for escaping.
Ultimate: Weapon Overdrive
Increases weapon damage and fire rate, while granting unlimited energy. The Ultimate’s duration is extended by one second for each enemy slain.
Passives
If it weren’t clear already, the Interceptor is for those who want to just shoot with their weapons. Its passives include 10 percent increased Primary Weapon damage and hits with the same will refund 30 percent of energy. The Ultimate, Weapon Overdrive, also has a 50 percent chance to charge by one percent on critical hits, further facilitated by picking up Energy Orbs, which grant a one percent critical hit chance for eight seconds and stack to 20 percent (pairing well with Delia’s Companion Perks).
Finally, if Weapon Overdrive is still left over and there are no enemies, deactivating it will refund 20 percent of the Ultimate energy used. This means less waiting for the next Ultimate.
Sentinel
The Sentinel is an interesting mish-mash of styles, pairing the shield management of the Vanguard and Device usage of the Stinger with a Medium class level of sturdiness. It can only equip two Primary and two Secondary Weapons but has slots for four Consumables and two to four Devices. It also has space for 18-30 Cargo.
While having a base hull of 280-6284, the Sentinel’s main tool of survivability is its shields. It not only grants a 140-247 percent bonus to shields but also has shield damage reduction as its expertise, ensuring your shield takes up to 30 percent less damage. The armor bonus ranges from 50-99 percent, and the handling is 420-464, which is nothing special, but at least it’s fast, with a 90-95 m/s ship speed.
Special: Induction
Based on shield charge percentage, gain up to 20 percent increased fire rate for your Primary Weapons.
Ultimate: Static Overload
Your Primary Weapons turn into lightning guns. The electricity fired at enemies can arc to others and nearby surroundings.
Passives
There are quite a few ways to play the Sentinel. You can focus on Static Overload, which gets a 10 percent chance every second to hit enemies with an EMP, lasting for five seconds. Given how the weapon arcs to nearby targets, it’s very easy to annihilate a group of foes, especially coupled with Warfare Devices gaining 20 percent reduced cooldowns, which also feeds into each kill reducing a random Device’s cooldown by one second. Did we mention you can also restore 10 percent of your shields with each Static Overload kill?
Gaining a 15 percent increased shield and resetting all Support Device cooldowns after your shield is gone (with a two-minute cooldown) is just the icing on top. The latter is useful for teleporting away, healing armor and hull or destroying any incoming missiles, and makes for a great escape tool.
Striker
The Striker specializes in close-quarters combat, where you get in and pick apart the opposition. It has slots for three Primary Weapons and two Secondary Weapons, three Consumables and 2-4 Devices while also holding 18-30 Cargo. The base hull has 240-5201 HP with an 80-141 percent armor bonus and a 60-106 percent armor bonus.
While it’s not the craziest in maneuverability due to its 540-596 handling, it’s the most agile of the Medium class ships and has 90-96 m/s speed.
Special: Close Combat
For every enemy within 500 meters of the player, gain five percent increased weapon damage. Stacks up to 30 percent, further reinforcing the hit-and-run style of gameplay.
Ultimate: Quantum Tether
Tethers up to five enemies to a single target, who all receive the same damage (which increased by five percent per enemy tethered).
Passives
On top of being able to grab and throw drones, the Striker also reduces the speed of locked hostile targets by 20 percent. If they’re within 300 meters, they also can’t regenerate shields, making their survival much less likely.
Diving into the fray is careless, especially without enough survivability to keep you going. To that end, using Quantum Tether will repair 50 percent of armor, and your boost speed is increased by 30 percent when targeted by missiles, making it easier to out-maneuver them.
Heavy Class Ships
Gunship
Not interested in mobility or want more cargo space and tankiness? Then Heavy Class ships are worth checking out. The Gunship fulfills that fantasy well, with turrets that take down targets for you. It has a 440-9535 base hull health, a whopping 120-211 percent bonus to shield and a 220-388 percent armor bonus. The expertise, armor damage reduction, further reduces damage to armor by up to 20 percent.
Along with slots for three Primary Weapons, two Secondary Weapons and two Consumables, it also supports two to four Devices. There are also lots for a whopping 24-41 Cargo. As expected, the handling is abysmal at 140-155 while the speed is 75-79 m/s.
Special: Arsenal
Gain four Primary hardpoints for increased damage but also double the energy consumed.
Ultimate: Turret
Upon activation, a turret will autonomously attack enemies for 20 seconds.
Passives
The Gunship has its share of weaknesses, but the Passives can make up for them in several ways. These include a 25 percent higher boost speed and 50 reduced repair costs for your hull and armor. You can also have a Coil Gun or Pulse Laser turret, and it will even target mines. There’s also a 30 percent bonus damage against drones.
Bomber
The Bomber, as the name indicates, is all about bombs. It can equip two Primary Weapons, three Secondary Weapons, two Consumables and two to four Devices, along with holding 24-41 Cargo. The ship speed is 78-82 m/s, and the handling is 110-121, so you’re not escaping from targets easily.
Thankfully, the Bomber can take a beating, with its base hull health ranging from 620-13,435 and its shield bonus ranging from 310-546 percent while the armor bonus is 210-370 percent. Its expertise also repairs the hull based on the amount of damage dealt, going up to 20 percent.
Special: Conversion
Instead of ammo, your Secondary Weapons will use energy. That means you can unleash Cruise Missiles, Corrosion Missiles, EMP Missiles and more frequently.
Ultimate: ARC-9000
The ARC-9000 is the Everspace 2’s BFG, unleashing a giant ball, which explodes on impact and damages enemies nearby.
Passives
In addition to taking 20 percent less damage from enemy explosives, the Bomber also takes 50 percent less damage from an ARC-9000 explosion, so you can let it rip at medium range. Close-range fire of the Ultimate is less advised since it gains two percent more damage every second after it’s fired. Some other benefits of the ship include converting mines when flying close to them (just make sure not to boost) and 50 percent reduced duration for locking on to enemies, making it that much easier to bombard enemies with missiles.
Vindicator
The last of the Heavy Class ships, the Vindicator is a weird mix of summoning and shield tank. It can equip two Primary Weapons, one Secondary Weapon, along with four Consumables and 2-4 Devices. The cargo capacity ranges from 24-41.
The base hull is 380-8235 with the 100-176 percent bonus from armor and 180-317 percent bonus from shields (which goes up to 221-359 percent, due to its passive). The handling ranges from 180-199 while the speed is 80-84 m/s.
Special: Reanimator
When slaying enemies, they can leave a wreck that spawns a friendly drone (the max being five). You gain 20 percent increased shields per drone, capping out at 100 percent. The ship’s expertise increases the hull and damage of drones by 110 percent and 90 percent. You also interact with wreckage up to 650 meters away, making it easier to spawn drones without getting too close.
Ultimate: Phalanx
Drones gain an increased fire rate and attack an enemy you’ve locked onto. Any drones that are missing will also be spawned temporarily.
Passives
Leaning further into the drone play style, the Vindicator’s passives increase the maximum active drones by one. Drones can also regenerate one percent of their hull per second, become invulnerable when your Ultimate is active, and grant 20 percent more weapon damage when destroyed for six seconds. When destroyed, they’ll deal damage and slow any enemies nearby. Finally, enemy drones will cause 50 percent less damage to you.
Everspace 2 is available for PC. Check out our official review here. It’s also coming to Xbox Series X/S and PS5 this Summer.