Cruiser ship tier list, by Grievous69 - 0.95.1a

Discussion

Saw there's a demand for decent up to date tier lists so I thought might as well make one. u/PureLSD made a great one a while back so this is going to be heavily inspired by it since there's no need to fix what ain't broken. Also I think ships in Starsector can greatly change depending on who's piloting it, so there's going to be 2 ranks usually (when it makes a difference), first one always being in hands of AI, after all AI commands all but one ship, and the other score will be for a flagship. I will naturally take campaign stats into account because after all, it's the campaign where people decide what to do with their credits.

Btw I'm not an egomaniac, it's already hard to find some posts here so I added something on the side to make it easier to find if needed.

There will be no civilian ships in my lists since I'm first and foremost a bounty hunter who spends a lot of time in combat. There's probably a bunch of other folks including new people who figured out which freighter/tanker/transport is most efficient.

Apogee: B

Excellent exploration ship that's actually pretty cheap. In combat it's a great shield tank but for a high tech ship it is slow. Couple that with awkward weapon mounts and it's not something you will abuse in late game, still a very useful ship. Angled large missile hardpoints locks you in just homing options, while the energy mounts that can free fire forward are just 1 large hardpoint along with 2 small ones. This means the ship doesn't have great build diversity, although where it works, it works well.

Aurora: B- / A

Out of pure spite I almost wanted to put it in C tier. It seems beloved by many as a strong high tech cruiser, yet in reality it hardly competes with other cruiser options. Keep in mind Aurora costs 30 DP, and it's a ship that has trouble fighting its own caliber unless you spam Sabots. AI is also fairly incompetent with it, going in and out doing some damage, and often dying in situations where other cruisers would live. Fortunately the player can do much more with it, as its mobility is superb. But you're still stuck with weapon mounts for such an expensive rare ship.

Champion: A

Feels like Champion obsoleted couple of ships when it came out, luckily the balance brought other ships up to par. Champion has the advantage of having 2 kinetic medium turrets (they are hybrid but let's be real here) alongside a large energy turret paired with a HEF system. For a cherry on top at the very tip it sports a large missile hardpoint, you can see how deadly this combo is. All that package for 25 DP makes this ship a great addition to any fleet. It won't get to the fight quickest, but will certainly hold the line and deal serious damage.

Colossus Mk.II: D

Ill-advised modifications makes this ship undesirable, even though it has decent firepower. All of its stats are just utter garbage so it's probably best left alone in Ludd fleets. The only positive is the cheap deployment cost, you could do some shenanigans with a spam fleet just for the meme. But yeah not much else to say here.

Collosus Mk.III: D+

Slightly less horrible than the Ludd Collosus, the pirate variant has 2 flight decks for a cheap cost and a Ground support package hullmod so you could argue it has some uses. Still as any converted pirate civilian, its stats are not made for real combat, as it dies like a red pinata.

Dominator: B+ / A

Basically a mini Onslaught, this ship has amazing armour and hull stats while also packing a mean punch. Despite its smaller profile it shares the same vulnerabilities with Onslaught, easy to flank and very slow. Burn drive luckily helps it to actually get into fights, where it's quite good. Dominator is the king of focused firepower, both ballistic and missile, so it's best suited to deal with large targets, such as capitals or stations. Faster and smaller ships will have an easy time dodging its firepower and dancing around it. It would otherwise be in A tier for AI but since Onslaught exists, there's just no reason to not switch it out once you can. Also always keep it escorted by something, it's super vulnerable at the back.

Doom: C / B

The phase changes killed this ship for me, previously an easy S tier flagship, now so slow you feel like the time completely stops, not slows down. Its Mine strike ability is still a force to be reckoned with, but I honestly don't see it worthwhile at 35 DP. It used to be able to brawl with other ships a bit, and currently it's very hard to do so. Once your flux goes up, you're a sitting duck waiting to get roasted. There's just better phase ships to pilot sadly.

Eagle: B

All around a decent ship, nothing stands out too much, very safe for AI. You just can't rely on it to kill stuff alone, because its design is made for kiting and providing support fire. Builds that focus on high burst damage also get bursted themselves. You will probably never get very disappointed with it, but it will also never amaze you. It's an AK-47 of Starsector ships. Worth mentioning that it makes for a nice escort for bigger, slower ships.

Eradicator: A / A+

You want a bigger Hammerhead? Well here it is, a cruiser with AAF as ship system is always going to be strong. Eradicator also has decent combat speed for a low tech cruiser, meaning a lack of mobility system doesn't hurt as much. Equipped with long range weapons this thing will pelt away at enemies like there's no tomorrow. Putting 5 Breaches on a medium range build similarly makes for a crazy strong early-mid game flagship. There's honestly not much to say about its weaknesses, probably the best cruiser per DP imo, AI can't even screw up in it. Did I mention it also has destroyer level burn!

Eradicator(P): B- / A

Losing AAF hurts a lot, thankfully it's slightly cheaper than the original. Instead it gets Burn drive making it even more mobile. Here you have to think more about missiles since your ballistic firepower is weaker, but you can easily go for high DPS options because range is less of a concern now. I like this variant in early game, makes for a fun flagship with Thumpers and Breaches, but it falls off once big fights start happening. AI seems to do worse with it than with the base one, more skill is definitely needed to make the best of it. Decent SO candidate as well during early stages of campaign.

Falcon: B

Honestly same as Eagle, just smaller. It has the benefit of having destroyer level burn, but again it won't be destroying ships on its own. It's ok as an early game cruiser, though as time passes one, you will find less uses for it. Falcons are even able to catch up to destroyers, they just don't have the mounts to do heavy work. I personally don't use them much since they're a bit too safe for me. Could've been ranked even lower but it's sooo cheap and easy to find while making your early game a tad bit easier it deserves the "solid" tier.

Falcon(P): A / S

You know the negatives I just listed about the base Falcon, fogetaboutit. This red painted cousin sports 4 medium missile slots, on a ship that has built-in Unstable injectors, along with everything else Falcon has (good base speed, Maneuvering jets system). And you get a hell of a missile cruiser. You'll obviously need the Missile specialization skill to fully utilize it but even without skills this things is scary. I'm honestly more scared seeing pirate Falcons than their capitals. It is however more expensive than the base one by 5 DP, but it's worth every single one of those points.

Fury: C / A

Shrike that's all grown up, this ship suffers from the same problem. And that is AI going absolutely bananas and dying miserably. I kid you not, in a big fleet, 3 of my Furies were almost always the first to die, all 3 different builds. Not even frigates die that fast. It's lightning fast to get into fights and has decent missile firepower, but I'll honestly take 2 Scarabs over it. Its only saving grace is early-mid game player ship. Human pilot can actually utilize its good mobility and short range assassin style, and in that role it does well.

Gryphon: B- / A

Ship that's supposed to be THE missile cruiser unfortunately falls behind the dragster Falcon. It does have a large missile slot, and plenty of missile to last longer due to the built-in Expanded missile racks. It's unfortunately quite slow and fragile, so AI won't be the star of the show, usually left in the support role. The player can do some fancy shit with it tho, just imagine you're a fat assassin. It's still a blast to fool around with, I just think there's better candidates for a flagship personally.

Heron: A+

Best carrier in the game in my humble opinion. Great speed to keep it safe, 3 bays, damage boosting ship system for your fighters. Not much science here, you want more fighter/bomber presence? Get this thing. OP might be tight for ambitious build, but it works well with just token PD equipped.

Mora: B

You could look at it like a mini Legion, but somehow tankier than one (I hate damper field on Moras) while having no mobility. Same as Heron, 3 bays for 20 DP, and it trades mobility for being obnoxiously hard to kill. It also has ok weapon mounts, barely resembling a battlecarrier, just don't forget this carrier is meant to stay in the frontlines. Benefit being your fighters won't have to travel long since the carrier will be just there, I'm just not a fan because of god awful speed.

Venture: C+

Yet another glacially slow cruiser that's hard to kill, this one tries to be an exploration ship, a poor man's Apogee let's say. It's speed both on campaign map and in combat isn't good, but it makes up for it by being cheap, probably the cheapest cruiser now that I think about it. With 2 medium and 2 small missile mounts along with Fast missile racks, it can fight reasonably well, it just can't dictate engagements due to its speed. Now that it got buffed recently, it doesn't seem that bad, I just quickly find it obsolete once better ships come up. Has a built-in wing of Mining pods to make your miner dream become reality.

Feel free to give me feedback, I might've missed a detail or two so I'll adjust things accordingly.

Posted May 6, 2022, 10:11 AM UTC · edited

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