Much like its predecessor, Everspace 2 has a number of ships designed for different playstyles. From heavy hitters to nimble scout ships, there's something for everyone. That said, the list below shows the Everspace 2 ships currently available as of version 0.4.16xx.
I discuss their strengths, weaknesses, and some potential tactics and charges. I also review ship devices and offer some suggestions that have worked for me and that you might find useful.
List of Everspace 2 ships
The Sentinel
The game sees us start out in a mid-class Sentinel fighter ship, and for good reason. It's a great middle-of-the-road option; Pound for pound, it's the most versatile ship in Everspace and Everspace 2.
The Sentinel comes out of the hangar with a good balance between shields, armor and hull strength. Additionally, its special bonus – Calibration – grants a 30% duration bonus to consumables. This extra time on your damage or energy boosts can be the deciding factor in getting out of combat or seeing the death screen.
The Sentinel's ultimate ability - Static Overload - is visually stimulating (coiling the ship in an electric arc and allowing you to fire electric arcs for a while), but I didn't find myself using it all that often.
Loadout Tactics and Suggestions
The Sentinel is balanced to the point that you can use it in multiple roles. I played through the entire current main storyline in one.
For my loadout, I went with a heat gun and railgun for my primary weapons and homing missiles and mines for my secondaries. The rail gun lets you take down pesky drones from a distance, while the heat gun's guided ammo helps fast-moving ships that close the distance with you.
Homing missiles deal massive damage to you, and mines are great when enemies cluster together.
The interceptor
After progressing through the first main story missions, you will be sent to a station where you can buy more ships. This is where you will get your hands on The Interceptor.
This Everspace 2 ship also belongs to the medium hull category, although it has fewer shields than the Sentinel. Luckily, it more than makes up for that with its loadout.
The Interceptor's special - the Power Converter - allows you to automatically tap into your Boost Power as a secondary power source for weapons. It's great if you're using something like the Gauss Cannon or the Spool Gun, which quickly devours your weapon's energy.
Loadout Tactics and Suggestions
Speaking of loadouts, the Interceptor can carry three primary and secondary weapons, giving you a bit more versatility. This allows you to have Everspace 2's current three secondary weapons available, as well as short/medium/long range engagement options.
My personal gear is the heat gun, spool gun, and rail gun. You can soften ranged targets with the Railgun, have ammo for fast ships with the Heat Gun, and the Spool Gun packs a punch against shields and armor.
The scouts
The Scout is an agile ranged strike ship type. It has essentially no shields, no armor, and a papier-mâché hull. But what he lacks in defense is sheer power and shooting speed.
The Scout's special power - Ranger - grants him a 2% damage increase for every 100 yards between him and the targeted enemy ship. This means that with the sniper type railgun, which has a range of 3500m, you can expect to do 60% more damage per shot!
Stack that with the Scout's ultimate ability - Shadow strike - which makes him invisible and boosts damage by up to 300% possible, and you're essentially hitting most enemies.
The Scout is not without its drawbacks, however. With one of the smaller cargo holds, it's not the best choice for clearing asteroid fields or abandoned stations. However, this can be undone with certain upgrades that will be available later in the main quest storyline.
Loadout Tactics and Suggestions
The name of the game with The Scout is snipe and move. The Railgun is a must for the Scout as it currently has the longest range in the game. The Minethrower would also be a great choice as a secondary to finish off ships that might close the distance before you can finish them.
The Striker
The Striker is a close-range brawler meant to be in the thick of battle. With slightly lower shields than the Sentinel, it has slightly more armor and hull health, as well as three primary weapon slots.
Her special ability – close combat – grants her a 5% damage bonus for each ship within 500m, capping at 30% bonus damage. Combining this with the Striker's ultimate ability - the Quantum Tether - you'll be able to link all nearby enemies together to split the damage dealt, effectively damaging all enemies in the area while still being able to focus on one at a time.
Loadout Tactics and Suggestions
The Striker is a chaos force meant to be in the middle of the fray, so a good weapon loadout would be the Scatter Pistol, Heat Gun, and Autocannon as primary weapons. The Gauss Cannon might also be a good choice as its rate of fire increases the longer you fire.
It would also work well with missiles and rockets in secondary weapon slots.
Le Gunship
The Gunship is an absolute unit with thick armor and high hull hit points. The downside is that it basically has no shield to speak of and has the slowest speed of any current Everspace 2 ship. It has the largest cargo hold and four main weapon slots, but still only suffers from two consumable item slots.
The Gunship's special ability - the Arsenal - allows it to give it what essentially equates to double rate of fire, but this is offset by double energy consumption as a trade-off. The ultimate – an automated turret – is a bit lackluster compared to the other ships already mentioned in this list.
Loadout Tactics and Suggestions
The Gunship is basically a brick with guns attached to it. The handling is slow and the movement is slow, but if it hits, it will turn enemy ships into space junk.
As for a potential charge, heat guns feel like a must; homing ammo will be a boon to any fast ships around you. The scattergun and autocannon may not be bad for their amount of output either.
As for secondary weapons, I would consider doubling down with two sets of rockets, as the name of the game is overwhelming when it comes to this ship. & nbsp
Expedition devices
Although each ship has its own special and ultimate ability, each ship is capable of mounting two devices as well. These devices fall into two categories:
- Devices of war
- Support devices
These devices also have their own form of upgrades as you level up. Personally, I think every ship should run the boost device under power. It's a great way to escape when you're overrun, great for repositioning yourself as a Scout and Gunship, and great if you're getting into a fight you're unprepared for. It will get the distance you need to jump nine times out of 10.
As for the rest of the ships, I used the following devices in my secondary slot:
- Sentinel: Virus Annihilator for when I got surrounded and wanted to damage all enemies then reroll
- Interceptor: missile defense system to help deal with a swarm of vipers and bombers in the following sections
- Scout: EMP generator to stun enemy ships that get too close, allowing me to escape or reposition myself
- Striker: Quantum Entangler to punish enemies for damaging my ship mid-combat
- Gunship: Nano Transmitter to help repair hull damage a ship would sustain if enemies passed through the absurd volume of fire
Hopefully this Everspace 2 ships guide has given you some useful information for choosing a handship. I'd love to know what builds you use on which ships, so if you feel like sharing, please leave a comment below!
