Ship Dealers are marked on the map with an arrow in a circle icon. Their stock rotates randomly as time passes but it won't change until you travel in supra light. It takes 14 minutes for half the ships to change, 28 minutes for three fourths, and 56 minutes for all of them to be different. There are 5 dealers by default and 2 more can be unlocked by perks. 1 in Ceto, 2 in Union, 2 in Drake, 1 on the Flying Duchess (needs perk), and 1 at Kato Palace (final perk).

When you buy a ship you will have 3 options. Buy and sell current, buy and move current to your base, or buy and send the new ship to your base. Ships sell for almost exactly the amount they are bought for so don't be afraid to experiment.

As you progress through the game higher tier ships will become available. Each tier has better speed, handling, hull points, armor bonus, shield bonus, and cargo capacity. Each tier has a number of random passives equal to its tier. Finally tier I and I+ have 2 device slots, tier II and II+ have 3 device slots, and tier III or higher have 4 device slots.

The level 3 and 5 ship dealer perks require some explanation. Ships have an alternate set of passives means you can press a button at the ship dealer menu to swap to a second, non-overlapping set of ship passives. Replace the full inventory every 10 minutes allows you to hold down a button on the dealer menu to erase the current batch of ships and roll a new set.

Ships are divided into 3 weight classes: light, medium, and heavy.

Light ships are the most maneuverable and the least durable. Heavy ships are the least maneuverable and most durable. Medium ships are in the middle. Heavy ships are often considered to be easier to play than light ships as their hull, armor, and shield bonuses give a large safety margin for bad piloting. Light ships by contrast rely on good flight fundamentals plus the "play it safe" pilot perk to get a few hits of invulnerability.

In terms of firepower things are a little more complicated.

Heavy ships offer straightforward benefits. Gunships extra hardpoints, Bombers free missiles, and Vindicators drone summons are all easy to understand damage increases. The simplicity of heavy ship perks contributes to their popularity with new players, even if Interceptor outclasses all of them at endgame rifts speedrun performance.

Medium ships are a little trickier to grok. Interceptors' weapon overdrive looks like a temporary boost, but it can have near 100% uptime if enemies are plentiful enough. Strikers close combat seems like a small percentage, but it combos with quantum tether to spread the boosted damage to an entire pack of enemies. Sentinel used to be weak but the Incursions update has dramatically improved chain lighting damage scaling.

Light ships are all over the place in terms of firepower. Scouts passive and ultimate can have the highest possible damage multiplier in the game, but getting full benefit requires long sight-lines. This can be a problem during the story missions, as many take place inside caves. Vanguard baseline just increases critical chance, but several of its random passives are devastating. Stinger claims to boost warfare devices to be good, but the main source of damage is the temporary bonus hardpoint.

Specialty > 4% damage buff per 100m away from target
This looks like a big buff but Rail Guns are so crappy by default this is kind of a "math fix" to make sniping viable at all. This can be great on Beam Lasers when you consider your next ability.

Expertise > bonus weapon range
Obviously synergizes with your specialty. Less obviously allows short ranged low spread weapons like Autocannons match the range of un-buffed Coil Guns. Notably Beam Lasers have moderate range hitscan attack and zero spread making them weirdly good on Scout, despite being underwhelming on most ships.

Ultimate > Shadow Strike
Reworked in Incursions Update! Now gives a buff that increases critcal stats. If you get a kill while active you become cloaked for a few seconds and the timer extends. The previous version of this ult incentivized rapidly toggling on and off, but the new version is a normal "kill-streak" style bonus.

Possible Passives

1. 30% increased weapon range.
   
2. 100% increased boost energy regeneration during Shadow Strike.
   
3. Shadow Strike prevents detection by mines.
   
4. Gain 5s of invincibility after Shadow Strike ends.
   
5. 25% reduced enemy detection range.
   
6. 20% increased device activation range.
   
7. 20% increased cloak duration.
   
8. 50% increased velocity to all primary weapon projectiles. [Exclusive]
   
9. 50% reduced spread to all primary weapons. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Increased weapon range stacks with your expertise and can be combined with either the velocity bonus or spread reduction to greatly improve short range primaries.
Remember: Scatter Gun, Blaster, and Gauss want reduced spread.
Auto Cannons and Pulse Laser want increase velocity.
Beam Lasers just want range and don't need the extra synergies.

The 2/3/4th all modify your ult. The 2nd passive is cute but consider that Stratocumulus shield can give near unlimited energy via energy orb pickup range. The 3rd is also quite niche as you normaly can see minefields from far away, and Demolishers will stop shooting while you are cloaked. The 4th is pretty good as it gives a safety margin when deactivating your ult.

Reduced detection range could help while sniping. However shooting enemies makes them charge at you even if you are outside detection range.

Increased device activation range is a quality of life improvement. Mostly useful on Corrosion Injector and EMP Generator as both have short ranges compared to most primary weapons.

Increase cloak duration will make a single charge of cloaking device last 18 seconds instead of 15 seconds. This makes a full stack of 3 last 54 seconds instead of 45 seconds

Specialty > Overcharge going fast charges your shield up to 200% base capacity
You can go fast by boosting, using cruise drive, using energized boost device, or by using fusion hook device. This makes you almost as tanky as a medium weight ship. Flying at crappy regular speed gradually drains the bonus capacity.

Expertise > Rear attack critical bonus
This takes your base critical chance from the precision stat and raises it by a percentage based on the expertise stat. At launch this allowed you to easily get 100% crit chance, but the most recent patch makes that way less practical (still possible though)

Ultimate > Time Extender
It's bullet time baby. This does all the fun things you expect bullet time to do. Great for hectic dogfights. Speedrunners hate this for the same reasons they normally hate bullet time.

Possible Passives

1. Can activate cruise drive with enemies nearby.
   
2. 50% reduced Web effect.
   
3. Up to 20% support device cooldown reduction depending on overcharge percentage.
   
4. Time Extender immediately restores all weapon and boost energy.
   
5. Flying closely behind an enemy grants 20% increased weapon damage.
   
6. At 200m range, primary weapons gain 20% shield and armor piercing.
   
7. While shields are overcharged, gain 25% increased critical hit damage.
   
8. Overcharge is gained 25% faster. [Exclusive]
   
9. Overcharge never deflates. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Activating cruise drive near enemies is risky even with the perk as taking damage interferes with the charge up.

Reduced web effect is a nice survival perk as webber drones are a common cause of death in lightweight ships.

Shorter cooldown on support devices is neat as many of them have movement or tanking features.

Ultimate restores weapon and boost energy is a similar effect to an energy injector consumable. This works best when rapidly toggling ultimate, just like similar perks on other ships. However if you consistently struggle with energy supply consider Stratocumulus shield for a more permanent solution.

The next three perks all boost damage but all in different ways. They all stack and having all of them is considered optimal. The shield and armor piercing is probably the best of the bunch if you can only get one.

Finally the two overcharge perks are quality of life improvements. That said, overcharge works quite well by default so these are lower value than the others.

Specialty > +1 to all device levels, using a device creates a temporary third gun
The third gun gives you 50% more DPS for 50% more energy consumption. Solid increase in primary effectiveness. The need to constantly activate devices favors multi-charge devices and device cooldown reduction.

Expertise > Increase duration of the temporary third gun
Helps your uptime on the third gun.

Ultimate > Void Swarm
Nanomachines Son! Launches a cloud of bots that drain enemy life then return to heal you. Also instantly resets all device cooldowns. The damage is pretty bad so most of the time the correct strategy is to toggle it on and off to reset you devices while minimizing meter spend. That way you can get you ult back sooner and do it again. Definitely makes long device cooldowns more bearable. The Incursions Update has buffed the effectiveness of the Utility stat in scaling Ultimate damage but this is still kind off meh.

Possible Passives

1. 20% reduced cooldowns for support devices.
   
2. 20% reduced cooldowns for warfare devices.
   
3. Void Swarm radius increased by 25%
   
4. Become cloaked for 5s after shield is depleted.
   
5. Using a device restores 15% shields.
   
6. While the third hardpoint is active, gain 33% reduced weapon energy consumption.
   
7. Using a device restores 25% boost energy.
   
8. 25% increased corrosion damage. [Exclusive]
   
9. 25% increased EMP duration. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

The two cooldown reduction perks are self explanatory. You need to use devices to trigger your specialty and these perks make that higher uptime.

Increased ultimate radius is mediocre due to the low damage of void swarm.

Cloaking on shield break is a good tanking perk. Shield restore on device use has a fun interaction with the Castiel's Protection legendary. Boost energy restore on device use also helps with survival.

Reduced energy on bonus hardpoint gives you 3 guns for the price of 2. This makes high energy consumption weapons a lot more practical.

The two exclusive perks ask you if you prefer Corrosion Injector or EMP Generator. Note that they do work with other sources of corrosion/emp such as missiles and mines.

Specialty > Weapons use boost energy when out of weapon energy
Actively detrimental. Boost energy is much more valuable that weapon energy. If your gun is out of juice swap to another one, they all have independent energy gauges. That's combat 101.

Expertise > Reduced primary energy consumption
Cute but not terribly useful when considering your ultimate.

Ultimate > Weapon Overdrive
Unlimited weapon energy! Unlimited boost energy! 1.8x damage multiplier! 1.5x fire rate multiplier! Kills during ult refund meter. This looks like a limited duration super mode, but with enough enemies around you can keep this going forever. Remember the damage buff works with both primary and secondary weapons.

Possible Passives

1. When flying toward a locked enemy target beyond 1500m range, gain 15% increased speed.
   
2. 10% increased primary weapon damage.
   
3. Collecting an energy orb grants +1% increased critical hit chance for 6 seconds, up to 20%.
   
4. Primary weapon hits refund 30% of energy cost.
   
5. Critical hits have a 20% chance to recharge Weapon Overdrive by 1%.
   
6. When entering a location, gain 20% increased boost and fire rate for 60s.
   
7. While firing primary weapons, gain 1% increased critical hit damage every second to a maximum of 20%.
   
8. While Weapon Overdrive is active, gain 100% increased energy orb collection range. [Exclusive]
   
9. While Weapon Overdrive is active, gain 50% chance to refund secondary weapons upon use. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Increase boost when far away helps with short ranged weapons.

Increased primary damage gives a little boost when your ultimate isn't active. Same with the energy refund perk.

Orbs gives crit chance combines with holding the trigger gives crit damage to make Gauss Cannons very scary. Crits recharge ultimate is similar to and stacks with the "Critical Faculty" pilot perk.

Increased boost and fire rate when entering a new location is great inside rifts as each stage of a rift is a new location.

Increase orb collection range is outclassed by the Stratocumulus shield from the Stormchaser Set.

Secondary ammo refund during ultimate can turn the Interceptor into a better version of the Bomber. Factoring in the baseline buffs from Weapon Overdrive you can use 1 ammo worth of secondary to deal 3.6 ammo worth of secondary damage.

Specialty > 20% increased fire rate based on shield %
A modest DPS increase at the cost of more energy consumption. Better than nothing.

Expertise > Damage resistance on shields
Strong tanking ability. Shields are your outermost defensive layer so making them more durable helps a lot.

Ultimate > Static Overload
Chain lightning beams. Strong AoE clear on normal difficulty. With the Incursions update this now scales pretty well even in high difficulty rifts. Keep in mind this Ult scales with both Utility and Firepower. So Sentinel wants Firepower + Precision + Utility on module stats.

Possible Passives

1. 20% reduced cooldowns for warfare devices
   
2. 15% increased shield hitpoints.
   
3. Killing an enemy using Static Overload restores 10% of shield hitpoints.
   
4. Static Overload has a 10% chance per second to apply EMP to affected targets.
   
5. Instantly reset all support device cooldowns when shield depletes (once every 2 minutes).
   
6. Each kill reduces the cooldown of a random device by 1s.
   
7. Collecting an energy orb deploys an energy shield for 2s.
   
8. Using a consumable immediately triggers the shield to recharge.
   
9. While shields are at least 50% charged, gain corrosion immunity. [Exclusive]
   
10. While shields are fully charged, gain 20% reduced boost energy and weapon energy consumption. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Cooldown reduction perks are nice. The kill based version, while random is probably the best one as good devices tend to have short cooldowns already.

Increased shield hitpoints seems nice but the energy orb passive is way stronger. That said you need Dahlia perks leveled to get full benefit from orb based passives. Remember that Stratocumulus shield greatly increases orb collection range. Shield recharge on consumable use is high maintenance and doesn't help if you are getting pummeled.

Ultimate inflicts EMP can trigger the Exploitation pilot perk if you have it. Shield recharge on Ult kill is lackluster compared to the Orb shield perk.

Corrosion immunity at 50% shield charge can be substituted for the Hazard Shield from Blightmonger Set. Reduced energy consumption at 100% charge works best with the overshield on orb pickup.

Specialty > 5% damage bonus for each nearby enemy 30% cap
Small but significant buff when fighting up close. Your high handling for a medium ship makes close combat more practical.

Expertise > Increased boost speed
This mostly helps on the racetrack quest.

Ultimate > Quantum Tether
Link your target to nearby enemies and spread damage across the link. Has a cap on the number of links but this usually doesn't come up. Remember the link is one way, so choose the most durable enemy in a pack.

Possible Passives

1. 30% increased boost speed while under missile lock.
   
2. Locked enemy targets suffer 20% speed reduction.
   
3. Can grab and throw drones.
   
4. Activating Quantum Tether instantly repairs 50% of armor.
   
5. Enemies within 300m cannot regenerate shields.
   
6. 60% reduced self-damage.
   
7. Enemies within 1km range deal 20% less damage.
   
8. 20% debuff duration reduction. [Exclusive]
   
9. 20% hull damage reduction. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Increased boost speed is fine, helps with evading missiles. But maybe just shoot the missiles?

Locked target speed reduction is both useful for shooting down scouts, and triggering the Exploitation pilot perk. Notably this passive works on enemies immune to web missiles like capital ships.

Grabbing drones is funny meme, I don't know what it would ever be useful for.

Activating ultimate repairs armor is a good panic button.

Nearby enemies cannot regen shields is good with the EMP device using the energy damage perk.

Reduced self damage sounds big, but it doesn't help much against a point blank mine explosion if you get careless.

Nearby enemies deal less damage is a good tanking perk, but beware outlaw bombers and their long range missiles.

Reduced debuff duration is also nice, especially in Drake system.

Hull damage reduction is less useful than perks that buff shields or armor because hull damage causes module damage.

Specialty > Double primary guns
2x the DPS for 2x the energy. Works best with low power consumption weapons like Pulse Lasers and Autocannons.

Expertise > Damage resistance on armor
Looks like a smaller percentage than the similar perk on sentinel. However, some armor modules have built-in damage resistance which stacks with this.

Ultimate > Turret
Auto targeting dorsal gun. Never hits anything by default, but there is a passive to swap the weapon type to a Coil Gun. Without the right passive this is a nothing-burger.

Possible Passives

1. Turret will also attack mines.
   
2. 30% bonus damage against drones.
   
3. 15% increased boost speed.
   
4. After 10s of not being hit, gain 2% armor recovery every second, up to half total armor.
   
5. When using a consumable, restore 8% armor.
   
6. Instantly reset all warfare device cooldowns when armor depletes (once every 2 minutes).
   
7. When hull is 50% or lower, gain 40% hull damage reduction.
   
8. 20% increased armor repair per kill.
   
9. Pulse Laser Turret. [Exclusive]
   
10. Coil Gun Turret. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Turret clearing mines is cute, but the missile defense device has a similar mode that doesn't waste a passive slot.

Bonus damage against drones is mainly useful against teleport drones. None of the other drone types have enough hp for it to matter. If you hate teleport drones this is your perk.

Increased boost speed is very welcome on a ship this slow.

Out of the armor repair passives, the free recovery outside combat and the increased repair per kill are both quite good in their own ways. The repair on consumable use is poor due to the small amount and Gunship's few consumable slots.

Damage reduction on low hull is not so good. Remember, taking hull damage means taking module damage as well, and modules are expensive to repair. Tanking perks are best when they buff shields and armor, as both can be restored for free via their own mechanics.

For the turret passives, Coil Gun is the only real choice as Pulse Laser is just as unreliable as the default gun.

Specialty > Secondary weapons use energy instead of ammo
Can't figure out how to lead your shots? Just spam homing missiles! Or proximity mines! As powerful as it sounds.

Expertise > Kills repair hull damage
Remember armor modules already have armor repair on kill, so this bonus will let you repair both armor and hull with each dead enemy.

Ultimate > ARC-9000
BFG-9000. Looks sick as hell but scales poorly. On higher difficulty you will only use this to trigger passives.

Possible Passives

1. Target lock-on duration reduced by 50%.
   
2. 20% reduced damage from enemy explosives.
   
3. Convert mines instead of triggering them when flying close without boosting.
   
4. Take 50% reduced damage from ARC-9000 explosion.
   
5. ARC-9000 damage increases by 2% every second after being fired.
   
6. Target lock-on is maintained off-screen.
   
7. 20% reduced energy consumption for all secondary weapons.
   
8. Activating ARC-9000 fully restores secondary weapon energy. [Exclusive]
   
9. When ARC-9000 is manually detonated, gain 40% increased ARC-9000 shockwave damage. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Reduced lock-on time is great for missile builds. It is a smaller bonus than the -80% modifier on missiles themselves, but it can free up a modifier slot. Note that the two stack for -90%.

Target lock is maintained off-screen helps when getting swarmed, but maybe you should use mines instead?

Reduced damage from enemy explosives doesn't sound like a lot, but explosive weapons tend to be high dps, and enemies never run out of ammo.

Convert mines makes minesweeper missions/distress-calls more convenient. Reduced self damage from you ultimate is also a convenience feature.

Reduced energy consumption for secondaries and restore energy on ultimate cast both help you spam your missiles/mines relentlessly. I consider these two to be the strongest.

The two damage increases to ultimate skill tend to be overkill on normal difficulty, while simultaneously being underwhelming in rifts.

Specialty > Turn space trash into drones
Overpowered on normal difficulty, almost useless on endgame activities. There is a death explosion passive that can fix this, but it is weird and dumb.

Expertise > Better drone damage and drone hull
Maximum expertise cannot keep up with maximum difficulty. Doesn't scale the explosion passive. There are items that buff drone effectiveness but it doesn't really help.

Ultimate > Phalanx
Temporary drones up to you cap. Also buffs drones for the duration. Has a fun interaction with the explosion passive if you toggle it on with most of you drones dead, then quickly switch it back off.

Possible Passives

1. Maximum number of active drones increased by 1.
   
2. Drones are invulnerable during Phalanx.
   
3. Drones regenerate 1% hull per second.
   
4. 50% reduced damage from enemy drones.
   
5. Drones violently explode on death, damaging and slowing nearby enemies.
   
6. When a drone is destroyed, gain 20% increased weapon damage for 6s.
   
7. Drones are immune to all debuff conditions.
   
8. Collecting wreckage restores 10% shields.
   
9. When a drone is destroyed, the drone has a 20% chance to be instantly reconstructed.
   
10. Locked enemy targets suffer 20% increased damage from drones. [Exclusive]
    
11. Enemy support drones within 2km range have passive abilities disrupted and disabled. [Exclusive]

Picking Passives

Lets get the elephant out of the room. Drones explode on death is the best passive. It's the only one that can deal with enemies in the most difficult activities. Keeping drones alive is fine on normal difficulty, but no amount of itemization can keep their pew pew guns relevant against the toughest content in the game. And that's really unfortunate because the power fantasy of a ship like this is nominally to command you legion to victory, not wait around for you minions to get splatted so they can explode.