Ostranauts Ships Guide — Starting Ships and Buying Better
✔ Last checked: 2026-08-12
You start Ostranauts with a small, legally-owned, usually mortgaged ship chosen during character creation — and everything bigger is bought, rebuilt from a derelict, or stolen. Here’s how the ship game works at 1.0.
Your starter: the “coffin” era
During character creation, the Seek Ship option shows you one vessel per year spent searching. Offers vary in size, life support and — critically — mortgage. Veterans call the classic cramped starters “coffin ships” for a reason: short-range, one-room, barely airtight. That’s fine. Your first ship is a tool for the salvage loop, not a home.
Who builds ships
The wiki catalogs hulls by manufacturer — useful when a derelict’s layout looks familiar:
| Maker | Known examples |
|---|---|
| Ryokka | CR-43, CR-53b, Mantis, Robber Fly, Wasp, TU-series tugs |
| Testudo | Bulk Lifter Mk. III, Charon Mk. I, Ferry Mk. IX, Ibex, Ocelot, Sundancer |
| Van Hummel | Boomerang, Pequod, Royal Flush |
| Others / custom | Box Sled, Coffin, Hand of God, Retrofit, Volatile; Babak (community design contest winner, added May 2026) |
Exact stat tables are EA-era wiki data — treat individual numbers as being re-verified for 1.0.
Getting something better
- Buy the deed first. Found a promising derelict? Purchase it at the commercial ship kiosk before repairing anything — free repairs raise the price you’ll pay. This is the foundation of ship flipping.
- Make it legal. A flyable, sellable ship needs a working nav console, a legal transponder, and an antenna. Keep nav, IFF and antenna powered on both ships while working, or security may treat you as an unlicensed salvager.
- Make it valuable. Sale price scales with installed equipment, multiplied by room value modifiers — a reactor in a proper Reactor Room is worth more than the same reactor in a corridor.
Expanding your current hull instead? Walls, floors and airlocks are all buildable — the layer system and a sane build order are on expanding your ship; salvage is where the cheap parts come from, and read reactor before you commit to a fusion build.
Still choosing between two offers at character creation? Starting ships ranks what to compare.
FAQ
What is the best starting ship in Ostranauts?
There's no single answer — during character creation you review one ship offer per year. Community consensus favors anything airtight with working life support and a small mortgage over big hulls with big debt. We're testing 1.0 offers now.
Can you have multiple ships in Ostranauts?
Yes. You can own several, dock ships to each other, and since v0.15.1.0 you can even engage the torch autopilot while docked to carry a shuttlecraft on long trips.
How do you get a new ship?
Three routes: buy one outright, buy a derelict's deed at the commercial ship kiosk and restore it, or take one by less legal means and deal with the transponder problem.
What does a ship need to fly legally?
A working nav console, a legal transponder broadcasting your ID, and at least one working antenna. Missing pieces mean police attention and fines.