There are three ways to acquire ships in the game:
Purchase
Contact a ship trader and have a ship built to your specifications.
Note that ship traders only sell ships of the same size as the dock they are responsible for:
- Small Ship Dealers sell small and medium ships such as fighters and medium trading ships,
- Capital Ship Dealers (L) sell large capital ships,
- Capital Ship Dealers (XL) sell very large capital ships.
Boarding
Any capital ship can be captured by having it boarded by your marines.
To initiate boarding, select a ship (see section on Interaction), and select “Board”.
Please note that boarding a ship with marines is considered a hostile act.
Claiming
Any abandoned ship can be claimed by sending a pilot to claim the ship (if claiming a small or medium ship) or docking and assigning a captain to command the ship (if claiming an abandoned capital ship).
To claim a small ship such as a fighter, select an abandoned ship and select “Claim”. Note that the option to claim only appears if a ship is abandoned and you have a pilot in your ship's lounge. The option will be greyed out if you have no one on board your ship capable of claiming the target on your behalf.
To claim an abandoned capital ship:
- make sure you have an unassigned captain in the back room of your ship,
- dock at the target ship,
- contact your unassigned captain,
- and tell him or her to “Work here”.