Sublight Ship Roster

Sublight’s Early Access hangar opens with nine ships, two enemy factions across six levels, and a meta layer of challenges and credits that expands your roster over time. This page is a catalog guide: how to evaluate a hull when it unlocks, what alternate loadouts change, and how to avoid wasting progress on a specialist you are not ready to pilot. For letter grades, see the ships tier list. For systems overview, return to the Ships hub.

We intentionally avoid inventing a fake complete proper-noun list for every unrevealed community nickname. Where public development notes name examples—Shortsword (missile frigate), Cutter-style early frigates, Sabre-style integrated rails—we use them. Everything else is framed by role so the page stays accurate as CODEBREW adds ships on the roadmap.

Roster checklist: what to look for when unlocking

Before you spend challenges or credits, inspect five fields in the armoury and hangar UI:

1. Integrated weapon identity — missiles, rails, hybrids, support tools. This is your free DPS spine for the first minutes.
2. Ability role — mobility, defense, or offense. Hunter flagship chases punish missing a mobility answer.
3. Hardpoint layout and arcs — count how many cones cover flanks versus forward. Narrow layouts demand better piloting.
4. Class-locked slots — which category gets the buffed, restricted hardpoint after the unique-weapon rework.
5. Alternate loadouts available — does the unlock include a second kit soon, or is the hull a single-fantasy specialist?

If you cannot answer those five, stay on your current main for another handful of runs. Unlock speed is less important than loadout literacy.

Starter battleship — your catalog baseline

Use the battleship as the measuring stick for every other hull. Ask: does this new ship clear faster, survive longer, or teach a mechanic the battleship hides? If the answer is only “it looks cooler,” delay the purchase.

Strengths to catalog:

• Flexible turret canvas for autocannons, chainguns, and rails.
• Forgiving arc mistakes while you learn rebel and alien spawn patterns.
• Stable platform for reading boss loot, markets, and weekly modifiers.

Open Getting Started alongside your first dozen battleship runs so catalogue notes stay tied to real mechanics.

Missile frigates — Shortsword and kin

Shortsword is the developer-highlighted missile frigate fantasy: saturation pressure, decisive burst, and a clear fantasy when the board lights up. Catalog missile frigates by:

• How quickly they delete dense packs versus single elites.
• How much forward bias their arcs demand.
• Whether alt loadouts soften flanks or double down on alpha.

Missile frigates are excellent second unlocks for captains who already understand facing. They are poorer first mains if you still rotate into empty cones under stress. Compare their push potential on the ships tier list and feed them with the families on the weapons tier list.

Support and hybrid frigates — Cutter-style options

Demo notes introduced the Cutter as an uncommon frigate signed off for early combat duty, with frigates generally receiving extra turrets and tuning for versatility. Catalog support hybrids by coverage, utility, and how well they host escorts/fighters or mixed boards.

These hulls teach roster depth: sometimes the “best” ship for a weekly modifier is the one that can field wider cones and utility rather than the highest burst screenshot. Keep one support frigate unlocked even if your heart belongs to missiles.

Specialists and integrated rail kits

Specialists exist to obsess. Sabre-style integrated rails that gain mid-run upgrade tiers are a good example of catalog thinking: the ship wants you to invest in its inbuilt path, not ignore it for random drops. When a specialist locks a hardpoint category, write that category on your mental sticky note and draft builds toward it.

Challenge-gated specialists should be unlocked when:

• You can survive ~30 minutes often enough to meet the Hunter on purpose.
• You already own passives that synergize with the locked category.
• You have a reason beyond completionism (modifier, achievement path, or curiosity with a plan).

Alternate loadouts: the real roster multiplier

Nine ships sound like nine toys. Alternate loadouts turn them into a much larger grid. For each hull you main, catalog alts with a one-line role label:

• “Missile pressure, narrow forward.”
• “Hybrid support, wider flanks.”
• “Rail precision, boss focus.”
• “Status enable, Cold stacks.”

Buy the alt that fixes your weakest failure mode. If Hunter chases kill you, prioritize mobility or control alts. If you time out on clear, prioritize saturation alts. Expanding sideways on one hull usually beats owning eight untouched silhouettes.

Challenges, credits, and smart spending

Meta unlocks come from challenges and credits. Practical catalog rules:

• Complete challenges that reward loadouts for ships you already fly.
• Keep a credit buffer for armoury experiments after price hotfixes (Early Access already saw free-tier weapon adjustments shortly after launch).
• Do not empty your wallet the hour a new ship appears on the store page of your hangar—read arcs first.
• Revisit spending after reading patch notes; a balance pass can turn a C-feeling specialist into a serious weekly pick overnight.

Faction context for roster choice

Early Access pits you against rebel fleets and alien swarms. Rebels often present structured firing lines that reward pierce and focus fire; aliens can flood space and reward explosives, Cold control, and wider arcs. Your roster should eventually include at least one hull that likes each pressure type. Weekly modifiers amplify that split.

Suggested hangar roadmap

Stage	Roster goal
Hours 1–3	Battleship mastery, first alt if cheap
Early unlocks	One missile frigate + one support frigate
Mid hangar	Specialist that matches your favorite weapon family
Ongoing	Alts on mains; save for Q4 2026 new ships

When 2026 Q4 adds ships and another faction—and when 2027 brings boss-drop weapons and flagship hunts—expand this catalog rather than replacing it. New metal does not erase the value of a battleship you understand cold.

Related pages

• Ships Hub — systems primer
• Ships Tier List — learning vs push letters
• Weapons Tier List — categories for locked slots
• Guides — practical run advice
• Updates Hub — roadmap and patches

Catalog patiently. The captains who document arcs unlock faster than the captains who buy every hull on sight.