Steam Community :: Guide :: Generic Tips for Fractured Space

Fractured Space

All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews

Fractured Space > Guides > Justin's Guides

81 ratings

Generic Tips for Fractured Space

By Justin and 1 collaborators

A couple generic tips gathered by me and the community about ships.

Award

Created by

Justin
Offline

North
Offline

Category: Characters, Co-op, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Multiplayer

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

22 Sep, 2016 @ 8:06am

29 May, 2017 @ 10:12pm

6,529	Unique Visitors
100	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Introduction

General

Basilisk

Black Widow

Brawler

Centurion

Colossus

Destroyer

Displacer

Disruptor

Enforcer

Executioner

Equalizer

Ghost

Gladiator

Guardian

Hunter

Infiltrator

Interceptor

Leviathan

Overseer

Paladin

Paragon

Persecutor

Pioneer

Protector

Raider

Ranger

Raven

Reaper

Sentinel

Superlifter

Venturer

Watchman

Comments

Introduction

Format inspired by this Hearts of Iron 4 guide.

Have anything to add? Leave a comment.

Looking for the rest of the game, aside from the ships? I decided to separate it into its own guide.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=768154043

General

Basic Tips

Upgrade your ship by returning to a nearby forward station or your main base.
Focus on the objectives - you can't capture the enemy base without gaining levels.
Get those mines.
If you gain access to an enemy base early in, think carefully whether to jump in or not - you definitely will not be able to take the base, but you might be able to cause damage to the turrets early.
Jump Home (6) has an extremely long charge-up time during which you take six times damage. Do NOT use it as an emergency bail-out.
Use Jump Home (6) to switch lanes (from Alpha to Bravo or Bravo to Alpha). Jump home, and then use the regular jump ability to jump to the other lane.
Press 4 to turn on your point defence. Use it against fighters, bombers, and drones, when you're under missile attack, and against large close quarters ships.
Press 4 again to turn off point defence.
Point Defence uses energy and has a short cooldown - time its use carefully.
Rotate your armour. Ships in Fractured Space have no shields, but rather have armour.
If you see sections of a ship (yours or theirs) on fire, rotate your ship to prevent the enemy from shooting at it. The armour there is broken and damage taken to that section is increased.
Your crew will notify you when your armour is broken.
There is also an indicator showing where the armour is broken on a ship upon armour break.

Advanced Tips

If your accuracy is not very good, consider looking at the variants of weapons that fire faster (the Pioneer's Light Void Charges, for example).
Although they cause less up-front damage, their damage-per-second remains the same, and the faster rate of fire means you can compensate for your aim more often.
While the Gamma bonus is very powerful, early-game it may be more prudent to focus on the resource mines. Securing an early resource lead might give you the edge in future Gamma fights.
Whoever takes Gamma 3 (the end-game Gamma upgrade) is almost guaranteed to win, as it provides jump access to the base even without a forward base capture.
Don't be too aggressive early-game. Work on capturing the middle mine and securing a resource lead.
The base turrets were designed specifically to prevent early-game rushes on the base. This, combined with the quick respawn timers, prevent early wins or early losses. Don't bother attacking their forward base early.
The maximum level is level 9. Even if you get to level 9, however, continue to capture the mines to delay your opponents from reaching level 9. Only once both teams are level 9 can you afford to ignore the mines.

Basilisk

Overview

A stealth ship built around debuffs.
Highly effective against other stealth ships.
Plasma Cannon applies damage over time to target, preventing them from cloaking.
Graviton Anchor effects stack, but only has 4 shots in the magazine and the shot takes time to reach its target.
The Graviton Anchor slows targets and disables their blinks, boosts, and cloaks.
The anchors only last 4 seconds per hit, so players must decide whether or not to use the anchors to cause extra damage via the Pulsar Charge, or to use it to stop blinking and boosting enemies.
Pulsar Charge causes considerable damage to enemies after a short countdown. Causes more damage the more times the target has Graviton Anchor.
The Pulsar Charge explodes about six seconds after impact.
Gravity Well creates a buoy that pulls in nearby targets.
All of the Basilisk's abilities take a long time to recharge, and even the main weapon does not fire quickly.

Tips

Don't be overly aggressive. Wait for your kills.
Put your Gravity Well on Gamma warp-in points to slow enemies down.
Avoid attacking lone ships until you're certain no one can answer its call for help.
Attack from above or below, where the enemy ship's profile is the largest.
If you want to use the anchors for extra pulsar charge damage, fire the pulsar charge first, then wait two seconds before unloading your graviton anchors.
The anchors do not seem to fire fast enough to put all four stacks on target. The most you can get is three; by the time the fourth is ready, the first will have expired.
Therefore use the first anchor to slow the target, then deploy the pulsar. Wait two seconds, then fire the remaining anchors.

Black Widow

Overview

A stealth missile boat, the Black Widow relies on positioning, timing, and surprise to attack its targets.
Less raw damage output than the Ghost, but far more reliable outside specific circumstances (does not rely on Ambush or the target jumping to deal damage)
Has a magazine of 12 rockets to fire in quick succession.
As a magazine-fed weapon, the rockets take a long time to reload.
Quick Cloak has a shorter cooldown time from coming out of cloak than the Ghost's cloak, allowing the Black Window to shoot and scoot.
Drain rockets will drain a target's energy upon hit.
Drain rockets fire forward, making them useless against targets behind you.
Armor rockets have extra armour piercing, allowing you to penetrate the armour of a heavily armoured vessel for the rest of your rockets to hit.
Weapon Interrupt is chiefly used to disable a target's point defence systems, allowing your Drain or Armor rockets to hit their target.
Weapon Interrupt lasts only 1 second. Time the interrupt just before the missiles hit their target. Firing the weapon too early will result in your rockets being shot down by point defence.
The magazine-fed rockets cannot be interrupted by point defence.
Good aim is required to make full use of the Black Widow.

Tips

The purpose of the Quick Cloak is to fire off your rockets and then recloak before the enemy acquires you as a target.
Attack enemies from above or below, as not only do enemies search less in these areas, they also present a larger target for your rockets.

Brawler

Overview

A close quarters ship - get right in the enemy's face before firing.
Fire the Harpoon (Right mouse button) on an enemy before reeling them in for close quarters with the 2 key.
Once they're close, use Concuss to shut down their utility systems and reduce their manoeuvring.
Unload your guns into the target until it's dead.

Tips

The Harpoon can't be shot down, but its long reload time is troublesome; make your shot count.
The Harpoon is unguided, and will fire in the direction you're aiming.
Without the harpoon, the Brawler becomes very vulnerable to long range attacks. Use asteroids to help get close to your targets.
Concuss and Ability Shutdown decloaks enemies caught in its (small) blast radius, but the Slow pulse variant does not.
You can use the Harpoon and pulling abilities on friendlies as well as enemies. Use it to help extract a slow moving heavy from being overrun, or pull a distant heavy in towards the fight.
A Brawler's side armour is much stronger than anywhere else on the ship, including the front. Show your side to the target you've locked down with Concuss.

Centurion

Overview

A command ship that requires a team behind you to be effective.
Anti-Material Cannon is a magazine-fed system with 12 shots. Once empty the weapon requires time to reload each shot individually.
The cannon marks its targets, allowing both you and your teammates to cause additional damage to your target.
Shield Barrier costs 2000 energy to create a large shield in front of your craft.
The shield blocks just about anything from its direction, and is wide enough to protect your teammates.
Weapons are disabled while the shield is active.
Once active, the shield does not require any power usage, and can remain up indefinitely.
Boost is similar to the Colossus' boost, improving speed while limiting your ability to turn.
Energy Overload requires the player to hold the 2 key in order to initiate it.
Energy Overload takes several seconds and most of the ship's energy to warm up. Its explosion is short-ranged but causes heavy damage.
You cannot move or fire weapons during the warm-up cycle of Energy Overload.
The initial sparks from Energy Overload do not cause damage.
Absorb Drones will drain your target's energy reserves. Against most ships, the power loss is negligable.

Tips

Stay with the group. Lonely Centurions are sad Centurions.
The shield blocks energy gain while active. Use Absorb Drones to acquire energy with an active shield.
The first application of the Anti-Material Cannon's debuff is 15 seconds long, but subsequent shots add a negligible amount to it. If there are multiple targets, consider switching targets to debuff multiple enemies.
Bring the shield up to protect yourself while reloading.
Keep an eye out for enemies that will attempt to flank you, like Ghosts and Hunters. The shield cannot be in two places at once.

Colossus

Overview

Designed for health and tanking damage.
Is quickly destroyed with focused fire.
Flak cannons cause little damage; the Colossus relies on sustained damage over time.
Flak cannons can quickly shoot down enemy fighters, bombers, and drones.
Flak guns cannot break a target's armour.
However, flak guns do not gain any bonus damage for hitting broken armour. This results in weak but consistent area of effect damage over time.
Boost provides the Colossus with some mobility, but has a long cooldown.
Missiles by default fire from the port and starboard of the Colossus. Ensure the port and starboard sides are clear of obstructions before firing.
Colossus fighters can protect the Colossus from small craft, harass an enemy sniper ship from a distance, or try to trick an enemy into using their point defence early.
Use Engine Shutdown on small, fast craft so your flak cannons can chew through them.

Tips

Although a particularly good Colossus pilot (or a particularly bad sniper) can dodge or miss Watchman and Overseer shots, it is a good idea to take cover when possible.
Flak guns are excellent at finding enemy cloaking ships; just spray and any cloaked ships will be revealed by the huge area of effect.
Once an enemy cloaker's position is revealed, the steady damage and wide area of effect will prevent it from cloaking again.
Most cloaking ships have very little health, making the flak cannon's low damage a nonfactor.
Colossi pair well with Protectors, who can heal damage taken from snipers.
Ensure your broken armour is exposed to the healers on your team so they can fix your armour as well as your health.
The flak gun doesn't cause extra damage to broken armour segments, but your missiles certainly do.

Destroyer

Overview

A heavy ship equipped with long range artillery cannons.
Low projectile speed makes hitting smaller craft more difficult. Skilled pilots can easily dodge Destroyer shots.
Good rate of fire lets destroyers put pressure on large ships and long-range ships who must dodge the shots.
Explosive charges have a similar range but have an area of effect. Usually used to supplement cannon damage, but also used to target enemies that are out of arc.
Jamming disables the enemy's minimap. Useful during Gamma fights, or to help a teammate attempting to stealth their way through an area. Affects all targets in the current sector.
Destroyer Missiles provide extra damage at range and can be used to damage more manoeuvrable enemies or enemies out of arc.
The missiles fire in a ring around the ship, requiring the ship to be distant from obstacles on all sides to make full use of the missiles.
Bombers are offensive-oriented craft capable of supplementing your damage against enemies. Good for prompting enemies to use point defence; can also be used to try to harass snipers, whose lower armour makes them vulnerable to bombers.

Tips

While their weapons are mostly for long range, destroyers have the armour to withstand close-quarters combat.
The low shell velocity is also less of an issue in a close-quarters combat.
Destroyers must present their broadside for maximum firepower. Get behind, below, or above an enemy destroyer to reduce their firepower.

Displacer

Overview

A long ranged support ship designed to push enemies away.
Opposite to the Brawler in many respects.
Displace Marker fires a missile to a targeted enemy.
Once Displace Marker has struck the enemy, right click to begin pushing them away.
Repulse targets all enemies around your ship and pushes them away from you a short distance away, giving you a little bit more breathing room.
Primary weapons have coverage all around the ship and hit quite hard for a ship this size.
The Linear Cannons emphasize damage instead of range. This is not a sniper craft like the Watchman or Overseer.
Displacer Fighters can be used to target enemy fighters, buoys, to protect yourself or an ally, or to try to coax an enemy into using their point defence early so your Displace Marker reaches its target.

Tips

Obviously, keep opponents at a distance.
You can use the Displace Marker to separate enemies.
The Displace Marker also works on friends. Fire your Displace Marker at a friendly Colossus and give them a friendly push to the front lines.

Disruptor

Overview

A healing ship that deploys healing drones to targets.
Has modest weaponry, and cannot hold its own.
One of the smallest ships in the game, and highly agile.
The Detect/Slow Pulse can be used to help allies near you pin down fast enemies, or spot stealthed enemies.
Blink to Ally is useful in getting yourself into the fray.
Repair Drones are very powerful and do not require much micromanagement, but have a long refresh time.

Tips

Does not have a good reputation amongst the community; most prefer the Protector or the Superlifter as a healing ship.
The healing drones it deploys to heal can be easily shot down by enemy point defence and area of effect attacks.
Use healing drones only out of battle.
Use your speed, agility, small profile, and unassuming weapons to get flanking shots on the enemy. If they turn and engage you, use Blink to Ally to get out of trouble.
Slow Pulse requires that you be close to the enemy as well.
Repair Drones are very powerful and can heal a target very rapidly; however, they do not require you to be next to your target to use them, and they also have a punishing refresh timer.
Press R to withdraw your drones when they're finished healing an allied ship - you need that refresh rate to be as low as possible.
Consider adding a CAG to your crew to keep your drones alive and kicking.

Enforcer

Overview

A close quarters vessel equipped with an Escalate gun.
Escalate basically spams a huge spray of bullets at the target.
It takes 7 seconds to reload, so make sure the shot counts.
Each bullet that hits its target increases the damage of the next bullet. Land the whole burst on target for large amounts of damage.
Boost simply makes your ship extremely mobile for a few seconds.
Target Blink has a rather short range (slightly over 6000 metres)
It is chiefly used to get in close to the target for an Escalate volley.
Though you can target a friendly to get to them and escape, keep in mind its relatively short range.
Capmod buoys increase the capture rate of friendly vessels and reduce the capture effectiveness of enemy vessels.
Fire Capmod buoys at enemy home bases and forward bases to capture them quickly.

Tips

Enforcers are squishier than Brawlers and will run towards their targets rather than pulling their targets in.
If possible, boost towards an enemy base and fire capmod buoys at it to put additional pressure on the enemy.
Don't bother trying to use the Escalate weapon from a distance.
Use cover to let your target get in close.

Executioner

Equalizer

Overview

Designed around mobility and harassment, with some support abilities.
Does not have any abilities that can actually heal teammates; applies speed buffs to friends instead.
The Purge Field removes any negative status effects on nearby allies. These include Mark Target, Harpoon, and Displace. While it does remove the Ghost's Ambush, firing the Purge Field before the Ghost fires its missiles is a challenge.
Syphon Smartgun fires tracking projectiles that heal the Equalizer for health upon hitting a target.
Boost Gate creates a gate that propels any teammate who flies through it.
The Boost Gate is one of the most powerful abilities of the Equalizer. Using it selfishly gives you some harassment potential but the true benefit is to help a heavy get to the fight faster.
Plasma Torpedoes are slow but hit reasonably hard and cause damage over time to the target.
Negative Capmod Buoy increases the time required to capture for enemy ships in its range.
Primarily used to help secure holdings and forward bases.
The Plasma Torpedo is a single-shot torpedo that causes a notable amount of impact damage as well as damage over time.
While the torpedo has a long range, its slow speed and long refresh rate means it's extremely vulnerable to point defence.

Tips

The Purge field has a range of 5000m. While not exactly short ranged, it does require you to be close to your teammate.

Ghost

Overview

Right click to use the Ambush ability on a target before unloading your rockets into them.
Rockets are rather inaccurate, requiring close range.
Heavy rockets cause more damage, but they fire slowly and there are fewer of them.
You can create a decoy, then blink to the decoy. But remember that most enemies will expect you to blink to decoy, and thus attack the decoy with area of effect weapons to reveal you.

Tips

The Ghost relies on damage multipliers to deal real damage. Ambush counts but Ambush alone will not put down a target. Target enemies with broken armour or on low health.
Enemies engaging their jump drive struck with Ambush are almost guaranteed to go down with a rocket barrage, even at full health.
No enemy, not even another Ghost, can die in a single Ambush-Rocket volley alone from full health. Pounce on lighter enemies that have around 3/4 health, assuming they're not jumping or doing something else that increases the damage they take.
If you are willing to sacrifice some of your first-strike, jumper-assassin gameplay, equip the Plasma Caster. It performs much better than rockets against targets that still have their armour up.
Target Protectors, Watchmen, and Overseers in particular.
Avoid Pioneers (Detection Buoy), Hunters (Detect Stealth), Rangers (Detect/Slow Pulse), and Colossi (large area of effect flak cannons).
Use your Decoy to try to trick a Watchman into deploying their shield early. If they stay put, wait for the shield to disappear before using Ambush and a rocket volley. If they jump, use Ambush and a rocket volley while they're jumping.
Only activate the cloak when you cannot get shot at in the first place.
To escape after firing your rockets, put your decoy behind cover and then blink to your decoy.
Your decoy may be a decoy, but it still requires cover because you blink to it! Enemies will saturate the area around your decoy with gunfire to try to reveal you.
After blinking to your decoy, quickly cloak and use W, S, Q, E, Ctrl, or Spacebar to distance yourself from the decoy.
If it's safe, blink to your decoy and pretend to go in one direction, then switch directions while cloaked to throw your pursuers off.

Gladiator

Overview

Basically a mobile turret, the Gladiator is slow and heavy.
When it gets into position, use its Phalanx Armour ability to improve its rate of fire and armour at the expense of mobility.
Gladiators have considerable armour on the top and bottom, but weaker armour on the sides.
Gladiators have extremely powerful DPS with their rapid-firing side batteries. The armour is weaker on the sides, however.
Avoid being flanked from more than one side. You can only aim the guns in one direction.
Use the missiles and the bombers to engage enemies that are out of arc.
The mines have a full arc from all directions. Use them to punish enemies who think they're safe out of arc.

Tips

Guardian

Hunter

Overview

The Hunter is a flexible vessel capable of using a blink drive to traverse short distances in an instant.
The Hunter's main guns are best at medium range, and lose accuracy at its maximum range.
Detect Pulse can be used to reveal stealth ships, but it has a long cooldown.
Syphon drones will provide small amounts of damage to targets while healing the Hunter.

Tips

Hunters have considerably less frontal armour than they do on the sides. Expose your flanks to and broadside your target.
Hunters have very little weapon coverage to the rear and even less on the ventral side. The Hunter can only fire one gun to targets to the rear and below.
Try using Left Alt to aim your blink without changing where the guns are aiming. This way when you finish the blink, your guns will immedately be on target.

Infiltrator

Overview

A stealth harassment ship designed to get behind enemy lines and wreak havoc.
The default cloaking ability will be disrupted by standard detection weapons (Hunter: Detect Pulse; Pioneer: Detection Buoy, etc.)
The cannons cause a moderate amount of damage and are effective at medium ranges.
The cannons have 100% coverage wherever you aim. There is one blind spot, located on the dorsal aft section of the ship.
Don't rely on the cannons to cause the most amount of damage. They can help finish off weakened enemies but you're no Colossus.
Disarm Pulse temporarily turns off a target's weapons. Firing this and then activating your cloak allows you to elude your target, even at point blank range.
Ion Drones provide the main source of damage.
Ion Drones apply up to five stacks of Ion Charge to the target.
Once five stacks are ready, right click and deploy the Ion Blast. It will fly to the target, coalesce for about 3 seconds, and then explode, dealing damage relative to the number of stacks of Ion Charge.
The Infiltrator is not a burst-damage assassin like other stealth ships; it has more in common with the USR Black Widow than the Ghost.

Tips

You cannot launch ion drones while cloaked.
When you've found a target, decloak, launch your fighters, and pepper the target with your main guns.
When the target has 3 or 4 ion charges on it, deploy the ion blast. It takes several seconds for the blast to trigger, by which time the fifth charge will be applied.
The Ion Charge, coupled with gunfire and initiative (or a meatshield) should be enough to finish off most lighter craft.
Avoid stand-up fights against heavy craft, who will have enough health to survive the ion blast.
Ion Drones are vulnerable to point defence.
From launch, it takes about 18 seconds to apply a full charge of 5 Ion Charges.
The drones apply 1 stack every 4 seconds.
Apply ion charge to one ship in particular, and then fire the Ion Blast to hit all targets in a wide area.

Interceptor

Overview

Like the Leviathan, the Interceptor is built around a forward-facing weapons array.
It is rather weak outside the front arc.
The Rotary Cannons fire rapidly and overheat after sustained fire.
The cannons cover the entire ship, but only the front guns have the high machine gun-like rate of fire.
The cannons still overheat even if you're not using the front guns.
The Gauss Cannon fires a single sniper-like shot at long range that deals heavy damage.
The Gauss Cannon does not have any coverage to the sides or rear, and has a limited arc up and down.
Keep an eye on the blue dot when in sniper mode - that is the Gauss Cannon. Ensure it is on target before firing.
The Gauss Cannon requires a wind-up time of several seconds before firing.
The Target Inhibitor reduces the lock-on range for the target ship. When applied, the ship must get closer before they are able to use T to target anyone. Use at long range.
Being hit by the Target Inhibitor does not do anything against dumbfire weaponry - only things that require a lock-on.
Concussion Missiles slow down the target and prevent it from using any utility abilities.
Use missiles to add chip damage at range and to attack targets that are out of arc.
The Interceptor has fighters to use mostly as a distraction to allow its missiles to hit the target.

Tips

Leviathan

Overview

An extremely powerful ship and an expert sealclubber (the ship veterans use to stomp novices).
Extremely powerful damage; can kill most non-defence ships with two hits.
Tempest Cannons have a brief wind-up period, but otherwise have a 100% coverage of the whole ship.
Tempest Cannons rely on sustained damage to be effective.
Jump Buoy takes several seconds to deploy, during which the Leviathan is vulnerable.
Unlike most buoys, the Jump Buoy only lasts 30 seconds and requires a 2 minute cooldown after using it. Make it count!
Once deployed, the Jump Buoy allows any of your four teammates to jump directly to the buoy from any other sector.
Magma Lance fires a single purple ball of death that causes considerable damage.
The Magma Lance fires from the front of the ship and is terrible at turning. It cannot hit a target to the sides or rear of the ship.
Enemy Point Defence can shoot down your Magma Lance, making you wait half a minute before you can try again.
Fighters are used chiefly as a harassment and distraction tool.
Let your fighters engage the enemy first, and then fire your Magma Lance. When the enemy point defence turns on, most of them will target the fighters instead of your Magma Lance.
Fusion Beam is a giant yellow beam destruction similar to the Overseer's.
Once the Magma Lance hits, follow it up with the Fusion Beam to destroy your target.
The Fusion Beam cannot be intercepted, but has an extremely narrow fire arc.
Getting around to the sides or rear of the Leviathan will prevent it from using the Fusion Beam or the Magma Lance.
The Leviathan has a low amount of armour for a ship its size.
The Leviathan cannot turn to save its life (which skilled players will capitalize on).

Tips

Proper usage of the Jump Buoy separates the boys from the men, as the saying goes.
Work with a mobile ship like a Pioneer to protect your flanks.
Engage from a distance; the closer they are to you, the easier it will be for them to outmanoeuvre you.
Prioritize the small fry first. Smaller ships become more difficult to hit with your fusion beam and magma lance when they get close; they also go down quicker than larger ships.

Overseer

Overview

A sniper ship, the Overseer should stay at long range while using its ray of death.
The ray of death cannot fire to the side, only to the front.
Use auto-orientate (right mouse button) to be able to pitch the ship up and down and get shots on targets above or below your plane.
Overseers are even more vulnerable than Watchmen up close.
The Shield Wall buoy can be used to protect yourself from counter-sniper fire long enough for you to jump.

Tips

Overseers have no defence against the Ghost or other stealth ships, other than the Shield Wall buoy - which they can simply go around.
When aiming the weapon, do not drag the mouse too far away from where the cursor is aiming, or you can overcompensate for a target's evasive manoeuvres. The laser is a precision instrument.
Overseers outrange Watchmen, and have the Shield Wall Buoy.
The community is heavily divided on opinions of the Overseer; some claim it is a highly effective ship while others maintain it is only effective in lower ranked games. Use with caution.

Paladin

Paragon

Overview

An aircraft carrier, the Paragon has three different wings to deploy to assist its team.
The Paragon requires considerable multitasking
It is an indirect attack ship and cannot replace the abilities of a proper frontline ship.
Despite the vulnerable nature of carriers in other games, the Paragon can take quite a beating.
Pressing T to target an enemy (or V to target a friendly or your Waypoint) and then pressing 1 (fighters), 2 (bombers), or 3 (drones) will send your fighters to them.
Planes will fly to your waypoint instead of to yourself if the waypoint is closer.
Press R to recall your planes early.
The number of planes remaining, and their current action, is displayed at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
Playing Highway to the Danger Zone is mandatory. I Want To Takeoff From A Carrier by Dos ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is equally acceptable.

Tips

You can forget about the drones for the most part, as they tend to die rather easily. That said, 30% defence is better than nothing, and you can at least put them to work, even if they do get shot down.
Fighters are excellent at destroying buoys, drones, and other fighters.
Fighters can also distract a target and possibly get them to use their point defence ability early, before the bombers arrive.
Recall your planes! The more planes that stay alive when you bring them home, the shorter the refresh time is before you have to send them out again.
Considered by some to be a situational ship.

Persecutor

Pioneer

Overview

Pioneers are excellent at scouting.
Use the Sector Scan ability early to detect enemies on the other side of the map. This will help determine who and what your team is up against in that lane.
Detection Buoys will detect stealthed enemies, but only once every few seconds.
Pioneer Missiles are very bright, fire slowly, and travel slowly. They are thus less effective at long range.
The Gravity Nuke causes an impressive amount of damage. Ensure it lands on target.

Tips

Enemies using Cloak can tell which areas are being scanned by a Detection Buoy.
Don't forget to use your missiles, their damage can add up in a fight.
You're a frontline ship, but don't go up against large enemies like Colossi; you might have better firepower but it has a lot of armour.
The Pioneer's weapon hits hard, particularly against lighter ships such as the Venturer, Enforcer (beware its burst damage) and the Sentinel.
More than any of the other starting ships, the Pioneer relies on good accuracy and leading shots to target.
As a jack of all trades, engage enemies where they are weakest - you will easily outperform the Brawler and the Enforcer at range, and are agile enough to dodge Watchman and Overseer shots.
Along the same lines, use your mobility to outmanoeuvre Reapers, Interceptors, and Leviathans and shoot into their rear, where their damage is considerably less.
Most heavy ships rely on sustained rather than burst damage - engage them at range so you have the freedom to withdraw.

Protector

Overview

Mostly a repair ship, the Protector's armaments are minimal.
Right click to fire a healing beam.
Ability Shutdown has a range of 12000 metres and lasts 15 seconds, which can seem like an eternity in battle.
Press 1 to use the Defensive Field to half incoming damage.
Syphon Drones don't do much damage but they do provide small amounts of healing to you upon damaging an enemy. Put them to use, but don't focus on them.
Use the Smartgun's homing abilities to attack targets close to those you're healing. Aim your healing beam at a friendly and acquire an enemy near them. You can then fire the Smartgun in between healing beams.

Tips

Replacing Ability Shutdown with Disarm results in a longer ranged disable (15000 metres), but lasts only 6 seconds. This is just enough time to warp out of danger.
The Defensive Field ability can be extremely powerful, but it has a very short range of only 3000 metres. Use it to protect yourself first, and your teammates second.
The Repair beam not only heals the health of a target, but it also repairs armour if it's broken. Get your patient to expose their broken armour to you before you use the repair beam.
While the repair beam does cause damage to enemies, its long refresh time and minuscule damage makes it ineffective as a weapon in all cases. If you need to finish off a wounded enemy, the tracking of the smartgun should be enough to finish them off.
The Defensive Bubble replaces the Defensive Field and creates a larger bubble that halves incoming damage to targets within it. It doesn't move, but it is easier to use to protect your allies rather than yourself.

Raider

Overview

Tips

Gains fewer stats from leveling up with resources than other ships [Citation Needed]

Ranger

Overview

A flexible and mobile ship that relies on manoeuvrability and range to deal damage.
Longbow Cannon has excellent range but lacks raw power.
Hold down the left mouse button to charge the longbow.
Stealth Mines cause a large amount of damage and can be considered the Ranger's primary weapon.
The mines can be shot down with point defence, but will only appear if point defence is active.
The mines explode when shot down, so they can still hurt an enemy if they are shot down in close proximity.
Mines have a maximum effective range of approximately 7km, and ramp up in effectiveness the closer you are to the target.
Detect/Slow Pulse is used to slow targets in the area and reveal any enemy stealth ships.
Be sure to replace the Detect/Slow Pulse with the dedicated Slow Pulse if there are no stealth ships on the enemy team.
Shutdown and Repair is the last skill, and activates after holding down its activation key (3) for about 1 second. The ship shuts down for approximately 10 seconds and starts healing itself at the cost of energy.
You take extra damage upon using Shutdown and Repair.

Tips

What the Longbow cannon lacks in damage, it makes up for in range. Use it to harass targets from a long distance.
Use charged shots when possible; avoid low-charge shots unless you need to finish off an injured opponent.
Use Stealth Mines liberally to cause considerable splash damage to enemy vessels.
Is an enemy on the other side of a mining station and attempting to jump? Surprise! Stealth mines go through solid objects!
Avoid using the missiles as a first strike, as they are easy to intercept with point defence.
Use the Slow Pulse in combination with mines.
Always target broken armour with the Longbow cannon to help compensate for its lower damage.
Shutdown and Repair prevents jumping. Trigger your jump first, and then use Shutdown and Repair.

Raven

Reaper

Sentinel

Overview

Designed for speed.
Always move in at least two directions at once; use Q and E to strafe left and right.
Keep opponents at a distance.
Default smartgun fires tracking projectiles.
Press T to acquire your target before firing so the smartgun shots home in.
Unlike other high-DPS ships, the Sentinel has equal gun coverage all around. Use this combined with your speed to get into an opponent's blind spots.
Rail Rockets fire unguided rockets that cause average damage.
Rockets reload quickly, so use them when you can at targets.
Rockets also have longer range than your main weapon; use them as an opener.
Use the rockets against targets presenting their top or their belly to you; most ships have a larger profile from the top or bottom than the front.
Thruster Pulse improves your speed and the speed of your allies even further, while simultaneously lowering the enemy's speed.
Replacements for the Thruster Pulse ability either improve the speed boost or improve the enemy's speed penalty.
Mobility Buoy is used to improve the speed of all friendlies in its area of influence.

Tips

Avoid anything that's able to reduce your mobility advantage.
Get below closeby enemies before using Harrier Missiles, as they fly from the top of your ship.
Pounce on any enemy with a slow reload; use your superior agility to dodge, then counterattack.

Superlifter

Overview

A Zarek support ship equipped with decent weaponry.
One of the best support ships available.
Engine Disable creates a pulse around your ship that obviously disables enemy engines.
Mostly used as an escape tool.
Lifter Missiles are a standard missile solution. Unremarkable, but still effective at adding chip damage to enemies.
Tugboat Drones will help accelerate the target. Target a friendly (T or V) and then press 3 to tell the Tugboat Drones to assist that target.
Use on large friendlies to get them quickly to the fight.
Recall them to avoid their destruction (R)
Ripple Cannon fires a short burst of average. Effective at deterring low-health foes from chasing you, or helping you finish off an enemy.
Repair Buoys fire healing shots that cause hit friendlies to repair damage.
The healing effect does not stack, but hitting a repairing friendly resets the duration of the repair.
Pace firing your Repair Buoys; hitting a target that already has the full 15 second repair duration does little since the healing effect does not stack.
Repair Buoys reload slowly - make each shot count.

Tips

Avoid staying close to the ship you're defending - the healing buoys have considerable range.
As they are such powerful support ships, Superlifters are often priority targets. Hide behind a rock and maximize your survivability.

Venturer

Overview

A flexible frontline combat ship, effective at all ranges.
Use the armour breaker (right mouse button) to break a target's armour, and then fire the mining lasers.
The Heal/Defend Pulse can be used to provide small bursts of healing to nearby friendlies, and yourself.
Timing the use of Heal/Defend Pulse to intercept a missile barrage can really take the teeth out of a Black Widow's bite. The Black Widow's Disarm Pulse shuts down point defence, but not this ability.
Plasma missiles launch close to the ship and take a moment before igniting and flying to their target.
The Shielding Buoy has friendlies within its range take 33% less damage.
Put your Shielding Buoy behind cover to ensure it doesn't get destroyed so you and your team can reap its benefits.

Tips

The Venturer is the preferred healing ship for novice players who do not have a dedicated healboat.
If working alongside allies, conserve your armour breaker until the enemy's armour is already down.

Watchman

Overview

The long range sniper ship of choice for many players.
Railgun is accurate at long distances. Use alongside Mark Target (right click) to cause maximum damage to targets.
The gun only fires forward, but has a reasonably wide arc.
Use the middle mouse button to zoom. Scroll up and down for more or less magnification.
The shield halves all damage taken. Use it to survive attacks from stealth ships.
The missiles are effective at long range and can be used to add additional firepower to your main attacks or attack targets out of arc of the main gun.

Tips

If you hear a target decloak, immediately use the shield. It can be the difference between life and death.
Stealth ships do not have the best reload rates on their weapons. Trigger the shield, get them to fire, and then jump away while they're reloading.
If engaged against another sniper, use your lateral and vertical movement keys (Ctrl, Space, Q, and E) to strafe and ascend/descend to avoid counter-sniper fire.
Try to engage enemies from maximum range, but remember that its range isn't good enough to reach across a lane. You'll want to move closer to the middle as your team pushes the forward base.