Starfield screenshot of a customized Discovery ship in the ship builder menu.

Image via Prima Games.

The Best Ship Weapons in Starfield

A ship is as good as its arsenal.

Shawn Robinson

and

Seth Lowe

Published: Dec 13, 2023 04:25 pm

When you’re building up your ship in Starfield, picking out the best individual parts for your ship is key to ensuring you can handle whatever the game throws at you. Here’s what the best ship weapons are in Starfield.

Which Ship Weapons Should You Use in Starfield?

Starfield screenshot of a customized Discovery ship in the ship builder, assigning weapons using the menu. — Screenshot by Prima Games

While we could tell you that particle beam weapons are the best ship weapons in Starfield and call it a day, there’s much more to it than that (which is partly why we don’t use them ourselves). Ship weapons fall into several different classes and come in five different types. All of this needs to be taken into account when setting your arsenal up. As such, we’re going to break this down into the best ship weapons for each individual class and weapon type. Firstly, though, we have to explain what any of that means.

Ship weapons are split into Class A, Class B, and Class C weapons. Each of these offers different stats that increase with Class but also require a Reactor of that Class to wield. That’s easy enough. It’s the ship weapon types that can be a little more complex.

Tip:

Class C ships tend to be the best in Starfield, do to their incredibly well-balanced stats and utility. Keep this in mind when choosing a ship class.

Here’s a rundown of each ship weapon type and what it’s designed for:

All Ship Weapon Types and Which Are Best in Starfield

Starfield screenshot of weapon parts laid out in a line in the ship builder. — Screenshot by Prima Games

BAL/Ballistic – Weapons that are designed to deal Hull damage but are weak against shields.
LAS/Laser – Weapons that do great at tearing through shields but are weak at dealing damage to a ship’s health pool.
MSL/Missile – The ideal burst damage weapon. These hit hard no matter whether you’re hitting shields or the hull, but fire slowly and are meant more to complement other weapons.
EM/Electromagnetic – The best at disabling ship systems. While it does very little to a ship’s health, a well-placed shot can deal devastating damage to a ship’s Engines, Grav Drive, Shields, etc.
PAR/Particle Beam – For those who don’t want to lean one way or the other. These weapons do fairly good against either shields or a ship’s hull, but aren’t amazing in one or the other.

As for which three of these five weapon types you should choose for your ship, we personally like running a Ballistic and Laser combo followed by Missile. This keeps things well-rounded and makes room for that crisp burst damage out of the missile launcher. Both of the other weapon types have their perks, though and shouldn’t be ignored just because we said so.

Starfield Ship Weapon Stats

As mentioned before, each weapon in Starfield has their own set of stats. You’ll want to take a look at these and weigh them accordingly to determine which weapon is best for you. So let’s break these down:

Class: Essentially the tier of the weapon. Typically, the higher the Class, the better the weapon, with Class A being the lowest and Class C being the highest. If your ship’s reactor is a lower class, it cannot equip a higher class weapon. However, higher class reactors can equip lower class weapons.
Range: How far your weapon will shoot.
Fire Rate: How fast your weapon will shoot.
Hull DMG: How much damage your weapon will do to hulls.
Shield DMG: How much damage your weapon will do to shields.
Max Power: How much power your weapon can use from your reactor.
Hull: How much your weapon will contribute to your ship’s hull (your durability).
Crew Capacity: For some reason, weapons have a small affect on your ship’s overall Crew Capacity. It seems most weapons have a Crew Capacity stat that sits at around 0.5. I suppose this implies that you can shove half a person into each weapon, but we can’t confirm this.

The Best Ship Weapons in Each Class and Type in Starfield

Starfield screenshot of a black Razorleaf ship in the ship builder. — Image via Prima Games.

We’re going to break this section down into the five weapon types and the best ship weapon for each individual Class. That way, depending on the ship you’re running, you’ll know which weapon is the best for each type and Class.

Note:

All of the entries on this list will avoid Turret variants of weapons since these fire automatically and are unreliable.

Ballistics

Class A: Mauler 105U Cannon.
Class B: Mauler 107I Cannon.
Class C: Gauss Gun.

Electromagnetic

Class A: Nullifier 1750 Suppressor.
Class B: EMP-500 Suppressor.
Class C: Fulminator 8000 Suppressor.

Lasers

Class A: Singe 4MW Laser.
Class B: Torch 250MW UV Laser.
Class C: Dragon 261P SX Pulse Laser.

Missiles

Class A: Atlatl 280A Missile Launcher.
Class B: Atlatl 280B Missile Launcher.
Class C: Atlatl 280C Missile Launcher.

Particle Beams

Class A: PBO-50 Auto Proton Beam.
Class B: PB-100 Neutron Beam.
Class C: PBO-300 Auto Alpha Beam.

Where to Get Weapons For Your Ship in Starfield

You can get more weapons for you ship by visiting Ship Services Technicians. When you walk up to one, ask them to modify your ship. You’ll then be able to choose the ship you want to modify. From there, you can enter the ship builder. Tab over to “Weapons,” and you’ll have a list of weapons you can buy from and place directly onto your ship.

Your access to various ship weapons is dependent on your skills and character growth. As you level up, you’ll generally gain access to more ship weapons. Rank up the Ship Design skill to access better, more powerful weapons. You may find that some weapons require ranking in other various skills as well.

What is the Best Possible Starfield Ship Weapons Combo?

While this is very much subjective, we love the Reza 300 PHz SX Laser and Vanguard Hellfire Autocannon. Both of these weapons deal a ton of damage, and have a great fire rate. Plus, the Hellfire Autocannon has pretty low unlock requirements.

Reza 300 PHz SX Laser stats

You can get the Reza 300 PHz SX Laser from various vendors, such as Lon Anderssen (Porrima), Ship Services Technician (Akila City), and many more. Here are the stats for the Reza 300 PHz SX Laser.

Class: C
Value: 32205 credits
Mass: 6
Hull: 5
Crew Capacity: 0.5
Type: Laser
Range: 1000
Fire Rate: 4
Hull Damage: 11
Shield Damage: 38
Max Power: 4

Vanguard Hellfire Cannon Stats

You can get the Vanguard Hellfire Autocannon by joining the UC Vanguard. It’ll be available for purchase at any ship technician service. Here are the stats for the weapon.

Class: B
Value: 2750 credits
Mass: 1
Hull: 1
Crew Capacity: 0.5
Type: Ballistic
Range: 800
Fire Rate: 7.5
Hull Damage: 18
Shield Damage: 5
Max Power: 2

Now that you have the best ship weapons in Starfield, why not find the best parts for your ship by checking out our guide on the best Reactors in Starfield?

Starfield

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Author

Shawn Robinson

Shawn is a freelance gaming journalist who's been with Prima Games for a year and a half, writing mainly about FPS games and RPGs. He even brings several years of experience at other sites like The Nerd Stash to the table. While he doesn't bring a fancy degree to the table, he brings immense attention to detail with his guides, reviews, and news, leveraging his decade and a half of gaming knowledge. If he isn't writing about games, he's likely getting zero kills in his favorite FPS or yelling at the game when it was 100% his fault that he died.

Author

Seth Lowe

Seth has been a writer for Prima Games since 2023. An avid Nintendo lover and a true Pokemon master, surely you'll find him glued to a Game Boy no matter where he is. You can find his previous work at TheGamer.