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Ship Modules and Tools
August 18, 2026 at 03:22 AM
Initial version (2026-08-18)
A ship in SpaceCraft is defined less by its shape than by what is bolted to it. Modules and tools supply the skills you use, the cargo you carry and the power you run on, and every one of them competes for the same capacity budget. This page collects the equipment the developer has confirmed and the rules that govern fitting it. See Ship Building for hull assembly and Crafting for how the parts are made.
Modules are fitted in the ship editor, reached from the main console at a Shipyard. You can only edit a ship docked at the station you are standing in, so there is no remote refitting from across the galaxy. Tools drag and drop onto the hull and can be placed almost anywhere on it, which leaves both function and silhouette up to you. Existing modules can be moved or removed the same way.
The editor has three tabs. Tools manages installed modules. Assembly changes the ship's structure, meaning blocks, engines, wings and the cockpit. Customization handles colours, decals and skins. Assembly and Customization unlock later through permit progression rather than being available from the start. See Progression: Permits and Experience.
Every ship has a System Support value, which is its built-in capacity to run equipment. Every installed module adds to a System Requirement total. As long as requirement stays under support the ship runs at full efficiency. Go over and modules start working less effectively, and can malfunction outright. This is the single constraint that shapes a loadout: capacity, not slot count.
The developer draws the comparison to a role-playing game explicitly. Assembly is like setting attributes, deciding health, speed and module capacity. Tools are like equipping gear, adding active skills or passive bonuses such as better heat resistance, larger cargo holds or improved energy generation.
The starting ship, the Scrappy Pioneer, ships with a Crude Resource Detector, a Crude Mining Laser, two Small Solar Panels, two Headlights and a Crude Battery. Every one of them can eventually be upgraded.
Module or tool | Role | Confirmed detail |
|---|---|---|
Crude Mining Laser | Mining | The starting extraction tool. Mining speed and access depend on tool tier: a lower-tier tool cannot break a higher-tier node, and higher tiers mine faster. |
Mining Laser Control Mod | Mining automation | Generates heat and shuts down automatically when it overheats. After a fix it moves on to another node in range instead of stopping after each one. |
Crude Resource Detector | Scanning | Grants the radar skill that points you toward nearby nodes. Its scanning range was widened after launch. |
Scanalyzer Alpha | Scanning | A small instrument for scanning and analysing unknown resources. Built from 1 Small Module Kit, 1 Iron Sheet and 2 Wire, and unlocked by the Modular Systems permit. |
Small Cargo Hold | Storage | Also unlocked by the Modular Systems permit. |
Hose Pump | Liquid collection | Collects liquid from a geyser during its brief eruption window, which means positioning the ship in the jet while it erupts. |
Tanks | Liquid storage | Each tank holds one liquid type only, so carrying two liquids means fitting two tanks. |
Small Solar Panels | Power | Recharge the battery whenever they are in direct sunlight. |
Crude Battery | Power | Stores the energy that skills and after-burners draw on. |
Vanadium Battery | Power | Crafted from Sulfuric Acid, Vanadium and Graphite at a Chemical Factory. Significantly extends battery life in dark environments such as deep space or a planet's night side, where solar panels cannot recharge. |
Headlights | Utility | Fitted in pairs on the starting ship. |
Liquid handling has its own page. See Liquid Resources.
The mining laser is the starting tool, not the only one. The developer has confirmed that different resource types call for different equipment. Shells have to be broken open with missiles. Liquid and gas resources need specialised harvesting tools and matching storage modules. Volatile resources heat up as they are mined and can explode, sometimes requiring cooling tools. Some materials are collected on foot rather than from the ship, and others are harvested automatically by base extractors instead. See Mining and Resources and Automation and Logistics.
The ship editor lists your installed modules on the left and the skills they provide beneath, with key ship statistics on the right. Two post-launch additions made it more informative: maximum speed and acceleration time are now displayed in the ship stats, and the editor warns you when a ship is not well designed and may hurt your experience. See Updates and Patch Notes.
No full module catalogue, tier table, or numeric statistic set has been released. Combat modules do not exist in the current build; the developer lists new combat modules and ship systems among the features coming later in Early Access. See Combat.
