Upgrading Your Ship: What the Hell are Class and Rating?

Use the Reddit scholars heavily when researching ship upgrades, as well as understanding equipment and weapon CLASS and RATING. But the simple presentation is:

Equipment Class: A specific ship's weapon and equipment slots have a CLASS NUMBER, which is simply the size of what you can install there. Class 1 is smallest, and Class 10 is the biggest. Reddit scholars will generally tell you to buy the class that matches the slot. So if your FSD slot can handle a Class 5 drive, buy a Class 5! This is pretty straight forward.

For the optional internal ship slots, you do not have to stick to the equipment the ship comes with. A common substitution I see is downsizing of shields, just to take one example. Assume you want to outfit a Diamondback Explorer for medium to long range passenger missions. When you buy the DBX it comes with the following optional modules:

Class 4: 4E Shield Generator
Class 4: 3E Cargo Rack
Class 3: 2E Cargo Rack
Class 3: Empty
Class 2: 1E Basic Discovery Scanner
Class 2: Empty

If I was outfitting this ship for passengers, I would prefer to allocate the two Class 4 slots to the passenger cabins, and I would sell the 4E Shield Generator and buy a smaller Class 3 shield. The final build might look like this:

Class 4: 4D Business Class Cabin

Class 4: 4D Business Class Cabin

Class 3: 3D Shield Generator

Class 3: 3E Cargo Rack

Class 2: 1C Advanced Discovery Scanner

Class 2: 1C Detailed Surface Scanner

Equipment Rating: Each piece of equipment (not weapons) you can buy also has a RATING LETTER assigned to it: A, B, C, D, E, F, or G. Here it gets more confusing. The rating you may want to buy can differ depending on your intended usage for your ship (trader, fighter, explorer), as well as your jump range preference and power requirements.

The rating of the equipment you install on your ship affects its jump range and total power consumption. You have to make sure the equipment you are buying does not negatively impact your jump range beyond your preference, or exceed your max power output. In the outfitting screen, when you select a piece of equipment to purchase, you see how it impacts all of the relevant ship stats right there on the screen. So look carefully before you pull the trigger.

In general, an A-rated piece of equipment is going to be a best-in-class performer compared to the lower letters. HOWEVER, if you are most concerned with maintaining longer jump range, the D-rated equipment has the best mass/ratio rating of any of the letters. So an explorer or trader, in general, might go for more D-rated components, but equip an A-rated FSD. In my opinion, fighter pilots have a harder decision to make for rating, as they must strike a balance among power consumption, mass, and performance.

Regarding weapons: Weapons class size goes from 1 to 4. Weapons do NOT have ratings associated with them, but, to make it more confusing, you will still see a letter next to their class, such as:

C3 G Burst Laser

The letter indicator for weapons is simply the type of mount the weapon has:

F = Fixed: The weapon does not move in its mount. You must aim your ship at what you want to shoot. Fixed weapons are cheap and powerful. 

G = Gimballed: The weapon has a range of motion in its mount and can aim separately from your ship, allowing for more leeway in where your ship is pointed as you shoot. Gimballed weapons are a little weaker than fixed. They track heat, so if your targeted ship or module is not generating heat, there will be no tracking. In that case the gimbal will act more like a fixed weapon.

T = Turreted: Turrets are fully-automated weapons with a 360 degree range of fire. They will act independently from you pulling the trigger, depending on settings. In the functions tab of systems menu (the right hand HUD) you can select one of three turret fire modes:

• Forward Fire: This makes your turret act like a fixed weapon mount, firing forward only when you pull the trigger
• Targeted Enemy: The turret will independently start firing at your manually targeted enemy WHEN YOU PULL THE TRIGGER THE FIRST TIME. From then on the turret acts autonomously for that target
• Fire at Will: The turret will fire on any 'wanted' enemy ONLY when the enemy is firing at you, WHEN YOU PULL THE TRIGGER THE FIRST TIME. This setting allows more than one turret to fire at multiple enemies attacking you at once

Consult the Reddit scholars for your specific needs!

But once you have saved a million+ credits and decide you want a "5A Frame Shift Drive", it is not as simple as going to your shipyard outfitter and buying one. You have to find a station that has one in stock!

The following web site is extremely helpful in tracking down ship parts:

https://eddb.io/station

Fill in the following information:

Station sells Modules: This is what you want to buy 

Min Landing Pad:  To account for your ship size

Reference System: Your home system (or current system)

When you select "Find Station" you will get a list of stations selling the module, in order of how close they are to your home system. Very convenient!