Having the best Starfield ship weapons fitted to your ships will turn them into deadly dreadnought that only the bravest souls will want to pick a fight with. And if they do fight, they'll probably met with barrages of lasers, missiles, turrets, particle beams and more besides. That's quite a lot of choice for your ships in Starfield, so it's handy to know not only how all these weapon types differ, but also which are the best weapons to install on your ship. With that in mind, I'll explain all the different ship weapon types in Starfield below, as well as the best ones to stick on your starships.
The best Starfield ship weapons and where to get them
The best starfield ship weapons, unless you're going for a specific build, are clearly particle beam weapons, which are generally sold at higher-end Starfield shipyard locations like those in Neon. These weapons are unique because unlike most other kinds, which are generally designed to prioritise either hull or shield damage, beam weapons do damage to both shields and hull in equal measure. This makes it incredibly versatile and lethal, and it's a valid strategy to just drop all other kinds of weapons from your ship during Starfield ship customization and simply equip several particle beam weapons to maximise damage and simplicity, rather than going for the standard three flavours of laser, ballistic and missile.
All Starfield ship weapon types explained
There's several types of ship weapons you can install on your spacecraft in Starfield, all of which serve different functions in combat against enemy craft. We've explained them all below, and keep in mind that some weapons can be more than one type at once (for example, a turret that specifically fires lasers)
- Cannons: Cannons do ballistic damage, effective against Hulls, and generally don't have a very long range. Depending on the cannon, they might fire fast (autocannons), or do a shotgun spread (shot-cannon).
- Lasers: Lasers focus on shield damage and usually have a middling range. Like cannons, they have a wide range of builds and designs for all kinds of encounters.
- Missiles/missile launchers: Missile launchers fire slowly and do high damage, and are mainly used for targeting specific systems, blowing up enemy shields, engines or grav drives.
- Particle Beams/Beam weapons: As mentioned, beam weapons are an all-rounder hybrid of both hull and shield damage, and also generally have a pretty good range.
- Suppressors: Suppressors are specifically used to deal EM (electromagnetic) damage to enemy systems, shutting them down temporarily while doing very little damage to the ship as a whole. Very useful if you plan to steal ships in Starfield, as your prize is left undamaged.
- Gauss/Railguns: Gauss weapons and Railguns are cousins of cannons - they do a little more shield damage than the standard cannon, but are still mainly about breaking a ship's hull, and tend to have a slightly improved range than most ballistic weapons, depending on the model. They're also usually more expensive.
- Turrets: Turrets are autonomous weapons that fire on enemy ships in range automatically, without the player having to do anything (assuming they're facing the right direction). The downside of turrets is that you obviously sacrifice control when using them, and that they tend to be less accurate than a skilled player.
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