Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

[engi]

i meant if you won whith it first wasn't a valid awnser than what was twinges reason for putting it at the second bottom

[Iranon]

"Chance of winning when played well" is a better measure than "What I actually won with".

The Vortex is a very good earner: Many blue options, good at winning by suffocation if your play is tight (when to let air out with the laser, when to use it to strip shields then ion the O2, how to deploy your lone engi and when to go for weapons to reduce damage taken, how to make this work if they have a medbay...).

Still a mediocre to poor ship, because it can get screwed hard by the RNG (Engi needs weapon badly).

[engi]

"Chance of winning when played well" is a better measure than "What I actually won with".

The Vortex is a very good earner: Many blue options, good at winning by suffocation if your play is tight (when to let air out with the laser, when to use it to strip shields then ion the O2, how to deploy your lone engi and when to go for weapons to reduce damage taken, how to make this work if they have a medbay...).

Still a mediocre to poor ship, because it can get screwed hard by the RNG (Engi needs weapon badly).

Rng? Dahek

[itg]

Random Number Generator.

[CaptainTeddy]

Ok, when I said I liked Stealth b around page 4, I have been convinced that it sucks, rock a IS better than it, Slug b is ALSO better than it but personally, it is better than engi b imo. The only reason i have won with it twice is because of luck. Now that the type c ships are out, i want to know peoples opinions on those. RESPOND TO THIS NOW! imo
Stealth c and kestrel c are bad. Mantis c, lanius a, rock c and lanius b are good ships, Federation b is a fence sitter to me same with zoltan c. mainly because i havent been bothered trying them. :I I haven't unlocked Engi c or slug c yet though. Engi c looks really good imo and slug c looks pretty good. Does anyone think that hacking, mind control and the clone bay may change the list at all? sorry backup battery you're left out of the maybe game changing list cause you arent specifically spectacular.

[CaptainTeddy]

My new tier list:

Tier 0 (overall broken)
Carnelian

Tier 1 (Very good but not broken)
The Basilisk
The Osprey
The Torus
Noether
The Theseus
Tetragon
Tektite
Shivan
Bravais

Tier 2 (Great but not as good as all above)
Red-Tail
Man of War
Nesasio
The Kestrel
Ariolimax
The Gila Monster
Kruos
The Shrike

Tier 3 (ok)
The Adjudicator
The Fregatidae


Tier 4 (bad)
Nisos
Bulwark
DA-SR-12
Cerenkov
The Swallow

Tier 5 (The 3 worst ships)
Simo-h
Stormwalker
The Vortex

Details:
Tier 0 (Broken)
Carnelian is the crystal b, need I say more????

Tier 1 (Very good but not broken)
The Basilisk has been one of my favourite ships for a long time now, 4 pad teleporter and a boarding drone. It is just more luck based than the carnelian so it is not broken.
The Osprey is another ship that i have loved for a long time, it starts with a weapon that lasts you the whole game (Burst laser mk II) and the artillery beam when upgraded can annihalate alot of ships
The Torus, a ship that i hated when i first tried it, cause i sold the ion blast mk II lol but it is great now that i have some skill. The ion/ drone combo is very good.
Noether i always was fond of this ship but i never had any skill with it, I won the game with it today with my 3 trusty ion weapons (the 2 originals and a mk II) and my pike beam. i had lvl 4 shields and fully upgraded engines. I smashed the flagship and it took my 3rd place record. (Basilisk being no. 1 and Gila monster no. 2)
The Theseus is a great ship because it starts with a 4 person teleporter and it starts with a lockdown bomb, and a lanius. Oh it also has a clonebay which is great for boarding. I dont have much skill with this ship yet so i may have different opinions when i use it a bit more.
Tetragon i know i have no skill with this ship but by looking at it i can say it is a great ship because it is one of the few ships with hacking and it has a pretty good layout. also your hacking drones cant get targeted by defence drones.
Tektite like the Theseus i might change my opinions on it but it starts with a crystal, two rocks and it looks awesome.
Shivan The first ship i ever won with, ahhh good memories, it is a great boarding ship due to the rock fire combo.

Tier 2 (Great)
Red-Tail I love this ship, it is so powerful especially when you get a burst laser mk II then you fire 6 lasers in one volley.
Man of War I love the anti bio beam, i really really love it. In fact if you get hacking with it you can trap people in the flagships medbay and if the shields were down, you can be a damage storm.
The Nesasio It is so much fun to use, it is also effective to beat the flagship with.... not that i have though....
The Kestrel it is an average ship. nothing unique, no special features it is just... the kestrel.
Ariolimax It starts with mind control and hacking so it is bound to be good. Right?
The Gila Monster the 2nd ship i won with so i really like it, not as good as its 4 pad teleporter counterparts but i really like it.
Kruos I like lanius, i like hacking. need i say more?
The Shrike I like Lanius, I like mind control. need i say more?

Tier 3 (ok)
The Adjudicator is technically a worse Noether. The part that puts most people off is the leto.
Fregatidae it is pretty good, just not great. I like the flak artillery. it just has nothing that makes me say wow.


Tier 4 (bad)
Nisos a worse Osprey and Fregitadae.
Bulwark Boring, missile dependant and slow
DA-SR-12 It is better than i used to think due to hacking but it is still easy to get screwed over by getting hit in the weapons early game.
Cerenkov The smallest reactor i have seen and it costs more because it is so little.
The Swallow I may change my mind about this one but my experience tells me it sucks

Tier 5 (The 3 worst ships)
Stormwalker No medbay, its a boarding ship. WHAT IS THIS MONSTROCITY???
Simo-h This spot used to belong to Stealth b, I figured out that this is much worse, the shield overcharger doesn't cut it for me at all, if it started with the Zoltan Shield Augment i would like this ship more, a lot more.
The vortex It tried and failed
Ships i have won using Mantis a and b, Rock b, Zoltan a and b, Engi a, Stealth b twice, Federation a twice, Crystal a and b 3 times and slug a and b.

[itg]

I've finally won at least one game with every ship, so I'll put together a tier list of my own soon. Does anyone else think it would be better to start a new thread for AE tier lists, though?

[MartectX]

Does anyone else think it would be better to start a new thread for AE tier lists, though?

No, I'm good with evolving this thread.

[Twinge]

I've finally won at least one game with every ship, so I'll put together a tier list of my own soon. Does anyone else think it would be better to start a new thread for AE tier lists, though?

Yes; this makes the most sense. There's a lot of differences. I haven't moved any old ships across tiers yet, but there's definitely been movement within tiers, and there's 10 whole new ships to categorize.

[itg]

Here's a tier list I threw together. I haven't played every single ship in AE yet, so I may have to re-evaluate a lot of them. In general, I think the weaker ships are a lot closer to the rest of the pack now, so I only have 4 tiers (counting the separate tier just for the Carnelian).

S Tier:
Carnelian

A Tier:
Basilisk
Red-Tail
Shrike
Noether
Torus
Theseus
Ariolimax
Bravais

B Tier:
Shivan
Kruos
Nesasio
Man of War
Kestrel
Tetragon
Gila Monster
Osprey
Nisos
Tektite

C Tier:
Adjudicator
Fregatidae
Swallow
Cerenkov
Stormwalker
DA-SR12
Bulwark
Simo-H
Vortex

In detail:

S Tier
Carnelian: Boarding is less good now, but this ship is still insane.

A Tier
Basilisk: Again, 4-man teleporters are still ridiculously good, and so is starting with midgame-level defenses.
Red-Tail: Your starting weapons dominate the early sectors, and now hacking can ease the transition to late-game weapons.
Shrike: Is it a boarding ship or gunship? It's both! The advanced flak gun is strictly better than the standard flak gun, which is already one of the best weapons in the game. As if that weren't enough, you start with mind control and a teleporter with Lanius boarding team. Oddly enough, the ship would be significantly better with a medbay, since you can't "heal" the Laniuses (Lanii?) by suffocating them.
Noether: The dilution of attack drones in the first sector improved an already good ship, and the rebalancing of boarding pushed some other ships down relative to this one. Starting weapons and Zoltan shield are excellent.
Torus: I bumped it down a bit because I expect anti-combat drones to be an occasional problem. Haven't played this in AE, so I'm not sure now big the effect really is.
Theseus: The 4-man teleporter is amazing, but this ship lacks the unreasonably good defenses of the other super-boarding ships, and the crew is actually kind of awkward for boarding. After you get over a potentially rocky start, this ship should win easily.
Ariolimax: Weak starting weapon, but hacking and mind control give you enormous control over the fight, as well as decent potential for crew kills.
Bravais: Haven't played it in AE, but the boarding rebalance should hurt this ship. The double Crystal boarding team should still be very strong, though.

B Tier
Shivan: Boarding was nerfed, and the firebomb/Rockman tactics, while still good, don't stand out so much with other interesting combos floating around.
Kruos: Hacking compensates for mediocre weapons, and the Lanius crew could make a nice boarding team. As with the Shrike, I'd prefer a medbay for this ship.
Nesasio: Buffed by cheaper shields and the boarding rebalance (this ship isn't conducive to boarding). Still one of the most fun ships to play.
Man of War: Hacking and/or mind control should be great for this ship. The rewards for crew killing have been nerfed, which hurts, and after finally playing in in AE (on hard), I think it's noticeably weaker than it was in vanilla, because the nastier enemies make it important to end the fight quickly, but this ship is really bad at doing that.
Kestrel: Apparently I ranked this 14th out of 28. Everyone puts this ship right in the middle, and I wonder how much of that is psychological, that we all think it's supposed to be the "average, well-rounded" ship. Oh well.
Tetragon: I like hacking. Dual lasers are a little weak early and awkward to fit into a late-game loadout on a 3-slot ship. The beam drone is probably there mainly to deal with Zoltan shields, since by the time you've shot out the shields with the dual laser, you don't really need the beam drone.
Gila Monster: Haven't played this one since AE came out, so I'm not sure how bad this ship was hurt by the boarding rebalance.
Nisos: I actually like playing this one better than the Osprey, mainly because a hit to weapons doesn't totally cripple you. I'd need to play both ships a few times in succession to really say which is better.
Osprey: I bumped this one up because it can finally get cloaking, and the artillery beam seems relatively more useful, since free weapons seem harder to come by
Tektite: I actually had a really rough run with this ship (though I did just barely win), but I ranked it higher than it felt based on that one run. Starting weapons are slow (well, firing a single swarm missile is fast, but it's inefficient and inaccurate), but you've got a crystal/rock boarding team ready to go, and Rock plating still sells for 40 scrap. If the ship had 2 crystal men, I'd rank it much higher--lockdown is way better when you can chain it.

C Tier
Adjudicator: Hacking should help this ship, but for a while you've still got a really slow weapon and a fast one you generally avoid using as much as possible.
Fregatidae: I like this ship. It seems clearly designed to encourage suicidal boarding tactics. Flak artillery is cool, but it's no substitute for a normal weapon. medbays are a real challenge.
Swallow: It's a lot like the Kruos with no hacking. Starting weapons are mediocre early on but have some combo potential for later. The Lanius is nice if you're going to the Abandoned Sector.
Cerenkov: I had a lot of fun with this ship. Relying almost exclusively on Zoltans and the backup battery is a pretty zany concept. I'm not really sure how to rank this, since it was one of the first ships I played in AE and I was still getting used to hard mode. If anything, I'd rank it higher, but I decided to put it low for now because of the high cost of upgrading your reactor and because you can find yourself in a tough spot if you don't cripple the enemy before the backup battery runs out.
Stormwalker: This ship got a lot more interesting with the introduction of the clone bay. If you get one, you can use the heal bomb in combat far more frequently, since it's not the end of the world if it misses. New weapons are easier to find in shops, now, and if you get an explosives replicator, you can keep using those starting weapons for quite a while.
DA-SR12: I'm probably over-rating this ship because I like it, but I really do think it got stronger in AE. Shields are cheaper, attack drones are less common, and if you get hacking, you don't need any other weapons besides the glaive beam. Well, unless you run into defense drones, but it still means this ship is better than it used to be.
Bulwark: I haven't played it in AE yet. This ship kind of got pushed down the list as I realized a lot of bad ships have improved, while I expect this one to be slightly worse. The best plan with the Bulwark used to be to get a teleporter ASAP, and that plan has been nerfed somewhat. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if I move it back up a slot or two after playing it. I imagine I tend to think the ships I played most recently are better because I've gotten better as a player over time.
Simo-H: This ship is like a gimped Nesasio. The weapons are essentially the same, but the Shield+ drone is no substitute for cloaking. I actually don't think this ship is that bad, but I've been thinking that about every ship I've played recently, and hey, something had to be second to last.
Vortex: Even though this ship went down on my tier list, I think it got a bit better in AE. Your best move with the ship is still to sell most of your starting junk and buy a decent weapon, but now shops carry more stuff, so you should be able to do that more consistently. And as with so many other ships, hacking is a good substitute for good weapons.