The Shipyard is the station building that constructs your ships. Upgrading it unlocks access to more ships and speeds up both ship construction and ship tier-ups, with each bonus climbing from 3% at level 2 to 815% at level 80. It opens early, at Operations level 5 with R&D Department level 4, and stays relevant for the entire game. Keep it moving with your Operations level: every hour it shaves off a build or a tier-up compounds across every ship you ever make.
What the Shipyard does
The game describes the Shipyard plainly: it is instrumental in ship construction, and upgrading it grants access to more ships while increasing construction speed. Upgrades raise two bonuses in lockstep: Ship Construction Speed for building new ships, and Tier Up Speed for upgrading the ships you own.
| Shipyard level | Ship construction speed | Tier-up speed |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 3% | 3% |
| 10 | 14% | 14% |
| 20 | 36% | 36% |
| 30 | 69% | 69% |
| 40 | 111% | 111% |
| 50 | 170% | 170% |
| 60 | 245% | 245% |
| 70 | 375% | 375% |
| 80 | 815% | 815% |
Both bonuses apply to every ship, so the value scales with how much you build. A tier-up that would take days at a low Shipyard level finishes dramatically faster once these percentages stack up.
How to unlock the Shipyard
The Shipyard needs Operations at level 5 and the R&D Department at level 4. Both arrive in your first play sessions, and the level 1 build costs 500 Parsteel and takes three minutes.
Upgrade costs and build times
Shipyard upgrades are gated harder than most buildings. Alongside Operations and the R&D Department at the matching level, individual upgrades demand other parts of your station: level 15 wants the Dilithium Warehouse at 12, level 20 wants the Ship Hangar at 15, level 25 wants Drydocks A, B, and C at 25, level 35 wants the Science Lab at 35, level 40 wants the Armada Control Center at 20, level 50 wants the 4★ Shield Efficiency research, and level 55 wants Defense Platform E at 54. Milestone costs below are base values, current as of the latest game data.
| Level | Cost | Build time | Key requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 500 Parsteel | 3m | Operations 5, R&D Department 4 |
| 10 | 10,000 Parsteel, 150 Tritanium | 3h 20m | Operations 10, R&D Department 10 |
| 20 | 260,100 Parsteel, 4,250 Tritanium | 2d 7h | Operations 20, R&D Department 20, Ship Hangar 15 |
| 30 | 23.87M Parsteel, 390,000 Tritanium, 1,600 3★ Common Refined Crystal, 390 3★ Uncommon Refined Crystal | 5d 21h | Operations 30, R&D Department 30, Dilithium Warehouse 28 |
| 40 | 5.158B Parsteel, 30.1M Tritanium, 50,000 4★ Common Refined Crystal | 96d 23h | Operations 40, R&D Department 40, Armada Control Center 20 |
| 50 | 224.9B Parsteel, 1.837B Tritanium | 1,660d 4h | Operations 50, R&D Department 50, 4★ Shield Efficiency research |
| 60 | 72.34T Parsteel, 246.2B Tritanium, 125,300 5★ Uncommon Refined Crystal, 30,500 5★ Rare Refined Crystal | 3,497d 20h | Operations 60, R&D Department 60 |
| 70 | 48.55M Σ-Parsteel, 793,250 Σ-Tritanium, 83,300 6★ Rare Refined Crystal, 74,970 6★ Rare Refined Ore | 922d 13h | Operations 70, R&D Department 70 |
| 80 | 23.7B Σ-Parsteel, 96.81M Σ-Tritanium, 2.79M 7★ Uncommon Refined Crystal, 916,540 7★ Rare Refined Ore | 22,269d 10h | Operations 80, R&D Department 80 |
The full run from level 1 to 80 totals about 205.5 trillion Parsteel and 690.7 billion Tritanium, plus large amounts of refined crystal and ore across every grade and 85.37 billion Σ-Parsteel at the top. Base build timers are enormous at high levels, which is exactly what the Shipyard’s own construction speed bonus, research, and speedups are for.
How the Shipyard fits your station
The Shipyard pairs with the R&D Department: every milestone requires both at the same level, so plan them as a unit. The side requirements are the usual choke points. Players routinely hit a wall at level 25 because three Drydocks need to reach 25 first, and again at 55 when Defense Platform E has to catch up. Checking the requirement column two or three levels ahead saves you from queuing an upgrade you can’t start.
It also feeds your fleet plans directly. New ship unlocks depend on Shipyard access, and the tier-up speed bonus decides how quickly a freshly built ship becomes a usable one. When you’re deciding between another resource building and the Shipyard, the Shipyard’s bonus applies to everything in your dock.
Is the Shipyard worth upgrading?
Yes, and ahead of most of the station. It unlocks ships, and its twin speed bonuses pay out on every construction and tier-up you will ever run. Keep it at or near your Operations level all game; the requirement web around it (Drydocks, Ship Hangar, Defense Platforms, research) is the real cost, so start those early and the Shipyard itself will never be your bottleneck.