Competitions/February 2026

This is an Ironman competition where one ship will go from the beginning of the competition to the end without being reset at the beginning of each level.
At the end of combat, the winning ship's drones will be allowed to repair and to scavenge the remains of the defeated ship and then move to the next level of the bracket as-is.

Goal & Prize

Create the most effective combat ship(s) and see how it holds up against the competition! All submitted ships will compete in a bracket competition. See build details below. The winner receives the Competition Winner flair.

Submissions & Rules

All ships must be submitted by March 1, 2026 at 6:00 PM EST / 23:00 UTC. Totengeist and Johnny_Struggles will not submit any ships to participate in the tournament, as they'll be running the battles.

You may submit your ships in the following ways:

• Submit to the Ship Showcase on Discord
• Send a Steam Workshop or Shipyard link to Johnny_Struggles
• Send a .ship file to Johnny_Struggles

We will allow up to 2 submissions from each contestant, and each submission must meet the requirements below. The tournament bracket is randomized! 🚀

Build Requirements:

• You must use your own designs.
• Build 1 ship with a maximum cost of 4M Spacebucks (Arena Cost).
• Maximum Toughness is 1400.
• Minimum speed is 10.
• Maximum speed for AI Fast Moving Jet / Strafing Run is 120. This will equal 84 during the competition.
• All other AI top speed is 50
• No armor
• Must have 1 Docking Port
• Radiation blockers can be used to make a "shield". No other objects are allowed for this.
• Maximum of 4 rows of radiation blockers to use as a shield.
• No exterior hull wall removal trick.
• No "loot bombing." There should not be excessive extraneous items that might clog the opponent's drones during scavenging.

Only for ships that have crew:

• Crew must have food and water.
• Max Habitation of 10
• Max Crew of 10
• No weapons officers
• No civilians
• Must have a breathable atmosphere where spacesuits are not required by the crew.
• The atmosphere must be maintained with oxygen supplied from a bottle or from reprocessing.
• CO2 and sewage must be captured and either bottled or reprocessed.

Combat rules:

• The game's AI will control all the combat.
• The default orders will be on, so hull repair will be enabled during combat.
• Ships will fight each other twice and the ship with the best 2 out of 3 wins moves on. If both ships are destroyed at the end of the round it is a wash and discarded.
• Combat has **no time limit**. If ships are stuck in a loop, judges can call the battle early. Combat has no time limit. If ships are stuck in a loop, judges can pause the fight and set the ships farther apart to re-enagage.
• At the end of combat, the winning ship's drones will be allowed to repair and to scavenge the remains of the defeated ship for 2 minutes, plus 30 seconds of hull repair only. Scavenging will only be enabled for resources so you won't pick up the metallic scrap. The winning ship will be guided to the destroyed ship's remains during this time. It will then be saved for the next level of the bracket as-is. You will also have the option to opt out of any scavenging, please mention this when you submit your ship.

AI options:

Choose from the list below an AI strategy your ships will use by default for combat. The AI will NOT change the strategy it's using. To allow your ship to change strategy based on the situation, choose "Auto-select." If you don't choose default AI, you can also choose which side of your ship faces the opponent (port/left or starboard/right").

Strategies to choose from.

StrategyVeryCloseOrbit	Broadside orbits within Gatling gun range.
CloseRangeAggressive	Broadside orbits in cannon range just outside of gatling gun range.
MediumRangeOrbit	Broadside orbits at far end of cannon range.
LongRangeSniper	Broadside orbits at railgun range well outside of cannon range.
FastMovingJet	Forward facing strafing Runs, fly's straight at opponent then circles around to do it again.
Default	The AI will adjust to the situation. It may not always choose the most advantageous strategy.