x4 Foundations: Ship Build and Upgrade

Knowing where to find upgrades and new ships to buy but also how the different upgrades will affect them is vital for a successful playthrough.

Where to Buy Ships in X4

There are specific space stations in the X4 Universe from where you can buy new ships and upgrades. These space stations are labeled as Wharfs and Shipyards and offer different ships.

Wharfs have a variety of small and medium size ships while Shipyards offer large and extra large ships. Each faction has a shipyard and a wharf, where you can find unique models to them. Inside these space stations you can also upgrade your ships.

Equipment Docks also offer upgrades for your ships but you cannot buy new ships there.

Every faction will have some special ships for you to buy that will be locked at first. To unlock them you have to build up your reputation with the appropriate faction.

Faction Shipyards, Wharfs and Equipment Docks also offer unique modules, like shields and weapons that you again have to unlock first.

How to Upgrade Your Ships?

Upgrading your ship with new modules is a very easy and straightforward process. The UI highlights the most important modules so you can quickly upgrade those and move on. Of course you can go through the list and the different categories one by one.

In general there are six categories of equipment to choose from, as well as a consumables and crew options.

These categories are:

• Engines, further divided in All-round, Combat and Travel. Travel engines will help you travel faster, combat will increase your performance when fighting and All-round will try to find a balance between the two.
• Thrusters, that affect your pitch, yaw and roll values and are divided in All-round and combat.
• Shields, that protect your ship and the better they are the higher their hit-points and protection they offer.
• Weapons, that offer a variety of offensive or defensive options.
• Turrets, that work like weapons but are mostly used in larger ships.
• Software, from where you can pick important and in some cases mandatory tools for your ship. In the software category you can find the Docking Computer, Flight Assist, Long-range Scanner, Object Scanner, Targeting Computer and the Trading Computer Extension.
• Consumables include many items that will help you in your journey, like satellites that are very useful for Trading and not only, nav. beacons and resource probes that are useful for Mining.
• Crew, from here you can hire a pilot for your new ship, service crew and marines.

How to Build a Ship?

At a Wharf or Shipyard, you can fully customize a new ship:

1. Choose size → Small, Medium, or Large (depending on station).
2. Select model → Fighters, miners, traders, and more.
3. Build loadout → Add engines, weapons, software, consumables, and crew.
   • Initial cost = ship chassis only.
   • Final price depends on modules and crew.

For convenience, the game also offers preset loadouts if you don’t want to customize every detail. Once complete, confirm your order and wait a few minutes for construction.

Tip: Always balance your budget between chassis cost and essential upgrades. A cheap ship with strong upgrades often outperforms an expensive base model with weak equipment.