Project Stardust ship classes are best treated as practical roles. Community pages and players may describe the same hull differently because science-fiction factions use different scales, defenses, and weapon systems. A “cruiser” name does not guarantee identical speed, health, or purpose across Star Wars, Halo, Space Battleship Yamato, and Mass Effect.
Use role language to predict the decisions a ship asks from you. Confirm the live stats and weapons, then decide whether it anchors, brawls, pressures at range, screens, supports, carries craft, or rotates between objectives.
Community corroborated — checked September 12, 2026: Class labels are partly subjective across faction trees. Current ship panels and actual match behavior are more reliable than assuming a lore designation maps directly to one game role.
Line ships and anchors
A line ship stays with the main formation and applies dependable pressure. An anchor controls a lane or objective by being difficult to dislodge. Both roles depend on support: a durable hull alone can be focused, surrounded, or left irrelevant after the fight moves.
Choose an early position with usable sightlines and a retreat path. Keep enough distance from other large hulls to turn. Focus targets that threaten the formation rather than chasing small ships far from the objective.
The role succeeds when teammates can use the space you control. Survival without influence is not anchoring, and high damage followed by an unsupported loss can cost more than it creates.
Brawlers
Brawlers seek close or mid-close pressure where their defenses and weapon concentration matter. Their greatest challenge is not damage; it is arriving without losing the resources needed to stay. Use structures, friendly pressure, or an occupied enemy to protect the approach.
Before closing, identify the exit. Do not spend every movement option reaching a target that can turn away while its team fires on you. Commit when the opponent is isolated, distracted, trapped by an objective, or unable to control the same distance.
A brawler should not force every fight into minimum range. If direct weapons can contribute safely while a route develops, preserve the ship for the decisive window.
Artillery and long-range pressure
Artillery is community shorthand for ships that create meaningful pressure across long sightlines, often through direct or spinal systems. The role needs target prediction, patience, and map knowledge. Sitting at distance is not enough if cover blocks every relevant objective.
Choose a lane that intersects enemy movement and can be changed when the fight rotates. Prioritize targets whose movement or objective commitment creates a stable aim window. Avoid chasing small agile ships with a hull-aligned weapon while a larger valuable target controls the lane.
Long-range ships still need protection. Stay close enough that screens or point defense can respond, and leave before a fast group closes the escape.
Carriers
Carriers project fighters, bombers, healers, or other craft away from the hull. They add command management and travel planning to ordinary positioning. The carrier itself should remain behind useful cover and team pressure without becoming so distant that wings spend the match traveling.
Community players describe craft roles and commands including attack, heal, pursue, escort, guard, intercept, scramble, dock, and related states. Current names and controls can change. Use the live interface and the carrier guide.
Good carrier play preserves craft, redirects them when a target becomes inefficient, and uses defensive orders when intercepting missiles or enemy wings helps the team more than another long attack run.
Escorts, screens, and point-defense ships
An escort stays positioned so its weapons or point defense can protect a more valuable teammate. A screen observes approaches, challenges smaller threats, and buys the formation time to react. These jobs require discipline because chasing one target can open the route the ship was meant to protect.
Maintain overlapping coverage without stacking directly on the protected hull. Watch for missiles, squadrons, fast flankers, and ships attempting to close on a carrier or artillery platform. Use dual-purpose weapons carefully if anti-ship fire could reduce defensive readiness.
Screening can create match value even when it is less visible than finishing a target.
Support and sustain
Support roles contribute through healing where a current ship provides it, defensive coverage, fighter escort, target pressure, or stable objective presence. They work best near teammates who can both receive the benefit and punish enemies that focus the support hull.
Do not interpret “support” as harmless. A support ship still needs a useful weapon envelope and target discipline. It should retreat before losing the tools that justify its position.
When evaluating a branch, check whether its supportive behavior appears throughout several nodes or only on one specialized ship.
Fast flankers and objective rotators
Mobile ships exploit open routes, reinforce threatened points, observe enemy distribution, and punish isolated targets. Speed creates options but also creates the temptation to leave every ally behind.
A successful flank has a target, timing, and exit. If the route reveals no isolated enemy, return before the main team loses support. In Domination, rotation should begin early enough to influence capture; arriving quickly after the point is lost is not the same as controlling it.
Use mobility to choose good fights, not to make a bad fight happen sooner.
Hybrids and role changes
Many ships mix roles. A carrier can anchor a protected lane, a line ship can screen, and a mobile hull can provide long-range pressure. Damage state, lost mounts, depleted craft, map geometry, and current objective can also change the role during a match.
At each major transition, ask what the ship can still do. A damaged brawler may become a ranged distraction. A carrier with depleted attack craft may focus on interception and hull survival. An artillery ship whose lane closes should rotate rather than remain attached to its opening label.
Choose a class for your learning goal
New pilots benefit from a forgiving line ship that teaches formation, range, and retreat. Players comfortable with map routes can try brawling or flanking. Players who enjoy deliberate aim can explore spinal pressure. Players who can manage several states at once can add carriers.
Do not buy a role only because a tier ranking calls it strong. Read ship stats, inspect the ships list, and choose a branch whose repeated demands you want to practice.
Class checklist before spawn
State your primary job, preferred distance, protected teammate or lane, largest counter, and retreat condition. Check the mode and map. If two teammates already fill the same narrow job, consider a complementary ship.
After the match, judge the role by objective influence and survival as well as damage. The best class is the one you can position, support, and recover consistently in the current team—not the name printed beside the hull.