up" (to a maximum level of 10), thus unlocking new abilities. Each race has five different classes of capital ship (six in the Rebellion expansion), including battleships, support battlecruisers, colony ships, strike craft carriers and heavily armed dreadnoughts. A player's first capital ship is free, but subsequent capital ships cost large amounts of resources. In addition, each capital ship requires a large amount of Supply, and one Capital Ship Crew. Strike craft are small, agile ships that launch in squadrons from capital ships, carrier cruisers and hangar-defense structures; they are divided into fighter and bomber classes. Fighters are strong against bombers, other fighters and frigates, while bombers are strong against cruisers, orbital structures, and capital ships. Strike craft do not require any resources to construct, and cannot travel through phase space unless carried by their mother ship. Frigates are small, cheap and, individually, weak vessels that fill basic combat and reconnaissance roles, including long-range support, planet-bombing, and the colonization of new worlds. Cruisers are the main muscle of an interstellar empire. Heavy cruisers provide close-range firepower, carrier cruisers provide long-range fighter support and race-specific support cruisers provide various other situational advantages. Cruisers are individually more expensive than frigates, but are smaller, faster and cheaper than capital ships. In the base game, cruisers are the only category of ship that is unavailable from the start. Civilian ships are unarmed and, except when a certain TEC technology is researched, unarmored, making them vulnerable to enemy attack. However, they still fulfill a very important role in a players empire: construction frigates produce orbital installations like shipyards and laboratories, while trade vessels increase the player's income. In expansions The Entrenchment expansion adds dedicated anti-structure cruisers and starbase constructor cruisers (both helpless at anything but their task) for the TEC and Advent, and a minelayer cruiser for the Vasari. Diplomacy adds an unarmed Envoy Cruiser for each race, which can boost relations and provide benefits for other empires. Rebellion introduces fast-attack corvettes and super-heavy titans, in addition to the aforementioned new capital ship class. Each of the six factions of Rebellion has its own unique class of corvette and titan. Corvettes are smaller, faster and weaker than regular frigates, and have different special abilities depending on the faction. Titans, by contrast, are extremely powerful and expensive, much larger than any other vessels, and capable of being leveled-up like capital ships. Only one titan can be