You wake to an empty radio and a map full of ghosts — half-buried hulls, rusted rigs, and the faint pulse of something worth taking. Era One is a game that rewards curiosity and craftsmanship: you don’t just buy a ship and spam units. You design shapes that move like poems, you harvest ruin into parts, and you shepherd a fragile economy into something that can make war and live to tell the tale.

The big-picture essentials (what you must internalize first)

Era One’s loop reduces to three interacting systems: design → salvage/economy → tactics. Understand one well and the other two amplify it.

Design (ship editor & modules): Ships are built module-by-module. A hull’s performance comes from where you place engines, thrusters, generators, weapons, armor and utility modules; power draw, weapon arcs, and placement matter more than raw part counts. The editor is the tool you’ll use more than any single UI.
Salvage & economy: Wreckage and resource nodes are the currency of growth. Salvage feeds refineries and fabricators that make parts; maintain steady production queues so lost ships can be replaced without drama. The game intentionally makes battlefield debris harvestable—and that debris can also serve as cover or obstruction in fights. Treat wrecks as both bank and battlefield.
Tactics (facing, formation, environment): Era One rewards facing and formations. Weapon arcs and angles change outcomes far more than having two extra ships. Use terrain (wrecks, asteroids) to deny lines of fire and force opponents into chokepoints.

Think of the first hours as a trio of experiments: design a small ship, run a salvage loop, and fight one small fight deliberately. Repeat, iterate, and save what works.

Shipbuilding fundamentals

The ship editor is not art school: it’s engineering with compassion. Each module is a decision.

Power budget first. Always ensure your generators supply ≥20–30% more power than your peak load. That buffer keeps shields, propulsion, and weapons alive during spikes. If you lack an exact “generator” name in the UI, look for the module group that says “power” or “reactor” and give yourself headroom.
Weapon arcs = reach. Don’t cluster every gun facing the same direction. If all your guns face forward, a flanker will punish you. Mix forward mounts with lateral mounts to give your ship useful arcs during pivots.
Separation & redundancy. Vital nodes (command/control, main power) should not sit cheek-by-jowl. Spread critical systems so a single lucky hit isn’t terminal. Redundant thrusters and multiple smaller generators beat one single monstrous module that, if hit, ends the show.
Mobility matters. Engines + maneuver thrusters let you present the best arc while denying the enemy theirs. Many wins come from being able to turn an angle faster than someone can re-target.
Repair & logistics. Design with your base repair docks in mind — can your hull be reached and serviced? If you have mobile repair options or deployers, align your hull geometry with their connectors.

Don’t overcomplicate early designs. Make ships that do one job well and cost little to replace.

Salvage & economy — the scavenger’s code

Salvage is both budget and battlefield control.

Map your salvage runs. Send scouts to locate dense debris fields, then run haulers with escorts. A mapped route that hits two fields then homebase is worth more than random roaming.
Refine immediately. Put refineries and fabricators online early so scrap auto-converts into useful components. Idle raw piles are opportunity cost. The Steam store and community highlight resource management and refinery systems as central to expansion — make those buildings your early priority.
Treat wrecks as cover. Debris can physically block shots and funnel movement — use it to set ambushes. Community feedback on the demo specifically notes that harvestable debris can block shots; use that to your advantage when planning engagements.
Queue craft. Keep a rolling queue of common modules (engines, basic guns, armor plates). When a ship dies, replace modules instead of piecing together new one-offs.

Economy is the slow game. If you can make one efficient run daily (or per session) that funds a steady stream of basic ships, you’ll outrun players who hype-chase rares.

Combat fundamentals — facing, formations, and choreography

Era One fights like a dance where metal meets math.

Facing beats raw HP. Present your strongest arcs and hide your weak face. Your ships should rotate to keep working guns in the fight while exposing less armor.
Formation roles: Groups should include scouts (vision), gunboats (damage), armors/hulks (soak), haulers (economy), and support (point defense/ECM if you’ve unlocked them). The specific module names will appear in your build menu; match the role to practical capability.
Use debris and asteroids for shaping. Lead enemies into fields where their lines of fire are cropped. Wrecks create natural chokepoints you can use to funnel a heavier fleet into concentrated fire. Community impressions confirm wreckage can block shots — plan around that.
Bait & trap: A small, visible scouting group can bait a larger force into a prepared kill zone behind wrecks. Remember logistics: a single well-placed turret or battery can punish greedy pursuers.

Practice microing one small fight until you can constantly reposition and hold arcs. That skill grows faster than raw build-power.

Blueprints, deployers, and the design workflow

You’ll want to save designs you love. Era One supports blueprints and deployer workflows: create or select a blueprint, and you can deploy it through a deployer so construction starts automatically. If saving designs or finding the blueprint workflow feels opaque, you’re not alone — players have asked how to save designs and the community threads and pinned discussions walk through deployer and blueprint behavior in-game. Use the deployer mechanism to mass-produce a favored hull.

A good workflow: iterate in the editor, save the design (or note the name), build a deployer at a safe forward base, and let fabricators chew through the queue while you run salvage.

Starter ship blueprints — copyable, practical templates

Below are four textual starter blueprints you can copy in the editor (use the analogous module names you see in-game). These are conceptual templates — tweak sizes and module counts to match your unlocked parts and the hull grid.

1) Scout — “Needle” (tiny/small hull)

Purpose: vision, skirmish, map control.
Design principles: keep light, fast, and cheap.

Hull size: small / light frame.
Propulsion: 2 engine modules (main) + 4 small maneuver thrusters (two port/two starboard).
Power: 1 small reactor/generator with ~30% headroom.
Sensors: 1 advanced sensor/scout module (max range you have).
Weapons: 1 forward light cannon or pulse + 1 rear-facing “punch” or lateral mount.
Defense: minimal armor plating concentrated around cockpit/command.
Extras: 1 tiny shield emitter if you have accessible power and it doesn’t starve engines.

Why: Scouts spot salvage and enemy flanks and force engagements on your terms. If it dies, it should be cheap to replace.

2) Hauler — “Cartwright” (small/medium hull)

Purpose: ferry salvage and supplies. Protect it — it’s economic life.

Hull: medium cargo frame.
Propulsion: 2 medium engines tuned for steady speed + 2 thrusters for docking.
Power: 1 medium reactor with modest headroom.
Cargo: Max cargo modules you can fit.
Weapons: 1 light turret or point-defense module to deter fighters.
Armor: moderate plating, especially around cargo bays.
Escort considerations: always run a scout or gunboat with your haulers.

Why: The hauler wins games by making sure your refineries and craft never starve.

3) Gunboat — “Pivot” (medium hull)

Purpose: frontline skirmisher that can kite and rotate arcs.

Hull: medium combat frame (wider to host lateral mounts).
Propulsion: 2–3 engines + 6–8 maneuver thrusters placed for quick yaw/pivot.
Power: 1–2 medium generators; keep at least 20% buffer.
Weapons: mix of forward medium guns + lateral mounts (2–3 each). Avoid all-forward clustering.
Armor: balanced plating; concentrate on engine and command redundancy.
Optional: small shield emitter focused forward if power budget allows.

Why: Gunboats leverage facing — pivot to bring broadsides and retreat while repairing.

4) Support / Point-Defense — “Tether” (medium)

Purpose: protect fleets from missile swarms, repair, or electronic disruption.

Hull: medium frame with utility bays.
Propulsion: 2 medium engines for repositioning.
Power: generous generator(s) to sustain PD and support modules.
Modules: point-defense turrets (clustered to overlap arcs), small repair drones or modules (if available), or ECM/utility modules.
Armor: moderate; PD units are often first target.

Why: A single support vessel can multiply the survivability of many smaller hulls.

Ship design checklist — final pre-commission sanity checks

Before you hit “deploy,” run through this list:

Power margin: generators ≥120% of steady load.
Maneuver: can you rotate to keep arcs in the fight? Do thrusters give a fast pivot?
Arc coverage: are there blind cones larger than you’re willing to accept?
Redundancy: are command and power distributed so one hit isn’t fatal?
Repair access: can your repair dock service it, or does it need a field repair ship?

If you can answer “yes” to most, build it and test in low-risk fights.

Practical tips from long nights at the editor

Save working designs. When a hull performs, save it. Small iterations beat constant reinvention.
Queue spares. Keep a cheap version of your main hull queued so a quick loss doesn’t undo a day of work.
Use wrecks intentionally. When chasing salvage, leave a small obstacle line to funnel pursuers away from your haulers. Players in the community have noted wrecks both as loot sources and as tactical obstructions.
Watch dev notes & community. Era One’s development and design philosophy are community-driven; the Steam discussions and dev builds are active and helpful for QOL and emergent tricks.

Era One Beginner Guide — Essential Tips For New Players