Imperial Shipyard | Shipyard Battlefleet Gothic: Armada Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Here, you'll find a list of upgrades, abilities, favors and crew members available for the Empire forces.
Upgrades
Engine
Important as far as ship's controls are concerned. Gives you a chance to even the odds against quicker and more agile ships.
Icon | Description | Notes |
 | Manoeuvring Thrusters The rotation speed during an exchange of fire is increased by 5° a second. | Incredibly important for heavy units. If a ship has a small default maneuverability, it's good to reinforce this aspect. It will help the ships to change position for initiation, as well as help while ramming the enemy. |
 | Efficient Plasma Thrusters Decreases depletion of boosters during special maneuvers by 25%. | Another upgrade for Imperial Ships, which are usually slower than corresponding ships of other factions. It will allow a ship to use boosters for longer, which will help to chase the enemy or run away from them. |
 | Mezoa Pattern Drive The speed of the ship is increased by 25, but in case of critical engine damage, ship is unable to perform special maneuvers. | This upgrade is pretty risky. It makes the ship faster, which allows to take better position on the battlefield, but an Imperial ship that cannot use special maneuvers is an easy target and will soon become pretty useless. This upgrade is rather unadvisable because of the risk of loosing the engine early in the battle, which will render the ship as good as dead. |
 | Emissions Dissipator Special maneuvers will no longer reveal your ship. | This is the best engine modification available for the Empire. Allows to use boosters from the very beginning without the risk of being exposed. You can assume a good position, deploy mines, and hide in a gas cloud until the booster regenerates. |
Generator
Upgrades important for defense and attack. Especially interesting is the ability to increase shield reserves by 100 for heavy units. Those aren't mandatory upgrades, since Imperial ships are pretty resilient.
Icon | Description | Notes |
Navigational Shields Asteroids can't damage the ship. | This has its use during initial stages of the game, when you're not sure where such objects are on the map. Also useful when an enemy hides behind a force field, and you'd have to go around him. There are not many uses for this skill, so better pick up something else. | |
 | Auxiliary Shield Capacitors Shield reload time is decreased by half. | A mod useful both for defense and offensive. Allows longer exchange of fire, and shortens the time that a ship has to spend off-battle in order to recharge the shields. Units with this perk can come back to fight quicker. |
 | Additional Void Shield Generator Liner ships' shields are increased by 100 pts. Support ships' shields are increased by 50 pts. | Pretty useful for all ships. It's good to compare shield statistics of your ship, and corresponding enemy ships. You can even the odds this way. |
 | Voss Pattern Void Shield Ship's shield has 25% chance to ignore damage The shield doesn't stop Disruption Bomb damage. | Another risky upgrade. If your orientation during battles is good you can spot a bomb rather easily. If you don't really trust yourself yet, don't bother with this one. |
Deck
A couple of key changes for the Imperial Ships. Very useful upgrades that ignore critical damage on ships steering facilities, and using special orders in spite of having the deck destroyed.
Icon | Description | Notes |
 | Improved Augur Array Sonar range (hostile discovery) increased by 2500 units. | An interesting upgrade. Useful for setting up ambushes. Best to use in ships that already have good range. |
 | Belt Armour First critical damage that reaches steering system is ignored. | Good for ships equipped with Mezoa Patter Drive, but useful for all ships. Remember that loosing a part of the ship also means losing the ability to issue orders assigned to that part of the ship. |
 | Advanced Cogitator Linkages Time of duration of special orders (Lock On, Brace for Impact, Reload) is increased by 50%. | Useful for all units, especially frontline ships. |
Hull
Investing in ship's defenses is always a good idea. Additional integrity, shorter fires, and additional turrets may not guarantee domination on the battlefield, but will surely give you more confidence in fights.
Icon | Description | Notes |
 | Hull Reinforcement Hull integrity for liners is increased by 100 pts. Hull integrity for support ships is increased by 50 pts. | Useful for all ships. Especially for beginners, or people who depend mostly on brute force. |
 | Extra Turrets Three additional turrets. | Very useful against ships with long range of attack and torpedo launchers. A modification particularly useful for ships with poor defense. It's good to compare ship's stats with corresponding enemy units. |
 | Power Ram Ramming damage increased by 50% | Useful for heavy ships that have at least medium maneuverability. Particularly if you manage to identify small units early, which you can destroy with one charge. |
 | Fire Protection System Fires on deck are extinguished 50% faster. | Very important if fighting Orks; since they often board other ships, fires on deck are going to be the rule of the day. A fire that lasts too long can severely damage ship's integrity or even destroy the ship. |
Weapons
This section contains all necessary modifications of the onboard weapons. It's a good idea to develop weapons to keep damage increasing at the same rate that a ships defense are improving - this will end battles quicker and decrease the possibility of suffering critical damage.
Icon | Description | Notes |
 | Automated Refueling Systems Special Forces cooldown is 20% shorter. | Use only on ships that can use special forces. It's good to upgrade launch bays to keep an edge over enemies that are malleable to boarding actions. |
 | Short Burn Torpedoes Torpedoes gain 50% more velocity. | For torpedo launching ships. Makes harder for enemy ships to evade the torpedoes, thus increasing the chance of hitting the target. |
 | Disruption Overcharge Lance cannons at the ship's bow deal 50% more damage against shields. | Useful for ships with frontal initiation. Especially good for ships that use Heavy Lance cannon. |
 | Refined Lences The range for all Lances in increased by 3000 units. | It's good to combine this upgrade with the previous one in order to gain the best frontal initiation stats, even more so, since Imperial Ships have the strongest armor at their bow. |
 | Targeting Matrix If further than 6000 units, Macro Weapons are 50% more efficient. | Useful for ships that use Macro Weapons as their only weapon. It provides more accuracy over long distances, which is one of downsides of the Imperial Fleet. |
 | Armour-Piercing Ammunition If 3000 units or closer, Macro Weapons scale damage to 25% of enemy's armor. | Imperial armors are thick, but Orks also have strong fronts of their ships. Orks are also prone to undertake boarding and ramming maneuvers, so close combat is pretty certain. This upgrade will help on small distances. |
 | Additional Teleportarium The Lightning Strike order results in one additional boarding action. It concerns every skill relating to this order. | Useful in data extraction missions. Additional boarding action can tip the scale in your favor. It also concerns breaking the enemy's attempt to do a Warp Jump. |
 | Turbo Weaponry All Macro weapons' range is increased by 3000 units. | Improving cannons' range has a positive impact on all kinds of initiation and can help dealing big damage to the enemy before the battle even properly starts. Particularly good vs. Chaos forces, which usually fight on medium distance. |
Abilities
Defense
Those abilities are meant to relocate damage from the hull onto the shields.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Supercharged Void Shield - for 10 seconds the shields are impossible to penetrate. | Range: Self Duration: 10 seconds Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Generator |
Notes: Useful in any situation, works well combined with Taunt. Best used in close situations, when both your ship and the enemy's are on the verge of destruction, and these couple of seconds can save the situation.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Emergency Capacitor - Shield regeneration is improved by 2.5% | Range: Self Duration: 10 seconds Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Generator |
Notes: Works well when carrying out repairs in a remote area, far from enemy's focus. Useful during data extraction missions, when additional shields can save you from losing extracted data.
Damage
You'll find long range bombs here. The first one is versatile, and will be useful in any mission. The second one is more tactical - it won't deal superficial damage, but it can easily neutralize enemy's bombs.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Disruption Bomb - long range bomb. Neutralizes shields of all affected units. | Range: 10 000 Delay: 10 seconds Radius: 1500 Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Hull |
Notes: Useful at the beginning of a battle, during initiation. Well placed bomb can tear down enemy's shields, making it possible to deal massive damage in short time. Especially useful for ships that have no other means of ignoring enemies' shields.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Plasma Bomb - long range bomb. Upon detonation, it deals 100 pts of damage within its range, ignoring enemy's armor. Destroys enemy's bombs within radius | Range: 10 000 Delay: 10 seconds Radius: 1500 Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Hull |
Notes: Another long range weapon available for the Empire. Most useful for cleaning area from hostile bombs. If used skillfully, it can weaken enemies' integrity.
Control
These modifications allow to influence enemy's ships movement. The second ability is worth paying attention to.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Augur Disruptor - every ship at medium distance from ours will have it's field of view decreased to 1000 units for a short time. | Range: 7500 Duration: 25 seconds Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Deck |
Notes: Extremely useful when setting ambushes. It's enough to send just one ship with this skill, and you can blind the enemy for almost half a minute. You can then easily surround the enemy, or ram them.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Stasis Bomb - long range weapon. After the detonation, all units within its range will be slowed down. | Range: 10,000 Delay: 15 seconds Radius: 2,500 Duration: 15 seconds Cooldown: 180 seconds Location: Hull |
Notes: One of the most important skills in the game. Holding the enemy for 15 seconds is a perfect occasion to regroup, repair and fire torpedoes. Having bigger ships at your disposal, you can ravage the enemy with Nova Cannon.
Support
Support skills have a number of applications on the battlefield. You can maintain your numbers with these skills and minimize severe damage at low cost.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Taunt - the target ship can't maneuver and is forced to attack the ship which used this skill for 15 seconds. | Range: 7,500 Duration: 10 seconds Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Deck |
Notes: Having your forces regrouped, you can easily draw enemy's fire onto your ship, while damage units will have time to retreat and repair. Cooldown is only two minutes, which isn't much as for a skill that forces the enemy to fire at a defined ship, with no possibility to disobey. Statistics of different factions can either prolong or shorten this effect.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Void Shield Transfer - Defined ship will be given 100 shield pts. | Range: 5,000 Cooldown: 90 seconds Location: Generator |
Notes: Additional shields are always useful during lengthy fights. It's easier to regenerate your ship's integrity, and you can provide more security for a ship with extracted data.
Reconnaissance.
Two skills that don't really influence the battles. Stationary devices will have a hard time aiming as precisely as to make use of it during first minutes, and a probe is likely to miss hostile ships if you fire it too early.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Recon Beacon - fires a stationary device with a range of detection of 10 000 units. | Range: 10,000 Duration: 180 seconds Cooldown: 240 seconds Location: Deck |
Notes: Try to foresee enemy's movements and fire this device close to where you want to set an ambush.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Augur Probe - launches a probe that travels in the given direction with a velocity of 600 units. The probe identifies detected units. | Range: unlimited Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Deck |
Notes: This skill is best used when you are moving directly towards the enemy. Identifying them early enough will allow you to assume appropriate strategy.
Maneuvers
Two very useful and versatile abilities. They will prove useful in every fight, and give more control on the battlefield. The second one is especially useful during escapes or chases.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Micro Warp Jump - teleports the ship into a different location on the map. The ship cannot perform special maneuvers, use other abilities, or even move when the Warp Jump is being charged. | Range: equal to detection range Cooldown: 180 seconds Location: Generator |
Notes: Using this accordingly will let you change you position in a short time. It's best to use it while hidden, for example in order to get behind the enemy. Note that you can't basically do anything with the ship while charging, so don't use it if a situation isn't serious, or your integrity is near depleted.
Icon | Description | Notes |
| Enchanted Induction Cells - using this skill allows immediate use of the booster. | Range: self Cooldown: 150 seconds Location: Engine |
Notes: Additional booster deposits are useful for ships that are slower than enemy ships. Using this skillfully can determine the outcome of the battle if you manage to run away, or chase the enemy down before he makes a Warp Jump.
Favours
The Inquisition
Members of the Inquisition are powerful agents, whose main goal is to protect everything that is part of humanity. It exists to reveal and neutralize potential threads to mankind.
Unique abilities
Icon | Description | Notes |
 | Emperor's Tarrot Instant identification of a hostile ship based on detection signal. Range: Unlimited Cooldown: 120 seconds Location: Deck | In many situations, this may be an essential ability. Thanks to short cooldown, you will have a chance to reveal at least two ships before engaging in combat. |
 | Inquisitorial Suite Each crew member gains one additional skill point. | You will get to know more about usefulness of this ability, but a point for each crew member is rather a lot, considering the number of levels that a ship has to reach in order to obtain 7 skill points. |
Adeptus Mechanicus
This organization is the only one in the whole Empire that's allowed to knowledge in technology. They have developed the most powerful and advanced weapons of the Imperial Fleet.
Unique abilities
Icon | Description |
| Omnissiah - one upgrade point for the ship |
| Mechanicus Enclaves - one ability point for the ship |
Notes: You can always use additional upgrades and abilities in your ship, but it's advisable to hold onto the two abilities until later in the game, when reaching another level will really require a lot of XP, and you're in urgent need of some upgrades.
Imperial Navy
The Imperials are one of the armed units hired by the Empire. They're responsible for maintaining the interstellar and interplanetary fleets, as well as for fending off internal and external threads.
Unique abilities
Icon | Description | Notes |
 | Reinforcements The Cobra support ship can serve as reinforcements. It has to be deployed within 5000 units from Imperial ships. Support ships use all the enhancements that are used on Cobra-class ships. Cooldown: 180 seconds Location: Deck Cooldown is counted from the beginning of a mission. | Very useful in all battles. Playing as the Empire, you can call in a new ship every three minutes. If the enemy has no such skill, it may prove crucial. |
 | Rigour Prevents mutiny on the ship. | It often happens that a unit that has to leave the battle just does it earlier. Executing an insubordinate captain prevents the ship from entering warp-jump for a given period of time - some times it will be too late. |
Adeptus Astartes
One of the most powerful and fearsome units in the Empire. They operate within highly mobile assault force of the Emperor himself.
Unique abilities
Icon | Description |
| Terminator Lightning Strike - This substitutes the basic version of the same skill. Cannot be used on a ship with shields up. Adds one boarding action for this skill. Range: 5,000 Cooldown: 90 seconds Location: Generator |
| Space Marines - ship value is raised by 10. Increases number of boarding actions by 1. |
Notes: Increased number of actions that assault forces can perform will definitely make them more efficient and generate more damage on hostile ships. It works best when combined with a ship that is equipped with additional weapons allowing bigger-scale assault actions.
Crew
Commissar
His task on the ship is to inspire and boost morale of the whole crew, as well as to punish those who exhibit disobedience and lack of competence.
- Reduces chance of mutiny down to 10% if a ship's integrity is below 30%
- Decreases chance of mutiny caused by losing a line ship by -2%
- Reduces by -1% chances for mutiny caused by losing a support ship.
The crew's morale is among the most important factors in the game. It's totally worth investing one point in having more control over your men and the ships. No point developing this member more than two levels, since Imperial crews are rather loyal anyway.
Navigator
He is responsible for leading Imperial ships through warp-jumps. He comes from a mysterious organization - Navis Nobilite.
- A ship fleeing the battlefield has 45% chances of being lost.
- Decreases by -15% every level chances of losing a ship after making a Jump.
- Shortens charging time of the Jump by 2.5 seconds every level.
The Navigator deserves at least one skill point. Lowering the risk of a ship becoming lost to 30% is a big benefit, and shortening the time of charging the Jump may be very useful in Data Recovery and Breakthrough missions.
Tech-Priest
Member of the Adeptus Mechanicus organization. Coordinates works of maintenance workers and is responsible for temporary repairs.
- Increases efficiency of Emergency Repairs order by 0.3 points per second every level.
It's good to give this guy at least one point. Temporary repairs can save you some money at the Shipyard after the battle. Investing 2 points here results in regenerating 127 integrity points in 45 seconds, so it's worth it.
Master Gunner
Responsible for weapons calibration.
- Each level increases chances for critical damage of Lances and Makro Cannons by 25%
You should develop this member to the maximum. High critical chance for basic ship weapons can shatter every fleet in a few minutes. Especially worth paying attention to on ships equipped with many weapons of the same kind.
Ratings
Responsible for personal ship defense in case of boarding.
- Increases ship value by 3, every level. .
Good defense against boarding actions may be crucial is some missions. It's good to invest a couple of points here, in order to rise the ship value.
Servitors
A hybrid of human tissue and a machine. Blunt as a spoon but useful in realizing simple commands.
- Shortens cooldown of every skill on the ship by 4% a level.
The second most useful crew member. Decreasing cooldowns by as much as 12% in case of long battles can mean that you'll be able to use your skills even a couple more times than the enemy.
Squadron Sergeant
Sergeants exert more skillful commanding than other crew members. He's mostly responsible for motivating the team and unleashing their full potential.
- Weapons have 10% more chances each level for avoiding damage.
This adds to other bonuses for damage avoiding.
A good chance of avoiding damage is always a good bet. Don't over-invest this skill though.