Ship Classes

Each race has an obvious “natural” class of ship – the Jenquai with their high technology obviously make the best Explorer race; the Terrans are the natural traders; the Progen are clearly the best warriors. However, every race still features the “non-native” types of ships. Picking a race and a ship class that doesn’t correspond to that race’s natural strength is how a player would go “dual-class” in Earth & Beyond Online. Three races times three ship classes means nine types of ships you can choose in the game, although only six will be available for use when the game launches. The other three (Jenquai and Progen trader class and the Terran explorer class) will be released later. Each ship type features a unique skill set and performance profile.

You can dive into the water too

Terran Earthcorps HQ

Explorer

Explorer classes have the best scanners of all the ship types. They can identify bogeys as friend or foe from farther away than either of the other two classes. Thus, they are useful to have in a party, to serve as scouts for the main group. They also have the ability to prospect, identifying mineral sources on asteroids, and locating new resources for the traders in the group to collect. Explorers are also tasked with mapping new sectors, finding hideen areas, and exploring new planetary surfaces. They can also guide parties to places that are normally inaccessible.

Trader

Traders can gain experience in a number of ways outside of actually running a commodity from one area to another and making a profit from it (although that is the most obvious way to gain trade experience). Trader classes can also discover item formulas by analyzing new weapons/items. What this means is that a good trader can take a rare or expensive item, put it under analysis and find out the component ingredients it takes to manufacture the item. If a trader were to figure out the formula to a powerful/rare item, he could make a huge profit by manufacturing the object and selling it to other players. Of course he’d get a ton of experience for it along the way as well.

Entering a Gate

Warp drive is engaged!

Warrior

Warrior classes gain experience the obvious way – through combat. EBO features plenty of space pirates, hostile NPCs, and space/planetary fauna for you to fight. Unexplored or lightly explored areas feature more dangers than the more populated areas of the galaxy. Warrior class ships are always handy to have in a party to ward off these dangers. Even though Explorer and Trader class ships have their own weapons, there’s no substitute for the real deal, especially with the more dangerous enemies in the game.