I built the ugliest Starfield ship ever, just to unlock a bonus

Perhaps I am not as adept at being a Starfield pirate as I had presumed. I have exerted my utmost effort, please do not misconstrue me. However, despite all my piloting skills and the act of plundering innocent individuals to seize their spacecraft, and despite all the dice of wine I have imbibed in lieu of proper rum, I have recently come to the realization that I possess no knowledge of shipbuilding.

Shipbuilding is an integral component of the pirate's life. If nothing else, you require secure cargo to accomplish delicate smuggling missions, ensuring your illicit goods pass undetected through the checkpoints of the United Colonies. I managed to locate a sympathetic technician who would sell me this smuggler's hideout, but when it came to installing a comspike and a conductivity grid, I erred in every aspect.

Spoilers for the Crimson Fleet quest follow.

Throughout my time in Starfield, I have significantly upgraded my ship. As a pirate, it would be amiss to raid the seven star systems in a haphazard heap of scrap. However, for the most part, I have made purchases for upgrades. New weapons and engines automatically attach to your spacecraft when acquired from merchants, and when I had saved enough to purchase a battleship, I happily upgraded it in this manner. I also made a few cosmetic alterations in shipbuilding, although it primarily involved repositioning the weapons because I was uncertain of what else to do.

There is no shipbuilding tutorial, and I missed a crucial point on how to add new modules. So, when the Crimson Fleet asked me to install a comspike and a conductivity grid to gain access to Kryx's Legacy and the biggest payday the pirate fleet has ever seen, I couldn't locate those modules I had worked so hard for. I knew they would be somewhere in the shipbuilding menu, but I just couldn't figure out their exact location.

At this juncture, it is worth noting that I have reviewed Starfield. Therefore, I had experienced all of this gameplay prior to its release in early access and before any guides were made available. I was unable to scour TheGamer's guides for answers. That was my downfall.

I surmised that I needed the Shipbuilding perk at level four to complete the mission, which stated that one could install "experimental modules." Now, I am unsure of whether this is true or not, but I knew that I had to add at least 50 unique modules to my ship in order to maximize the perk and, in my perception, acquire the comspike.

At this juncture, I turned to our guide authors for assistance. While they did not undertake the Crimson Fleet quest themselves and likely could not aid me with the comspike, they could inform me if I had missed something in shipbuilding. It turned out that I had overlooked something significant.

When you click on the empty space surrounding your ship on the blueprint, a menu opens up, displaying potential additions that you can incorporate into your vessel. From the captain's cabin to the landing gear, from alternative cockpits to larger shield generators, this menu has everything you could ever need. The process of shipbuilding suddenly became clear to me, and I embarked on spending a fortune on every conceivable upgrade for my spacecraft.

Since I didn't want to disrupt my main ship, the mighty vessel with its secure cargo and immense carrying capacity, I set to work with the Frontier, the first ship in the game kindly lent to me by Barrett. I spent half of my fortune on weapon systems, engines, and shields, yet made little progress. Therefore, I began purchasing more affordable equipment.

Accommodation modules, corridors, and rooms of varying sizes are the most cost-effective way to enhance the Shipbuilding perk. I extended the Frontier to three times its original length by adding three floors with mismatched rooms—remember, the modules had to be unique—and attached everything I could to it. Portholes, done. Radiators, done. Random struts intended for constructing ships from scratch? Done. The Frontier is now the ugliest ship I have ever laid eyes upon, and I have encountered some horrors during my hours of galactic exploration.

So, armed with the perk at level four, I returned to "The Key," the Crimson Fleet's operations base. Technician Jasmine Durand was ready to assist me with the module installation, and it dawned on me: did I really have to go through all this effort and spend all these credits to upgrade my ships, or should I have simply learned how to add modules and scroll to the comspike?

I will never know, and I won't go out of my way to find out. My own perception is that Ian, my pirate novice, wanted to learn the intricacies of shipbuilding before embarking on such a perilous quest. And besides, I gained something positive from it as well: the ugliest ship in the galaxy. I apologize, Barrett.