Imperial ClipperPassenger

The Imperial Clipper carries passengers the way it carries cargo — quickly, stylishly, and not in great quantity. Its optional internals fit a cabin suite of roughly ninety economy berths, modest for a large ship, and it earns no liner comfort bonus, so its passengers pay standard rates rather than the premiums a Beluga, Orca or Lynx commands. What it brings instead is pace: at nearly 390 m/s on boost it is the fastest hull in the role, turning short tourist loops around fast and outrunning the interdictions that force slower liners to sit and tank.

It's also cheap (~21M Cr) and gated only by a low Imperial rank. The quirks are real — the shallow cabin count, no comfort bonus, and a large-pad-only footprint despite medium-ship agility, so it can't service outpost destinations. As a passenger ship it's the quick, affordable, good-looking runner that suits busy near-bubble sightseeing, not the luxury specialist that earns most per seat — and it pairs naturally with an Imperial-rank journey.

It isn't a dedicated liner, but four things make the Clipper a workable passenger hull:

• Unmatched speed. The fastest ship in the role — fast tourist turnarounds and the pace to outrun interdiction with passengers aboard.
• Workable cabin suite. Roughly ninety economy berths, or a smaller mixed economy/first suite for VIP boards.
• Cheap and low-rank. Under 21M credits, gated only by Imperial Baron — an affordable, accessible passenger hull.
• Agile for its size. It handles like a heavy medium, making station traffic and tourist beacons easy.

It leads the role on pace — 380 m/s boost, ~30 LY loaded, ~500 MJ bi-weave — but a comfort-bonus-less ~90-berth suite caps earnings per seat below every dedicated liner.

The 64/100 headline is a verdict against the passenger role's priority-ordered factors. Each factor carries a weight (its share of 100); this hull earns part of each based on how it performs against the whole field. The points sum to the rating.

Both tables rate ships for passenger work specifically. The role column is the maximum economy passenger capacity — but note that dedicated liners earn comfort bonuses (more profit per seat) the Clipper does not, while its speed turns short loops around fastest.

Same class — large passenger ships

Every large hull above out-earns the Clipper per seat — the Beluga and Orca through the comfort bonus, the Cutter and Anaconda through raw berths. The Clipper's distinction is pace: it turns short tourist loops fastest and dodges interdiction. The speed pick, not the capacity pick.

Other classes — the medium options

The medium options land on pads the Clipper can't use and the Lynx carries a comfort bonus the Clipper lacks. The Clipper's edge over the smaller mediums is a deeper cabin suite and raw speed — but against the Lynx, and against any dedicated liner, it loses on pay-per-seat. It sits mid-pack because it is fast and cheap, not because it earns well.

At ~21.1M Cr the Clipper is cheap for a large ship, gated only by the modest Imperial Baron rank. A passenger fit stays affordable too — economy cabins cost little, and even a mixed suite with shield and A-rated cores keeps the all-in cost around ~30M Cr, under 40M once lightly engineered.

It pairs naturally with your Imperial-rank journey — the same grind toward Squire and the Achenar permit passes the Baron rank it needs — making it a fast, stylish tourist hull you may unlock along the way, and a cheap bridge toward a Cutter for serious passenger work later.

A fast passenger fit — a cabin suite, a defensive bi-weave and high-rated drives, with the hardpoints left clean. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the passenger baseline; Engineered preserves the Clipper's signature speed so it outruns interdiction with the manifest intact.

Earn Baron, buy the hull (~21M Cr), and fit the optional internals with three stock economy cabins — a size-6 economy cabin in each of the two largest bays plus a 4E Economy Passenger Cabin — enough to start running bulk tourist loops.

The cores ship E-rated and flyable: 6E Power Plant, 6E Thrusters and 6E Power Distributor, a 5E Frame Shift Drive, 5E life support and sensors, and a 4C Fuel Tank; the hull wears its stock Lightweight Alloy bulkheads — the right armour for a ship that survives on speed, so there is nothing to buy here. The utilities, the shield bay and the smaller optional slots all sit empty buy-only — no shield, no cell bank, no boosters, no point defence.

Those defences — the bi-weave, the 2A shield cell bank, the boosters — and the first-class cabin all arrive with the A-rated pass; A-rate the thrusters and FSD first to protect the speed that defines the build.

A-rating priority for a fast passenger hull:

• 1Thrusters → 6A — Speed is the Clipper's whole edge and its defence; A-rate first. ~4M Cr
• 2Cabin suite — The payload; fit the economy/first mix the board demands — a 6C First Passenger Cabin for VIP boards. varies
• 3Shield → 4C Bi-Weave + 2A cell bank — A fast-cycling buffer plus one emergency restore while you boost away. ~3M Cr
• 4FSD → 5A — Loaded jump range to chain tourist beacons. ~4M Cr
• 5Power Distributor → 6A — Feeds the boost the escape relies on. ~3M Cr
• 6Power Plant → 6A — Power for cabins, shield and modules. ~4M Cr

The passenger engineering pattern, speed-weighted. Felicity Farseer (maxed) carries the FSD; pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application.

Recommended order

• 1Thrusters first — the Clipper's speed is its identity and its defence in this role.
• 2FSD Increased Range to chain tourist beacons efficiently.
• 3Bi-weave shield and Heavy-Duty boosters for the seconds before you escape.
• 4Cabins aren't engineered — just fit the right classes for the board.

Approximate progression across the three states (figures are representative, not exact rolls):

Engineered, the Clipper carries ~90 passengers at over 440 m/s — it turns short tourist loops over fast and shrugs off interdiction by simply leaving. The bulkheads stay Lightweight Alloy, engineered for lightweight, so nothing erodes the mass budget the speed and jump range depend on, and a 2A shield cell bank — lightweight experimental, same logic — backs the bi-weave for one emergency restore. It earns less per seat than every dedicated liner — no comfort bonus, a shallow cabin count — but for quick, cheap, stylish tourist work it does the job. The passenger ship you fly for pace, not pay.

• A-rate and engineer the thrusters first — speed is what the Clipper brings to passenger work, and it's the defence too.
• There's no liner comfort bonus — it earns less per seat than a Beluga, Orca, Lynx or even the Anaconda; pick short busy loops where pace pays.
• Its cabin suite is shallow (~90 economy) — match cabin classes to the board, economy for volume, first/luxury for VIP fares.
• Mind the large-pad-only footprint despite medium-ship handling — it can't service outpost destinations.
• A fine fast, cheap passenger hull to fly while grinding Imperial rank toward a Cutter.