Imperial CourierPassenger

The Imperial Courier is Gutamaya's elegant little speedster, and as a passenger ship it's a boutique runabout, not a liner. At just 35 tonnes it jumps a long way for its class and boosts hard, and its small pad lands at any outpost. Those are real advantages for short scenic and VIP hops. But it was never built to carry crowds.

The limit is the cabins. Its largest optional internal is size 3, so it can fit an economy or Business-class cabin but never a First- or Luxury-class suite — and with one slot given to a shield it carries only about a dozen seats fully loaded. As a Gutamaya hull it also earns no dedicated-liner comfort bonus, so each seat pays standard rates. It's a fast, cheap way to run a handful of high-value fares; for volume or premium suites it's outclassed by every purpose-built liner.

Four things define the Courier as a passenger ship — two for it, two against:

• Long legs for its class. A 35-tonne hull on a size-3 FSD jumps well — ~35 LY laden engineered — and reaches scenic beacons in fewer hops than most small tourers.
• Speed and small-pad access. 380 m/s stock (~460 engineered) shakes interdictions, and the small pad lands at outposts the large liners can't reach.
• A tiny board. Its largest slot is size 3, so ~12 economy seats or a mixed board with one Business cabin — the lowest capacity of any passenger hull.
• No comfort bonus, no premium suites. A Gutamaya hull earns standard fares, and it can't fit First- or Luxury-class cabins at all — so it's locked out of the highest-paying VIP contracts.

A fast, cheap, long-legged runabout whose ~12-seat Business-max board and absent comfort bonus cap it near the bottom of the passenger field.

The 52/100 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.

Every table rates ships for passenger specifically, split by landing-pad class. The Cabin cap. column is total optional-internal capacity — room for cabins; the rating is the same 1–100 suitability verdict used across the site.

Same class — small passenger ships

2 small-pad passenger hulls carry a rating, led by Dolphin (80). Every same-pad rival lands where this one does — the direct field to shop.

Other classes — the liners

The large-pad passenger field (9 rated), led by Beluga Liner (95) — bigger pads and bankrolls. They out-muscle this hull on the numbers, but sit a pad class away.

Other classes — the medium tourers

The medium-pad passenger field (8 rated), led by Lynx Highliner (90) — cheaper hulls and tighter pads. They undercut this hull on the numbers, but sit a pad class away.

At ~2.5M Cr the Courier is very cheap and gated only by the mid-tier Imperial Master rank. A passenger fit adds a few cabins, a bi-weave shield and A-rated cores for around 9M all-in; engineering the FSD and thrusters for range and speed is the only spend that matters.

It pairs naturally with your Imperial-rank work: the same grind toward Squire and the Achenar permit passes through the Master rank the Courier needs, so you may unlock it along the way — and run a few paying fares while you climb.

A featherweight short-haul passenger fit: a small mixed cabin board — one Business-class cabin plus economy seating — behind a bi-weave shield, with the range and speed a 35t hull gives for free. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the working baseline; Engineered maximises range and keeps the passengers safe. The Courier is tiny for the role — ~11 seats, no cabin bigger than Business — so it is a boutique VIP runabout, not a volume liner.

Earn Master, buy the hull (~2.5M Cr) on its stock Lightweight Alloy bulkhead, and fit two economy passenger cabins in the size-3 slots with a basic stock shield generator for safety. Even buy-only that's about eight seats and a shield — enough to fly cheap economy fares from the start.

Leave the three medium hardpoints empty — a passenger ship is unarmed — and leave the utility mounts and the small size-1 slots empty until you can A-rate. Lean on speed to stay out of trouble; the Courier has zero military slots, so the hull bulkhead stays Lightweight Alloy for the whole build.

A-rating priority for a small passenger runabout:

• 1FSD → 3A — Range is the Courier's real passenger asset; A-rate the drive first. ~1.5M Cr
• 2Thrusters → 3A — Speed keeps a fragile passenger hull out of interdictions. ~1.5M Cr
• 3Shield → 2C bi-weave — Swap the stock shield for a fast-regenerating bi-weave sized to the light hull. ~600k Cr
• 4Shield Boosters → 0A (×2) — Fill two utility mounts to stack cheap shield strength for passenger safety. cheap
• 5Power Plant & Distributor → 4A / 3A — Headroom to run the cabins, shield and boosters. ~2M Cr
• 6Cabins & fillers — Upgrade the premium size-3 slot to a Business-class cabin, add two economy cabins in the size-2 slots, and fill the size-1 slots with a shield cell bank, an Advanced Docking Computer and a fuel scoop. Add a point-defence turret and a chaff launcher on the last two utility mounts. cheap fillers

The house travel pattern bent toward range, speed and passenger safety. Pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application; visit in person for experimentals.

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

Engineering moves the two stats that matter for the Courier — range and speed — while cabin count barely changes, because the hull simply hasn't the slots. Engineered, it's a ~460 m/s, ~35 LY runabout carrying a dozen fares behind a fast-regen ~450 MJ shield: safe, quick and cheap, but never a volume earner. The comfort bonus stays at zero the whole way, so per-seat pay never rises above standard rates.

• Its largest optional is size 3 — no First- or Luxury-class cabin will ever fit, capping it out of the top VIP contracts.
• No dedicated-liner comfort bonus: every seat pays standard rates, so it earns less per fare than a Dolphin of half the size.
• Range and speed are its passenger virtues — engineer the FSD and thrusters first and fly to those strengths.
• Keep a shield and two boosters up: a passenger hull that loses a fare to a pirate loses the contract and the reputation with it.