Type-9 HeavyPassenger

The Type-9 Heavy is Lakon's bulk freighter, and it flies passengers the way it hauls cargo — in volume, slowly, and without ceremony. Eleven optional internals swap out for a deep board of economy cabins, so a single fit carries well over a hundred tourists on ordinary sightseeing loops. On a cheap, no-gate hull that already earns as a trader, adding a cabin set is a low-effort way to work passenger boards.

The trouble is that the Type-9's defining strength — its enormous hold — barely transfers. Passenger cabins cap at size 6, so the two class-8 slots that let it out-haul almost everything carry the same 32-seat economy cabin a size-6 slot does; their extra volume is dead weight. It earns no Saud Kruger comfort bonus, its shields are soft, and at 130/200 m/s it is the slowest hull in the game and cannot flee an interdiction. It is a headcount barge for safe routes, not a liner.

Three things frame the Type-9 as a passenger option — and each comes with a catch:

• Deep, cheap seat count. Eleven optionals fit a big board of economy cabins — but the cabin size-6 cap means the class-8 slots add nothing a size-6 slot wouldn't, so practical capacity (~138 shielded) sits below the Anaconda (~170) and even the smaller Type-7 (~150).
• No rank or permit gate. Anyone with the credits can fly one, and the cabins swap back to cargo racks whenever the week turns to hauling — but there is no liner comfort bonus, so every seat pays standard fares.
• Cheap capacity, expensive hull. ~72M Cr buys a large board with no combat kit needed — but that is four times the Type-7's hull for the same seat tier, and the money buys no speed, shields or range.

A cargo barge pressed into tourist work: deep, cheap economy slots on a no-gate hull, but passenger cabins cap at size 6 so its class-8 hauling slots add no seats, and with no comfort bonus, ~26 LY range and the slowest airframe in the game it lands at a mid-field 56 — the Type-7's bigger, pricier, slower twin.

The 56/100 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 — large passenger ships

9 large-pad passenger hulls carry a rating, led by Beluga Liner (95). Every same-pad rival lands where this one does — the direct field to shop.

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.

Other classes — the shuttle-class

The small-pad passenger field (2 rated), led by Dolphin (80) — cheaper hulls and tighter pads. They undercut this hull on the numbers, but sit a pad class away.

The hull is around 72M Cr with no rank or permit gate. A passenger fit is cheap to complete — economy cabins, a bi-weave and A-rated cores, with no weapons to buy — so the all-in A-rated cost of roughly ~110M Cr is dominated by the hull itself. The rebuy is light for a large ship because the modules are inexpensive.

That price is the awkward part: the far smaller Type-7 Transporter stacks the same economy seat tier for a quarter of the hull cost, so the Type-9 only makes sense on cost grounds if you already own one for trading and are re-roling it rather than buying fresh. Its cabins swap back to cargo racks at any station, so the outlay isn't locked to passenger work.

A bulk-volume sightseeing barge: the deepest cheap economy-cabin stack in the field on an 850t Lakon hull, behind a fast-charging bi-weave and point defence. Initial is buy-only (two economy cabins to start earning); A-Rated is the tourist baseline; Engineered trades mass for range and firms up the shield. Cabins cap at size 6, so the two size-8 and the size-7 slots under-fill with size-6 berths. No liner comfort bonus and the slowest hull in the game — this is a headcount ship, not a luxury one.

Buy the hull and fit two economy cabins in the class-8 slots for immediate bulk fares — the mixed first/luxury cabins and the rest of the board come with the A-rated pass, not the buy-only start.

Keep the stock Lightweight Alloy bulkhead and don't trade up — on a slow, unarmed barge the lightest plate is the keeper plate, and what safety it has comes from the shield, not armour. The G5 pass that shaves its mass waits for engineering.

Leave the utilities, the shield and the smaller optionals empty for now, and A-rate the cheap cores as budget allows. The FSD and thrusters come first — the Type-9 has no speed or range to spare, so every point counts.

A-rating priority for a bulk passenger barge:

• 1Cabin board — The payload; fill the big slots with economy for volume and one or two premium cabins for the boards that pay. varies
• 2Shield Generator → bi-weave — Passenger safety on a hull that cannot run; the size-6 slot holds it. ~10M Cr
• 3FSD → A — Range so ordinary tourist loops chain in fewer jumps. ~10M Cr
• 4Thrusters → A — Reclaims what little agility the 850t hull can carry. ~9M Cr
• 5Power Plant → A — Power for cabins, shield and boosters on a low-heat plant. ~7M Cr
• 6Shield Boosters ×2 — The cheapest large gain in shield strength for a soft barge.
• 7Power Distributor → A — ENG capacity so the heavy hull can boost between fares.

The passenger engineering pattern, weighted to range and shield. Felicity Farseer (maxed) carries the FSD; pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application. Cabins are never engineered.

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

Engineered, the Type-9 carries roughly ~138 economy berths behind a ~550 MJ bi-weave and jumps ~26 LY laden — workable numbers for safe, near-bubble tourist loops, and no more. The bulkhead stays Lightweight Alloy to protect what range there is; safety is the shield and two boosters, because the hull's 130/200 m/s crawl — barely moved by Dirty Drives — means it can never simply leave. It earns less per seat than any dedicated liner and cannot chase distant beacons like the Anaconda. A cheap bulk board, honestly rated.

• Cabins cap at size 6 — the class-8 slots that make the Type-9 a cargo legend carry no extra seats, so its capacity edge doesn't apply to passengers.
• It is the slowest ship in the game at 130/200 m/s and cannot flee an interdiction — fly safe, low-threat routes and keep the bi-weave up.
• No liner comfort bonus — it earns less per seat than a Beluga, Orca, Lynx or Dolphin; pick boards that pay on headcount.
• Buying one new for tourism is poor value against the Type-7 — it only makes sense as a re-role of a trading hull.
• Large-pad only — it can't dock at the outpost tourist beacons a Python or Dolphin services.