Your Shipyard level is the single biggest gate on which ships you can even attempt to build -- every hull in the game is locked behind a minimum Shipyard level, on top of whatever blueprints, research, or event it also asks for. This is a level-by-level reference for what unlocks and, broadly, where the blueprints tend to come from: research node rewards, PVE chest drops from hostiles in a matching level band, mission chains, faction stores, or event/Offers-tab bundles. Treat the sourcing notes as a starting point, not a guarantee -- Scopely reshuffles blueprint sources fairly often, especially for ships tied to a currently-running event.
You begin with the Realta -- unique to your account, with no way to scrap or build a second one. From there, most of this range comes from finishing research nodes in the Combat or Station trees, which hand you the blueprints directly: Orion Corvette (level 5), ECS Fortunate (7), Phindra (10), Turas (12), Talla (14), Envoy (16), and Kehra (20) all follow that pattern, usually backed up by PVE chest drops from hostiles in a matching level band as a second source. A few break that mold: the Jellyfish (12) comes from a list of story missions, and the USS Franklin, Botany Bay, and North Star (all 18) are mission- and event-store ships tied to their own faction or story lines -- the Botany Bay in particular is worth building early since it stays relevant well past early game (see our Botany Bay guide).
This band is where faction identity kicks in. The USS Discovery, Ferengi D'Vor, USS Franklin-A, and Vi'dar (21-25) come from weekly events like Cosmic Cleanup or the Mining Monday rotation, while the Federation/Klingon/Romulan triangle -- USS Mayflower/Legionary/D3 Class and their outlaw-hijacked variants, plus USS Reliant, ECS Horizon -- cluster around level 26 and mostly need faction store credits or story mission completions. Bortas, USS Saladin, and Centurion (28) share a single mission, 'Deeper', across the three factions. At level 27 the Stella becomes available (see our dedicated guide for its scrap-and-rebuild loop), and level 30 brings the Borg Cube, Sarcophagus, K'vort, USS Antares, Valkis, and Serene Squall.
Amalgam and USS Franklin-A round out at 31 and 35. The 'Warzones' mission chain delivers B'rel, USS Intrepid, and Gladius together at 32, and 'Summoner'/'Specialist' unlock Augur, D4 Class, and USS Enterprise around 34. This is also where several ships with their own dedicated Helpshift FAQs start appearing -- USS Voyager and USS Defiant (34-35), Vi'dar Talios and D'Vor Feesha (35), USS Cerritos (36, via the recurring California Class event), USS Titan-A (37), and at level 40: ISS Jellyfish, Monaveen, Enterprise NX-01, Gorn Eviscerator, NSEA Protector, and The Vindicator all land in the same five-level window. Most of these have their own guide on stfc.club with the full ability breakdown -- this section is just the unlock gate.
The same Klingon/Federation/Romulan triangle from the 20s repeats here at higher power: B'chor/USS Hydra/Vorta Vor (41), K'T'inga/USS Kelvin/Valdore (42), then Korinar/USS Newton/Pilum (46) and Hegh'ta/USS Enterprise-A/Tribune (50) -- all sourced from their faction store, Away Teams store, and Offers tab, backed by PVE chest drops. Two named ships also land here: USS Relativity and SS Revenant (both 42, from the DTI and Continuum refineries respectively -- see their own guides), GS-31 (45, via events and its faction store), and USS Dauntless (45, from the Aggregation Refinery).
Nova (52) and the Corvus/USS Northcutt/Vor'Cha trio (53) come from named mission chains -- Catalyst and a set of faction-specific storylines respectively. Quv'Sompek/Sanctus/USS Crozier (56) follow the same pattern. From level 58 onward the pipeline simplifies to straight faction-store blueprint bundles: USS Beatty, Mow'Ga, and Vrax at 58, then Rotarran, D'Deridex, and USS Enterprise-D at 60. The Borg Sphere also unlocks in this band at 55 -- it runs its own progression system entirely separate from normal ship research, covered in our dedicated guide.
From here on, every ship is a straight faction-store purchase with no mission gate: Selkie (61), USS Akira/Negh'Var/Minerva (63), Velox/USS Titan/Kos'Karii (66), USS Newgrange/Grishnar/Divitae (68), and USS Enterprise-E/Krencha/Scimitar (70). The one exception is the U.S.S. Vengeance (also 70), whose blueprint sourcing changes with each Vengeance-themed event -- check the event notes each time rather than assuming last event's method still applies.
The current top of the ladder is entirely faction-store sourced: Aphelion (71), Praefortis/USS Socrates/IKS Boreth (73), USS Stargazer/Snakehead/IKS Ak'voh (76), and USS Enterprise M414/Admonition/IKS Gre'thor (80). Expect this range to keep extending as Scopely raises the level cap -- we'll update this guide as new tiers are confirmed rather than guess ahead of the patch notes.