Organic frigates
How do you get an organic frigate? Build a Dream Aerial and call a cosmic whale with it. The first whale you meet asks you questions in a dream, and your answers pick the kind of frigate it gives.
The Dream Aerial
An organic frigate comes from a cosmic whale that hides in a system, and a Dream Aerial calls it. Its blueprint comes from a frigate expedition: once you have finished 3 expeditions and own 3 frigates, an expedition under way can bring it home. A Dream Aerial takes 1 Solar Mirror and 3 Living Glass.
The whale will not answer while your fleet holds 30 frigates, and you can hold one organic frigate from each system.
The dream
The first whale you meet asks 9 questions in a dream. Every answer from the second question on raises one of six counts by one, and the highest count picks your frigate's kind. Each question also offers (Wake), which ends the dream. A tie goes to Exploration first, then Speed, Support, Trade, Industrial, and Combat.
| The dream shows | You answer | It raises |
|---|---|---|
| Strange visions manifest in my mind... | Look | Nothing |
| Feel | Nothing | |
| Move | Nothing | |
| Three worlds invite me closer. Only one planet can be reached. I dive towards... | A bustling alien metropolis | Trade |
| Indium-veined mountains | Industrial | |
| A megafauna ecosystem | Exploration | |
| A heat-scorched desert, and a firestorm approaches... | Patiently wait and refuel | Support |
| Gather Storm Crystals | Industrial | |
| Leave this hostile world | Support (a Speed answer) | |
| My capital ship's systems are failing, and pirates will likely strike at any moment... | Conserve power | Support |
| Divert power to hyperdrive | Support (a Speed answer) | |
| Signal authorities for help | Trade | |
| I spend a day training with and learning the customs of the... | Gek | Trade |
| Korvax | Exploration | |
| Vy'keen | Combat | |
| A derelict freighter, its ceiling hung with egg sacs, and I am alone. | Extract a sac to study | Exploration |
| Shoot the sacs | Combat | |
| Make a tactical exit | Support (a Speed answer) | |
| A pilot adrift with a dry fuel tank, and an outlaw makes to flee... | Gift the pilot spare fuel | Support |
| Mine fresh tritium | Industrial | |
| Seize the outlaw's fuel | Combat | |
| "Surrender your cargo, or die": a better-armed starship... | Negotiate a deal | Trade |
| Shoot before they do | Combat | |
| Outmanoeuvre them and flee | Support (a Speed answer) | |
| A breathtaking planet of grazing herds and caverns of wealth. I could linger, or leave... | Discover every species | Exploration |
| Wring out every resource | Industrial | |
| Pause only to refuel | Support |
The game's table points the Speed answers at the Support count, so the Speed count never grows, and the Speed frigate looks out of reach through the dream. This may well be one of the game bugs rather than a choice.
Later whales
Later whales sell their frigates like any fleet. Each system has a whale of its own: everyone who calls it there meets the same creature, with the same name, kind, traits, class, and price. Its kind is one of six, Combat, Exploration, Industrial, Trade, Support, or Speed, one as likely as the next. Only the first whale's kind comes from your dream; its name is still the system's. An organic frigate never draws a bad trait, and draws only from a list of its own; how traits and classes work, and the traits of the frigates bought from fleets, is on frigates.
| Trait | Kind | Stat | What it does | Who has it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitter Memories | Own | Combat | +15 | An organic frigate, picked by its dream |
| Muscular Tentacles | Good | Combat | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Superluminal Strike | Good | Combat | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Intimidating Visage | Good | Combat | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Unsettling Visions | Good | Combat | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Flight Pattern Analysis | Good | Combat | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Hardened Flesh | Good | Combat | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Disorienting Wail | Good | Combat | +3 | Organic 15 |
| Blinding Miasma | Good | Combat | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Unforgiving | Good | Combat | +1 | Organic 15 |
| Echolocation | Own | Exploration | +15 | An organic frigate, picked by its dream |
| Ancient Knowledge | Good | Exploration | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Retrocognition | Good | Exploration | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Fauna Empathy | Good | Exploration | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Galactic Wisdom | Good | Exploration | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Migratory Insight | Good | Exploration | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Star Memorisation | Good | Exploration | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Deep Space Native | Good | Exploration | +3 | Organic 15 |
| Remote Pod Uplink | Good | Combat | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Trans-Reality Recollection | Good | Exploration | +1 | Organic 15 |
| Seismic Song | Own | Industrial | +15 | An organic frigate, picked by its dream |
| Baleen Plates | Good | Industrial | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Asteroid Digestion | Good | Industrial | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Leaching Bile | Good | Industrial | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Metallurgic Microbes | Good | Industrial | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Stardust Expertise | Good | Industrial | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Sonic Comminution | Good | Industrial | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Probing Tendrils | Good | Industrial | +3 | Organic 15 |
| Superheated Stomach | Good | Industrial | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Nebula Painter | Good | Industrial | +1 | Organic 15 |
| Mesmerising Voice | Own | Trade | +15 | An organic frigate, picked by its dream |
| Counterfeit Detection | Good | Trade | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Market Foresight | Good | Trade | +6 | Organic 15 |
| Dream Manipulation | Good | Trade | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Hypnotic Melody | Good | Trade | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Mind Weaver | Good | Trade | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Overwhelming Presence | Good | Trade | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Legendary Reputation | Good | Trade | +3 | Organic 15 |
| Peaceful Negotiator | Good | Trade | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Persuasive Verse | Good | Trade | +1 | Organic 15 |
| Slow Metabolism | Own | Fuel | -15 fuel | An organic frigate, picked by its dream |
| Reality Skimming | Good | Fuel | -9 fuel | Organic 15 |
| Gliding Movement | Good | Fuel | -9 fuel | Organic 15 |
| Effortless Propulsion | Good | Combat | +4 | Organic 15 |
| Efficient Forager | Good | Fuel | -6 fuel | Organic 15 |
| Stellar Wind Drifter | Good | Fuel | -3 fuel | Organic 15 |
| Blubber Reserves | Good | Fuel | -3 fuel | Organic 15 |
| Stoic Endurance | Good | Fuel | -6 fuel | Organic 15 |
| Fleet Mascot | Good | Combat | +2 | Organic 15 |
| Long-Distance Nomad | Good | Fuel | -2 fuel | Organic 15 |
| Wormhole Navigation | Own | Duration | -10% duration | An organic frigate, picked by its dream |
| Homing Instincts | Good | Duration | -3% duration | Organic 15 |
| Black Hole Diver | Good | Duration | -3% duration | Organic 15 |
| Cosmic Swimmer | Good | Duration | -2% duration | Organic 15 |
| Streamlined Form | Good | Duration | -2% duration | Organic 15 |
| Colossal Fins | Good | Duration | -1% duration | Organic 15 |
| Slick Flesh | Good | Duration | -1% duration | Organic 15 |
| Cosmic Slipstream | Good | Duration | -3% duration | Organic 15 |
| Graceful Agility | Good | Duration | -2% duration | Organic 15 |
| Route Optimisation | Good | Duration | -1% duration | Organic 15 |
The ship you fly that grows the same way comes from a Void Egg: living ships.
The last capital ship of the sky is not yours to take: the Sentinel capital ship.