Hover Vessel

A Hover Vessel (often abbreviated as "HV") is the most basic transport vessel of. It can hover up to 3 meters above the ground and might jump a short distance using boost (by default, with Shift + Space, but only if equipped with a ). It is also amphibious. It cannot leave a planet on its own, but can be docked to a Small Vessel or a Capital Vessel to move between planets. An upside down hover vessel can be flipped back upright by pressing Shift.

Building a Hover Vessel
The hover vessel is arguably the simplest type of vessel buildable in. It must account for only two axes of movement (unlike other vessels' three), and has access to a special device that combines different types of components into a single block.

To build a functional hover vessel, you will need, at the very least:


 * A (which comes with a, and can be placed anywhere, even in space);
 * A generator (the simplest being the );
 * A fuel tank (the simplest being the );
 * A ;
 * Thrusters (such as the ; ideally at least four, one facing each direction except up and down); and
 * Hover Engines (such as the ; at least two for a motorbike-like hover vessel, but ideally at least three or four, and potentially many more).

However, hover vessels have access to s, which combine the functions of omnidirectional thrusters, hover engines and s. They do come with some rather stringent limitations (such as being able to sustain hover at a maximum of 1.5m, being limited to four in a vessel and being a huge drag on the vessel's CPU), but these devices allow for some very bare-bones, though still very functional, hover vessels, which can be created in the very first minutes of a playthrough.

There are many more functional devices, building blocks and decoration blocks that can be placed on a hover vessel, which can be found here. Parts which can be attached to a hover vessel are marked by a blue dot in the top section of the part's tile in the constructor menu.

To learn more about building a functional HV, click here.

Uses

 * The game starts with basic components for hover vessels unlocked, so they can be built early.
 * HVs consume very little fuel which makes them ideal for early game exploration when fuel is scarce.
 * Though the HV does not have many Vessel Mounted Weapons, it has a good selection of automatic turrets which help defend it and its occupant while mining or during base raids. It has an advantage over Small Vessels for this reason.
 * Despite being primarily a land-based vehicle, it can be used in space for Mining, as it has a very limited ability to move around. Because of the low speed, it is still dependent on being carried by another type of vessel.