Airships
A mid-DLC in-desert traversal and mobile-base system, with flight gated behind a Sobek kill, that turns a fueled, armed, tribesman-crewed ship into a moving home.
You do not need an airship to reach the Shifting Sands desert. You arrive there early, either by sailing in by boat or by starting a fresh character in the region. The airship is a mid-DLC unlock for traversing the desert once you are in it: outfitted properly it is a moving base with benches, storage, a respawn point, and guns. It is what makes the deep desert and its god-bosses approachable. Getting one built takes a tech node and an Awareness threshold, getting it to fly takes a boss kill, and keeping it moving takes fuel, but once you have a working ship the whole desert region opens up.
Unlocking the airship
Building a ship and flying a ship are two separate gates.
| Requirement | Source |
|---|---|
| Shipbuilding Technique | The tech tree (hotkey T), needs Awareness Strength 30 |
| Flight (anti-gravity engine) | Comes online only after you defeat Sobek |
The Shipbuilding Technique node unlocks at Awareness Strength 30, which lets you build a ship. Flight is separate: the anti-gravity engine that gets a ship into the air comes online only after you defeat Sobek, the first real DLC boss, a giant crocodile. Until then you cross the desert on foot and by mask, which is exactly what the Celestial Wings are meant to bridge in the meantime.
Ship tiers
Ships are age-tiered, the same way the rest of the crafting spine is. You start with a Wooden Sky Boat at the Bronze age, then move up to Iron and Steel tiers through the Premium and Advanced Shipbuilding techniques as your metal tier climbs.
| Tier | Ship |
|---|---|
| Bronze | Wooden Sky Boat |
| Iron | Iron-tier ship |
| Steel | Steel-tier ship |
Building a mobile base
Treat the airship as a base that moves. Fit it out with the same fittings you would put in a fixed home.
- Crafting benches, so you can build on the move
- Storage, so you are not flying back to base for materials
- Sleeping quarters
- A campfire, which serves as a mobile respawn point
The campfire is the key piece. With it aboard, the ship becomes your respawn, so dying in the deep desert sends you back to the ship rather than across the map. Build the large version when you can, because the room is what lets all of this fit.
Scout ships and Battle Cruisers
Ships come in sizes that work together. You can attach smaller scout ships to a main Battle Cruiser, running the big ship as the home base and the scouts as detachable runabouts for exploring without committing the whole base. This lets you anchor the heavy ship in a safe spot and range out in something lighter.
Arming and crewing
Larger ships can be armed with guns, and those guns are crewed by tribesmen. This is where the colony layer rides along with you: you bring fighters aboard, station them on the weapons, and let them defend the ship while you steer or explore. A well-crewed Battle Cruiser turns desert encounters from a scramble into a managed fight.
Fuel and stranding
Airships run on Power Crystals, and fuel is the constraint that can end a trip badly.
Run out of Power Crystals and the airship strands wherever it stops, taking your mobile base, your storage, and your respawn with it. Carry a fuel reserve before any long desert crossing, because a stranded base in the deep desert is a hard recovery.
Keep a stock of Power Crystals aboard and refuel before you push into unexplored sand. Fuel is the single thing most likely to leave you stuck.
Related: see Shifting Sands gods for the Sobek fight that unlocks airship flight, and the Shifting Sands region for the desert the airship was built to cross.