Throughout the year, there is no lack of opportunities to acquire a ship with limited availability, with many events allowing access to such ships. The most famous event is the Intergalatic Aerospace Expo, but we can also mention the Invictus Launch Week, Pirate Day, Ship Showdown...
Anniversary Sale
Every year, at the end of November, CIG organizes the Intergalatic Aerospace Expo (IAE) accompanied by the Anniversary Sale. During this period all the ships are available for sale online, in standalone and upgrade, and it is usually possible to try them in game if they are Fly Ready.
Please note that not all ships and vehicles are available during the IAE. As you can see below, some are tied to another event in the year, and others have had a one-time sale and will not be returning.
Invictus Launch Week & Alien Week
At the end of May 2020, we saw the arrival of the first Invictus Lanch Week, an event that is close to an anniversary sale of the IAE during which many military ships are offered for sale, displayed and available for testing in game. Since then, the event has returned every year at the same time, followed by the Alien Week in June for non-human ships.
Ship Showdown
The Ship Showdown is a recurrent event taking place 2 to 3 months before the IAE and consists in electing the ship of the year. This event is in 2 phases, the first phase consists of defining the 16 participants and the second phase is a duel where each ship faces another until only one remains. During phase two, the remaining ships are available for sale online and for in-game testing.
The four Ship Showdown finalists then return for the closing ceremony of the current year's IAE, where they are accompanied by an exclusive Best in Show (BiS) livery, and discounted CCU warbond.
Theme Events
Whether it's Coramor, Red Festival, Stella Fortuna, Alien Week or Pirate Day, there are many themed events. Most of these events are either linked to a key date in Star Citizen's lore, such as Alien Week which is associated with the First Contact Day (June 12, 2438), or are derived from a holiday or event in our current world, such as Halloween, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day or the Chinese New Year.
This proximity to a key date in Star Citizen's lore, or in our current world, makes the event predictable both in terms of the date and the nature of the ships offered, which generally match the theme of the moment. For example the Pirate Day refers to the International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th, it's an opportunity for CIG to promote ships with "Pirate" liveries like the Gladius or Caterpillar Pirate Edition.
Event |
Date |
Note |
Red Festival |
Chinese New Year, January or February |
Red livery |
Coramor |
Valentine's day, February |
F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker |
Stella Fortuna |
St. Patrick's Day, March |
Green livery and "Emerald" ships |
Triggerfish |
April Fools' Day, April 1st |
No sale |
Invictus Lanch Week |
Lore event, final week of May |
All Human military ships |
Alien Week |
Banu-Human First Contact Day, June (Lore) |
All Alien ships (Banu Merchantman included) |
Ship Showdown |
Vote for your favorite ship, between June and September |
16 finalists on sale, BiS livery during IAE |
Pirate Week/Day |
International Talk Like a Pirate Day, September 19th |
Pirate Edition ships |
Day of the Vara |
Halloween, October |
Ghoulish Green livery |
Intergalatic Aerospace Expo |
Starts approximately November 20th for two weeks |
All ships (Endeavor, Polaris, Orion included) |
Luminalia |
Year-end festivities, December |
Discounted game packs |
Dynamic events
Some dynamic events like XenoThreat, Siege of Orison, or JumpTown 2.0, can be the subject of a special sale of ships. Due to the exceptional nature of these events, it is always a good idea to keep up to date with Star Citizen news if you want to be able to take advantage of the event and access the current offers.
Subscription
The subscription can be an opportunity to access a Fly Ready ship that is not permanently available for sale, it allows you to access the ship of the month. This ship is selected among the Fly Ready ships and is made available for free to subscribers for one month, and is then put up for sale exclusively with a 12-month insurance for those who would like to keep the ship longer.
Support Request
You can try to contact support to get a ship, or an upgrade to a ship that is not available for sale, this can work as long as it is a ship that is not subject to various limitations such as those mentioned below. Note that it is best not to abuse this method and being a janitor will probably help in getting a positive response from the assistance.
Promotions and Special Editions
Some ships were only acquired as part of a special promotion, such as the Sabre Raven that was included in an SSD package, or the Omega Mustang that accompanied an AMD offer. Now that these offers are over, your only chance to get such this ships will be through the Grey Market (eBay, reddit, etc.).
Special edition ships can only be obtained during an event and/or after performing a particular act to unlock it. Among the special editions, the best known are the Caterpillar Pirate Edition and the Gladius Pirate Edition, which can only be obtained in Standalone version and require completion of the Arena Commander Pirate Swarm in multiplayer to unlock them.
The Esperia Vanduul Glaive can only be acquired if you complete the Arena Commander Vanduul Swarm. Moreover, this ship is offered in limited quantity, which means that even unlocking, its acquisition is not possible will is stock is zero. Note that the Glaive can also be obtained as a reward for referral if you manage to acquire 200 recruits.
In the same way, the Apollo Medivac which requires to be unlocked to have the possibility to acquire it online when it is available. To do so, you need to obtain the Guardian Angel badge which is acquired by totaling 100,000 points in the mini-game on the Apollo to the Rescue page.
The Cutlass Black, Caterpillar, Hammerhead and Reclaimer Best in Show Editions are no longer available for sale. These ships could only be obtained during the last 4 days of the Intergalatic Aerospace Expo of 2949. If you wish to obtain one, you will have to go through the Grey Market and find a player willing to sell or gift you an upgrade to one of these four Best in Show edition ships.
Ships like the Phoenix Emerald Constellation or the F7C-M Super Hornet Hearthseeker can only be obtained on specific dates, such as St. Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day.
"Expedition" and "W/C8X" upgrades for Carrack
At the end of February 2020, the Carrack finally arrives in game and players are surprised to discover three new upgrades for this spaceship. These upgrades don't really change the ship itself, the "Expedition" Carrack is nothing more than the standard Carrack with an exclusive Anvil paint job, and the "w/C8X" versions simply replace the Pisces C8 included with the ship with a Pisces C8X Expedition.
- Carrack w/C8X
- Carrack Expedition
- Carrack Expedition w/C8X
Except that since these upgrades are difficult, even impossible to obtain. For now, the Carrack Expedition can only be obtained via the UEE Exploration 2950 and Exploration Megapack 2950. As for the possibility of replacing the original Pisces C8 with the C8X Expedition variant, it is now impossible since the upgrades are no longer offered, your only recourse being to find someone who still owns one of these upgrades and who would be willing to give it to you, otherwise you will have to buy the Pisces C8X separately, or via one of the two packs mentioned above.
Ships & Vehicles included with another one
Mentioning the different variants of the Carrack is also an opportunity to remind that some ships do not come alone, the Carrack is accompanied by a URSA Rover and a Pisces C8, the Constellation Andromeda has a P-52 Merlin, etc. The following table gives you an overview of the ships and vehicles added to another.
Ship |
Embedded Ship & Vehicle |
600i Executive |
G12 |
600i Explorer |
G12 |
890 Jump |
85x |
Carrack |
Pisces C8, URSA Rover |
Carrack Expedition |
Pisces C8, URSA Rover |
Carrack Expedition w/C8X |
Pisces C8X Expedition, URSA Rover |
Carrack w/C8X |
Pisces C8X Expedition, URSA Rover |
Constellation Andromeda |
P-52 Merlin |
Constellation Aquila |
P-52 Merlin, URSA Rover |
Constellation Phoenix |
P-72 Archimedes, Lynx Rover |
Constellation Phoenix Emerald |
P-72 Archimedes Emerald, Lynx Rover |
Javelin |
MPUV-1C Cargo |
Limited Stock
In the following table, some ships will be marked "++", this implies that the ship will be in limited stock. It is therefore preferable to be present in the first few minutes because they leave very quickly.
Upgrade not available
Some ships are only available as standalone, the upgrade (CCU) is unavailable for these. This mainly concerns capital ship and/or limited quantity sale such as the Idris M and P, the Javelin, the Scythe, the 890 Jump, the Pioneer, the Constellations Phoenix and Phoenix Emerald, the Kraken and Kraken Privateer.
Promotional, Concierge and Referral Awards
There are ships that can only be obtained under certain conditions.
For example the Dragonfly Startkitten Pink was an exclusive reward of the sponsorship system, it is no longer accessible. The Ballista Snowblind needed to be Concierge to be acquired when it was first offered for sale, not sure if it will be offered again. F8 Lightning are specific to Squadron 42 and will never be offered for sale online, except for Concierges who have contributed significantly to the game's participatory financing and receive an F8C as a reward.
Grey Market
I don't usually recommend using the Grey Market to acquire a ship, one of the reasons being that it works on trust and the scams are easy. Still, sometimes the Grey Market is the only way to get a ship. If you buy a ship on the Grey Market, tell yourself that it will be at your own risk, make sure the seller is trustworthy (excellent rating on the sales network), take the time to inquire if possible and make sure it's not easier to buy the ship through official website (Anniversary sale, for example).