Bulkheads
Template:QuoteAll ships in Elite use bulkheads to protect their hulls. This is your main form of defense should your shields fail. There are three general types of bulkheads, in increasing order of protection:
The more heavily armoured bulkheads are also heavier. These will affect ship handling by increasing the overall mass; maneuverability, speed and jump-range are negatively affected as a result. Bulkhead upgrades will also increase a ship's resistance to damage received from collisions.
General types of bulkheads will increase the base health of your ship.[1]
In addition, there are two types of specialty bulkheads:
- Mirrored Surface Composite, for protecting against energy weapons
- Reactive Surface Composite, for protecting against projectile and missile weapons.
Specialty bulkheads will increase the base health of your ship, but also change the percentage of damage taken from specific types of damage, including damage done to modules.[2]
Hull strength is used to determine the chance of weapons penetrating the hull and hitting a module in the projectile's path. The more damaged a hull is, the higher the chance of weapons penetrating the hull. A more heavily armored ship therefore takes less module damage through penetrating hits, but is equally vulnerable to direct module hits as a ship with less armor.[3]
Bulkheads are available for purchase at outfitters throughout civilized space. However, no bulkheads will be available to purchase for a particular ship if it is not also sold at that location's shipyard.
Stats
| Hull boost | Kinetic resistance | Thermal resistance | Explosive resistance | |
| Lighweight alloy | +80% | -20% | 0% | -40% |
| Reinforced alloy | +152% | -20% | 0% | -40% |
| Military grade composite | +250% | -20% | 0% | -40% |
| Mirrored surface composite | +250% | -75% | 50% | -50% |
| Reactive surface composite | +250% | 25% | -40% | 20% |
Engineer Modifications
The following modifications can be applied to this module by Engineers to enhance it's abilities: