The Shiv Might Be the Best Solo Multirole Ship in Star Citizen

Most nights in Star Citizen, I don't end up doing what I logged in to do.

I take a fighter out for a couple of bounties. Twenty minutes later, somebody wants help at a bunker and I am staring at a pile of loot I cannot carry. The next night I bring a cargo ship and immediately run into a player looking for a fight.

The Grey's Market Shiv handles that kind of session better than I expected. I thought it would be another Cutlass-sized utility ship with a different skin. It doesn't fly that way. The pilot gets all six guns, the 32-SCU bay is big enough for the cargo I actually find, and the ship turns much better than its size suggests.

Yes, the toilet is a bucket. Grey's Market apparently spent the plumbing budget on guns.

The Shiv in one sentence: it fights like a heavy fighter, carries 32 SCU, and has a shit bucket. What else would you need?

It Looks Like a Ship Someone Actually Rebuilt

The Shiv is ugly. Not carefully designed "industrial" ugly. It looks unfinished. Nothing matches, half the ship is exposed, and several parts seem to be held on by confidence.

A gutted Cutlass Black forms the base. The remote turret appears to come from a Hurricane, the main thruster nacelles are from the Valkyrie, and more propulsion hardware was borrowed from the Freelancer. From one angle it looks like a ship. From another it looks like evidence.

I like that it doesn't pretend to be clean. The Shiv looks as though a pirate crew kept every useful part they could find and threw away anything that didn't help it move cargo or kill something.

Shiv Specifications

Why I Would Actually Fly It Solo

The turret is what sold me.

The pilot controls two Size 4 guns and all four Size 3 guns on the remote turret. You leave the hangar with six guns available, even when the second seat is empty.

On a lot of ships, "soloable" means the engines turn on and half the weapons sit there doing nothing. The Shiv doesn't work like that. A friend can take the turret, watch a different angle, and make the fight easier to manage. When they log off, you still have the guns.

The missile rack carries eight Size 3 and eight Size 2 missiles. I prefer that mix to a rack full of one size because I can bring something heavy and still keep smaller missiles for quicker targets.

After the shooting stops, I finally have somewhere to put the stuff I found.

Nobody is making serious bulk-hauling money in a Shiv. The hold is for a full 32-SCU container, mixed cargo, recovered weapons and armor, mission loot, or a few compact vehicles. For bunker runs, that is plenty. Put a bike in the back, land outside turret range, finish the job, and bring the useful stuff home.

I can also load it by myself without turning box-moving into the whole evening. A giant hold isn't much of an advantage when I cannot be bothered to fill it.

A ROC doesn't fit comfortably, so ground miners can cross the Shiv off the list. Larger vehicles are out too. I mainly want enough room to stop throwing away good loot, and 32 SCU covers that.

Inside are two beds, personal storage, system access, and racks for heavy weapons, rifles, tools, and sidearms. Nobody will confuse it with an Origin interior. The bucket takes care of that.

About That F7A Comparison

I know how "an F7A with 32 SCU" sounds. It sounds like something you put on a thumbnail because you want people arguing in the comments but I really do think it's a valid argument.

The Shiv is bigger, heavier, and easier to hit. In a clean dogfight, I would still take the Hornet. The surprise while testing it was the Shiv's handling, especially in yaw. I expected the F7A to win clearly in acceleration and rotation. The gap was much smaller than I expected.

That catches people. They see the cargo bay, expect Cutlass-style handling, and move in close to stay inside the turn. The Shiv turns around much faster than people expect and all six guns are waiting for them.

A good pilot adjusts quickly, and one Size 2 shield will not cover sloppy positioning. The ship is still a large target. I got better results when I stopped trying to fly it like a fat Hornet and used it as the heavily armed multirole ship it is.

The Shiv Keeps Me Away From the ASOP Terminal

I keep taking the Shiv out because it saves me trips back to the ASOP terminal.

I can leave for bounties, stop at a bunker, carry a bike to a hostile facility, collect weapons and armor, load recovered cargo, and still fight my way home. I don't have to return to a station every time the evening takes a left turn.

When I know I am dogfighting all night, I take a fighter. For serious hauling, I take a hauler. Most nights are messier than that. An hour after logging in, the Shiv is usually still useful, which is more than I can say for a lot of specialized ships.

One friend fits the ship nicely. They can track a separate target from the turret, cover angles I cannot see, and keep firing while I change direction. We can both bring FPS gear and climb out when we land. There is no need to recruit a full crew or sentence somebody to an engineering screen for the evening.

What I Do Not Like

First problem: it is huge. One Size 2 shield can disappear quickly when that much ship is available to shoot. The handling helps, but a bad approach still gets you melted. A skilled pilot in a smaller fighter has less ship to protect and more room to make you miss.

The cargo bay has hard limits. Thirty-two SCU works for loot and smaller trades, not a hauling career. The lack of ROC support rules it out for ground mining, and there is no medical bed, mining gear, salvage equipment, or other profession-specific machinery hiding inside.

CIG can also tune the fun out of it. These impressions are based on Alpha 4.5. Changes to flight tuning, armor, engineering, weapons, or component damage could erase the parts I like.

I would buy the Shiv for what it does now. I would not buy any Star Citizen ship because I expect its numbers to stay untouched.

Is the Shiv a Starter Ship?

Would I recommend the Shiv as somebody's first pledge? No. The Aurora, Mustang, and Cutter are easier places to learn the game. The Shiv is larger, more expensive, and gives a new pilot more systems to manage.

As the first serious ship after a starter, I would absolutely consider it.

Once you know the basics, one Shiv can cover combat, light cargo, bunker support, loot recovery, and two-player roaming. I would rather start there and add a true specialist later than fill a hangar with three ships that overlap each other.

Final Verdict

I expected the Shiv to be a scrapyard Cutlass with a few gimmicks. After flying it, that description feels lazy.

The ship is aimed straight at the solo combat player who keeps getting distracted by bunkers, loot, cargo, ground vehicles, and friends dropping into the session. That is basically how I play. Six pilot-accessible guns, a mixed missile load, 32 SCU, beds, storage, and weapon racks cover an awful lot of one evening.

I would still choose a real hauler for trade and the F7A for a clean dogfight. My sessions are rarely clean. They wander. Right now, the Shiv handles that mess better than almost anything else in its class.

It looks like a Cutlass lost a fight with a scrapyard, and the plumbing may qualify as a crime. I still think it is one of the best ships in Star Citizen for one or two players. I just would not sit on the toilet unless the airlock was the only alternative.

Looking to add the Shiv to your fleet? Browse standalone ships, upgrades, and compatible paints available from The Impound.

Shop the Shiv

Browse standalone ships, upgrades, and compatible Shiv paints available from The Impound.