NPC Factions
Apart from Sabiroids (SPID faction) and Cyberhounds, Space Engineers does not have any Non-Player Characters (NPCs). The only interactive spawns are flying computer-controlled battleships, defense Drones, and encounters. NPC ships are members of factions and factions can be friendly, neutral, or hostile to the player.
Gallery
R.O.S. battleship
SPRT faction pirate drone
A randomly generated Planetary NPC Trading Outpost
A randomly generated NPC Trading Station in Space
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NPC Factions in Lore
The implicit lore in scenarios mentions several NPC factions:
- First Colonists (FSTC) -- default player faction
- Space Pirates (SPRT) (sometimes misread as SPAT) -- The default antagonist. Starts out hostile, but if you destroy too many trader ships, they'll ally with you and you will only be able to trade with SPRT.
- Results Oriented Sciences (ROS) -- red fleet
- Sol Cooperative (SOL) -- blue fleet
- Independent Terran Workers (ITW) -- yellow fleet
- Argonaut Industries (AGI) -- green fleet
- The Factorum (FCTM) - golden fleet. A permanently hostile faction that owns the Global Encounters. They are the creators of Prototech.
- The Unknown (UNKN) - The ownership of derelicts, wrecks, and other inert encounters is a permanently neutral virtual faction indicated as "unknown".
NPC Factions in Economy trading outposts
When a world with Economy enabled is generated, a dozen random neutral NPC factions are also added. These factions own the Trading Outposts that the player comes across. The NPC factions are either miners, traders, builders, pirates, or military, in contrast to wrecks which are owned by the Factorum or Unknown factions. There are even certain sections of the NPC Trading Outposts that are ostensibly only accessible for faction members.
After an NPC ship or Trading Outpost appears on your radar (HUD) in Survival Mode, you'll see a message saying you have "discovered" this faction and their name is now revealed in the list in the Factions tab in your Terminal. In Creative Mode, all faction names are visible from the start.
Who are the NPC traders?
By finding their names in the table below, you can distinguish multiple types of NPCs:
- Miners sell and buy ores and materials.
- Traders sell and buy components.
- Builders sell rovers and ships and buy components.
- Military sell predominantly weapons and ammo
- Pirates sell predominantly weapons and ammo
They all have a chance of additionally selling 
Zone Chips each time their stock is rerolled.
Knowing their goods type is relevant if you want to trade specific items, so you can head for the outpost most likely to deal in that area of business.
The names and colours of the Economy factions are randomly generated, drawn from a list of terms that are stitched together to create unique phrases and four-letter faction tags. Examples of such random names are “Supreme Shipbuilding (SMSB)” or “Interstellar Technologies (ISTC)”, and so on.
The first half of the faction name and tag is drawn from a pool shared by all faction types, while the second half depends on what type of trader faction it is.
List of all trader faction name and tag fragments
| Name | Tag |
|---|---|
| Clang | CL |
| Universal | UV |
| United | UN |
| Royal | RL |
| Independent | ID |
| First Class | FC |
| Specialized | SP |
| Rogue | RO |
| Secret | SC |
| The First | TF |
| Galactic | GC |
| Intergalactic | IG |
| Righteous | RT |
| Star | ST |
| Imperial | IM |
| Revolutionary | RV |
| Interstellar | IS |
| Mystic | MT |
| Sacred | SA |
| Divine | DV |
| Enlightened | EN |
| Sovereign | SO |
| Supreme | SM |
| Unyielding | UD |
| Merciless | ME |
| Name | Tag |
|---|---|
| Minerals | MN |
| Drilling Consortium | DC |
| Miners Guild | MG |
| Prospectors | PR |
| Drillers | DR |
| Excavators | EX |
| Sappers | SR |
| Name | Tag |
|---|---|
| Commerce | CO |
| Shipping | SH |
| Technologies | TC |
| Alliance | AL |
| Traders | TR |
| Settlers | SL |
| Dwellers | DW |
| Hauling Services | HS |
| Merchants | MC |
| Conglomerate | CM |
| Name | Tag |
|---|---|
| Engineering | EG |
| Shipbuilding | SB |
| Heavy Industry | HI |
| Construction Guild | CG |
| Industry | IN |
| Welders | WE |
| Manufacturers | MA |
| Makers | MK |
| Inventors | IV |
| Artisans | AT |
| Constructors | CS |
| Name | Tag |
|---|---|
| Cartel | CT |
| Contraband | CB |
| Dealers | DE |
| Fences | FN |
| Raiders | RD |
| Smuggling | SG |
| Syndicate | SY |
| Traffickers | TK |
| Underworld | UN |
| Name | Tag |
|---|---|
| Battalion | BT |
| Enforcers | EN |
| Guard | GD |
| Hunters | HN |
| Infantry | IF |
| Infiltration | IL |
| Munitions | MU |
| Recon | RC |
| Security | SC |
| Tactical | TL |
How to find NPC ships and stations
To find and trigger an encounter:
- Switch on your HUD to full visibility: Cycle modes by pressing TAB key.
- Enable full Signals on your HUD: Cycle modes by pressing H key.
If you are in a world with Economy enabled, your Drop Pod contains a datapad with coordinates of a trade outpost. Outposts sell datapads with more coordinates to explore.
If you are in a world with pirate bases or Encounters enabled, travel around a few minutes in a straight line, and you should see their signals highlighted in red on your HUD.
Tip: In singleplayer, and if you are Admin in multiplayer, you can use the Admin Screen to see a list of all active grids, including the ones from Economy and Encounters.
If you have installed an Encounters mod from the Workshop, there will be other conditions and custom chat commands to see the mod status — read the workshop page thoroughly.
How to add more encounters
To learn how to make hostile pirates spawn in any world, see How to trigger Pirate Encounters on any map.
For harder enemies, install a mod from Modular Encounter Systems.
Experienced player may be interested in how to edit NPC factions in the <MyObjectBuilder_Faction> section of the Sandbox.sbc file.