Shipyard
The Shipyard is the industrial yard where a system builds its mobile Fleet. Unlike the other structures, you have to construct it once your Command Center is far enough along to support it.
What it does
The Shipyard turns palladium and iridium into ships. Its level decides two things: which ship classes are available, and how fast they come off the line. A higher-level yard unlocks different ships and trims the build time on the ones you already have.
Like every other structure, the Shipyard draws from the system's Energy budget.
The build queue
The Shipyard has its own three-slot queue, separate from the structure build queue.
Each slot holds one batch of ships of a single type.
The full cost of a batch is debited the moment you queue it, just like a structure upgrade.
The first slot produces ships one at a time; later slots wait their turn. Ships land in your fleet stack as each one finishes, not all at the end.
Cancelling a batch refunds 70% of the remaining ships' cost.
Why it matters
A system without a Shipyard is a system that can only defend with what is already in orbit. Ships are how you scout, and how you'll eventually attack and defend. See Fleet for the broader picture.
When to upgrade
Push the Shipyard when you're hitting a ceiling: a ship class you want isn't unlocked yet, or your batches are taking long enough that the queue is permanently full. Otherwise the yard is happy to sit at a modest level while you spend resources elsewhere.
Like every structure it shares the Reactor's energy budget, so plan the energy load before you push the level.
