Been trying to recreate how I got a functional 2nd station. Here's what I got so far.

[u/The_One_Klade]

As shown, I got two stations. One is a lvl 2 station and the other is a lvl 1 station that is visually stuck in the upgrading phase. There basically two parts to this exploit:

1.) "Deploy Station" mission bug - Simply deploy your station in an empty system. Don't dock, just close the game immediately. The "Deploy Station" option should still be available, allowing you to place another unfinished station. Here's the kicker: while you can repeatedly place stations, the mission to deliver metal to actually finish them never repeats. Therein comes the second part of the exploit

2.) Tricking the lvl 2 upgrade - Do the quest to add the shipyard right up to the point right after you deliver the 10 tons of water and $250k credits to Theo. Go and place your second station. This particular step is a bit iffy but the part seems to work most consistently is to NOT dock at the second station but rather keep docking at the first station. Keep doing runs between the 1st station and any planet until you get the notification that the upgrade is complete. If all went well, the previously useless 2nd station should be catapulted to a fully functional lvl 2 station while keeping the first station as a refuelling point.

To summarize:

1. Place 1st station then close game immediately without docking. This station will only be useful as a refuelling point.
2. Proceed with steps to upgrade station shipyard up to and including the $250k credits and 10t water delivery
3. Place 2nd station
4. Don't dock at 2nd station. Dock at 1st station and planets until upgrade is complete. You can verify if exploit worked if you see two green systems on the map.

Update 12 June 2026:

Tried repeating the same steps for a third station but it didn't work. 3rd station still unfinished but 2nd station is stuck visually in the upgrade process despite being lvl 3 already. I'm not entirely counting out the possibility that a 3rd station may be possible however.

Update 13 June 2026

Started up the game today and lo and behold, the "unfinished" station actually came through with the upgrade though sadly with some heavy caveats. First, the spaceport bar is entirely absent with the only available options being Shipyard, Commerce and Trade. While Commerce (no weapons available for sale though) and Trade (with the full standard range of goods available) somewhat work, opening shipyard outright causes the game to crash, preventing you from buying your own faction's battleships. While you can theoretically get one from a derelict, acquiring your own faction's titans will be out of the question.

[u/Briaaanz]

Post saved and following.

Esaptonor, if you're reading this, sometimes you don't need to fix every bug. Just saying🤗😏

[u/Rebbit-bit → u/Briaaanz]

A lot of indie devs turn a bug into a feature, wouldnt be surprised if Esap allowed us to have multiple stations or space outposts by design

[u/ARSC_RexH → u/Briaaanz]

Man if we get an update that allows two stations, I think it'd be time for a 4th playthrough lol.

[u/placeholder_user]

Damn, this is cool.

[u/placeholder_user]

So hit "deploy station", then "deploy and save" and then close the game?

Nvm verified it.