Space Haven Ship Layout Guide: Starter Tube and Blocks

The best ship layout in Space Haven 1.0 is not the prettiest one.

It is the layout that keeps your crew alive when storage routes get overloaded, smoke fills the industry room, plants need warmer temperatures, pirates attack, or your ship grows too heavy to manage cleanly.

A good layout does three things:

1. Separates risk — industry, greenhouse, living rooms, storage, and defense should not all share one space.
2. Shortens hauling — airlock, storage, kitchen, industry, and medical rooms should be placed around real crew movement.
3. Leaves expansion paths — your first safe layout should become your mid-game layout, not fight against it.

The Starter Tube works because it is easy to read: command in front, people in the middle, storage beside the airlock, and dangerous work toward the rear. Do not copy the exact shape blindly. Copy the logic.

Fast Answer

Layout question	Best beginner answer
What is the safest layout rule?	Separate risky rooms and keep hauling routes short.
Where should storage go?	Beside the airlock first, then split by food, medicine, industry, and fuel later.
Where should industry go?	In a room that can be sealed, scrubbed, and vented if smoke or fire appears.
Should greenhouse share a room with bedrooms?	No. Crops and crew prefer different room conditions.
Should I use Sketch before building?	Yes. Sketch the major blocks before spending hull blocks and moving walls.
Is Mining Station start good for layout planning?	Yes. It gives you more freedom to plan before turning the build into a full survival ship.
When should I split into multiple ships?	Only after one ship is stable and industry, combat, or logistics are becoming too cramped.

The 1.0 Layout Rule: Separate Risk, Shorten Hauling

A beginner mistake is building one giant room because it feels efficient.

It is not.

One shared room can work for a few early days, but it becomes dangerous once you add industry, grow beds, larger storage, weapons systems, prisoners, more crew, or more heat-producing facilities.

Think of your ship as a set of blocks:

Block	Main job	Place it near
Bridge / command	Navigation, operations, ship control	Living core, defense access
Living core	Beds, dining, toilets, comfort	Kitchen, med bay
Storage hub	Salvage, trade, construction materials	Airlock
Kitchen / food storage	Meals, algae, emergency food	Living core, greenhouse
Greenhouse	Grow beds, water, crop temperature	Kitchen, water storage
Industry room	Recycler, refinery, production	Industrial storage
Med bay	Recovery after combat or accidents	Living core, defense route
Defense block	Weapons, shields, point defense	Bridge, outer hull access
Engines / hyperdrive	Propulsion and jump support	Rear or dedicated propulsion block

Do not treat these blocks as decoration. Each one exists to solve a problem.

Plan First: Sketch and Mining Station Start

If you want a cleaner ship, plan before you build.

Mining Station start is useful because it gives you more room to think before your ship becomes a chain of emergency patches. You can plan the main blocks, sketch corridors, and decide where dirty industry should go before the whole layout becomes difficult to move.

Use Sketch to mark the ship before committing resources.

Sketch area	What to plan
Central core	Beds, dining, toilets, comfort, med bay access.
Airlock side	General storage, salvage unloading, trade flow.
Rear or side block	Recycler, refinery, production, power.
Warm block	Greenhouse, water, food logistics.
Outer edge	Weapons, shields, point defense, hull access.
Future expansion	More crew rooms, bots, second storage, larger industry.

Do not sketch every facility tile. Sketch the room blocks first. The goal is to avoid putting your kitchen, recycler, grow beds, and bedrooms into one shared room.

Planning Priorities Before You Build

Space Haven layouts change by start, crew size, difficulty, resources, and ship shape. These are planning priorities, not exact tile formulas.

Priority	Practical rule
Temperature split	Keep grow rooms separate from living rooms. Crops can run warmer; crew rooms should stay comfortable.
Storage route	Airlock to storage should be one of the shortest routes on the ship.
Industry risk	Industry should be sealable before it becomes large.
Medical response	Med bay should sit near the protected core and not far from combat routes.
Defense access	Weapons and shields should be reachable without crossing bedrooms or dirty industry.
Main corridors	Avoid blocking the storage-airlock route, kitchen route, and med bay route.
Future hull expansion	Leave at least one side of your ship available for new blocks.

The most important number is not a tile count. It is travel time. If crew spend more time walking than working, the layout is stealing labor.

Layout A: Starter Tube

Use the Starter Tube when you are still learning the game or playing a resource-tight start.

The idea is simple: build the ship as a functional line first, then add side blocks later.

Section	Recommended use
Front	Bridge, command, navigation.
Middle	Living core, kitchen, dining, toilet, basic comfort.
Airlock side	General storage and salvage unloading.
Rear	Industry, power, recycler, refinery, and later engines.

A simple Starter Tube flow looks like this:

Bridge / Control → Living + Kitchen → Storage Hub + Airlock → Industry / Power / Recycler

This layout is strong because it gives you a stable early spine. You are not trying to solve the whole game at once. You are making sure the first ship does not collapse from bad storage, smoke, or crew walking distance.

Starter Tube Build Order

1. Stabilize oxygen, temperature, power, beds, toilet, and food.
2. Put general storage close to the airlock.
3. Keep kitchen and dining close to food storage.
4. Move recycler, refinery, and production into a separate room as soon as possible.
5. Add gas control before the industry room becomes dangerous.
6. Add greenhouse, med bay, and defense blocks after survival is stable.

The Starter Tube is not meant to be your final ship. It is a safe starting shape that can grow into a better block layout.

Layout B: Mid-Game Block Layout

Once food, water, power, and crew schedules are stable, shift from a tube into blocks.

In this mid-game layout, the Living Core stays protected in the center. The Storage Hub sits beside the Airlock to reduce hauling. The Greenhouse is separated so it can run warm without overheating crew rooms. The Industry Room is isolated because it creates heat, CO2, smoke, and fire risk.

The Defense Systems block sits near the outer-left side, close to the Bridge and Med Bay. That position matters: crew can reach combat stations quickly, injured fighters can move back toward medical support, and the Living Core stays behind a safer central route instead of sitting directly behind the airlock.

Block	Recommended position	Purpose
Bridge	Front or protected forward side	Navigation and command access.
Living Core	Center	Beds, dining, comfort, and daily crew traffic.
Storage Hub	Next to airlock	Fast salvage, trade, and construction hauling.
Airlock	Beside storage	Short unloading route.
Med Bay	Near living core and defense route	Fast recovery after accidents or boarding.
Greenhouse	Separate side block	Warm crop room with water access.
Industry Room	Opposite greenhouse or rear side	Contains heat, CO2, smoke, and fire risk.
Defense Systems	Outer edge near command access	Weapons, shields, point defense, and combat response.
Engines / Hyperdrive	Rear or dedicated propulsion block	Keeps propulsion expandable and away from bedrooms.

The goal is not symmetry. The goal is isolation, short routes, and safe response time.

Room Placement Rules

This section is the practical checklist for placing each room.

Storage

Storage is your ship’s traffic system.

If storage is far from the airlock, every salvage trip becomes slower. If food is far from the kitchen, meal production slows down. If medicine is far from the med bay, injuries take longer to recover from. If industrial inputs are far from production, your crew waste the day hauling.

Storage type	Best location
General salvage	Near the airlock.
Food	Near kitchen and dining.
Water	Near greenhouse and food production.
Medicine	Near med bay.
Industrial inputs	Near industry room.
Fuel / energy	Near generators, but not inside a hazard mess.
Weapons / armor	Near defense or boarding prep area.

Once you get logistics or salvage bots, storage placement still matters. Bots reduce hauling pressure, but they do not fix a bad route. A bad warehouse simply becomes a bad warehouse with robots walking through it.

Industry

Your industry room should be designed as if something will go wrong.

Recyclers, refineries, and production facilities are useful, but they create layout problems. They can produce heat, CO2, smoke, and fire risk. Keep them away from bedrooms, dining, and medical areas.

A good industry room should have:

Feature	Why it matters
Door separation	Slows smoke, heat, and fire spread.
Gas control	Helps manage CO2 and bad gases.
Vent option	Gives you an emergency purge route.
Nearby industrial storage	Reduces hauling time.
Safe access	Lets crew respond without crossing the whole ship.

Do not make the room permanently dangerous unless you know exactly what you are doing. For beginners, the safer version is a normal room that can be sealed, scrubbed, and vented when needed.

Greenhouse

Your greenhouse should not be part of your bedroom or dining room.

Plants and crew do not want the same environment. Crew living rooms should stay comfortable. Grow rooms can run warmer and need their own water, CO2, and thermal control.

A good greenhouse should have:

Feature	Why it matters
Separate door	Stops greenhouse conditions from spreading into living rooms.
Thermal control	Lets you tune the room for crops.
Water access	Reduces hauling for grow beds.
Nearby food storage	Speeds up kitchen and meal production.
Expansion space	Lets you add grow beds before food collapses.

A shared bedroom-greenhouse may work briefly, but it becomes a comfort and temperature problem later.

Med Bay

Do not treat the med bay as decoration.

The med bay is a response room. Put it where response time matters.

Good placement	Bad placement
Near living core	At the far rear behind industry
Near defense route	Beside smoke-prone machines
Near medicine storage	Far from all storage
Protected from first boarding path	Directly exposed behind the airlock

If you fight derelicts often, place the med bay where boarding teams can return quickly. If you expect pirates or ship combat, keep it close to the protected center.

Defense

Ship layout is not only about comfort. It also affects combat.

Your defense block should not be buried at the back of the ship. In the Mid-Game Block Layout above, the defense room works because it sits near command access, near the med bay route, and close to the outer hull.

Defense placement	Why it works
Near Bridge	Command crew can reach weapons and shields quickly.
Near Med Bay	Injured fighters do not cross the entire ship.
Near outer hull	Defense systems support the side they protect.
Away from bedrooms	Combat traffic does not cut through living rooms.
Away from industry	Fire or gas should not disable your combat response.

For boarding defense, do not put beds or dining directly behind the airlock. Use doors, short retreat paths, and a safe route back to the med bay.

When to Split Into a Fleet

Do not split into multiple ships just because you can.

Split when one ship is becoming unsafe, cramped, or inefficient.

Sign	What it means	Fleet answer
Industry keeps threatening living rooms	Dirty production is too close to crew spaces.	Move heavy production to an industry ship.
Storage routes are too long	One warehouse is serving too many jobs.	Add support storage or a logistics-focused ship.
Combat systems crowd the main ship	Weapons and shields are eating living space.	Build a combat escort.
Mining and salvage overload your crew	The main ship cannot keep up with hauling.	Build a mining or support ship.
Crew comfort keeps dropping	The ship is doing too many jobs at once.	Keep habitat functions on a dedicated main ship.

A simple fleet progression is:

Main survival ship → industry ship → combat escort → mining/support ship

Use that order as a progression, not a rush goal.

Move from a single survival ship to an industry ship when your main ship already has stable food, water, power, beds, and crew schedules, but dirty production is starting to crowd the living area. If your recycler, refinery, and production chain are creating heat, CO2, smoke risk, or long hauling routes, that is the first good reason to split.

Add a combat escort only after your economy can support extra fuel, crew, weapons, shields, and repairs. If pirates or hostile ships are forcing you to flee often, or your main ship is sacrificing too much living space for weapons and shields, a combat-focused ship starts to make sense.

Add a mining/support ship later, when salvage, asteroid mining, and hauling are slowing down your main ship. This is usually a fleet-stage upgrade, not an early survival fix.

Fleet layouts are powerful, but every extra ship adds new problems: power, crew, logistics, fuel, defense coverage, and jump planning. Do not split before your first ship is stable.

Layout Troubleshooting

Use this table when a layout feels bad but you are not sure why.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Salvage takes forever	Storage is too far from airlock.	Move general storage beside airlock.
Crew are always walking	Too many jobs are far apart.	Group storage, kitchen, industry, and med bay by use case.
Bedrooms become uncomfortable	Industry, greenhouse, or traffic is too close.	Move living core to a safer central block.
Greenhouse causes comfort issues	Crops share space with living rooms.	Build a separate grow room.
Fire or smoke spreads too fast	Industry is not isolated.	Add doors, gas control, and vent options.
Injured crew take too long to recover	Med bay is too remote.	Move med bay near central and defense routes.
Combat response is slow	Defense systems are buried behind other rooms.	Put defense near command and outer access.
Bots do not seem to help	Storage routes are still bad.	Split storage by function and shorten paths.

FAQ

Is Mining Station start better for ship planning?

Yes, if your goal is a cleaner layout. Mining Station start gives you more room to sketch a ship plan before committing to messy emergency expansion.

How do I use Sketch for ship layout?

Use Sketch to mark future blocks first: living core, airlock storage, greenhouse, industry, med bay, defense, and engines. Do not place every facility immediately.

Where should I put defense systems?

Place defense systems near command access, close enough to the outer hull to support the side they protect, and close enough to the med bay that injured crew do not cross the full ship.

When should I build a separate industry ship?

Build one when your main ship’s industry room is too large, too dangerous, or too far from storage. Do not split industry before you can support the extra power, crew, logistics, and defense needs.

Do bots fix bad storage layout?

No. Bots reduce hauling pressure, but a bad route is still a bad route. Bots work best when storage is already separated by function and close to the jobs that use it.

Should I build one big ship or multiple smaller ships?

Start with one stable ship. Move to multiple ships only when your main ship is becoming unsafe or inefficient. A fleet gives you specialization, but it also adds power, fuel, logistics, crew, and defense problems.