Cutlass Steel - Standalone Ship

Drake Cutlass Steel Standalone Ship Gameplay Guide

The Drake Cutlass Steel is a combat dropship built for Star Citizen players who want to transport a full infantry squad while surrounding the landing zone with an unusually large amount of anti-personnel firepower. Developed by Drake Interplanetary from the familiar Cutlass platform, the Steel is not a general-purpose cargo ship with extra seats. It is a dedicated troop transport that sacrifices the Cutlass Black's cargo flexibility to carry 18 jump seats, additional turrets, and five door-mounted weapons.

Unlike the Cutlass Black, which balances combat, cargo, vehicles, and general utility, the Cutlass Steel has a much narrower military purpose. Its interior is arranged around transporting armed players into hostile areas, while side doors, a rear ramp, mounted Gatling guns, a manned turret, and an additional remote turret allow the ship and its passengers to cover several directions during deployment.

Official RSI material lists the Cutlass Steel at 36m long, 26m wide, and 14m tall, with 18 jump seats and five Size 1 mounted anti-personnel guns. Its launch specifications also identify a Size 3 manned turret and Size 2 remote turret alongside the normal Cutlass combat equipment. This combination makes the Steel one of the most heavily armed compact troop transports in Star Citizen.

Cutlass Steel Key Specifications

Engineered to deliver troops into contested landing zones, the Cutlass Steel combines high passenger capacity with extensive anti-personnel fire coverage.

Note: Star Citizen ship specifications may change during future patches and balance updates. Exact weapons, components, shields, speeds, missiles, armor, and mounted-gun behavior should be treated as gameplay-reference information rather than permanent final numbers.

What Makes the Cutlass Steel Valuable?

The Cutlass Steel is valuable because it places a large infantry capacity inside a relatively compact spacecraft without stripping away the combat identity of the Cutlass platform.

Its 18 jump seats are the most obvious difference. A single Steel can move a substantial ground team without requiring a much larger dropship such as the Valkyrie. That makes it especially attractive for organizations that want to deploy many players but do not always need vehicle transport or the logistical footprint of a larger military ship.

The second advantage is fire coverage. The Steel does not simply carry troops and leave them waiting inside until landing. Five mounted anti-personnel Gatling guns allow passengers to participate in the fight from the ship, particularly when the side doors are open or the rear of the spacecraft needs protection.

The Steel also retains conventional Cutlass weapons and adds another turret. This means several players can be actively fighting before the infantry team even leaves the ship.

That is the central appeal of the Steel: it turns troop transport into part of the combat encounter instead of treating transportation and fighting as completely separate phases.

Combat Dropship Gameplay Role

The Cutlass Steel's primary role is combat troop transport. It is designed to carry armed personnel into a contested area, give those troops firing positions during the approach, deploy them rapidly, and remain capable of supporting the operation after landing.

RSI describes the Steel as both a dropship and gunship, emphasizing its ability to provide air and ground support. Its 18 jump seats replace the traditional Cutlass interior arrangement, while five modified GT-210 Yellowjacket anti-personnel weapons provide additional fire coverage around the ship.

The Cutlass Steel should not be treated as a replacement for the Cutlass Black.

The Black is a flexible multi-role ship that can carry cargo and vehicles while still providing useful combat performance. The Steel deliberately gives up much of that flexibility to become a troop carrier.

If you rarely transport other players, the Black is usually the easier Cutlass to use. If moving an infantry team is the mission, the Steel has the clearer role.

18 Jump Seats and Troop Transport

The defining feature of the Cutlass Steel is its 18 dedicated jump seats.

Official RSI material continues to describe the ship with 18 jump seats, including current 2956 DefenseCon material. This gives the Steel one of the highest infantry capacities available in a spacecraft of its size.

The layout turns the rear section of the Cutlass into a troop compartment rather than a cargo hold.

For organization gameplay, this creates obvious advantages. Instead of several players arriving in separate fighters or small transports, an entire assault group can travel together. The team can coordinate equipment, choose deployment roles, and enter the objective at roughly the same time.

A large passenger capacity also changes the importance of the ship itself.

Losing an empty fighter costs one combat asset. Losing a fully loaded Steel can remove a significant portion of an infantry team before the ground mission even begins. Pilots therefore need to approach landing zones with more caution than they would when flying alone.

The Cutlass Steel can move a surprisingly large number of players for its size, but that also makes protecting the ship during approach one of the crew's most important responsibilities.

The Steel works best when the troops, pilot, turret operators, and supporting fighters treat the deployment as one coordinated operation.

Door-Mounted Anti-Personnel Guns

One of the Steel's most unusual features is its collection of five modified GT-210 Yellowjacket anti-personnel Gatling guns.

RSI specifically describes these weapons as being mounted around the ship's doors to provide air-to-ground fire support. They allow passengers to fire outward from the spacecraft rather than remaining passive while the pilot approaches the landing zone.

This gives the Steel a gunship-style character that most compact troop transports do not have.

During an approach, mounted-gun operators can watch different sectors around the ship. Once the side doors open, those weapons can cover troops leaving the cabin or help suppress infantry positioned around the landing area.

The rear-mounted weapon can also provide coverage behind the spacecraft, which is useful when troops are entering or exiting through the main ramp.

The mounted guns are primarily anti-personnel tools rather than replacements for dedicated ship weapons. Their strongest use is against infantry, exposed ground targets, and threats around the deployment zone.

The Steel's door guns are not there to win a space battle. They are there to make the final approach and troop deployment much more dangerous for anyone waiting on the ground.

That distinction is important. Against another spacecraft, the pilot weapons and larger turrets remain more relevant. Against infantry around a landing zone, the five mounted guns become one of the Steel's defining advantages.

Turret and Multi-Directional Firepower

The Cutlass Steel carries more crew-operated firepower than the normal Cutlass Black.

In addition to the familiar manned turret, the Steel adds a remote turret to increase defensive coverage around the ship. The combination of pilot-controlled weapons, the main turret, remote turret, and five mounted anti-personnel guns allows many players onboard to contribute during combat.

This is particularly useful for a dropship because the pilot cannot always point the nose directly at a threat.

During an assault landing, the pilot may be concentrating on terrain, altitude, approach speed, and positioning the doors near useful cover. Crew-operated weapons can continue watching other directions while that happens.

The same advantage applies during extraction.

If troops are returning to the ship under fire, the pilot may need to remain relatively stable for several seconds. Turret operators and mounted-gun crews can provide protection while the infantry moves toward the doors.

This creates a much broader combat experience than simply placing passengers in jump seats.

The Steel rewards assigning players actual positions before the mission begins: pilot, turret gunner, remote-turret operator, door gunners, rear gunner, and assault troops.

Side Doors and Rapid Deployment

The Cutlass platform already has useful access through its rear ramp and large side doors. The Steel makes those openings even more important because they become part of the ship's troop-deployment strategy.

A large group does not always need to leave through one narrow rear ramp.

Depending on the landing zone, troops can use the side doors to spread out quickly rather than forming a single line behind the ship. This can reduce congestion and make it harder for an enemy to cover every exit with one firing position.

The side doors also allow the mounted weapons to begin covering the ground before every passenger has disembarked.

For tactical missions, the pilot can think about which side of the ship should face the objective, where the rear ramp will point, and which exit gives the infantry the shortest path to cover.

That gives the Cutlass Steel more deployment flexibility than its simple exterior dimensions might suggest.

The tradeoff is exposure.

Open doors mean passengers and gun operators can be vulnerable to incoming fire. The Steel is therefore most effective when its crew uses movement and positioning rather than hovering motionless over a heavily defended area.

Infantry Weapons and Equipment Support

The Cutlass Steel is designed around armed passengers rather than civilian transportation.

Official Q&A material confirms that the Steel's jump-seat arrangement includes weapon-storage considerations, while the pilot and co-pilot retain weapon racks in the forward cockpit area.

This is important for FPS operations because a dropship is more useful when the people onboard can arrive with the equipment required for the objective.

Players can organize around different ground roles before leaving the spacecraft. Riflemen, heavy-weapons operators, medical support, security personnel, and team leaders can all travel in the same ship.

The interior therefore becomes a staging area as much as a passenger cabin.

For bunker missions or organization ground combat, that creates a useful transition from spacecraft gameplay into FPS gameplay. The group travels together, prepares together, deploys together, and has a common extraction point when the mission is complete.

The Steel does not provide the medical facilities of a Cutlass Red, but a player carrying medical equipment can still serve as the team's field medic.

It also does not provide the prisoner cells of a Cutlass Blue. Its interior is committed to the assault team itself.

Combat and Missile Support

The Cutlass Steel remains part of the Cutlass family, so it retains meaningful ship-to-ship combat capability instead of becoming an unarmed transport.

The pilot can engage hostile spacecraft during approach and protect the transport when no escort fighter is immediately available. The manned turret adds another layer of firepower, while missiles give the pilot a way to pressure targets before committing to closer combat.

This matters because dropships are naturally high-value targets.

A Steel carrying a large team cannot depend entirely on speed or surprise. If intercepted, it needs enough offensive capability to defend itself until friendly fighters arrive or until the pilot can disengage.

The Steel should still not be treated as a dedicated dogfighter.

Its additional seats, weapons, and equipment add weight compared with the Cutlass Black. RSI's Steel Q&A specifically notes that the extra jump seats and turrets make it heavier and give it marginally reduced performance compared with the Black.

That is a reasonable tradeoff for the role.

The Steel does not need to out-turn every fighter. It needs enough combat performance to deliver its passengers and survive the trip home.

Multi-Crew Gameplay

The Cutlass Steel is one of the Cutlass variants that benefits most from having many players onboard.

A pilot can move the ship alone, but doing so ignores the reason the Steel exists. The 18 jump seats, multiple crew-operated weapons, side-door guns, and troop-deployment layout are designed around group gameplay.

A practical Steel operation begins with assigning responsibilities.

The pilot determines the approach and extraction plan. Turret operators monitor spacecraft threats. Door gunners cover the sides of the ship. Infantry players prepare for the ground objective. A team leader decides which exit the troops should use and where they should regroup after deployment.

Once the ship reaches the objective, the crew should avoid remaining exposed longer than necessary. Troops deploy, gun crews cover the exits, and the pilot either leaves the immediate area or maintains a position where the ship can provide useful support without becoming an easy target.

This is why the Steel makes the most sense for organizations and established groups.

The more seats and weapon positions the group can fill, the more the ship begins to function like the combat dropship Drake intended.

Explore Cutlass Steel Upgrade Paths

If you prefer to build toward the Cutlass Steel from an existing ship, you can view our Star Citizen Cutlass Steel CCU Upgrades and plan a more flexible Drake dropship upgrade path over time.

Cutlass Steel vs Other Star Citizen Ships

When comparing the Cutlass Steel with other dropships and assault transports, the most important questions are how many troops you need to carry, whether vehicles matter, how much fire support you want, and whether you still need cargo or general-purpose utility.

Cutlass Steel vs Cutlass Black

The Cutlass Black is the most important comparison because both ships share the same basic Cutlass platform but are designed for very different users.

The Black is the more flexible ship. Its cargo grid makes it useful for freight, delivery missions, vehicle transport, looting, and general everyday gameplay. It also retains enough weapons and missiles to function as a capable multi-role combat ship.

The Steel removes that general-purpose focus.

Its rear section is filled with 18 jump seats and additional combat equipment. Five mounted anti-personnel weapons and an additional remote turret give passengers far more to do during an assault, but the ship no longer has the Black's normal cargo flexibility.

The Steel is also heavier because of its additional seats and turrets, and RSI notes that this causes marginally lower performance than the Black.

If you want one Cutlass for cargo, vehicles, combat, and everyday missions, choose the Cutlass Black. If you regularly transport a large group of FPS players and want a dedicated assault ship, choose the Cutlass Steel.

Cutlass Steel vs Valkyrie

The Valkyrie is the more serious military dropship.

It is larger, built around major infantry deployment, and has a vehicle bay that gives it much greater flexibility during combined ground operations. For large organizations planning a substantial planetary assault, the Valkyrie provides capabilities the Steel cannot match.

The Steel has a different advantage: size.

It delivers 18 jump seats from a much smaller Cutlass-based platform. That makes it easier to deploy when the operation does not require a ground vehicle or the full scale of the Valkyrie.

The Steel also surrounds its troop compartment with five mounted anti-personnel guns, giving passengers direct opportunities to contribute during the landing.

If your organization needs troops and vehicles in one dedicated military transport, choose the Valkyrie. If you want a smaller troop carrier with high passenger density and extensive door-gun coverage, the Cutlass Steel has the clearer role.

Cutlass Steel vs Vanguard Hoplite

The Vanguard Hoplite combines troop transport with the durability and forward firepower of the Vanguard heavy-fighter platform.

Its main limitation compared with the Steel is capacity. The Hoplite carries six troops in dedicated jump seats, while the Cutlass Steel carries 18.

That difference creates two very different mission profiles.

The Hoplite is better for a small tactical squad that wants a heavily armed and durable insertion ship. It has a stronger heavy-fighter identity and does not need a large group before its passenger capacity becomes useful.

The Steel is better for organizations that want to move far more infantry in a single spacecraft. Its side doors, rear ramp, multiple mounted guns, and large jump-seat capacity make it better suited to a full assault group.

Choose the Vanguard Hoplite for a compact six-person strike team. Choose the Cutlass Steel when infantry capacity and multi-directional ground support are more important.

Cutlass Steel Strengths and Limitations

Who Should Buy the Cutlass Steel?

The Cutlass Steel is best for players who regularly transport large groups into FPS combat. It is especially suitable for organizations, bunker-running groups, ground-combat teams, security units, event organizers, assault squads, and players who enjoy operating a ship where many passengers can actively participate.

It is also a good choice for players who like the basic Cutlass platform but want something more specialized than the Cutlass Black.

The Steel keeps the rough Drake design, straightforward access, pilot weapons, and familiar Cutlass layout, then turns the rear section into an armed troop compartment. Eighteen jump seats give it substantial passenger capacity, while five mounted guns give several of those passengers a combat role before they even leave the ship.

Solo players should think carefully before choosing the Steel. A large portion of its value comes from seats and crew-operated weapons that do nothing when they are empty. The Cutlass Black is generally more flexible for a player who spends most of the time alone.

Players who want a six-person tactical transport with stronger heavy-fighter characteristics may prefer the Vanguard Hoplite. Players who need vehicle transport and a larger military platform may prefer the Valkyrie. Players who want stealth-focused assault insertion may prefer the Prowler.

But for players who want a compact Drake dropship capable of carrying 18 troops and surrounding a landing zone with an unusual amount of crew-operated firepower, the Cutlass Steel remains one of the clearest dedicated infantry transports in Star Citizen.

Cutlass Steel FAQ