Hi.

I've bought my first Explorer type ship ever. And had a rather jaw dropping experience.

My Explorer, when outfitted with the Efficient Thrusters upgrade, consumes only 20% of a Starship Launch Fuel Canister, and a single canister (at least since 1.55) completely refills the Launch Thruster to 100% -- as do 40 Uranium.

Which means, I do get an astonishing 100 Launches out of a stack of 20 Starship Launch Fuel canisters, or about 62 from a stack of of 500 Uranium.

Placement of the Efficient Thrusters upgrade does not seem to matter, so I just permanently moved it to the Technology slots, to gain one more valueable slot in the Starship General Inventory.

I am playing Survival, so I don't know about other game modes. Are there even still differences in Launch Thruster fuel consumption between game modes ?

With patch 1.55 I think, they changed it.

[.]"Slightly increased the cost of launch fuel, but made one canister entirely refill the thrusters"
That goes for all ship types, as far as I know.

https://www.nomanssky.com/2018/08/next-patch-1-55/

Yes, you are correct. My point being, that the Explorer in Survival finally let's me literally explore planets, since the launch cost is very low. I was aware that HG with NEXT varied the launch cost based on ship type, thankfully bringing in some more specialization, but I did not expect this variation to be so drastic. Quite a game-changer to me, and a very positove one at that.

I clinged onto my starter ship for the best part of my new save, but then decided on having a go with an Explorer, instead of my usual fighter or hauler. On my next playthrough, the first ship-money spent will be on an Explorer.

Amusingly, while quite endlessly farming for my first Explorer ever, I bought my first ever Exotic. Always makes me smile to see them parked in a row in my freighter. One ship I usually quite quickly replaced, and two others of a type I never bothered to buy before NEXT :D

This is great news for those on the console version :) On PC we have had mods for many years now that better 'balance' the fuel launch cost issue.