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Star Wars: 10 best Empire ships ranked from worst to best

The Empire is known for its flashy, self-announcing, and beautifully menacing ships. Let's see how they rank among each other.

By Camila Domingues

A First Order Stormtrooper stands guard in a Star Destroyer hangar bay beneath a docked TIE fighter in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the groundbreaking new attraction opening Dec. 5, 2019, inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and Jan. 17, 2020, at Disneyland Park in California. Guests enter the hangar bay after their ship is caught in the Star Destroyer’s tractor beam. (Matt Stroshane, photographer)
A First Order Stormtrooper stands guard in a Star Destroyer hangar bay beneath a docked TIE fighter in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the groundbreaking new attraction opening Dec. 5, 2019, inside Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida and Jan. 17, 2020, at Disneyland Park in California. Guests enter the hangar bay after their ship is caught in the Star Destroyer’s tractor beam. (Matt Stroshane, photographer) /
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2. Death Star

But Cam, the Death Star isn't a ship.

Ahem. Sure, the Death Star is often referred to as a space station rather than a ship. Its primary function is to serve as a superweapon and a base of operations for the Empire, rather than for transportation or exploration like a traditional spaceship. However, it does move through space on its own. In essence, while it's more accurately described as a "mobile space station", it does share some characteristics with ships, and so I will call it a ship for the sake of this ranking. Got it? Good.

Anyway, the Death Star - the Empire's big, bad bowling ball in the cosmic alley, ready to strike planets down like they're tenpins at a galactic league night. This ship is a space station so massive it could literally be mistaken for a moon, as we all know. With its planet-be-gone superlaser, it's like the universe's most terrifying flashlight - one that doesn't just light up a room but completely vaporizes it. The Death Star isn't just a ship; it's a floating nightmare, a symbol of the Empire's "we mean business" attitude, and their penchant for over-the-top, dramatic flair. It's the kind of place where you'd expect to find a villain petting a space cat, plotting the next planet to turn into cosmic dust.

But the Death Star, for all its bluster and boom, has its own Achilles' heel, and we all know about it thanks to Luke Skywalker. You'd think something that costs more than a galaxy's worth of space bucks and can delete planets would be invincible, right? Wrong.

While it's busy flexing its universe-shattering muscles, some plucky heroes can swoop in and rain on its intergalactic parade. The Death Star, for all its firepower and fear factor, is a reminder that even the biggest, baddest things in the galaxy can have a tiny, fatal flaw. In the Star Wars saga, it's the ultimate 'big guy' that learned the hard way: size isn't everything, especially when you're up against the scrappy determination of the Rebel Alliance.

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