Good afternoon all!

Wondering if there are guidelines, best practices, etc... regarding how many upgrades one should add on to a ship?

As many as necessary for maximum benefit and no more.

As a rule of thumb, don't combine conflicting upgrades (e.g. an upgrade that provides a benefit for Stress with one that does not work when stressed). Avoid putting upgrades on ships that require multiple turns to work if you cannot guarantee the ship surviving that long (e.g. more than 2 ordnance upgrades on a Tie Bomber). Avoid luxury upgrades on a ship if another ship in the fleet is lacking an important upgrade.

It is more of an art than an exact science.

It is more of an art than an exact science.

Indeed.

Generally speaking, named pilots will use more upgrades than generic pilots. They have pilot abilities to synergize with as well as more upgrade options (usually just EPT's, but in some cases titles). Additionally, as the game goes on, a lists as a whole will tend to use more upgrades. The more that come out, the more worthwhile synergies that exist (not to mention 0-point upgrades that anyone can take if they have a free slot).

There is no guideline for the number of upgrades. There is, however, for WHICH upgrades to use.

There is a great collection of upgrades you should never ever use. They are just too many to explain. But an honorable mention is Expose. It always seems to make its way into newbie lists.

But then there a those who require certain conditions to be effective. Push the limit is one such card. If you have a reliable way of getting rid of the stress you generate, it is great.

Then, there are those cards who are only limited by their cost and availability. Predator is a good example. It is always useful, but you have to judge the 3 points it costs against other possible upgrades (on the ship in question, and in the list as a whole).

Fly TIE fighters. You won't be able to go overboard on upgrades. It's kind of neat how not having a bunch of upgrade slots solves the whole problem.

At first, less is more. Many cards and abilities are forgotten in battle, there is alot to think about when you first learn the game. I like the above idea of starting with a small Tie swarm.

Another thing to consider: the more upgrades you take, the less ships you can take.

For every 12 points of upgrades that's another tie fighter or z95 you could have taken instead.

Basically if you're going to put a lot of upgrades on a ship, it better last awhile or hit really hard before dying.