Engineer Unlock Guide

EDFM // Engineering / Engineers

A high-level roadmap of how Engineers connect to each other — who unlocks whom, and where the independent starting points are.

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Needs review

Some information in this article still needs to be checked for accuracy.

Uncertain: Several branches, especially all Colonia relationships and anything marked "reported," rely on a single community source and have not been independently corroborated this pass

Status

Needs review

Last reviewed

2026-08-07

Reviewer

Desk research from community sources, not yet confirmed by direct in-game testing — see Sources

Game mode

Both

Version coverage

Current roster as documented by Inara and a community unlock-chain guide, checked 2026-08-07; no specific game patch number independently confirmed

Source quality

Chain relationships drawn primarily from one comprehensive community guide (Wanderer's Toolbox); the well-corroborated core-bubble relationships are marked Confirmed below, the rest are marked Reported and single-sourced

Known uncertainty

Several branches, especially all Colonia relationships and anything marked "reported," rely on a single community source and have not been independently corroborated this pass

This page is a roadmap, not a duplicate of every Engineer's own walkthrough — for the full discovery/invitation/unlock steps and blueprint list for any Engineer named below, follow the link to their own article. See Engineers for the browsable directory with locations and specialties, or Unlocking Broo Tarquin for a worked example of a standalone step-by-step unlock guide.

Two important distinctions run through this whole page:

• Confirmed relationships have been checked directly against that Engineer's own page (usually cross-referenced with a direct Inara fetch). Reported relationships come from a single community chain guide and have not been independently corroborated this pass — treat them as a strong lead, not a certainty.
• Ship Engineering and Odyssey Engineering are entirely separate systems with separate Engineers — their roadmaps are kept in separate sections below rather than merged into one tree.

Ship Engineer Unlock Paths

Starting Engineers

These Engineers have no prerequisite Engineer — each is reachable as soon as you meet their own invitation requirement (rank, reputation, etc. — see their own page):

• Felicity Farseer — Frame Shift Drives and core internals. The most common first Engineer for new commanders, and the root of the largest branch below.
• Liz Ryder — missile, mine, and armour specialist. Root of the branch leading to Hera Tani and Broo Tarquin.
• Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn (no prerequisite confirmed) — cannon and rail gun specialist.
• Zacariah Nemo (no prerequisite confirmed) — fragment cannon specialist; community guides describe him as a dead end with no further Engineer reachable through him.
• Lori Jameson (no prerequisite confirmed) — scanner and utility specialist; also reported as a dead end.
• The Dweller (prerequisite not independently confirmed — community sources suggest Professor Palin, but this hasn't been verified, so he's listed here as a practical starting point until that's checked).

The Felicity Farseer branch

• Felicity Farseer
  • Elvira Martuuk
    • Marco Qwent
      • Professor Palin
      • Chloe Sedesi — Witch Head Nebula, parallel to Professor Palin, same unlock commodity
  • Mel Brandon (Colonia)
  • Juri Ishmaak
    • The Sarge
    • Colonel Bris Dekker

The Liz Ryder branch

• Liz Ryder
  • Hera Tani
    • Broo Tarquin
    • Tiana Fortune
  • Etienne Dorn (Colonia)

The Tod McQuinn branch

• Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn
  • Selene Jean
    • Bill Turner
    • Didi Vatermann
  • Petra Olmanova (Colonia)

The Dweller branch

• The Dweller
  • Lei Cheung
    • Ram Tah
  • Marsha Hicks (Colonia)

Unconnected

• Zacariah Nemo — no confirmed prerequisite, no Engineer reported as reachable through him.
• Lori Jameson — no confirmed prerequisite, no Engineer reported as reachable through her.

Odyssey Engineer Unlock Paths

Chain data for Odyssey Engineers is far thinner than for the ship roster — only the relationship below has been found in the sources checked this pass. The other 10 Odyssey Engineers are documented in Engineers with confirmed location and specialty, but their prerequisite relationships (if any) have not yet been researched.

• Jude Navarro (starting Engineer, no referral needed)
• Domino Green (starting Engineer, no referral needed)
  • Kit Fowler (Reported)

Not yet researched for chain position: Hero Ferrari, Wellington Beck, Terra Velasquez, Uma Laszlo, Yarden Bond, Oden Geiger, Baltanos, Rosa Dayette, Eleanor Bresa, Yi Shen.

Sources

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