Archetypes are the Classes of Ring Runner. A ship's Archetype determines how a ship plays by determining what Nodes that ship has available. Each Archetype has gives a Ship access to three unique Nodes (or two in the case of some low-rank ships).
Veterancy[]
Veterancy is the increase in power your ship gains for killing manned enemy ships. Turrets, Drones or Decoys will not grant veterancy if you kill them.
Each Archetype has a different Veterancy Node, each of which currently contains one ability that scales, and several other "simple" passives.
With that scaling ability equipped, each kill grants an effect that can stack 5 or 7 times depending on your Archetype.
Notes[]
The size of the Common Nodes are also affected by Archetype eg. Fighters have a small shield Node, but a large Auxiliary Drives node.