Starship

The subject of this article is from the The Cursed update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 06 November, 2024.

F178DBBA-7EFC-4931-9778-0924CB411935 — The Apostle of Destruction - an exotic Squid-like ship

The Starship is the major means of travel in No Man's Sky.

Summary[ | ]

Starships, or ships, play a major role in No Man's Sky and are versatile vehicles with which to travel in space. They can sail between planets, fly over them, land on them, and return to space. With equipment and fuel, you can go to interstellar warp on your own. It can also be equipped with armament, and can be used as a fighter. It is also possible to collect resources by shooting asteroid and the ground. It is responsible for loading its own item case, and also serves as an additional inventory and mobile warehouse.

Every player has at least one starship, and it's a winged shelter to protect and transport each Exosuit. Starting with the main missions, planet exploration, Space battles, Space Encounters, Black holes, and most other things would not be possible without a starship. An essential piece of equipment for travel.

Maintaining fuel and repairing technology damages is a survival element in the game, and it is not something that can be easily avoided. Flying off in your own spaceship and controlling it is the most basic of the basics. Starship are as heavy as exosuits and are the lifeblood of all aspects of play.

Players are not the only entities that use starships. NPC-controlled starships, including pirates and Sentinel Interceptors, populate the skies on planets as well as the interplanetary space within star systems. In addition to acting as a primary source of new starships, NPC starships carry valuable resources and products for sale, and they can be followed to locate certain inhabited points of interest.

Due to the static nature of seeds in No Man's Sky, a well-documented ship will always be findable. A system that spawns rare designs (e.g. exotic) in its first wave landing on a space station will always do so on revisit / reload. The same is true for wait timers on stations for ship types. If a particular ship has piqued your interest, the best grinding spot is a station it lands on as part of the first group.

NOTE: The listed Cargo and Tech Inventory sizes below are their starting values. Once a ship has been upgraded to S rank, all ship inventories can be increased to 60 technology slots, with varying cargo slots depending on ship type.

Characteristics[ | ]

All ships are defined by the following main aspects:

Cargo space
Technology space
Damage potential (base: 33.8 - 56.7) [Shuttles/Explorers/Haulers have 33.8 at Class C] Damage potential calculation with Photon Cannon and no upgrades equipped (basedamage + classbonus% + (120 x classbonus x 2.3142))
Fuel efficiency (launch costs are doubled in Survival and Permadeath Game modes)
Hyperdrive range (base: 101 light-years)
Shield absorption (default: 165.0; bonuses are calculated as 165*(1+0.007122xB%))
Maneuverability (depends on a ship type and class).

All of these can be upgraded with technology blueprints. These aspects can also have modifiers based on a ship's type and class (see below).

Starship names are procedurally generated, but a ship can be renamed in the same way as planets or stars.

Starship Catalogue[ | ]

For a catalogue of discovered Starships to scroll through, compare, find locations to buy, and to collect detailed information about, refer to the Starship Catalogue page. Note that these pages contain minimal information about the Starship archetypes themselves.

Notable ships[ | ]

Rasamama S36: original starter ship (1.0-1.2)
Yakomaku S79: Atlas Rises starter ship (1.3)
Radiant Pillar BC1: NEXT starter ship (1.5-current)
Alpha Vector or Domanish S84: PS4 pre-order ship (1.0-current)
Horizon Omega, Nojose's Crystal Folly or Prime Vector: PC pre-order ship (1.0-current)
Golden Vector: Expedition 1: The Pioneers Reward Starship, gold version of Alpha Vector
Utopia Speeder: Expedition 9: Utopia Reward Starship
Starborn Runner: Expedition 12: Omega Reward Starship
Iron Vulture: Expedition 13: Adrift Reward Starship
Boundary Herald: Expedition 16: The Cursed Reward Starship

Starship Archetypes[ | ]

NmsShip Water Flight — Into the wild blue yonder

There are eight types of starships: Shuttle, Fighter, Hauler, Explorer, Exotic, Interceptor, Solar, and Living Ship. Among these archetypes are four letter-grade classes: C, B, A, and S.

C-class ships have the fewest inventory spaces, and if there is a class bonus, it will be no more than 20%.
B-class ships take up the three inventory sizes below the maximum of the tier size, and they have a 20% or more class bonus.
A-class will have either the maximum number of slots or one slot less than max, and has a 35% or more class bonus.
S-class ships do not necessarily have the max amount of inventory slots. You can have an S-class ship with fewer slots than other ships of the same type (fighter/explorer/etc.). [this fact confirmed as of Sept. 2019]
S-class ships have a 50% or more class bonus (excluding exotics).
Note: Due to the game's mechanic of always rounding down, a 59.99% ship will still display 59%. Finding a 'seemingly' perfect ship in any class is thus as likely as winning the lottery. Collectors, don't try!

Every star system has 21 different ship designs: seven Shuttles, nine specialist types (three of each: Fighter, Hauler, and Explorer), four more of a single specialist type based on that system's dominant race, and one Exotic. A solar ship has an 85% chance of spawning instead of a shuttle in outlaw systems and a 10% chance to do so in other systems. S-class ships will spawn more often in rich economies. Note that a ship's properties are randomized each time it lands. The only consistency is in the design and thus tier. If you are already in a wealthy system, it can be beneficial to wait for your favourite design to have a good dice roll. During multiplayer an NPC ship can have a different class for each player. The properties are rolled for each one individually.

NOTE: do not change the numbers in the table below without providing actual proof from the game.

Spawn chances based on economy:

Economy
Poor	60%	30%	10%	0%
Average	49%	35%	15%	1%
Wealthy	30%	40%	28%	2%
Outlaw	85%	5%	5%	5%

NOTE: do not change the numbers in the table above without providing actual proof from the game.

NMSShipInventory — The Class line gives the number of cargo and technology slots.

Each type of ship has three tiers of inventory sizes: a small, medium, and large, though Shuttles do not have a large size inventory. The sizes can be identified by the style of wings (or the size of the fuselage for the Shuttle) or by scanning the ship using the Analysis Visor. (See images below to identify traits of ships with large inventory as well as how to interpret Analysis Visor output.) The archetypes and their major differences are as follows:

Every ship type's technology inventory can be upgraded to 60 slots on S class.

Shuttle - Low & Balanced Bonuses[ | ]

Ships of this type have balanced stats, with no significant class bonus compared to the other archetypes. These ships look typically blocky with a rectangular canopy, but some ships in this class have a tubular fuselage. Shuttles do not have a large inventory tier but are great for starter travellers due to their cheap cost and increased low-tier inventory space.

Base Launch Cost: 16.7%
Maneuverability: Medium (272.5-330.0)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 110
Inventory:

Size	Cargo		Tech
Size	min	max	min	max
Small	24	32	12	19
Medium	28	36	18	26

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	0
	3	8	3	8	3	8	3	5
	8	15	8	15	8	15	8	15
	25	30	25	30	25	30	15	35

See: Starship Catalogue - Shuttle

Fighter - High Damage Bonus[ | ]

Tier3Fighter — Wing shape of Fighters with large inventory

Ships of this type feature a damage potential class bonus. These ships are the mascot ships of No Man's Sky and are also the primary starships of pirates across the galaxy. They also have high Maneuverability, making them outstanding in dogfights.

Base Launch Cost: 25%
Maneuverability: Very High (387.5-445.0)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 100
Inventory:

Size	Cargo		Tech
Size	min	max	min	max
Small	24	28	14	19
Medium	24	32	14	24
Large	30	38	19	30

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	8	15	0		0		5	15
	24	45	8	15			15	20
	50	75	24	30			20	30
	70	90	24	38			35	45

These ships are more commonly found in Vy'keen systems.

See: Starship Catalogue - Fighter

Explorer - High Hyperdrive Bonus & Low Launch Cost[ | ]

Tier3Explorer — Wing shape of Explorers with large inventory

Ships of this type feature a hyperdrive range class bonus. These ships usually feature abstract shapes connected together with many thin, slender pieces with smooth surface, giving it insectoid or arthropodic look. They have super high hyperdrive range and the lowest launch fuel cost, perfect for adventurers.

Base Launch Cost: 12.5%
Maneuverability: High (387.5-445.0)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 110
Inventory:

Size	Cargo		Tech
Size	min	max	min	max
Small	24	29	14	19
Medium	24	32	19	24
Large	30	38	24	30

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	0		0		15	25	5	10
			4	16	30	45	10	20
			15	20	50	85	20	25
			30	40	90	120	25	32

These ships are more commonly found in Korvax systems.

See: Starship Catalogue - Explorer

Hauler - High Shield Bonus[ | ]

Tier3Hauler — Wing shape of Haulers with large inventory (1)

Tier3Hauler1 — Wing shape of Haulers with large inventory (2)

Tier3Hauler2 — Wing shape of Haulers with large inventory (3)

Ships of this type feature a shield absorb class bonus, and they also boast high starting inventory spaces. These ships are the largest out of all starships, and may or may not have wing features on them.

Base Launch Cost: 25%
Maneuverability: Low (192.5-250.0)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 120
Inventory:

Size	Cargo		Tech
Size	min	max	min	max
Small	30	36	12	18
Medium	36	40	18	24
Large	40	48	20	30

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	0		18	30	5	10	0
	3	8	40	55	8	15	0	5
	8	15	60	75	23	37	5	10
	15	30	95	125	45	58	10	15

These ships are more commonly found in Gek systems.

See: Starship Catalogue - Hauler

Exotic - High & Balanced Bonuses[ | ]

Exotic is a special ship type. Ships of this type stand out for their unusual features, high class bonuses and high prices for a small sized ship. Exotic ships will always be S-class. They come in two main categories: Ball exotics, and squid exotics.

Base Launch Cost: 25%
Maneuverability: High (387.5-445.0)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 105
Inventory:

Size	Cargo		Tech
Size	min	max	min	max
Small	24	30	20	28

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	50	75	70	90	75	95	40	50

These ships can be found in any inhabited system, with a 1% chance to appear regardless of economy. They can also appear in abandoned systems as part of a freighter battle after warping into the system.

See: Starship Catalogue - Exotic

Living Ship - Living Technology[ | ]

Living Ships feature a large amount of technology slots with emphasis on damage output and hyperdrive range. They are categorized by their "Organic" looking architecture, with many parts moving during flight. They were first added in the Experimental Branch on 18/02/2020, then were officially released as part of the Living Ships update. The Living Ships can be obtained through purchasing a Void Egg and following its questline or by buying it like any other. After the first, subsequent Living Ships cost 10,000 nanites to obtain, rather than building it from scratch.

These ships utilize Biotechnology to function, being completely incompatible with synthetic ship technology, both constructed and procedurally generated, and all technologies use different fuel than their synthetic counterparts. Being an organic being, no new technology can be "installed", but upgrades can be obtained via Space Encounters. The ship's inventory can be expanded with spawning sacs, found by both living frigate expeditions and found in cargo on derelict freighters.

Installing the specified nodes on your living ship will give you the seed generated upgrades of the class specified. However, for A class or lower nodes, if you choose to mutate an existing node to upgrade the class, it will give you a randomly assigned node of better class that is not bound to the seed generation model regardless of the number of reloads you take.

NOTE: C class Nodes that have zero stats do exist. These give the following replacement description: "BIO_UPGRADE_0_STAT_COMMON_DESC"

Base Launch Cost: 25%
Maneuverability: Low (192.5 - 250.0)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 120
Inventory:

Size	Storage Sacs	Organ Chamber
Medium	36	30

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	50	75	15	38	75	95	10	15

See: Starship Catalogue - Living Ship

Solar - Solar Sails[ | ]

Ships of this type have extendable solar sails and are most often found in outlaw systems. At S-class, they offer damage bonuses similar to Exotics, but their shield and hyperdrive bonuses are substantially lower.

Solar ships are equipped with a Vesper Sail, a unique piece of technology which increases Pulse Drive performance and slowly recharges launch thrusters. While ships of this class have lower hyperdrive bonuses, they have the best pulse speed and performance of any class due to this technology. The Vesper Sail cannot be purchased or equipped on any other ship class. (without any third party tools)

Base Launch Cost: 25%
Maneuverability: High (387.5-445.0)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 110
Inventory:

Size	Cargo		Tech
Size	min	max	min	max
Small	24	30	13	18

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	8	15	8	15	8	15	5	10
	23	45	8	30	15	30	10	20
	45	60	23	38	30	45	20	30
	60	75	23	50	38	50	35	40

These ships are more commonly found in Outlaw systems.

See: Starship Catalogue - Solar

Salvaged - Sentinel Technology & Low Launch Cost[ | ]

Salvaged ships (often known as interceptors) are salvaged sentinel ships, rebuilt and salvaged for manual use. Like the Living Ship, it has unique technology, such as the Anti-Gravity Well and Crimson Core. Unlike living ships, however, they do not have their own special upgrades to their technology, instead using regular ship upgrades. However they require different materials to refuel their technology. The sentinel cannon equipped on salvaged ships typically has higher fire rate than the regular photon cannon equipped on other starships, and it has less damage per shot, but the DPS (Damage Per Second) is better than most other shiptypes. Salvaged ships also have the ability to hover mid-air, unlike any other ship. (besides some haulers)

Base Launch Cost: 12.5%
Maneuverability: Medium (245.0-302.5)
Cargo Upgrade Limit: 120
Inventory:

Size	Cargo		Tech
Size	min	max	min	max
Large	32	40	22	28

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Damage		Shield		Hyperdrive		Agility
Class	min	max	min	max	min	max	min	max
	8	15	3	8	0		8	15
	24	45	8	15	3	8	20	30
	50	75	12	20	3	10	20	30
	60	80	20	35	5	10	40	50

See: Starship Catalogue - Interceptor

Freighter[ | ]

Freighters are considerably more expensive (and much larger) than any starship, with prices ranging as high as 178 million units. Unlike the above starships, Freighters cannot land on planets or be flown by the player. They contain a large amount of inventory space, and can be used as a mobile base, including farming and other base-related functions. Only one Freighter can be owned at a time; however, the player may trade in their current Freighter for one within a Space Fleet if they have enough units to make up the difference.

Cargo Upgrade Limit: 120
Inventory:

Type	Cargo		Tech
Type	min	max	min	max
Standard	15	19	8	12
Capital	24	34	12	20

Type bonus (+%):

Class	Hyperdrive		Fleet Coordination
Class	min	max	min	max
	7	15	1	10
	10	19	10	20
	40	60	20	40
	60	80	40	60

See: Starship Catalogue - Freighter

See: Freighter Types

Buying a starship[ | ]

See: Buying a starship, Starship Catalogue

To purchase a ship, players must visit trading posts, space stations, outposts, or freighter hangars. Ship prices depend on the archetype, number of slots, and class. Ship prices do not depend on the number of technologies installed or damaged, on the type bonuses for a specific archetype and class, on the vendor, or on your standing with the faction of the vendor.

Once a ship has landed, players may trade with the owner, preview the ship's capabilities and if desired, offer to purchase it. Due to the ships being procedurally generated, players may never encounter the same type of ship with the exact same configuration twice, though fighters are more likely to appear as duplicates since there are fewer possible design configurations. Even starships that are similarly designed may not have the same amount of inventory space offered. By reloading a save, you can force new ships to appear, rather than waiting for the current ones to leave.

The prices of ships in No Man's Sky are listed on the Price Catalogue - Starship page.

To purchase a new ship at a trading post or a space station, you may trade-in your current ship as part of the deal. The new ship's value is as shown in the table, and the trade-in value of your current ship is 70% of the value in the table. If the new ship's value is higher than the trade-in value (this is normally the case), you must make up the difference in units. If the new ship's value is lower than your trade-in value, then no units are exchanged (i.e. you do not collect the difference). If you are trading in a Crashed Ship, the trade in value will be reduced by the percentage of Damaged Component slots.

For example, suppose you want to trade in a 38-slot B-class Hauler for a 48-slot S-class Hauler. The new ship costs 126 million units as per the table. The trade-in value of your current ship is 23.8 million units (70% of the table value of 34 million), so you must supply an additional 102.2 million units to make the deal. If 19 of the 38 slots on your B-class Hauler contain Damaged Components, the trade-in value will be reduced by 50% to 11.9 million units.

Trade-in values did not exist prior to the Pathfinder update. Ships obtained prior to the Pathfinder update have been classified as C-class and assigned a monetary value based on the amount of slots. The maximum possible value for a pre-Pathfinder ship is 49 million units.

If you want to shop for a new Starship inside the HUB Region or other Civilizations etc. refer to the Starship Catalogue to find the ship that suits you the best.

Starship by price[ | ]

See: Price Catalogue - Starship

Values in the table are in thousands of units. This table reflects the values of ships as of the Visions update, which included a significant reduction in the cost of freighters.

Crashed starships[ | ]

For additional tips

See: Crashed Ship

From time to time, a player may encounter a crashed ship. If the crashed ship is larger or of a better Class or design than the current one, the player may wish to consider abandoning the current ship and taking over the crashed ship. However, the player can just purchase it for 0 credits and keep both.

At first, it might seem that getting a bigger or better ship for free is always a good deal. However, a crashed ship needs extensive repairs to be fully functional and can drain a player's time and resources.

Several of the crashed ship's base technologies are damaged. Further the crashed ship always has damaged inventory slots that require more resources to repair before they can be used. The unit cost associated with items needed for inventory repair alone may be more than the net cost to purchase an equivalent vessel at a space station. There is also the cost to rebuild your old technologies if you want to have them in both ships instead of moving them and leaving your original ship underpowered. Finally, you will have to refill the empty hyperdrive, pulse engine, launch thruster, phase beam or other weapon, and deflector shield. Even after all this, though, repaired weapons have half the damage output of never-damaged weapons, so you will want to add a new weapon if you plan on using the ship in space combat.

On the other hand, if you find a damaged ship that is much larger than something you could otherwise currently afford at a star station, you can keep it and switch over now and repair the slots one by one as you gradually accumulate more units and resources. Paying a few extra units now to repair a crashed 48-slot S-class Hauler might save a lot of time waiting for one to show up at a star station, if that's what you ultimately want.

If you do decide to exchange your current ship for a crashed ship you can also just trade it in for a fully repaired ship. Even a beat up massive Hauler can be worth 10 million units and offer the chance to attain a decent Fighter. Of course you can dismantle as many upgrades in the ship as you want beforehand to gain resources.

NMS has significantly changed the way crashed ships are handled with each game revision, and much of the early advice pertaining to crashed ships is now obsolete.

Foundation - transmissions can no longer be picked up by signal scanners, making finding crashed ships much more difficult than it was in the initial release.
Pathfinder - ship classes now affect inventory space, and as such, a crashed ship is more likely to have a totally random number of slots.
Atlas Rises - removed the exploit whereby a ship with multiple damaged inventory slots could be traded in for the same price as an undamaged ship.
NEXT - players do not have to exchange their ship for a crashed ship and can't re-attain their own ship if they did exchange it. However, they can just purchase it and keep both to salvage the entire ship or just parts.
Synthesis - added a capability to scrap starships, including the crashed ones.

Starship components and technology[ | ]

Ship control panels

Starships typically come with five key components preinstalled in their inventory: Launch Thruster, Pulse Engine, Photon Cannon, Deflector Shield and Hyperdrive; additionally, some starships also come with Efficient Thrusters and/or a second starship weapon. Freighters always have a Freighter Hyperdrive in the technology inventory.

Living Ships have equivalent key components: Neural Assembly, Pulsing Heart, Spewing Vents, Scream Suppressor and Singularity Cortex. Additionally, they have Grafted Eyes which are an equivalent of Phase Beam.

Many starship components can be upgraded, including drives, weaponry, fuel capacity and defensive mechanisms. The upgrades available will vary based on the type of ship being modified. These can all be upgraded by collecting necessary resources and crafting the technology.

As of the Pathfinder update, new technology for starship upgrades can be purchased with Nanite Clusters from Gek traders located in space stations.
As of the NEXT update, these traders also sell Upgrade Modules for Nanite Clusters which contain procedurally generated starship technology upgrades.

Character Figurines (aka Bobbleheads) are available for install, and grant small bonus increases to ship functions.

Upgrading Starship Technology[ | ]

Technology Blueprints[ | ]

These upgrades can be made by the player by acquiring the blueprints through purchases or as rewards in response to in game achievements/quests.

Systems	Technology / Upgrade	Effect
Launch/Take off	Launch Thruster	Required for landing and lift-off
	Launch Auto-Charger	Recharges LT at 4% per minute
	Efficient Thrusters	Launch cost -20%
	Aqua-Jets	Enables water-landing
Pulse System (System Travel)	Pulse Engine	Powers all in-flight systems
	Sub-Light Amplifier	Increases pulse engine speed
	Instability Drive	Increases fuel efficiency
	Flight Assist Override	+11% Maneuverability
	Photonix Core	+25% Power, +15% Boost, +11% Maneuverability
Defense Systems	Deflector Shield	Energy shield that protects spacecraft
Defense Systems	Ablative Armour	+7% Shield Strength
Hyperdrive (Interstellar travel)	Hyperdrive	Travel to Yellow Systems
	Indium Drive	Travel to Yellow, Red, Green & Blue Systems
	Emeril Drive	Travel to Yellow, Red & Green Systems
	Emergency Warp Unit	Allows escape from combat by warping
	Cadmium Drive	Travel to Yellow & Red Systems
Combat Systems	Photon Cannon	Rate: 7 shots/sec / Overheat: 5.6s / Cooldown: 4s
	Nonlinear Optics	+21% Heat Dispersion
	Phase Beam	Spacefaring beam weapon and asteroid mining tool
	Fourier De-Limiter	+11% Heat Dispersion
	Positron Ejector	20 shot, wide cone of destruction, lacks range
	Fragment Supercharger	+20% Accuracy / +25% Range
	Infra-Knife Accelerator	Rapid sequences of fire.
	Q-Resonator	Changes 2 shot to 3 shot per volley, increasing Dmg
	Cyclotron Ballista	Large concentrated ball of charged particles
	Dyson Pump	+11% Heat Dispersion
	Rocket Launcher	Highly destructive weapon
	Large Rocket Tubes	+20% Heat Recovery
Accessories	Teleport Receiver	Increases material teleport range from 50u to 150u
	Economy Scanner	Grants ability to check a system's economy details
	Conflict Scanner	Grants ability to check a system's Conflict Level
	Cargo Scan Deflector	Grants ability to scramble enemy cargo scans

Here are a detailed description of their technology:

Launch Thruster[ | ]

This technology is a basic technology of the ship allowing it to land and take off. Starship Launch Fuel is required to take off. By using the fuel, you can fill up fully to take off. If you decide to use Uranium, only 40 of Uranium is needed to fill up completely.

Each takeoff uses 25% of the tank, except in Survival and Permadeath mode where it uses 50%. However, some classes of ships have a reduced take-off cost.

Launch Auto-Charger[ | ]

This technology is an upgrade of Launch Thruster and allows a slow automatic recharging of the Launch Thruster (4% per minutes), saving fuel. Note that they only recharge in daytime. They did not in nighttime.

Efficient Thruster[ | ]

This technology is an upgrade of Launch Thruster and reduces the launch cost of take-off by 20% of the ship.

Pulse Engine[ | ]

This technology is a ship basic technology. This can be activated using the dedicated button (SPACE), it allows you to reach high speeds inside a star system, in order to reach the neighboring planets in a short time (a few tens of seconds to a minute depending on the distance).

During a pulse jump, it is impossible to control the direction of the ship. In order to adjust its trajectory, it is necessary to stop and change direction in order to start again.

It must be recharged with Tritium, which is found in Asteroid. 200 Tritium is required for a full recharge. Fuel is sufficient for about two minutes when filling up.

Sub-Light Amplifier[ | ]

This technology is an upgrade that increases pulse jump speed by 30%, meaning that time until reaching a destination is decreased.

Instability Drive[ | ]

This technology is an upgrade that increase fuel efficiency by 34%, meaning that pulse jump will lasts longer than normal.

Flight Assist Override[ | ]

This technology is an upgrade. When installed, this technology will attempt to override flight assist, increasing the ship maneuverability for 11%. Acoording to the description, smugglers, mercenaries, and others who think of themselves as advanced pilots are commonly using this technology.

Photonix Core[ | ]

This technology is an upgrade. This can only be obtained when pre-ordering PS4 or on Starborn Runner. This technology have a combination of all bonuses on installable Pulse Engine upgrades.

Deflector Shield[ | ]

This technology acts as a shield to protect the ship. When the player takes damage, the deflector shield discharges and slowly recharges when does not take damage, which can be recharged immidately using catalysts or Starshield Battery at any time. When the shield depletes, the ship takes hull damages when attacked.

Ablative Shield[ | ]

This technology upgrades the shield strength by 7%, meaning the ship can withstand more damage before the shield depletes.

Hyperdrive[ | ]

Only the base ship of the game does not have Hyperdrive at the beginning, it must be installed. NPC ships and Crashed Ships have this technology by default. Once installed, the Hyperdrive technology cannot be dismantled.

The hyperdrive must be recharged with Warp Cell, it takes 4 to fully charge it (it take five prior to Waypoint, each jump consumes 25% of its power (20% prior to Waypoint) regardless of the distance of the jump. Upgrade modules can improve power efficiency, allowing for a greater number of hops with an equivalent load.

Warp Hypercore are an alternative to conventional warp cells, they allow a full recharge in one go. A C-Class ship can go 101 LY.

Upgrade Modules[ | ]

These upgrades can normally only be purchased from Starship technology merchants at the Space station and occasionally as a reward for completing a task (repairing a Crashed Ship, repairing Damaged Machinery, etc).

IdealShipSynergies2 — Ideal Layouts for Mechanical Ship Tech

Module Name	Stats Drawn	Module Improves
Module Name	Stats Drawn	Module Improves	Min	Max	Min	Max	Min	Max	Min	Max	Min	Max
Launch Thruster¹	C 1 B/A 1-2 S/X 2	Launch Cost	-5	-10	-10	-15	-15	-20	-20		-5	-25
Launch Thruster¹	C 1 B/A 1-2 S/X 2	Boost	0	1	2	5	5	8	8	10	0	10
Pulse Engine	C 1-2 B 2 A 2-3 S 3 X 1-3	Fuel Efficiency	5	10	10	15	15	20	20		5	25
		Maneuverability	1	7.5	1	12	5	16	5	18	1	20
		Boost	1	10	10	15	10	20	10	25	1	30
Deflector Shield	Always	Shield Strength	10	20	10	20	20	30	30		7.5	37.5
Hyperdrive	C/B 1 A/S 2 X 1-2	Warp Cell Efficiency	n/a		n/a		100		100		100
Hyperdrive	C/B 1 A/S 2 X 1-2	Hyperdrive Range	50	100	115	165	165	220	220	265	50	320
Photon Cannon²	C/B 1-2 A 2-3 S 3 X 1-3	Fire Rate	0	1	1	2	2	3	3		0	3
		Heat Dispersion	0	1	1	2	2	3	3		0	4
		Damage	8	16	12	20	16	24	20 (6)	28 (8)	8	32 (9)
Phase Beam²	C/B 1-2 A/S 2 X 1-2	Heat Dispersion	10	35	35	55	55	75	75	95	10	100
Phase Beam²	C/B 1-2 A/S 2 X 1-2	Damage	30	40	40	50	50	60	60 (24)	70 (27)	30	80 (30)
Positron²	C 1-2 B 2-3 A/S 3 X 1-3	Fire Rate	5	10	10	14	14	15	15		5	20
		Heat Dispersion	1	5	5	10	10	15	15		1	20
		Damage	2	6	4	10	8	10	10 (3)		2	12 (3)
Infra-Knife²	C 1-2 B 2-3 A/S 3 X 1-3	Fire Rate	1	5	1	5	5	10	5	10	1	15
		Heat Dispersion	1	3	3	5	5	7	7	9	1	13
		Damage	2	6	4	10	8	12	10 (6)	12 (7)	2	14 (8)
Cyclotron²	C 1-2 B 2-3 A/S 3 X 1-3	Fire Rate	1	5	1	5	5	10	10	15	1	20
		Heat Dispersion	10	20	20	25	25	30	30	35	10	40
		Damage	2	6	4	10	8	12	10	12	2	14

Notes:

1. C class actually draws two stats.

2. Damage Stats visually indicated on upgrade in-game do not appear to reflect actual in game results.

3. Upgrade modules should be added adjacent to the core system where possible, to a maximum of three upgrades. This is best achieved by arrangements in a 2x2 box, or as a slightly lower cumulative gain as a line of 3 vertically or horizontally adjacent to the core system.

Upgrading Living Ship Technology[ | ]

Technology Blueprints[ | ]

These upgrades can be made by the player after completing the Starbirth mission.

Technology / Upgrade	Effect
Neural Assembly	Launch/Take-off System
Pulsing Heart	Living Ship Flight Booster
Singularity Cortex	Living Ship Warp Drive
Scream Suppressor	Living Ship Hull Protection
Grafted Eyes	Living Ship Laser Device
Spewing Vents	Living Ship Projectile Weapon

Upgrade Modules[ | ]

Module Name	Stats Drawn	Module Improves	C-Class		B-Class		A-Class		S-Class
Module Name	Stats Drawn	Module Improves	Min	Max	Min	Max	Min	Max	Min	Max
Neural Assembly	Always	Launch Cost	5	10	10	15	15	20	20
Neural Assembly		Automatic Recharging	No						Yes
Pulsing Heart	1-3	Fuel Efficiency	5	10	10	15	15	20	20
		Maneuverability	1	7.5	1	12	5	16	5	18
		Boost	1	10	10	15	10	20	10	25
	Always	Teleport Receiver	Activated (Hidden)
Singularity Cortex	Always	Hyperdrive Range	50	100	115	165	165	220	220	265
	Possible	Warp Cell Efficiency					100		100
	Always	Hyperdrive Scramble	Activated (Hidden)
Scream Suppressor	Always	Shield Strength	0.05	0.1	0.05	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2 (30)
Scream Suppressor	Always	Scan	Activated (Hidden)
Grafted Eyes¹	1-2	Heat Dispersion	10	35	35	55	55	75	75	95
	1-2	Damage	30	40	40	50	50	60	60 (24)	70 (27)
	Always	Shield Recharge on Impact	0.05	0.1	0.1	0.15	0.15	0.2	0.2	0.3
Spewing Vents¹	1-3	Fire Rate	0	1	1	2	2		2
		Heat Dispersion	0.1	1	1	2	2	3	3	3
		Damage	8	16	12	20	16	24	20 (6)	28 (8)

Notes:

1. Damage Stats visually indicated on upgrade in-game do not appear to reflect actual in game results.

2. Upgrade modules should be added adjacent to the core system where possible, to a maximum of three upgrades in each type of inventory slot (eg. cargo and technology slots). This is best achieved by arrangements in a 2x2 box, or as a slightly lower cumulative gain as a line of 3 vertically or horizontally adjacent to the core system.

Upgrading A Starship Class or Size[ | ]

Players can upgrade their ship with additional inventory slots or class upgrade using the Starship Outfitting Terminal. Core stats will be upgraded following the archetype's rules and based on the unique seed for the ship, which means they'll always be the same for a given ship.

Upgrading a starship's class will increase the maximum number of slots it can have. That means, a player can upgrade a ship's class in order to apply more 'Storage Augmentation' units after that ship's slots have maxed-out.

Starting with the Outlaws update, ships now have a "Cargo" inventory tab that's similar to the exosuit's. The Cargo inventory space can be expanded up to 21 slots for most ships, or 42 slots for haulers.

Starship destruction[ | ]

If your starship is destroyed in space, don't worry! You will spawn in the nearest space station in your ship. You will lose all the resources stored in your ship's hold, unless you follow the "grave icon" (atlas shaped icon). Once you get there you will be able to collect your resources. It is possible that pirates loot your grave before you arrive, and you will lose all those resources. Your ship may have technologies damaged (except for pulse drive). Your pulse drive will also be refilled when you respawn.

If your starship is destroyed in space while in Survival Mode things are a little different. You lose your ship inventory permanently, and wake up a good distance away from your crashed ship on the surface of the nearest planet. Like Normal Mode, your ship will also have several damaged components.

Starship destruction in Permadeath mode results in the game ending, and your save being deleted.

While not in a battle, the shield recharges on its own. While in battle, some of the containers from destroyed ships will recharge the shield, or you can recharge it yourself with catalysts.

Starship Fabrication[ | ]

Since the Orbital update, starships can now be constructed using the Starship Fabrication Terminal, found onboard the redesigned Space Station. To construct a ship, sufficient parts must be acquired. Required parts depends on ship types. These parts can be acquired using the Starship Outfitting Terminal and choose to scrap ship parts. The starship that are used to get parts will be dismantled after these parts have been scrapped.

Once sufficient parts have been acquired, purchase a Reactor Core from a Starship Technology Merchant. Use the Starship Fabrication Terminal to insert all parts. Once all parts has been inserted, you can color the starship and then completely fabricate the starship. Stats of the starship is random, but starship type bonus is fixed. Starship classes does not random - it did depends on the Reactor Core classes, note that an S-Class reactor requires at least 12k !

Once the fabrication is successful, the constructed starship will be immediately appear, ready to be entered.

Version Differences[ | ]

Atlas Rises allowed ships to fly lower than before. Crashing ships in the ground or in props could damage them.
NEXT allowed for even lower flight, removed environmental ship damage and reduced the average damage caused by pirates.
Living Ship added the Living Ship archetype, hatched from Void Eggs.
Outlaws added the Solar ship, and increased the number of ships in a player's fleet from six to nine.
Endurance added the ability to expand inventory for Living Ships.
Fractal added three more ship slots from nine up to twelve.
Interceptor added Salvaged ships, obtained from crashed interceptors.

Pre-order starships[ | ]

Two different starships were available as bonuses for pre-ordering No Man's Sky. PlayStation 4 players received Alpha Vector (known in-game as the Domanish s84) and PC players received Horizon Omega.

Pre-release starships[ | ]

For a list of pre-release ships, refer to the Pre-release ships page.

Additional Information[ | ]

The looks of the ships, like everything else, are procedurally generated.

Before the Pathfinder update, the technologies and storage space were dependent on your current progress of the game and the kind of ship you currently owned.