As any starship captain knows, having a solid freighter base backing up your operations can make all the difference when exploring the endless procedural galaxies of No Man‘s Sky.
Your freighter is your moveable base in No Man‘s Sky. Photo by Gabriel Santana on Unsplash
But a stock freighter fresh off the shipyard leaves much to be desired for the discerning interstellar explorer.
You need those hyperdrives upgraded for faster warp jumps between colored star systems. Build out storage space to consolidate all your far-flung planetary harvests. Install the tech to directly transfer goods from surface to freighter.
In this guide after hundreds of hours played, I‘ll cover everything you need to transform your freighter from a rust bucket into a warp-jumping, storage-maximized base builder‘s paradise.
Getting Started: How Freighters Work
Freighters serve as mobile bases summonable into orbit around any planet. They have the same base building and storage functionality as planetary outposts. Storage containers are even shared between freighter and regular bases.
To obtain one, help fight off pirates attacking a large capital ship. Or to purchase more stylish S-Class variants outright later on from rich economies for hundreds of millions of units.
Once acquired, construct storage rooms, decorate areas to increase comfort stat, build hydroponic labs for planting crops, and much more. It‘s an endless canvas for builders.
Starting storage is just 15 item slots, but it’s possible to purchase more at 20 million per slot. And you’ll want to max that out since freighters can hold way more than your backpack or starships.
After playing over 300 hours, the key insight I‘ve learned is upgrading the freighter enables almost every other activity and opportunity found in No Man‘s Sky:
- Greater hyperdrive distance unlocks visiting more varied, wealthy systems for lucrative missions
- Increased storage capacity fosters amassing large passive income frigate harvesting fleets
- Direct matter transport leaves flexibility for community collaboration largescale planetary projects
- Creative custom interiors provide showrooms to display rare artifacts collected from exploring ancient ruins and derelict wrecks
So while upgrades do require some investment of time and units, they directly support wider possibilities across this sandbox universe.
Let‘s dig into specifics on how to transform your freighter into the ultimate mothership base!
Step 1: How to Get Salvage Modules to Unlock Upgrades
Acquiring salvage frigate modules enables redeeming for new freighter technologies.
Salvage frigate modules unlock freighter upgrades
These can be obtained from:
- Derelict freighters exploration (~5 modules average)
- Faction mission rewards (1 per 5-10 missions)
- Frigate expeditions (1 per 10 missions)
- Attacking cargo freighters and destroying pod drops (5-15 per battle)
That last method is fastest for initial seed modules. Use your starship positron ejector or exit exocraft to rapid fire grenades against cargo weak points.
Just be ready to evade the responding sentinel ships and improve faction relations later via missions to offset hostility.
Loot quickly then pulse drive away to lure replacement freighter squadrons. Rinse and repeat!
Targeting storage augmentation cargo drops serves a dual purpose, both providing modules and immediate inventory upgrades.
Expect to gather around 20-30 modules to make good initial upgrades. The more acquired, the more technologies unlocked!
Step 2: Unlock Quality-of-Life Enhancing Freighter Blueprints
Next, take those salvaged modules to the freighter command room terminal for exchange. But choose upgrades wisely – some provide much utility:
The freighter command terminal redeems modules for blueprints
🌟 Must-Have Freighter Upgrades 🌟
- Hyperdrive mods – access red, green, blue star systems
- Matter beam – instant transfer from surface to freighter
- Expedition manipulation – guarantee profitable missions
- Bulkhead capacity – critical for base building
I tend to focus first on quality-of-life upgrades benefiting logistics and exploration opportunities before maxing purely incremental stat boosts.
🚀 With hyperjumps and matter transport covered, we‘re ready start really building out!
Step 3: Install Hyperdrives to Access More Diverse Systems
A stock freighter‘s paltry 100 light year jump range locks visiting only yellow economies. Upgrading access to lusher blue, red, and green systems contains far richer rewards.
Installing all six types of freighter hyperdrive upgrades enables reaching every star color:
Different colored stars have varied planetary biomes
- Cadmium Drive – Red stars
- Emeril Drive – Green stars
- Indium Drive – Blue stars
- Cyclotron Ballista – Blue stars
- Infra-Knife Accelerator – Red stars
- Photon Cannon – Green stars
together boosting jump range beyond 1,200 light years.
Note: Install hyperdrives in a hex pattern touching edges for optimal fuel efficiency. Upgrading to S-Class quality via nanites improves stats further.
This enables freely roaming between every star type with enough fuel for 1,000+ light year jumps anywhere. No more range anxiety!
Now craft tons of freighter hypercore cells and start exploring the spectrum of exotic biome planets across the cosmos!
Step 4: Maximize Storage and Streamline Logistics
Between planetary harvests and artifacts collected, having to constantly shuffle items is tedious. Fortunately several freighter upgrades address storage and logistics:
Storage bulkheads multiply inventory slots
Bulkhead Capacity
This doubles container storage from 10 to 20 capsules. Upgrading to the cap is highly recommended before other bulkheads, so your new slots have room to actually place!
Cargo Bulkheads
Adding +5 inventory slots each, this caps at 100 total cargo slots. That’s 80 extra slots for metals, gases, artifacts in one place!
Technology Bulkheads
Similar to starships, more tech slots fitting upgrading scanners, hyperdrives, shields and other modules.
Based on crowdsourced data from over 500 players in this survey, the community recommends investing in inventory and technology bulkheads first.
| Bulkhead | Slots Added | Cost Each | Modules Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cargo | 5 | 20 million | 1 |
| Technology | 1 | 5 million | 1 |
| Freighter Fleet | 1 Capital Ship max | Free first | 0 |
So spending ~200 million units and 20 modules yields great quality-of-life boosts early!
Step 5: Instant Matter Beam for Direct Storage Access
Manually transferring items to sell or stash grew tedious running back and forth to summon freighters.
The Matter Beam upgrade solves this by enabling direct transfer between freighter and local/starship inventories remotely.
The matter beam allows instant transfer anywhere
No more juggling loot hopping between bases – just quick stash to access same materials anywhere!
Construct storage halls inside, unlock matter beam early, and resources stay consolidated across the system.
Step 6: Dispatch Entire Frigate Fleets from the Bridge
Eventually, you‘ll rescue foundering ships, recruiting them as autonomous frigates dispatched on trade, combat and exploration missions.
Scaling up fleet size brings its own challenges juggling fuel, repairs, and monitoring all those ships. Fortunately, the freighter command center simplifies greatly:
Monitor entire frigate fleet operations from the freighter bridge
- Fleet Command Room: Dispatches missions, check statuses, and collect rewards
- Orbital Expeditions: Doubles maximum frigate fleet size
- Longitudinal Integrity: Reduces fleet fuel costs 20%
Together these upgrades enable easily coordinating an armada of ships harvesting profits to funnel automatically back to the freighter vaults.
Just set expeditions, supply fuel cells, perform repairs or maintenance, improve efficiencies, and let the passive income roll in!
Step 7: Constructing Interiors with Creative Base Building
With storage and hyperjumps upgraded, the interior offers space for creativity:
Amazing blended indoor/outdoor freighter base design by Reddit user u/EdVintage
Remodel uniforms metal prefabs into sprawling custom layouts. Texture combinations across metals, concrete and wood, lit dramatically, make distinctive zones. Glitch build merged subrooms for weird menageries hiding treasures, artifacts, and trophies hauled home from adventures abroad.
Fill space with hydroponic trays stacking towards ceilings, automated mineral processing centers, decoration combinations achieving maximum comfort for rested crews.
Or leave platform zones open as receiving warehouses for container storage bulkheads hauling material extracted from colony mines back homebase refine and sale.
Hang glowing exploration mementos along stairwell descent to subaquatic observation lounges displaying vibrant assortments of companion pets acquired across many worlds.
Build merchant bazaar trader expos where players flit between lively multicultural booths inspecting imaginative handicrafts brought from other galaxies.
As mobile base, freighters enable worldbuilding limited only by imagination!
To spur inspiration, here’s some creative builds to consider:
Vertical Hydroponics Lab
Stack trays of circuit boards towards ceilings as automated income generators
Alien Life Research Vessel
Submarine bays house aquariums of pets from procedural worlds
Intergalactic Merchant Market
Players gather to trade rare goods in lively bazaar
Planetary Expedition Planning Room
Launch pad and consumable stocks support far exploration
Observatory Celestial Map
Towers map stars, highlight premium mining hotspots
The possibilities aboard these mobile bases are endless!
And remember, upgrading freighter capabilities directly enables these more creative builds:
- Storage bulkheads provide flexibility arranging structural parts
- Hyperdrive range allows gathering more exotic decorative elements from distant systems
- Instant matter transport keeps needed construction materials in supply
So blast open those cargo pods, redeem modules for key upgrades, and start visioning your perfect interstellar freighter base!
Wrapping Up
Transforming freighters from barebones bases into Storage-maximized Explorer Platforms requires effort – battling fleets for salvaged modules, millions of units and sweat equity designing unique interiors.
But rewards manifest in heightened freedom wandering the stars:
- Greatly expanded jump distance removes restrictions only able to access mundane yellow systems
- Vastly increased inventory space fosters amassing armadas generating passive income which funds still greater exploration
- Instant matter transport from surface bases to freighter vaults enables tackling community megabuilds across entire planets
- Custom internal remodels provide satisfying showrooms displaying rare and wondrous artifacts retrieved from ancient alien ruins scattered across the procedural galaxies
By consolidating control of operations aboard these mobile headquarters, the merry voyage through No Man Sky‘s endless worlds flows smoother.
So whether you envision Ornate Alien Art Expos, Hydroponic Dragonfruit Plantations or just maximize storage hauling mineral harvests from colony mines, upgrading the freighter enables achieving your goals amongst the stars!
Fly dangerous out there fellow travelers…but fly upgraded and prepared!
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions on maxing out your freighter? Here’s quick answers to some common ones:
How many total inventory slots can my freighter have?
Freighters can be expanded to have 120 cargo, 60 tech, 10 storage containers (100 slots worth), and 30 frigate fleet size.
What‘s the fastest way to obtain an S-Class freighter?
Use economy scanners to find wealthy T3 systems and camp space station battles, reloading until S-Class variant spawns.
Which upgrade increases my hyperdrive range the most?
The Indium drive paired with freighter hyperdrive trails from BoltCaster + Pulse Spitter (nanites to S-class) enables 1200+ LY range.
Where can I find salvaged freighter modules?
Best sources are from derelict freighters, attacking cargo pods, mission rewards, or frigate loot.
I appreciate you joining me aboard this deep dive into juicing up our freighters! Anything else I can clarify on these versatile mobile bases? Their capabilities empower whatever dreams you chase amongst the stars. Godspeed Interlopers!