Freighters in No Man's Sky are wonderful acquisition. These gigantic ships are like a home base, a storage container, a unit-farming machine, and a greenhouse all rolled into one — plus more! Freighters are mainly meant as a place to store additional items, but they have many other functions as well, and they should be near the top of a player's priority list in No Man's Sky.
A No Man's Sky Freighter isn't cheap, though, costing millions of units at minimum and upward of almost 200 million units at most. However, there is a way to get a freighter for free. Whether you're rich and looking for a top-tier freighter, or just one that's good enough for now, we've got you covered.
What Are Freighters For?
Before sinking millions of units into a freighter, it's best to know what they're for. Here's a quick rundown of some of the uses a freighter has:
- Starship storage
- Item storage
- Building a base
- Farming
- Frigate expeditions
- Summoning exocraft
Primarily, freighters are a place to store extra items. Each provides a massive number of storage slots, up to nine pages of additional storage on top of the initial free page. Freighters come equipped with the first page, and additional pages can be added by building storage rooms.
Speaking of building rooms, it's important to note that bases can be built on freighters. Not every structure that can be used for a standard base can be used, but freighters do have their own building parts. Hallways, large rooms, and ramps can all be used to create an enormous floating base several stories high. Terminals, teleporters, farming equipment, decorative pieces, and more can all be built in the freighter base.
Interestingly, there are two special freighter rooms that players should build: the Fleet Command Rooms and Orbital Exocraft Materialiser.
- The Exocraft Materialiser has a simple but very useful function: it allows the player to summon an exocraft on any planet as long as their freighter is in the same system.
- The Fleet Command Rooms are less simple but arguably the most useful part of a freighter. Building a Fleet Command Room allows the player to send frigates on expeditions of different natures. Frigates will return after certain time periods with a ton of items, units, and more.
One other use for a freighter is starship storage. Each freighter comes equipped with a handful of "parking spaces" for starships, allowing the player to collect more than one and have a place to keep them.
How To Buy A Freighter
Buying a NMS freighter is very simple, but it can be very expensive. If a player is in the market to buy a freighter, it's easy: simply fly up to one floating in space and board it, then speak to the captain. The captain will show the price and allow the player to compare to their current freighter if they have one. From here, it's as simple as clicking purchase and handing over the cash. That freighter is now under the ownership and command of the player.
Only one freighter can be owned by the player at a time. This means that an existing freighter will disappear when a new one is purchased. However, all storage, frigates, and built bases will automatically transfer over. Sadly, any upgrades or installed tech will not be transferred.
Buying a freighter is easier than finding one, unfortunately. It's not extremely difficult to find them, but sometimes it can take jumping through a few systems before one pops up (or before a half-decent one does). Any freighter that is available for purchase will have the freighter icon on it, as seen in the above image. Those that can't be purchased won't have the icon.
Speaking to the captain of a freighter is not necessary to evaluate it. After landing in its docking bay, the important stats can be seen by using the Analysis Visor. This can save time when shopping around. This is visible in the image below:
How To Get A Free Freighter
Too low on units to buy a freighter? Never fear — there is a way to get one for free. Here's how, at a glance:
1. Jump systems until a distress call comes through regarding a freighter under attack
Typically, a freighter battle against pirates will be found after five jumps. Jumping systems as part of the Atlas Path questline can often trigger this, too. However, these space battles cannot happen more frequently than every three in-game hours, so jumping rapidly between systems to find a battle will not work.
2. Defeat the pirates attacking the freighter
This part is fairly straightforward. Attack the pirates until all of them are defeated. Be sure to check the in-game message to see how many pirates remain.
3. Board the freighter and speak with the captain
After the pirates are defeated, the captain will call the player's intercom and ask them to come aboard so they can offer their thanks. Simply fly toward the blue docking light and land, then head up to the stairs and into the bridge where the captain is waiting.
4. Accept or decline the freighter
From here, the freighter can be accepted as thanks. However, the player should consider declining the first one they find, and there's an important reason for this that the game doesn't mention: The second free freighter offered to the player will always be better than the first.
The first free freighter will have 19 storage slots max and be a standard class freighter. By turning it down and requesting payment instead (or just leaving without payment), the player can repeat this process until they trigger a second battle and are offered a second freighter. This one will be a capital freighter with at least 24 storage slots. Capital freighters are, in general, better than standard freighters.
That's it! Whether purchased or earned for protecting the freighter from pirates, the player will now have a massive ship that they can use for a wide variety of purposes. A No Man's Sky freighter is well worth the money or effort expended to find it.
No Man's Sky is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.