No Man’s Sky has improved in leaps and bounds since its launch back in 2016 with incredible support from HelloGames who have been releasing a steady and constant stream of free updates for the game. The most recent update, titled “Orbital” added the most requested feature players have been clamoring for since the game launched which is the ability to build and customise your own starships… which can be a daunting exercise when first docking in the new Space Stations (which were also overhauled with Orbital.) Never fear, as I’m here to help guide you as I myself had to stumble around a little bit to figure out how it’s done. This is my first guide, so I appreciate all feedback good and bad to improve on the next one. Let’s get building!
Head to your nearest Space Station to get started. Ship Construction in No Man’s Sky is handled by breaking down existing ships for customisation modules, meaning you will have to find the ship types you like, purchase them, and then disassemble them earning one type of customisation module at a time. You can also find modules by salvaging wrecked ships on planets, which is more time-consuming but cost-effective. While this sounds tedious, it still keeps ship hunting relevant as many Facebook Groups are set up to build communities sharing different ship locations via the portal system.
Customisation modules consist of Wings, Thrusters, and the Cockpit that you can collect, with the Explorer-type ships allowing you to collect both left and right wings for further customisation. Each module collected goes into your inventory and can only be used once, meaning you will have to recollect a module once you have used it in your customisation.
Let’s start with Extracting Customisation Modules
To extract customisation modules, purchase or bring your chosen ship to a space station and head to the back where you will see the ship teardown computer to the left of the main build area. This is the same area where you used to break down ships for modules to sell for nanites, which you can still do, and most likely will need to for the nanites to purchase a reactor. From the interface, select “Begin Salvage Analysis” and select which part you want to extract, keeping in mind you only get one module per ship making it a cost-intensive exercise. Repeat this process until you have the parts you want to be able to create a new fighter, explorer, or hauler.
Where do you get Starship Reactors From?
Once you have enough customisation parts to create your ship, you will need a Reactor that can be purchased for nanites. If budget is an issue, you can purchase a C-class reactor, or any other class up to S, significantly increasing in nanites the higher quality you go. The quality of the reactor will affect the stats of your ship, so choose wisely! You purchase the reactor from the Starship Module merchant and you also can get a significant discount depending on your standing with the specific faction. In this guide, I was at a Vykeen run station in good standing and received a 15% discount. The discount can go even higher so don’t be afraid to grind some missions with the locals to improve standings.
Building the Ship
Once you have all of your parts and reactor, it’s finally time to build the ship. To do so, head to the Starship Fabricator panel at the back of the Station. From here you can press L or R to cycle through ship types that are fighter, hauler, and explorer. You then select your parts to customise the look of your ship. Your stats will be constantly varying in the top right corner of your screen, these appear to be completely random and don’t coincide with when you press the complete button. Once you have placed your customisation modules you can then select your colour scheme and colours which work in the same was as customising your armour. You can select a primary, secondary, and highlight colour to make the ship completely unique to your style!
We have lift-off!
Now that your ship is complete, you can enter it from the fabrication and despite its precarious positioning, you can take off and head out into space! Don’t forget to equip your modules and upgrade your ship before battling space pirates or taking on the galaxy!
If this guide was handy for you, please let me know, and if you have any suggestions as to how I could make these sort of guides better, I love constructive criticism! All the best, Travellers!
