How to get a freighter in No Man’s Sky

Freighters in No Man’s Sky open a whole new range of features and mechanics to have fun with. From building a base on the capital ship to assembling a fleet of frigates and sending them out on expeditions to find rare loot, there’s a lot you can do.

You can only own one freighter at a time, but there are ways to expand and upgrade it. For example, Salvaged Frigate Modules unlock new rooms and structures you can build on the freighter, similar to Salvaged Data and regular blueprints.

Here’s everything you need to know about getting a freighter in No Man’s Sky.

How to get a freighter in No Man’s Sky

Save the freighter from pirates

To get a freighter, you must warp to different systems until you encounter a Space Rescue encounter. Sometimes, when you exit the warp jump, you may end up in the middle of a fight between the civilian fleet and pirates.

Defeat the pirates, and the freighter’s captain will invite you aboard. Board the freighter and head to the bridge to talk to the captain. Here, you can choose to inspect the freighter and then claim it. The first freighter you get is free, but all the following ones cost Units.

Finding your perfect freighter may take some time, so here’s how you can optimize the search without waiting for the event’s cooldown:

1. Start warping to other systems and save before every jump until you find the event. This works best after you haven’t played or jumped in a while to ensure three hours have passed.
2. Complete the event and inspect the freighter.
3. Claim it if you like it, or reload the save (use the restore point and not the auto-save) and travel to a different system.

Different systems have different freighters, so as long as you have a save right before the warp jump that’ll trigger the event, you can keep reloading and jumping until you find the one you want. You can also focus on warping to systems with strong economies for a chance to find better freighters.

Buy the freighter

Alternatively, you can buy the freighter directly from the nearby fleet, but that costs a bunch of Units. Whenever you’re in space, approach a nearby fleet (a purple rectangle on the radar) and see if they have a boardable capital ship marked with a white freighter icon. Board the ship and talk to the captain on the bridge to offer them to buy the freighter.

If you don’t like it, fly a little forward using your Pulse Engine to spawn another set of fleets. Just like with Space Rescue, you can travel to systems with strong economies for better freighters.

How to get a Pirate Dreadnaught in No Man’s Sky

Apart from regular freighters, you can also get your hands on a Pirate Dreadnought in No Man’s Sky. This is a large black and red cruiser (similar in design to Atlas stations) with multiple cannons and turrets around its hull.

The process of acquiring a Dreadnought is similar. When warping to different systems, you may encounter a Dreadnought battle. Pirate systems and systems with high conflict levels have higher chances of spawning a Dreadnought battle. You also must own a regular freighter for this event to appear.

You must defeat the Dreadnought and save the civilian fleet. However, you can also focus solely on the Dreadnought if you don’t care about the additional rewards.

Here’s how to defeat the Dreadnought:

1. Fly under the shields in the back and destroy all warp drives, or the Dreadnought will escape.
2. Fly through the trenches on both sides of the ship while destroying the Freighter Shield Generators and the red rods that pop up after.
3. Destroy all the generators and the rods for the ship to surrender.
   • Alternatively, you can focus on destroying the Anti-Freighter Cannons.

You’ll get a message that the Dreadnought has surrendered. Similarly to regular freighters, you can board and seize it or finish it off for a bounty. You can also recruit pirate frigates to add to your fleet during this time.