If you’ve spent dozens of hours hopping between star systems and collecting rare resources, you’ve probably asked: can you build ships in No Man’s Sky? For a long time, the answer was a hard no, but years of free updates have changed almost every core mechanic of the game, including how you acquire and modify your vessels. I’ve put over 300 hours into the game since its launch, and I’ve tested every possible method to get a custom ship that fits my exact playstyle, so I’m breaking down exactly what’s possible, what’s not, and how to get the ship of your dreams without grinding for hundreds of hours.
Can You Build Ships in No Man’s Sky From Scratch?
First, let’s get the most common question out of the way for vanilla players: you can’t build a complete ship from individual hull parts in the unmodded version of the game. Unlike base building, where you place every wall and decoration one by one, ship acquisition in vanilla relies on finding existing ships you can purchase, salvage, or earn through missions. That doesn’t mean you’re stuck with generic vessels, though. You can modify almost every functional and cosmetic part of any ship you own, to the point where it feels like a fully custom build you designed yourself.
Modded players have far more freedom, with fan-made tools that let you build every part of your ship from the frame to the thrusters, no pre-existing base vessel required. If you play strictly vanilla, think of ship building as heavy customization rather than full from-scratch construction. You won’t be welding individual metal panels together, but you will end up with a ship that looks and performs exactly how you want it to, which is what most players are actually looking for when they ask about ship building.
Core Customization Options for Vanilla No Man’s Sky Ships
Once you have a ship that has the hull shape you like, you have full control over its performance and visual details. The first thing most players tweak is the ship’s inventory and upgrade slots, which determine how much cargo you can carry and how well your ship performs in combat, hyperspace travel, and planetary flight. You can add new slots by spending nanites at a ship upgrade terminal, or by salvaging other broken ships you find on planetary surfaces.
Next, you can change your ship’s color scheme entirely, with thousands of possible color combinations for every part of the hull, including accents, thrusters, and cockpit frames. You can find new color palettes by purchasing them from space station vendors, or by earning them as rewards for community missions. You can also swap out specific functional parts like hyperdrives, shield generators, and weapon systems to tailor your ship to your preferred playstyle. For example, if you spend most of your time exploring uncharted systems, you can prioritize long-range hyperdrives and extra cargo slots for rare resources. If you prefer pirating and combat, you can stack damage upgrades for your ship’s cannons and heavy shield boosters to survive dogfights with sentinel fleets.
All the available vanilla customization options let you make any base ship feel completely your own:
You don’t have to stick to one setup either, you can swap out modules and change your ship’s color any time you land at a space station, so you can adjust your build whenever you switch up your playstyle.
How to Get a “Custom Built” Ship in Vanilla
Since you can’t build a ship from scratch in vanilla, the first step to getting your ideal vessel is finding a base ship with the hull shape and size you prefer. Different ship types have fixed hull styles: fighters are sleek and small, haulers are bulky with large cargo capacities, explorers have long range and extra scanning bonuses, and shuttles are balanced all-rounders. You can find ships landing at space stations, trade outposts, and settlements in every star system, and you can purchase them if you have enough units or nanites.
The best way to get a high-quality base ship for cheap is to salvage crashed ships you find on planetary surfaces using your signal scanner. Crashed ships only cost a small amount of resources to repair, and you can often find S-class ships this way without spending millions of units. It’s not uncommon to find crashed S-class haulers with 40+ base slots just lying abandoned on frozen or radioactive planets, if you’re willing to spend 20 or 30 minutes scanning for signals.
Once you have your base hull, take it to a space station upgrade terminal to expand its slots, then add your preferred technology modules and customize its color scheme to match your taste. I’ve done this dozens of times, and I’ve ended up with ships that look and perform exactly how I want, even without full from-scratch building tools. It takes a few hours of hunting for the right base hull, but it’s well worth the effort when you’re flying a ship that feels entirely yours. One thing to keep in mind: some rare hull styles only spawn in specific star system types, so if you’re looking for a very specific ship design, you may have to travel to a few different systems before you find it.
Modded Options for Full Ship Building
If you play No Man’s Sky on PC and don’t mind using mods, the answer to can you build ships in No Man’s Sky is a definitive yes. There are several popular, well-supported mods that let you build a ship entirely from scratch, choosing every individual part from the frame to the cockpit to the weapon mounts. These mods work seamlessly with most other quality of life mods, and you can still use your custom built ships in single player without any issues.
Most ship building mods let you export your custom designs to share with other players, so you can download pre-made builds from the community if you don’t want to design one yourself. The community has created thousands of incredible custom ship designs, from tiny one-person fighters to massive capital ships that are bigger than most space stations, and most of them are free to download and use.
There are a few caveats to keep in mind if you use modded ship building, though. Custom ships won’t work in official multiplayer servers unless all players in the lobby have the same mods installed, and you run the risk of breaking your save file if you don’t install mods correctly. Always back up your save files before installing any ship building mods, and only download mods from trusted community sources to avoid malware or broken files. I’ve used ship building mods for over a year now, and I haven’t run into any issues as long as I follow those basic rules, and it’s incredibly fun to fly a ship that you designed every part of.
At the end of the day, whether you play vanilla or modded, the answer to can you build ships in No Man’s Sky depends on how you define “build”. Vanilla players can customize every functional and cosmetic part of their vessels to make them feel completely unique, while modded players can build fully custom ships from the ground up. Either way, you don’t have to settle for a generic ship that doesn’t fit your playstyle, and with a little bit of time and effort, you can get the exact vessel you want to explore the galaxy with. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different color schemes and upgrade setups to find what works best for you.
