If you’ve spent any time zipping between star systems in No Man’s Sky, you’ve probably stared at a pre-built ship for sale at a space station and thought, “I could make something way better.” Learning how to build a ship in No Man’s Sky doesn’t just give you a ride that fits your playstyle—it also lets you skip the insane credit costs of high-tier pre-made ships and tailor every part to your exploration, combat, or trading needs. I’ve spent over 200 hours tinkering with ship builds in the game, and I’ve broken down the entire process into simple, no-fuss steps that work for brand new players and veteran travelers alike. You don’t need to grind for dozens of hours to get a great custom ship, either—many of the best parts are easy to source once you know where to look.
What You Need Before You Start Building a Ship in No Man’s Sky
Before you start picking out hull shapes and engine colors, you’ll need to tick a few off-screen boxes to access the ship building system. None of these are locked behind late-game content, so you can get started within your first 10 hours of play if you prioritize base building first. The core requirements are:
- A fully constructed Base Computer and Ship Customization Terminal at a permanent base, or access to a terminal at a friendly space station or player settlement
- At least 50,000 Units of storage space on your current ship or base inventory to hold building parts and resources
- Unlocked Starship Research Nodes from the Construction Research Unit, which cost Salvaged Data you can dig up from ancient burial sites on most planets
- A class C or higher base ship to modify, or a blank ship hull you can purchase from minor settlements for around 1 million Units
If you don’t have Salvaged Data on hand, don’t panic. You can farm 10 to 20 pieces per hour by using your Analysis Visor to scan for glowing orange burial sites on any forest or frozen planet, and most core ship parts only cost 1 to 5 Salvaged Data each to unlock. I’d recommend skipping the fancy decorative parts first and unlocking performance upgrades first—those make a far bigger difference in how your ship handles right out of the gate.
Step-by-Step Process to Assemble Your Perfect Custom Ship
Once you have all your prerequisites sorted, head to your Ship Customization Terminal and select the “Build New Ship” option to pull up the editor. The interface is pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it, but there are a few hidden features that aren’t explained in the in-game tutorial. First, pick your core hull type, which will determine how many upgrade slots your final ship has. Fighter hulls have the most combat slots, explorer hulls have the most warp drive slots, hauler hulls have the most cargo space, and shuttle hulls have a balanced mix of all three. You can’t change the hull type later, so pick one that aligns with your main playstyle—if you spend most of your time trading rare resources, a hauler hull is way more useful than a fighter, for example.
After you pick your hull, you can add parts like wings, engines, cargo pods, and weapon mounts to the empty attachment points on the frame. Every part you add will change your ship’s stats, so keep an eye on the stat bar at the top of the screen as you build. Adding extra thrusters will boost your maneuverability in atmosphere, but they’ll also increase your ship’s fuel consumption during warp jumps. Adding extra cargo pods will give you more storage space, but they’ll make your ship slower and less agile during dogfights with pirates. I usually test a few different part combinations before settling on a final build—you can remove parts for no cost if you don’t like how they affect your stats, so don’t be afraid to experiment.
Once you’re happy with the frame and parts, you can customize the paint job, decals, and lighting to make your ship feel truly yours. There are hundreds of color combinations and decals to unlock, most of which you can get from completing Nexus missions or finding them in hidden caches on derelict freighters. You can change cosmetic parts at any time for free, so you don’t have to worry about locking yourself into a paint job you’ll hate a week later.
How to Source Rare Parts to Upgrade Your Ship Performance
Basic ship parts are easy to unlock with Salvaged Data, but if you want a ship that can survive deep space exploration or high-level pirate ambushes, you’ll need to track down rare upgrade parts. These parts aren’t available in the standard Construction Research Unit, so you’ll need to hunt for them in specific locations across the galaxy. The fastest way to get rare combat upgrades is to clear out pirate camps on hostile planets—each camp you clear will drop a random S-class ship weapon or shield upgrade, most of which are 20 to 30% more effective than standard A-class parts.
If you’re looking for rare warp drive upgrades that let you jump to red, green, and blue star systems, you can get them from completing missions for the Korvax faction, or from looting derelict freighters. Derelict freighters have the highest chance of dropping S-class warp drive upgrades, but you’ll need to bring plenty of hazard protection and ammo to fight off the hostile creatures that spawn inside them. I usually bring at least 3 stacks of ion batteries and 2 stacks of ammo for my multi-tool whenever I head into a derelict freighter, just to be safe.
You can also buy rare parts from high-tier traders at space stations in wealthy systems, but they’re usually extremely expensive—expect to pay between 2 and 5 million Units for a single S-class upgrade. If you don’t have that much cash on hand, farming pirate camps is a far more cost-effective option, and you’ll get plenty of extra loot you can sell for extra Units along the way. Just make sure you don’t accidentally attack a friendly civilian ship while you’re hunting pirates, or you’ll get a bounty that will make system authorities attack you on sight for hours.
Common Ship Building Mistakes to Avoid
I’ve made plenty of dumb mistakes while building ships over the years, so I know exactly what pitfalls to watch out for when you’re putting together your first custom build. The most common mistake new players make is adding too many decorative parts that don’t serve any functional purpose. Every part you add adds weight to your ship, so piling on 10 extra decorative wings will make your ship so slow you’ll barely be able to outrun pirate attacks, even with top-tier thrusters. Limit decorative parts to 2 or 3 per build unless you’re making a ship purely for display purposes and don’t care about performance.
Another common mistake is ignoring your ship’s power draw when adding upgrades. Every upgrade part you install uses a small amount of ship power, and if you exceed your ship’s maximum power capacity, some upgrades will stop working entirely. You can check your power usage in the stat bar at the top of the customization screen, so make sure you leave at least 10% extra power capacity for future upgrades you might want to add later. I’ve had to scrap entire builds before because I filled all my power slots with low-tier upgrades early on, and had no room to add better parts later without removing half my existing upgrades.
Finally, don’t forget to register your new ship at a space station terminal once you finish building it. If you don’t register it, you won’t be able to call it to your location using your quick menu, and you’ll lose it permanently if you leave it parked on a planet and buy another ship from a trader. Registration only costs 10,000 Units, so it’s a tiny cost to avoid losing hours of hard work on your custom build.
Building a custom ship is one of the most rewarding parts of playing No Man’s Sky, and once you get the hang of the system, you’ll never want to buy a pre-built ship from a space station again. Whether you want a fast fighter to take down pirate fleets, a massive hauler to carry thousands of Units worth of trade goods, or a sleek explorer to reach the farthest corners of the galaxy, you can build exactly what you need with a little bit of research and resource farming. Now that you know how to build a ship in No Man’s Sky, all that’s left is to boot up the game, gather your resources, and start building the ride of your interstellar dreams.
