When I first booted up No Man’s Sky years ago, my starting fighter came with a drab brown and orange paint job that looked like it had been fished out of a scrapyard. I spent 45 minutes poking around every menu in the space station trying to change it, with no luck, before a random passing player pointed me to the ship customization terminal tucked behind the tech merchant. If you’ve ever felt the same frustration trying to make your ship feel less generic and more yours, this guide is for you. We’re covering every part of how to customize your ship in No Man’s Sky, from cheap cosmetic tweaks to game-changing performance upgrades, so you can build a ride that fits exactly how you play.
Pre-Requisites to Customize Your Ship in No Man’s Sky
Before you start picking out paint colors or upgrade modules, you only need a few key things to access all customization options. First, you’ll need to find a Ship Customization Terminal, which is available at every major space station, most large planetary settlements, and you can even build one on your freighter or personal base if you have the right blueprints. You don’t have to own a high-end exotic ship to customize it, even the beat-up starting hauler you get in the first hour of the game can get a full makeover for a low cost. If you’re playing in survival or permadeath mode, it’s a good idea to stock up on a few hundred Ferrite Dust before you head to a remote settlement terminal, just in case you need to repair it to gain access. You don’t need any special quest progress to unlock customization either, so new players can tweak their ship as soon as they reach their first space station.
Core Cosmetic Customization Options to Personalize Your Ride
Cosmetic tweaks are the easiest way to make your ship stand out, and most of them are cheap enough that you can afford them even if you only have a few hundred Nanites saved up. You can mix and match as many options as you want, and you can change them any time you visit a terminal for no extra cost, so don’t be afraid to experiment with wild color combinations. The main cosmetic options you can choose from include:
- Primary and secondary color palettes: Choose from over 100 pre-made hues or mix custom RGB values for an exact match to your favorite color scheme, whether that’s neon pink and white or subtle matte black and gray
- Decals and emblems: Unlock faction logos, expedition rewards, and community event badges to show off your in-game accomplishments, like beating a tough expedition or reaching the center of the galaxy
- Engine trail effects: Swap default blue trails for neon pink, gold, black smoke, or even bioluminescent green trails that glow brightly when you’re flying through dark space or uncharted systems
- Cockpit customizations: Change seat colors, add dashboard stickers, and install custom ambient lighting to make long hyperdrive trips feel more comfortable, especially if you’re flying for hours between distant systems
Most cosmetic customization options cost between 50 and 500 Nanites each, so you won’t blow your entire stock on a single paint job. I once spent 20 minutes mixing a custom lavender and gold palette for my S-class explorer ship, and I still get random compliments on it from other players when I land in crowded space stations. You can also unlock rare cosmetic options by completing expeditions, so if you see a limited-time event running, it’s worth jumping in to grab exclusive decals or trail effects you can’t get any other way.
Functional Customizations That Boost Performance Alongside Looks
Customization doesn’t stop at looks, you can also tweak your ship’s parts to make it faster, tougher, or able to carry more cargo, depending on what you use it for. If you’re mostly an explorer, you’ll want to prioritize hyperdrive range upgrades to jump further between systems. If you do a lot of pirate hunting or sentinel fights, extra shield and weapon damage upgrades are a must. You can install up to 3 upgrade modules of the same type for maximum stat boosts, but make sure they’re placed adjacent to each other in your ship’s inventory to unlock the full set bonus, which can add an extra 30% to the upgrade’s effect. Illegal upgrade modules give 20% higher stat boosts than legal ones, but they come with a big catch: if you get scanned by sentinel ships or space station authorities in regulated systems, you’ll get hit with a hefty fine, or even attacked if you can’t pay. I learned that the hard way a few years back, when I had three illegal shield upgrades on my freighter and got scanned by a sentinel squadron. I lost 200,000 Units in fines before I could warp out, and I had to scrap all the upgrades to avoid getting targeted again. It’s only worth using illegal parts if you spend most of your time in uncharted or pirate-controlled systems where no one will scan you.
Common Ship Customization Mistakes to Avoid
Even veteran players make simple mistakes when customizing their ships that waste time or resources, but most of these are easy to avoid if you know what to look for. The biggest mistake new players make is forgetting to save their custom preset before switching to a new ship, which means you’ll have to redo all your color and decal work from scratch. If you’re still learning how to customize your ship in No Man’s Sky, it’s easy to overlook the preset save feature, but it’s one of the most useful tools in the terminal. You can save up to 10 custom ship presets for free directly in the customization terminal, so you can swap between color schemes for different activities, like a stealthy all-black paint job for pirate raids and a bright high-visibility orange scheme for exploration trips where you want to spot your ship easily on harsh planets. Another common mistake is stacking upgrade modules of the same type far apart from each other in your inventory, which means you miss out on the big adjacent set bonus. You also don’t want to spend all your Nanites on cosmetics before you unlock essential upgrades, like a better hyperdrive or extra cargo slots, because those will make your gameplay far smoother than a fancy paint job will early on. So if you’re a new player, prioritize unlocking those basic performance upgrades first, then spend leftover Nanites on cosmetic tweaks once you’re comfortable with your ship’s core capabilities.
Your ship is your constant companion as you travel across No Man’s Sky’s nearly infinite galaxy, so putting time into making it feel like your own makes every trip, from short runs to nearby planets to long cross-galaxy expeditions, feel far more personal. You don’t have to go all out with a full custom paint job and maxed out upgrades either, even small changes like a fun engine trail or a faction decal can make your ship feel less generic. Whether you’re a new player just learning how to customize your ship in No Man’s Sky or a veteran looking to refresh your ride for your next big adventure, the only limit is your creativity. Next time you’re docked at a space station, stop by the customization terminal and try out a few tweaks—you might be surprised how much of a difference it makes to your gameplay.
