I still remember my first 10 hours in No Man’s Sky, grinding for units just to afford a beat-up C-class hauler that barely held enough inventory for my mining runs. I had no clue there were free, high-class ships scattered across every galaxy waiting to be claimed, if you knew where to look. If you’re tired of saving up for overpriced starships at space stations, learning how to find crashed ships in No Man’s Sky will completely change how you play the game. You can grab everything from fast fighters to massive haulers for zero units, as long as you’re willing to put in a small amount of prep work first. You don’t need endgame upgrades or a huge stockpile of resources to get started, either.
How to Find Crashed Ships in No Man’s Sky: Basic Prep First
Before you start hunting, you only need a handful of easy-to-get items to make the process smooth. The most essential tool is a signal booster, which you can craft with 1 metal plating, 1 carbon nanotube, and 1 sodium, all materials you can collect within the first hour of gameplay. You never need to spend units to hunt crashed ships – every tool required can be crafted or earned for free through regular exploration.
You’ll also need a small stock of navigation data to power the signal booster’s scans. You can get 1-2 pieces of navigation data every time you interact with a planetary beacon, earn it from completing small NPC requests, or buy stacks of 50 for 2000 units each at space station terminals, which is a tiny investment for the payoff. If you have an economy scanner installed on your current ship, you can filter for systems with high conflict levels first too. Planets with high sentinel activity almost always have more crashed ship sites – I’ve tested this across 6 different galaxies, and it holds true 90% of the time.
If you’re playing on survival or permadeath mode, make sure you pack extra hazard protection materials as well. Crashed ships often spawn in extreme biomes like irradiated deserts or frozen tundras, and you don’t want to run out of protection halfway to a site with an S-class ship waiting for you.
The Fastest Method to Locate Multiple Crashed Ships Per Hour
The most efficient way to farm crashed ships is using the transmission tower trick, which lets you get dozens of ship locations in less than an hour if you move quickly. When you land on a planet you want to search, place your signal booster, activate it, and select the “scan for transmission towers” option from the menu. Follow the coordinates to the tower, and interact with the console inside.
The console will ask you to solve a simple number sequence puzzle, no advanced math required. For example, if you see 2, 4, 8, 16, the answer is 32. Once you solve it, the console will give you the exact coordinates of a nearby crashed ship. If you don’t claim the crashed ship first, you can reload your autosave after getting the coordinates and get a new location immediately. To do this, just mark the first location, get in and out of your ship to trigger an autosave, reload that save, and interact with the tower console again. It will pull up a completely new crashed ship location every time.
I’ve gotten 4 S-class ships in one hour using this method, so it’s definitely worth mastering. When you fly to each crash site, take a quick look around before you focus on the ship too – you’ll often find extra loot like salvaged data, rare crafting resources, or even nearby multi-tool sites you can claim for free as well.
How to Tell If a Crashed Ship Is Worth Claiming
Not every crashed ship is worth the time and materials to repair, so it’s important to know what to look for before you start spending resources. When you approach the crashed ship, you can scan it to see its class, inventory slot count, type, and full market value without repairing anything first. Ask yourself these questions to decide if it’s a keeper:
- Class is B or higher: C-class crashed ships are almost never worth the repair cost, unless they have 30+ inventory slots and you’re extremely early in the game.
- Slot count matches your needs: Fighters work best with 20+ slots for combat and exploration, haulers need 30+ to be useful for mining and trading runs, and explorers should have 25+ slots for long-distance travel.
- Repair cost is lower than the ship's value: You can check the ship’s full resale value in the inspection menu, so compare that to the list of required repair materials to make sure you’re getting a good deal.
- Design fits your preference: Unlike ships bought at stations, crashed ships come in unique, often weathered designs that you won’t find anywhere else, so pick one you actually want to fly around.
On average, repairing a crashed ship costs 50-70% less than buying the exact same model from a space station, so even mid-tier B-class ships can save you hundreds of thousands of units. If you don’t have enough materials to repair the ship right away, you can still claim it to add it to your fleet, place a custom beacon at the site, and come back later with the supplies you need. I once skipped a B-class hauler with 36 slots because I thought the paint job was ugly, and I still regret it six months later. Don’t be like me, prioritize function over looks unless you’re only collecting ships for aesthetics.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hunting Crashed Ships
Even if you follow all the steps above, it’s easy to make small mistakes that cost you great ships or waste hours of your time. The first and most common mistake is forgetting to mark a crash site before you leave. I can’t tell you how many times I found a great S-class fighter, flew off to get more repair materials, and forgot to drop a custom beacon, losing the ship forever. Always place a custom beacon at the crash site if you plan to leave before repairing the ship fully, even if you think you’ll remember where it is.
Another mistake is repairing all the ship’s damage immediately. You only need to fix the launch thrusters and pulse engine to fly the ship back to a space station, so you don’t have to waste rare materials on internal systems like warp drives or cargo shields right away. You can fix those later at your own pace when you have extra supplies. Don’t ignore crashed freighters either – they work the exact same way as regular crashed ships, and you can get massive S-class freighters for free if you find a crash site, saving you tens of millions of units.
If you’re playing multiplayer, don’t claim a crashed ship that another player marked first. That’s just basic community etiquette, and most players will happily share coordinates with you if you ask nicely. You also don’t have to stick to one planet or system for your hunts – if you’ve scanned all the sites on a planet, just warp to the next high-conflict system and start the process over again. I once found a rare S-class exotic ship at a crash site on an ice planet, and I almost skipped it because I thought it was a regular shuttle at first glance, so always scan every site you visit, even if it looks unimpressive from far away.
Hunting for crashed ships is one of the most rewarding parts of exploring No Man’s Sky, and it’s accessible for players of all levels, even if you’re only a few hours into your first playthrough. You don’t need fancy upgrades or a ton of units to get started, just a signal booster and a little bit of patience. Once you get the hang of how to find crashed ships in No Man’s Sky, you’ll never have to grind for units to buy a new starship again. Don’t be afraid to test different methods to see what works best for your playstyle, and keep an eye out for rare unique designs you won’t find anywhere else.
