If you’ve ever trekked 20 minutes across a toxic No Man’s Sky planet just to grab a rare mineral, only to get caught in a sudden storm and lose half your inventory before you make it back to base, you know how game-changing a reliable vehicle is. Figuring out how to get exocrafts in No Man’s Sky is one of the best early-game upgrades you can prioritize, whether you’re a new player just finishing the first tutorial missions or a veteran exploring uncharted galaxies. Exocrafts don’t just cut down travel time—they come with built-in storage, hazard protection that doesn’t drain your life support, and even combat capabilities to fend off hostile sentinels or local fauna. I’ve put 400+ hours into the game across multiple updates, and I still unlock every exocraft first whenever I start a new save file.
How to Get Exocrafts in No Man’s Sky: First Unlock Steps
The first exocraft most players unlock is the Roamer, a nimble all-terrain buggy that works well on 90% of planet types. You don’t need to complete any special story missions to unlock it, but you will need to have access to the Construction Research Station on the Space Anomaly first. That unlocks after you finish the first three Awakenings missions and build your first base computer, so you can get this done within your first 5 hours of gameplay if you prioritize it. Once you’re at the Construction Research Station, head to the Exocraft tab and spend 10 Salvaged Data to unlock the Exocraft Terminal blueprint. You’ll need to build this terminal at any of your permanent bases, and it requires 40 Ferrite Dust, 30 Chromatic Metal, and 2 Sodium Nitrate to craft. When you place the terminal, you’ll immediately get the Roamer Geobay blueprint, which is the pad you need to summon your first exocraft. You don’t have to build a new Geobay every time you want to use your exocraft, either—once you build one, you can summon the Roamer anywhere on the same planet for a small cost of 50 Ferrite Dust, no pad required. A common mistake new players make here is wasting Salvaged Data on exocraft upgrades before they unlock the base terminal, so hold off on those until you have the Geobay built first.
All 6 Exocraft Types and Their Unlock Requirements
Once you have the base Exocraft Terminal set up, you can unlock every other exocraft type by purchasing their blueprints from the same Construction Research Station on the Space Anomaly. Each one is built for a specific use case, so you don’t have to unlock all of them right away if you’re short on Salvaged Data. I usually unlock them in the order below, based on how useful they are for general gameplay:
- Roamer: 10 Salvaged Data, all-terrain, 12 inventory slots, best for general planet exploration and fast resource runs
- Nomad: 15 Salvaged Data, hovercraft, works on water and steep slopes, perfect for ocean or mountainous planets
- Colossus: 25 Salvaged Data, heavy hauler, 30 inventory slots, ideal for large mining runs where you need to carry hundreds of resources back to base
- Spheroid: 20 Salvaged Data, rolling sphere, can climb vertical surfaces and survive extreme falls, great for cave exploration and high-risk planets
- Nautilon: 30 Salvaged Data, submarine, only works underwater, unlocks deep ocean resource nodes and underwater ruins you can’t reach on foot
- Pilgrim: 15 Salvaged Data, fast motorcycle, lowest energy consumption, best for long-distance travel across flat, open planets
The only exception to the Salvaged Data unlock is the Minotaur, the game’s mech exocraft. You can unlock its blueprint from the Iteration: Perses NPC on the Space Anomaly after you complete 3 missions for the Expedition Guild, or you can purchase it for 35 Salvaged Data if you don’t want to wait for the guild missions. The Minotaur has built-in sentinel camouflage and can even be upgraded to fly short distances, so it’s worth unlocking as soon as you can afford it. I only recommend skipping the Nautilon at first if you don’t spend much time exploring ocean planets, but it’s a must-have if you’re hunting for sunken freighter wrecks or underwater alien ruins.
Must-Have Exocraft Upgrades to Prioritize First
Unlocking your exocraft is only half the battle—upgrading it will make it far more useful, even if you only have a few upgrade modules to spare. Many new players rush to figure out how to get exocrafts in No Man’s Sky but forget to install the basic upgrades that make them worth the investment. You don’t need to waste rare resources on S-class upgrades right away, but these basic upgrades will make a huge difference in your day-to-day gameplay. First, grab the exocraft signal booster upgrade as soon as you can. This mod lets you scan for nearby resources, buildings, and points of interest directly from your exocraft, so you don’t have to get out every time you want to find a deposit of Activated Indium or a forgotten alien ruin. It only costs 12 Salvaged Data to unlock the blueprint, and you can craft it with common materials you find on most planets. Next, add at least two inventory slot upgrades to your main exocraft. The base Roamer only has 12 slots, which fills up fast when you’re mining rare resources, so adding 8 extra slots will let you carry twice as much per run without having to go back to base constantly. If you often explore extreme planets with toxic, radioactive, or frozen conditions, upgrade your exocraft’s hazard protection first. Unlike your personal life support, exocraft hazard protection only drains when you’re in a hazardous environment, and upgraded protection can last for hours without needing to be recharged. I once explored an irradiated planet for three straight hours in my fully upgraded Roamer without having to recharge the protection once, which saved me hundreds of Sodium that I would have spent on my personal suit. One small tip: you can install upgrade modules in your exocraft’s technology slots in adjacent rows to get bonus stat boosts, just like you do with your suit or multi-tool. Stacking three same-type upgrades next to each other can give you up to a 60% boost to their effect, so plan your layout accordingly.
Common Exocraft Mistakes to Avoid
I’ve made every possible mistake with exocrafts over the years, so you don’t have to repeat them. These are the most common errors new players make that waste time and resources. First, don’t build a separate Exocraft Terminal at every base you own. You only need one terminal to unlock all exocraft blueprints, and you can summon any exocraft you’ve unlocked at any base, or anywhere on a planet for a small resource cost. Building extra terminals just wastes Chromatic Metal and Salvaged Data that you could spend on upgrades instead. Another mistake I see all the time is forgetting to link your exocraft inventory to your base storage. If you install a Storage Teleport module on your exocraft, you can access all of your base storage containers directly from the vehicle, no matter where you are on the planet. That means you can offload mined resources instantly without having to travel back to base, which cuts mining run time in half. The blueprint only costs 18 Salvaged Data, and it’s one of the most underrated upgrades in the entire game. Don’t ignore your exocraft’s energy level, either. All exocrafts run on Carbon or Condensed Carbon, and if you run out in the middle of nowhere, you’ll be stuck walking back to base unless you have extra Carbon in your inventory. I always keep a stack of 200 Condensed Carbon in my exocraft’s inventory at all times, so I never have to worry about running out of power mid-trip. Finally, don’t waste S-class upgrade modules on exocrafts you rarely use. Save your rare upgrades for the Roamer or Minotaur that you use every day, and stick to common C or B class upgrades for exocrafts you only pull out for specific tasks, like the Nautilon for ocean exploration.
At the end of the day, exocrafts are one of the most impactful quality of life upgrades you can get in No Man’s Sky, and unlocking them early will make your entire playthrough far more enjoyable. Whether you’re just starting out and want a faster way to explore your first planet, or you’re a veteran looking to optimize your mining runs, taking the time to learn how to get exocrafts in No Man’s Sky is well worth the small investment of Salvaged Data and resources. Don’t feel like you have to unlock every single one right away—start with the Roamer, add a few basic upgrades, and expand your collection as you find more use cases for the other vehicle types. You’ll wonder how you ever played the game without them.
