If you’ve ever spent hours trying to upgrade your favorite starship or build a custom hauler from scratch, you know how frustrating it is to hit a wall because you’re missing a key component. I’ve put over 300 hours into No Man’s Sky across three different saves, and I spent my first 20 hours completely lost on where to find rare ship parts without blowing all my hard-earned units. If you’re in that same spot, this guide breaks down exactly how to get fuselage in No Man’s Sky, no guesswork required.
How to Get Fuselage in No Man’s Sky: 3 Reliable Farming Methods
You don’t have to stick to one method to stock up on fuselage. Pick the option that fits your current game progression, playstyle, and available resources. The three most consistent ways to get this part are:
I usually mix all three methods depending on what I’m doing that session. If I’m out exploring uncharted systems, I’ll stop to loot every wreck I find for free fuselage. If you’re looting freighter wrecks, you can also find extra fuselage hidden in storage crates scattered around the crash site. If I’m in a rush to finish an S-class hauler upgrade, I’ll swing by a few space stations to buy what I need instead of wasting time farming.
Step-by-Step Guide to Salvaging Fuselage From Wrecks
Salvaging is the best option for early game players who don’t have a lot of units to spare, and it’s completely free if you’re already out exploring. You can get anywhere from 2 to 15 pieces of fuselage from a single wreck, depending on the size of the ship or freighter you’re looting.
First, you’ll need to craft a signal scanner if you don’t already have one. You can make this with 1 metal plating and 1 carbon nanotube, both easy to craft with basic resources. Once you have the scanner, deploy it on any planet’s surface and select the option to scan for crashed ship signals. The scanner will mark the nearest wreck on your HUD, usually within a 10 minute walk or 2 minute flight from your position.
Before you start looting, make sure you clear any nearby sentinels first. Nothing is more annoying than getting ambushed by a sentinel walker mid-loot and having to run away before you can grab all the fuselage. I always keep a high-damage multi-tool handy to take out small sentinel patrols in 2 or 3 hits. If you find a crashed freighter, you can usually get 10+ pieces of fuselage from it, plus extra rare ship parts you can sell for extra units.
You can also find fuselage on derelict freighters you find in deep space. These have more hazards, like enemy drones and environmental traps, but they usually have far more resources than planetary wrecks. Just make sure you bring a fully charged hazard suit and plenty of oxygen before you board one.
Buying Fuselage: Fastest Option for Mid to Late Game Players
If you’ve been playing for a while and have a stockpile of units built up, buying fuselage is by far the fastest way to get as much as you need. You won’t have to spend hours flying around planets looking for wrecks, and you can buy enough to complete an entire ship upgrade in one stop at a space station.
You can find fuselage for sale at any ship technology merchant, usually located near the ship landing pads in space stations. They usually stock between 10 and 30 pieces at a time, priced at around 12,000 units per piece. If you have high faction standing with the system’s dominant race, you can get up to a 30% discount on all purchases, which adds up if you’re buying 50+ pieces at a time. I usually buy 50 pieces of fuselage at a time when I find it on discount, so I don’t have to restock for months.
Pirate systems are another great place to buy fuselage for cheaper, but you’ll have to deal with occasional pirate attacks when you land. I usually stop by pirate stations when I’m running trade routes, since their stock is usually 20% cheaper than regular space stations, and they often have rare ship parts you can’t find anywhere else. You can also find fuselage for sale at settlement trade terminals, though their stock is usually smaller than space station merchants.
If you can’t find enough fuselage at one station, just warp to a nearby system. Each system’s merchant stock resets every time you warp, so you can usually find enough in 2 or 3 system jumps to cover whatever you need. I’ve had runs where I found 80 pieces of fuselage across 3 stations in 10 minutes, which is way faster than farming wrecks for the same amount.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Farming Fuselage
Even if you’re using one of the reliable methods we covered, it’s easy to make small mistakes that waste your time and resources. I’ve made all of these mistakes myself at one point, so keeping these tips in mind will save you a lot of frustration.
The first mistake I see new players make is not upgrading their signal scanner before they go looking for wrecks. A basic scanner will only show you wrecks within a short range, but an upgraded scanner can mark wrecks across the entire planet, so you don’t have to run around deploying scanners every 10 minutes. You can upgrade your scanner at any multi-tool merchant for a small amount of units and nanites.
Another common mistake is wasting fuselage on low-tier ship upgrades that you’re just going to replace in a few hours. I always recommend holding onto your fuselage for S-class upgrades, since those are the only ones you’ll keep long-term. If you have extra fuselage you don’t need, you can sell it for a decent profit at space stations, so it’s never a bad idea to stock up when you find it cheap.
Finally, make sure you have enough bulk storage on your freighter to store extra fuselage. I used to run out of inventory space all the time and have to leave valuable fuselage behind on wrecks because I didn’t have anywhere to put it. Adding a few storage containers to your freighter costs almost nothing, and it lets you stock up on hundreds of pieces of fuselage so you never run out mid-upgrade.
At the end of the day, the best way to get fuselage depends on what you have more of: time or units. If you’re early in your playthrough and love exploring, salvaging wrecks is a fun, free way to stock up. If you’re in a rush to finish a ship build, buying it in bulk from space stations will save you hours of farming. No matter which method you pick, you now know exactly how to get fuselage in No Man’s Sky to build and upgrade the starship fleet of your dreams.
