Whether you’re stranded on a toxic planet with a busted hyperdrive or looking to upgrade your S-class hauler to carry more exotic cargo, knowing how to get ship parts in No Man's Sky is one of the core skills every player needs to master. There’s nothing more frustrating than plotting a jump to a new galaxy only to realize you’re missing a single critical component to power your warp drive, or finding a crashed luxury ship you can’t repair because you don’t have the right parts on hand. This guide breaks down all the most reliable, low-effort methods to gather the parts you need, no matter what stage of the game you’re in.
How to Get Ship Parts in No Man's Sky Through Standard Exploration
The easiest way to gather ship parts early in the game is through basic planetary exploration, no special gear or large resource stockpiles required. Every time you land on a new planet, run a quick scan from your ship to spot points of interest that often hold ship parts. Abandoned buildings and crashed freighter sites are two of the most reliable loot spots, as they usually have multiple unlocked crates full of common and rare ship components. You can also follow distress beacons that pop up on your scanner to find crashed ships, where you can either harvest all usable parts from the wreck or repair the ship to add it to your personal fleet.
When looting exploration sites, you can expect to find a wide range of useful parts, including:
Just keep an eye out for hostile sentinels that sometimes guard high-value loot sites. They’ll attack on sight if you get too close to their protected crates, so make sure your multitool is charged and ready to defend yourself before you start looting.
Farming Ship Parts From Space Encounters
Once you have a working ship with decent weapons and shields, you can start farming ship parts from encounters in outer space. One of the most profitable methods is responding to freighter distress calls, which pop up as you travel between planets. If you defeat the pirate fleet attacking the freighter, the captain will almost always reward you with rare ship parts, and sometimes even a free C or B class ship to add to your fleet. You can also attack pirate fleets that spawn randomly as you travel, as their cargo pods often hold high-end upgrade modules you can’t find easily on planets.
If you have extra units to spend, trading with space station merchants is a low-effort way to get the exact part you need without farming for random drops. Most space stations have at least one merchant that specializes in ship parts, and you can often find discounted parts if you shop in systems with high economic ratings. If you’re the type of player who likes to mix your NMS sessions with shorter, casual games during loading screens or when you’re taking a break from farming resources, there are plenty of low-stakes mobile games that fit perfectly into those small gaps. A lot of players I know use downtime between warp jumps to play quick casual titles they found on YonoAppStore, and it’s a nice way to pass the time without stepping away from your desk entirely.
You can also explore derelict freighters floating in deep space for even rarer parts. These abandoned ships are full of locked crates with S-class upgrade modules, but they’re also home to hostile alien creatures and environmental hazards, so make sure you bring plenty of hazard protection and a powerful multitool before you board.
Using Crafting to Make Custom Ship Parts
If you can’t find the exact part you need through looting or trading, crafting is a reliable alternative that lets you make any component you want whenever you need it. First, you’ll need to unlock the relevant blueprint for the part you want to make, which you can buy from the Blueprint research stations at the space anomaly using nanites. You can earn nanites by completing side missions, scanning rare flora and fauna, or turning in salvage data you find on planets.
The biggest upside to crafting ship parts is that you don’t have to rely on random loot drops to get the exact upgrade you want. If you need a specific S-class hyperdrive upgrade to travel to red star systems, you can make it yourself as soon as you have the right resources and blueprint. The only downside is that high-end parts require rare resources like activated indium, storm crystals, or void eggs, which can take a bit of time to farm if you don’t already have a stockpile on hand.
Make sure you build a few storage containers on your freighter or base to hold all the resources you need for crafting. It’s easy to run out of inventory space when you’re farming rare materials, and you don’t want to have to dump valuable resources just to make room for a new part.
Pro Tips to Farm Ship Parts Faster
There are a few simple tricks you can use to cut down on the time you spend farming for ship parts, no matter which method you prefer. First, install a scanner upgrade on your multitool that increases your loot detection range. This will let you spot crashed ships, cargo pods, and abandoned buildings from much farther away, so you don’t waste time flying around planets looking for loot spots. Second, prioritize farming in systems with high economic and security ratings. These systems have better loot drops, more merchants selling rare parts at lower prices, and fewer pirate attacks to interrupt your farming runs.
If you play multiplayer, you can team up with friends to farm derelict freighters and crashed freighter sites much faster. You can split up to search the area for loot, and you can trade extra parts with each other if one of you has a component the other needs. You can also join community events that run regularly, as these often reward rare ship parts that you can’t get through regular gameplay.
Don’t forget to check the cargo pods scattered around space stations and asteroid fields too. They often hold small ship parts and resources that you can use for crafting, and you can collect them in just a few seconds as you pass by.
At the end of the day, there’s no single “best” way to gather the components you need for your fleet, and the method you choose will depend on what resources you have available and what you enjoy doing most in the game. Whether you prefer exploring alien planets, fighting pirates in deep space, or crafting parts from scratch, knowing how to get ship parts in No Man's Sky will let you build the exact fleet you’ve always wanted, and travel anywhere in the galaxy without worrying about being stuck without the right component. Try out a few different methods to see what works best for your playstyle, and you’ll have a full stock of rare ship parts in no time.
