If you’ve ever been halfway across an uncharted star system only to see your hyperdrive sputter out or your pulse engine take damage from asteroid debris, you know how critical it is to have a steady supply of ship components handy. Learning how to get ship parts in No Man’s Sky doesn’t have to mean grinding for hours on end or blowing all your hard-earned units at overpriced space station vendors, either. I’ve spent hundreds of hours jumping between galaxies, and I’ve tested every method available to find the fastest, most reliable ways to stock up on every part you could possibly need for repairs, upgrades, and even building your own custom fleet of ships. You don’t need advanced gear or a fully upgraded freighter to follow these tips either — most work for players who are just a few hours into their first playthrough.
How to Get Common Ship Parts in No Man’s Sky for Fast Repairs
Common ship parts are the basics you’ll use every few jumps for small repairs, shield recharges, and standard pulse engine or hyperdrive fixes. You’ll rarely need to buy these if you know where to look, and you can farm enough for 10+ hours of play in just 10 minutes of targeted collection. Asteroid fields are your best first stop for common propulsion parts — shoot small, grey asteroids in any star system to get piles of Tritium, the core resource for all pulse engine jumps and basic hyperdrive repairs. You don’t even need an upgraded mining laser for this, the default tool you start with works perfectly fine.
Planetary mineral deposits work for structural ship parts like hull plating and shield components. Ferrite Dust, which you get from mining any basic surface rock on habitable or barren planets, fixes 90% of common hull damage, while Sodium harvested from glowing red crystal plants recharges your ship’s shields in seconds. If you’re exploring derelict freighter debris floating in space, you can also grab stacks of both resources without landing on a planet at all.
Always keep a portable refiner in your ship cargo so you can turn raw minerals into usable ship parts in 10 seconds flat, no need to land at a base. For reference, these are the easiest common parts to farm on the go, no special gear required:
- Tritium: Shoot small grey asteroids in any star system, no advanced mining laser required
- Ferrite Dust: Mine any surface rock on habitable or barren planets, or break apart derelict freighter debris
- Sodium: Harvest glowing red crystal plants on almost any planet, or loot from planetary outpost storage crates
- Chromatic Metal: Refine Copper, Cadmium, Emeril, or Indium with a portable refiner you keep in your ship inventory
If you’re just starting out, prioritize stocking up on these four parts first. I keep 200 of each in my emergency cargo slots at all times, and I haven’t been stranded from a basic repair shortage in over a year of play.
Farm Rare Upgrade Ship Parts From Derelict Freighters & Sentinel Encounters
Once you have your basic repair supply sorted, you’ll probably want to hunt for rare upgrade parts that boost your ship’s speed, shield strength, hyperdrive range, or weapon damage. These parts are rarely worth buying from standard space station vendors, since most are low C or B class and cost millions of units. The best rare parts are almost always free if you know where to look.
Derelict freighters drop S-class ship upgrade modules 30% more often than standard space station vendors, in my experience, and you don’t pay anything for them except a bit of time avoiding the creepy alien creatures on board. You can get a free emergency broadcast receiver from the construction merchant at the Space Anomaly once per week, and you can buy extra receivers for a small amount of nanites if you want to farm more often. When you board a derelict, focus on searching the engineering room and captain’s quarters first — those are the spots where upgrade modules and bulk crafted parts like wiring looms almost always spawn.
Sentinel interceptor encounters are another great source of rare A and S class ship parts. If you take down a sentinel interceptor when it attacks you on a corrupted planet, you can board the downed ship and scrap all its installed upgrades even if you don’t want to claim the ship itself. I’ve gotten multiple S-class hyperdrive range and shield strength modules this way, without spending a single unit. But don’t take on sentinel fleets if you don’t have at least a B-class shield upgrade already — they hit hard and will chase you across the entire system if you don’t destroy them fast.
Buy or Trade Ship Parts Efficiently Without Wasting Units
Sometimes you don’t have time to farm for a specific part you need for an upcoming long jump, and that’s where buying or trading comes in. You don’t have to pay the exorbitant prices at the official space station vendor, though, if you know where to find better deals.
Pilots docking at space stations and trading posts sell ship parts for 20-30% less than the official station vendor, and they often have rarer modules you can’t find anywhere else. All you have to do is walk up to any pilot that lands, interact with them, and check their inventory for parts. I usually hang around the landing pad of a trading post for 5 minutes when I’m looking for a specific upgrade, and I almost always find what I need for a fraction of the station price. If you’re looking for super rare S-class modules, try visiting trading posts in high economy systems — the pilots there carry much higher quality parts on average.
You can also trade parts with other players if you join a multiplayer lobby, no units required. I’ve traded a spare S-class phase beam module for a hyperdrive range upgrade I needed last month, and saved over 2 million units that I would have spent buying it from the station. The Space Anomaly is the best place to find other players looking to trade, and most people are happy to swap parts they don’t need for ones they do. If you have excess salvaged data or nanites, you can also trade those to the construction merchant at the Anomaly for discounted ship parts too.
Store & Organize Ship Parts to Avoid Running Out Mid-Journey
All the farming and trading in the world won’t help you if you can’t find the part you need when your hyperdrive is broken in a deserted star system. A little bit of organization goes a long way to making sure you always have the parts you need, exactly when you need them.
Reserve 4-5 slots in your ship’s general inventory for emergency repair parts at all times: Tritium, Ferrite Dust, Sodium, and a wiring loom. Keep these in the same slots every time you play, so you don’t have to dig through 20 stacks of resources to find what you need when you’re in a hurry. Don’t use these slots for any other resources, no matter how full your cargo gets — I’ve made that mistake before, and I ended up stranded in a frozen star system for 20 minutes because I’d used my emergency Tritium slot for extra platinum I planned to sell.
If you have a freighter, use its storage containers to store extra upgrade parts you don’t need right away, so you don’t clutter your main ship’s cargo. Label each container by part type — one for engine upgrades, one for shield upgrades, one for weapon upgrades — so you can find exactly what you need in seconds. Don’t make the mistake I did early on: I used to store all my rare upgrade parts in my main ship, and when I crashed on a toxic planet and lost half my cargo, I lost three S-class modules I’d spent weeks farming. Now I keep all my spare parts in my freighter’s storage, and I only take what I need for a specific trip.
You can also use the cargo scan feature on your ship’s menu to quickly find any part you have stored, no need to scroll through every slot manually. This is a huge time saver if you have a large fleet of ships with lots of different parts stored across them.
You don’t have to spend all your playtime grinding resources to keep your ship running smoothly. Whether you’re farming asteroids for common repairs, looting derelict freighters for rare upgrades, or trading with other pilots for hard-to-find modules, there’s a method that fits every playstyle. Learning how to get ship parts in No Man’s Sky is all about working smarter, not harder, and once you find a routine that works for you, you’ll never be stuck stranded in a random star system with a broken hyperdrive again. Take a few minutes next time you play to test out the methods that sound best for you, and you’ll be shocked at how much time and units you save long term.