If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes trekking across a radioactive frozen planet just to grab a rare mineral deposit, only to get jumped by a pack of aggressive fauna halfway back, you know how game-changing personal transport is. Learning how to get vehicles in No Man's Sky doesn’t just make exploration faster—it lets you carry more loot, survive harsher environments, and even dig up hidden resources you’d never find on foot. I’ve put 300+ hours into NMS across three different saves, and I still unlock a new vehicle variant every few weeks that makes my playthrough way more fun. I still have a soft spot for my beat-up first Roamer that I used to traverse my starting toxic planet for 20 hours before I upgraded it. This guide breaks down every way to get your first Exocraft, upgrade it, and unlock specialized vehicles for every type of exploration.
How to Get Your First Vehicles in No Man’s Sky: The Early Game Path
You don’t have to wait until late game to get your first Exocraft, and you don’t need any rare resources to build the basic starter model either. The process unlocks as soon as you build your first permanent base, which happens within the first three to four hours of a new playthrough for most players. Salvaged Data is the only non-common resource you’ll need, and you can collect it easily on your starting planet.
The step-by-step process is straightforward: First, dig up 10 units of Salvaged Data from buried tech sites, which show up as small glowing markers on your scanner when you’re walking on the surface. Next, head to the Construction Research Unit at your base, and unlock the Exocraft Terminal blueprint for the 10 Salvaged Data you collected. Build the terminal at your base with 50 Ferrite Dust, 20 Metal Plating, and 10 Sodium Nitrate, all easy to craft from common starting planet resources.
When you interact with the finished terminal, you’ll get the Roamer Exocraft blueprint for free. Craft the Roamer geobay next to the terminal with 100 Ferrite Dust, 50 Ionised Cobalt, and 20 Paraffinium, and your first vehicle will be ready to drive. I made the mistake of skipping the Roamer my first playthrough to save resources, and I wasted three hours running between resource points before I caved and built it. Don’t do that.
Unlock Specialized Vehicles for Unique Exploration Tasks
Once you have the basic Roamer, you can unlock four more core Exocraft vehicles for specific jobs, plus utility upgrades to make your rides more useful. Each one requires a separate blueprint from the Exocraft Terminal, and most cost extra Salvaged Data plus rare resources to build. You don’t have to unlock all of them right away, but picking the ones that match your playstyle will make your runs way more efficient.
- Pilgrim: A fast, motorcycle-style vehicle built for flat plains and long-distance travel. Unlock it for 5 Salvaged Data at the Exocraft Terminal; it has half the storage of the Roamer but 30% faster top speed, making it perfect for scanning for flora and fauna on large, open planets.
- Colossus: A heavy-duty hauler with 28 storage slots, twice as much as the Roamer. Unlock it for 10 Salvaged Data, and use it for large resource mining runs where you need to carry hundreds of units of ore or building materials back to your base.
- Minotaur: A bipedal mech that can survive extreme temperatures, radiation, and toxic atmospheres without needing to recharge your life support. Unlock it for 15 Salvaged Data, and it even comes with a built-in mining laser so you don’t have to switch to your multi-tool mid-run.
- Nautilon: A submarine built for deep ocean exploration. You’ll need to unlock this separately from the Exocraft Terminal after you find your first deep water planet; it lets you dive to 1000m below the surface to find rare underwater resources and sunken wreckage.
If you never visit ocean planets, you can skip the Nautilon entirely until you need it, same with the Minotaur if you mostly stick to mild temperature planets for base building. I usually grab the Pilgrim first if I’m doing a lot of fauna scanning for the Exploration Guild, and the Colossus if I’m building a large base that needs tons of raw resources.
Get Free Vehicles From Missions and Community Events
You don’t always have to craft vehicles from scratch if you know where to look. There are multiple ways to get fully built, pre-upgraded vehicles without spending a single Salvaged Data or rare resource. These free vehicles are often higher class than the base models you can craft early on, so they’re worth seeking out if you want to skip the grind.
Expedition missions almost always give out exclusive vehicle skins and even full pre-built Exocraft as rewards for completing early challenges. The last two Expeditions I played gave out a custom Minotaur and a Pilgrim with pre-installed speed upgrades within the first hour of play, which saved me tons of time grinding for resources. You can access Expeditions from the main menu when they’re live, and rewards carry over to your main permanent save.
You can also find crashed Exocraft on almost every planet, just like you find crashed starships. Look for red beacon markers labeled “Damaged Exocraft” when you’re scanning from space, or use an Exocraft Signal Booster to track them down on the surface. You’ll need to repair a few broken components to get them running, but they usually come with free upgrades installed that would cost you thousands of Nanites to buy from a trader. Crashed Exocraft are usually higher class than the ones you craft yourself, so it’s worth taking 10 minutes to repair one if you find an S or A class variant. I found an A class Colossus on my last playthrough that had 32 storage slots, 4 more than the base model I could craft.
Top Tips to Keep Your Vehicles Running Smoothly
Once you have your vehicle, you don’t want to get stranded halfway across a planet because you ran out of fuel or broke a component. There are a few simple tricks I use to make sure I never get stuck with a dead Exocraft, even on the harshest planets.
First, always keep a stack of Ferrite Dust and Condensed Carbon in your vehicle’s storage. Those two resources are all you need to repair 90% of common Exocraft damage, and they’re easy to find on almost every planet. I also keep a small stack of Uranium in my storage for emergency fuel, just in case I get stuck out at night with a dead battery.
Second, install a Solar Panel upgrade as soon as you can. It will recharge your vehicle’s battery slowly while you’re driving during the day, so you never have to stop to charge it with Carbon. I have Solar Panels on all my ground vehicles, and I haven’t had to manually charge one in over 50 hours of play. If you drive a lot at night, add a Battery upgrade to store extra charge for low-light conditions.
Third, make sure to install the appropriate hazard protection upgrades if you’re visiting extreme planets. Even the Minotaur can take damage from superheated storms if you don’t have a Thermal Protection upgrade installed. A lot of new players forget that Exocraft can take environmental damage too, and end up having to walk 10 minutes back to their base after their vehicle explodes mid-storm. You can also summon any of your unlocked vehicles from anywhere on the planet once you install an Exocraft Summoning Station on your base, or use a Portable Exocraft Summoner that you can carry in your inventory. That means you don’t have to drive your vehicle all the way back to your ship if you don’t want to; just summon it when you need it.
At the end of the day, learning how to get vehicles in No Man's Sky is one of the most impactful upgrades you can make to your playthrough, no matter if you’re a casual explorer or a dedicated base builder. You don’t have to grind for every single vehicle right away; start with the basic Roamer, then unlock the ones that fit your playstyle as you go. Don’t forget to check for crashed Exocraft and Expedition rewards to get free, high-class vehicles without the crafting grind, and keep a stack of basic repair materials on you at all times to avoid getting stranded. Once you have your first Exocraft, you’ll wonder how you ever played the game without it.
