Part of the series:

Quick Answer

  • Your starter ship is a Fighter-class vessel: decent for early combat, but not something you need to keep forever.
  • Do not invest heavily in the starter ship's inventory slots before you have a clear upgrade plan; a better ship can appear within your first hour.
  • The single most impactful early upgrade is the Launch Auto-Charger, which lets your ship refuel automatically when landed.
  • Buy Pulse Engine and Photon Cannon upgrade modules from space station technology merchants using Nanites.
  • Supercharged slots (the glowing yellow slots in the technology inventory) amplify any module placed there. Prioritize filling them.
  • Crashed ships on nearby planets offer free hulls to claim or scrap for early Nanites and upgrade modules.
  • Your goal by the end of the first system: a ship with a working Hyperdrive, one or two engine modules, and enough cargo space to carry resources comfortably.

Overview

When you boot up No Man's Sky for the first time, you wake up next to a broken Fighter on a hazardous starting planet. That ship is your lifeline, but it is far from your last. The early game is really about understanding what makes a ship good, making smart upgrade choices with limited Nanites, and knowing when it is time to move on rather than sink more resources into your current hull.

No Man's Sky has nine ship types: Fighter, Shuttle, Explorer, Hauler, Solar, Exotic, Interceptor (Sentinel), Living Ship, and Corvette. Each has different class bonuses, fuel behavior, and roles. The Corvette, added in the Voyagers update, is a massive player-built ship with a walkable interior. It operates very differently from standard starships and is firmly an endgame pursuit. For a complete breakdown of every type, see the No Man's Sky Starship Types Explained guide. This guide focuses on what you should do in the first few hours: whether to keep your starter Fighter, what to upgrade first, and how to move toward a better ship without wasting Units or Nanites.

Your Starter Ship: The Fighter

What You Start With

The ship you begin with is a C-class Fighter. Fighters have a class bonus to damage output and decent maneuverability, which makes them serviceable for early pirate encounters and basic planetary combat. The downside: they carry relatively few cargo slots compared to Haulers or Explorers, and their hyperdrive range is shorter than an Explorer's.

A C-class ship of any type has one supercharged slot: the gold-highlighted slot in the technology inventory that supercharges any module placed in it. Higher classes have more: B-class gets two, A-class gets three, and S-class gets four. This matters enormously for late-game optimization, but in the first hour it mainly means you have one slot to be deliberate about.

Should You Keep It?

The honest answer is: keep it just long enough to get off the starting planet and reach your first space station. Do not buy inventory slot expansions for it yet. The starter Fighter is free and costs nothing to repair, but early Units are better spent on fuel resources and your Exosuit. Once you reach a space station and see other ships landing, you will have options.

If you want to understand whether upgrading the starter ship's inventory is worth it at all, check the No Man's Sky: How to Expand Ship Inventory & Storage guide. The short version is that slot costs scale quickly and you are usually better off claiming a crashed ship or trading up.

Ship Types at a Glance

Once you are ready to move beyond the starter ship, here is how the main types compare for an early-game player:

Ship Type Strengths Weaknesses Best For
Fighter High damage bonus, maneuverable Lower cargo, shorter hyperdrive Combat-focused players
Explorer Best hyperdrive range, efficient launch fuel Weakest damage Exploration, warp travel
Hauler Large cargo capacity, strong shields Poor maneuverability Trading, hauling resources
Solar Auto-recharges launch thrusters via Vesper Sail, pulse speed bonus Weaker hyperdrive Fuel-free flying, outlaw systems
Shuttle Balanced stats, cheaper to buy No standout bonus Budget option, early trade-ins
Exotic Always spawns S-class, unique appearance Rare, expensive Collectors, endgame flex

For most new players, a Solar ship or an Explorer is the best early target after the starter Fighter. Solars in particular are forgiving because their Vesper Sail slowly recharges your launch thrusters for free, meaning you take off more, explore more, and spend fewer resources on Di-hydrogen jelly to refuel. You find Solars most commonly in outlaw systems (marked with a skull icon on the galaxy map). For tips on tracking down high-class ships, the No Man's Sky: How to Get an S-Class Ship guide walks through the methods in detail.

Early Upgrade Priority

Step 1: Launch Auto-Charger (Install First)

Before anything else, install a Launch Auto-Charger in your ship's technology inventory. This module allows your launch thrusters to slowly recharge when your ship is sitting on a planet surface, dramatically reducing how often you need to craft Di-hydrogen jelly. The blueprint costs Nanites and is purchased from the starship technology researcher aboard the Space Anomaly: one of the first stops the main story missions direct you to.

Step 2: Pulse Engine Modules

Your Pulse Engine determines in-system travel speed and fuel efficiency. At a space station, find the technology merchant (look for the upgrade icon on the right side of the station interior) and spend Nanites on Pulse Engine upgrade modules. You can install up to three of the same module family in the technology slots for maximum effect, and placing them adjacent to each other grants an adjacency bonus that further improves their output.

Place the highest-tier module you can afford on a supercharged slot if one is available next to your Pulse Engine. This single placement makes a noticeable difference in travel speed.

Step 3: Photon Cannon Upgrades

Your starter weapon is the Photon Cannon: a reliable, general-purpose ship weapon. Consider installing Nonlinear Optics, a built-in technology upgrade that improves cannon performance and heat sink capacity; importantly, it does not count toward the three-module upgrade limit, so it stacks freely with up to three Photon Cannon upgrade modules purchased from space station technology merchants.

If you find yourself in more combat-heavy situations (pirate interdictions are common around wealthy systems), adding a second weapon type like the Infra-Knife Accelerator gives you a fallback when the Photon Cannon overheats. This is not urgent, though. Survival and movement upgrades come first.

Step 4: Hyperdrive and Star System Access

To leave your starting star system and reach more resource-rich planets, you need a working Hyperdrive. The game gives you the blueprint during the early Artemis questline. Once you have a Hyperdrive installed, you will immediately want to work toward:

  • Cadmium Drive: required to enter red star systems
  • Emeril Drive: required for green star systems
  • Indium Drive: required for blue star systems

Each of these unlocks more valuable resources at warp destinations. Blue systems in particular tend to have Activated Indium deposits, which are among the most lucrative materials in the game. See the No Man's Sky Hyperdrive Upgrades & Warp Guide for the full progression.

Getting a Better Ship for Free

You do not have to spend a single Unit to upgrade your ship situation early on. Crashed ships spawn on every planet and can be claimed for free. You just need to repair the Launch Thrusters and Pulse Engine to fly them to a space station.

From there you have two choices:

  1. Keep the crashed ship if it is a higher class or better type than what you have.
  2. Scrap it at the Salvage Station on any space station to receive upgrade modules and Nanites. Resources you can immediately reinvest into your current ship.

Scrapping even low-class crashed ships is among the most efficient ways to stockpile Nanites during the first few hours of play. The No Man's Sky: How to Get Free Ships (Crashed Ship Salvage) guide covers this loop in full detail, including how to locate crash sites using Planetary Charts.

Understanding Supercharged Slots

Every ship has at least one supercharged slot, shown as a glowing gold tile in the technology inventory grid. Any technology module placed in a supercharged slot receives a substantial stat bonus on top of its normal effect. A few rules to know:

  • The ship's class determines how many supercharged slots it has (C: 1, B: 2, A: 3, S: 4).
  • Supercharged slots cannot be moved: they are fixed positions on the grid when you acquire the ship.
  • Place your most impactful module in a supercharged slot, ideally one that is adjacent to related technology to stack both the supercharge and the adjacency bonus.
  • For a combat ship, put the weapon module on a supercharged slot. For a travel ship, put a Pulse Engine or Hyperdrive module there.

For a deeper look at maximizing these slots across all your gear, the No Man's Sky: Best Technology Upgrades & Supercharged Slots Guide is the go-to reference.

FAQ

Is the starter Fighter worth upgrading at all?

Yes, but modestly. Install the Launch Auto-Charger and one or two Pulse Engine modules. These cost relatively little and make your first hours much smoother. Avoid buying inventory slot expansions for it. If you find a crashed ship with more slots or a better class within your first hour of play, swapping is almost always worth it.

What is the best ship type for a complete beginner?

A Solar ship is arguably the most beginner-friendly option beyond the starter Fighter. The Vesper Sail auto-recharges launch thrusters, eliminating one of the biggest early-game friction points. Fighters are a close second if you prefer combat. Explorers are excellent if you want to cover warp distance quickly. Avoid Haulers early. Their poor maneuverability makes planetary navigation frustrating before you have practice.

Where do I buy ship upgrade modules?

From the technology merchant inside any space station. These are the NPC terminals located along the interior walls, not the trade terminal or the ship dealer. Modules cost Nanites, not Units. Early Nanite sources include selling flora/fauna scan data, scrapping crashed ships, and completing story missions.

How many upgrade modules can I install of the same type?

You can install a maximum of three modules from the same family in each inventory tab (the technology tab and the general inventory tab each have their own limit of three). Once you reach the cap in a tab, additional modules of that type become overloaded and inactive. Always prioritize filling the technology tab with your highest-priority systems (Pulse Engine, weapons, or shields) before adding other tech.

Should I claim a crashed ship or swap it directly?

Always use the claim option rather than the swap option when you find a crashed ship. Claiming adds it to your fleet (you can own up to twelve ships), letting you access it from any space station or the Space Anomaly. Swapping directly in the field replaces one of your existing ships on the spot, which can be disorienting early on. From a station you can freely switch between owned ships, repair them at your own pace, or scrap them for parts.

When should I stop upgrading the starter ship and get something new?

When the cost of the next inventory slot expansion starts to feel steep relative to what you are earning, it is time to look for a new ship rather than invest further. As a rough guideline, once you have completed the main Artemis questline missions and have a working Hyperdrive, you have enough mobility to hunt for higher-class ships at space stations or locate crashed vessels using community coordinate sites.

Key Takeaways

  • Your starter Fighter is functional but temporary: repair it, get off the planet, then start looking for better options.
  • Launch Auto-Charger is the single most quality-of-life upgrade you can install early; the blueprint is purchased from the starship technology researcher on the Space Anomaly.
  • Spend Nanites on Pulse Engine modules first, then weapon upgrades. Movement always beats firepower in the early game.
  • Supercharged slots amplify any module placed in them; always fill them with your highest-priority technology and look for adjacency bonuses.
  • Scrapping crashed ships at space station Salvage Stations is one of the fastest Nanite sources available to new players.
  • Solar ships and Explorers are the most beginner-friendly ship types to graduate into after the starter Fighter.
  • Never swap ships directly in the field: always claim first, then manage your fleet from a space station.