Part of the series:

Quick Answer

  • Your exosuit has two inventory types: Cargo (items and resources) and Technology (upgrade modules).
  • Add slots by visiting the Exosuit Upgrade Station at any space station or the Space Anomaly. One purchase per star system.
  • Drop Pods scattered across planets let you choose a free Cargo or Technology slot upgrade after a simple repair.
  • Technology slots hold installed upgrades for life support, jetpack, shields, and more.
  • Supercharged slots (three fixed positions in the tech inventory) raise a module's own stats by roughly 25% to 50%, scaling with the module's quality. Fill them with your best upgrades.
  • Costs at the upgrade station scale up with each purchase; drop pods are always free.
  • Adjacency bonuses reward placing related technology modules next to each other.

Overview

Your exosuit is your life-support system, your backpack, and your toolkit all in one. Every hour you spend in No Man's Sky, you are inside it, so upgrading it consistently is one of the highest-return investments you can make, especially in the early game.

When you first land on your starting planet your suit is bare-bones: a handful of cargo slots, a few technology slots, and the bare minimum to keep you alive. The upgrade system is generous. Every new star system you visit is another opportunity to expand, and free upgrades exist throughout the galaxy if you know where to look.

Understanding the Two Inventory Types

Since the Waypoint update (version 4.0), the exosuit uses two inventory types. The old "General" inventory was merged into Cargo, simplifying the layout considerably.

Inventory Type What It Holds Starting Slots Maximum Slots
Cargo Resources, items, products 24 120
Technology Installed upgrade modules 10 60

Note on selecting the right type: The Exosuit Upgrade Station lets you choose between adding a Cargo slot or a Technology slot. Select the type you want in the interface before confirming the purchase. Many beginners miss this and wonder why they can't install more upgrades.

Technology slots are what make your suit powerful. They are where you install life support upgrades, jetpack boosters, hazard protection modules, shields, and so on. Cargo slots simply hold more stuff. Both matter, but technology slots should be your early priority.

How to Add Slots: All Three Methods

Method 1 — Exosuit Upgrade Station (Paid, Once Per System)

The fastest and most reliable method. Exosuit Upgrade Stations are found in two places:

  • Inside every space station: look for the orange kiosk near the landing pads.
  • Aboard the Space Anomaly: the large research vessel that appears during the early story mission "Alone Amidst the Stars," after your first hyperdrive jump.

One upgrade per star system. Once you purchase a slot in a system, whether at the station or the Anomaly, both terminals show "No Upgrade Available" until you travel to a new system. This means you can chain upgrades efficiently by jumping from system to system.

Cost structure: Costs scale up with every purchase. Technology slots start cheaper and cap lower than Cargo slots. Early upgrades are affordable on a beginner budget, but later slots climb into the hundreds of thousands of units. If units are tight, see the best money-making methods guide for fast ways to fund your expansion.

Method 2 — Drop Pods (Free, Unlimited)

Drop Pods are small emergency capsules found on planet surfaces. Each one, once repaired, lets you choose a free Cargo or Technology slot: no units required.

How to find Drop Pods:

  1. Purchase an Exosuit Upgrade Chart from a Cartographer NPC inside any space station. You can also obtain them from certain planetary structures and as Nexus mission rewards.
  2. Use the chart to reveal a Drop Pod location on a nearby planet.
  3. Travel to the marked location and interact with the module inside.
  4. Repair the three damaged components using craftable materials (gather common resources before landing so you are ready on arrival).
  5. Choose either a Cargo or Technology slot and collect your free upgrade.

There is no hard cap on Drop Pod upgrades, so if you are patient and have a stack of Upgrade Charts, you can gain many slots at zero unit cost. This is the preferred method for players who are short on units but have time to explore.

Method 3 — Nexus Missions and Expedition Rewards

The Space Anomaly's Nexus board offers multiplayer missions that occasionally reward Exosuit Expansion Units. Consumables that add a slot when used. These are less predictable than the other two methods but worth grabbing when they appear. Expeditions also sometimes reward expansion units as milestone prizes.

Installing Technology Upgrades

Having technology slots is only half the equation. Filling them with the right upgrades is what actually makes your suit stronger.

Where to Get Technology Modules

  • Upgrade terminals at space stations and the Space Anomaly sell blueprint-based upgrades for nanites.
  • Sentinel combat drops Sentinel Exosuit Fragments, which yield randomized Forbidden Exosuit Modules when activated. These can be powerful but unpredictable.
  • Salvaged Data traded at the Space Anomaly's blueprint vendor unlocks permanent crafting recipes.
  • Mission rewards from the Nexus, guild missions, and story quests.

For a fast route to nanites (needed for most technology purchases), the nanite farming guide covers the most efficient methods.

Priority Technology Upgrades for New Players

Focus on these categories first:

Priority Upgrade Category Why It Matters
1 Life Support Prevents you running out of oxygen underground or in your suit
2 Hazard Protection Lets you survive extreme heat, cold, radiation, and toxicity longer
3 Jetpack / Movement Rocket Boots and Neural Stimulators dramatically improve traversal
4 Shield Reduces damage taken in combat and from environmental hazards
5 Scanner Boosts Analysis Visor payouts — important for scanning for units

You can install up to three upgrade modules of the same type (e.g., three Jetpack Upgrades). Installing all three of the same tier squeezes out the most performance, but mixing tiers is fine early on.

Supercharged Slots: The Multiplier You Shouldn't Ignore

Every exosuit has three supercharged slots, fixed in the technology inventory at row 1 column 5, row 2 column 9, and row 3 column 3. They are highlighted in the UI and cannot be moved. Ships, multi-tools and freighters place theirs randomly instead, which is why layout advice does not transfer between them.

How large is the bonus? Community testing puts it at roughly 25% to 50%, scaling with the module's own quality rather than being a flat multiplier:

Module's listed bonus Result in a supercharged slot
7% 26–33%
14% 28–44%
16% 29–45%
~20% (S-class ceiling) 30–50%

A correction, because this page previously said otherwise. An earlier version of this guide claimed up to 400%, a figure that circulates widely and appears on at least one community wiki page. No published testing supports it. The measured range is the table above, and the largest single outlier anyone has recorded is around +75% on one suspension-grip stat. If you have read 400% elsewhere, that is where it came from and it is wrong.

Core technology behaves differently from upgrade modules and is where the genuinely large numbers live: supercharging a base weapon can add roughly 40% to 60% effective damage, and a few technologies scale inversely (the Deflector Shield gives about +20% on a fresh ship, decaying toward +5% on a fully upgraded one).

Rules for supercharged slots:

  • Only technology benefits; you cannot put resources or items here.
  • Both upgrade modules and core installed technology gain from a supercharged slot, but by different amounts, as above.
  • The best candidates are your highest-tier (S-class) upgrade modules for whichever stat matters most to your playstyle.
  • The number of supercharged slots is set by class: S-class items have four, A-class three, B-class two, C-class one. The exosuit is the exception, always three.

For a full breakdown of optimal placement and adjacency bonuses, see the best technology upgrades and supercharged slots guide, and the technology layout grids guide for worked grid diagrams of where each module belongs.

Adjacency Bonuses

When you place two technologies from the same family next to each other in the grid, they light up with a colored border indicating an adjacency bonus. This bonus stacks with supercharged bonuses. For maximum effect, cluster your jetpack upgrades together, your life support upgrades together, and so on. Then position that cluster near a supercharged slot when possible.

Exosuit Technology Worth Knowing About

A handful of exosuit installables sit outside the usual life-support and jetpack list, and get missed because nothing points you at them. The one with real economic value:

Trade Rocket

A personal rocket with a link to the Galactic Trade Network. Load it, fire it, and the contents sell to the nearest trade terminus without you flying anywhere.
Blueprint from Iteration: Selene (Exosuit Upgrades) on the Space Anomaly
Blueprint cost 90 nanites
Prerequisite You must own the Haz-Mat Gauntlet blueprint first
Build cost 2 Wiring Loom + 120 Tritium + 90 Di-hydrogen
Capacity 25 slots

The catch worth knowing before you build it. The Trade Rocket sells at a flat default price and ignores the local economy, so it will not give you the markup a good trading run does. It also cannot sell for nanites. What it is genuinely good for is bulk disposal during a farming session far from a station: Storm Crystal runs and deep-planet mining trips where the alternative is flying back with a full inventory.

Practical Upgrade Strategy

Early Game (First 5 Systems)

  • Buy one Technology slot and one Cargo slot at every space station you visit.
  • Collect Exosuit Upgrade Charts and repair Drop Pods whenever you land on a planet anyway. The materials required are always easy to gather.
  • Prioritize Life Support and Hazard Protection upgrades first so surviving hostile planets becomes easier. This pairs well with the survival guide.

Mid Game (After the Space Anomaly Unlocks)

  • Use the Anomaly's blueprint vendors to buy technology upgrades with nanites.
  • Start filling supercharged slots with your best available modules.
  • Aim to unlock enough technology slots to install three upgrades per core system (Jetpack, Shield, Life Support).

Late Game

  • Farm Sentinel combat encounters for Forbidden Exosuit Modules and sell the ones you don't need for nanites.
  • Use community optimizer tools to calculate the mathematically ideal layout for your specific supercharged slot positions.
  • The technology slot cap is 60: by late game you will rarely need all of them, so focus on quality over quantity.

FAQ

How many slots can my exosuit hold in total?

Your exosuit can reach up to 120 Cargo slots and 60 Technology slots. In practice, you will have dozens of hours of play before approaching those caps through normal progression.

Can I get a slot upgrade from both the space station and the Space Anomaly in the same system?

No. The limit is one upgrade per star system, shared between the space station and the Anomaly. Once you purchase from either, both show as unavailable until you jump to a new system.

Do I have to repair a Drop Pod every time to get a free slot?

Yes. Each Drop Pod requires a short repair using craftable materials before it awards a free slot. The materials are common and easy to prepare in bulk, so it is worth farming Upgrade Charts and doing several in a row when you are exploring a planet anyway.

What is the difference between a technology upgrade module and an installed technology blueprint?

Installed blueprints (like your Jetpack or Life Support) are permanent core functions. Upgrade modules are additional booster items you install on top of those cores to improve their performance. Modules are what benefit from supercharged slots and adjacency bonuses.

Should I focus on Cargo slots or Technology slots first?

For new players, Technology slots are generally more impactful early on. More tech slots mean you can install better survival and movement upgrades, which makes everything else in the game easier. Cargo slots become more important once you are trading or farming resources in volume.

Can I reposition my installed modules?

Yes. Open your exosuit technology inventory and you can freely rearrange installed modules at any time. Experimenting with adjacency is free and encouraged, especially once you have supercharged slots to optimize around.

Key Takeaways

  • Buy your slot in each system before you jump out of it. The purchase is one per star system, shared between the space station and the Anomaly, so every system you leave unbought is an upgrade you gave up.
  • Take Technology slots first. They start cheaper than Cargo, and more of them means more survival and movement upgrades, which makes the rest of the game easier. Cargo matters once you're trading or farming in volume.
  • Pick the slot type deliberately in the terminal before confirming. Missing that step is the classic beginner mistake, and it's why people wonder later why they can't install more upgrades.
  • Spend your early modules in this order: Life Support, then Hazard Protection, then Jetpack and movement. Shield and Scanner are worth having but come after you can survive a hostile planet comfortably.
  • Keep the common Drop Pod repair materials on you so any pod you stumble across is a free slot instead of a return trip. There's no cap on how many Drop Pods you can use, which makes them the answer when units are tight.
  • Rearranging installed modules is free, so revisit your layout whenever you gain an S-class module: move it into one of the three supercharged slots, then cluster its same-family modules around it for the adjacency bonus on top.