No Man’s Sky finally gets Ship Customization with its new Orbital Update, but getting the parts for free is no easy feat.
The only way to get parts for customization is by salvaging other Starships, but these things can cost upwards of a million Units… and you’ll need at least three ships to get enough parts!
So, to help out your intergalactic wallet, we’ll tell you how you can get Ship Customization parts for free. It’s going to require some work, but at least you won’t use up all your Units!
How To Get Ship Customization Parts For Free | Initial Setup
As we said previously, the only way to get parts for Ship Customization is by salvaging Starships. Since buying the ships is extremely costly, the only way to get parts for free is to hunt down wrecked ships.
The gist of it is that you will explore the galaxy to claim wrecked ships for your own, and then you’ll salvage them for Customization Modules at a Space Station.
As you can imagine, though, the toughest part here is actually finding the wrecked ships themselves. Space is scaringly vast, after all!
To make ship hunting a tad easier, head to the Space Anomaly station and get the following Exocrafts and tools:
- Minotaur Geobay and Nautilon Geobay – You can get both from the Construction Research Station. Use the Minotaur to look for Crashed Ships on land and the Nautilon for underwater wrecks.
- Minotaur Radar Array – Can be unlocked by speaking to Iteration: Perses at the Space Anomaly. This upgrade allows the Minotaur to scan planets for Distress Signals leading to Crashed Ships on land.
- Nautilon’s High-Power Sonar – Just like the Minotaur Radar Array, get this from Iteration: Perses. Equip it on the Minotaur to be able to scan planets for Distress Signals for underwater Crashed Ships.
Generally speaking, the Minotaur will be more useful for finding wrecks, so prioritize it.
Most planets don’t have a lot of water, so the Nautilon is less useful overall… but it might just come in clutch, so it’s good to unlock it right now anyway.
Once you’ve got all the unlocks you need, make sure to have enough to craft at least one Minotaur Geobay at the bare minimum.
Ship Hunting Process Explained
With your Minotaur Geobay ready to go, head down to any planet you wish. Really, just any planet will do!
As soon as you land, place down the Minotaur Geobay and interact with the Minotaur to equip the Radar Array.
Then, hop into the Minotaur Exocraft itself and use the “Scan for Distress Signals” feature of the Exocraft Radar.
Use it once and pray that you get the “Distress Signal Detected” notification, as shown above.
If you get no detections, or get a Freighter Crashsite, you can simply reload your save. Pause the game, go into Options, and choose Reload Restore Point.
This will put you back to before the planet’s landmarks are generated, giving you another chance to get a Crashed Ship to spawn!
Once you do get a “Distress Signal Detected” notification, just get over to the Distress Beacon marked on your HUD. With all luck, you will find a shipwreck once you reach the Distress Beacon.
When you get a Crashed Ship, interact with it and choose to Claim it for yourself. Then, repair it so that it has the bare minimum flight capabilities.
If you’re in a water-based planet, the process is basically the exact same. Just use the Nautilon instead of the Minotaur!
At this point, you can get in and out of your normal ship to create another Restore Point save. If you wish, use the Minotaur again to repeat the process and find more Crashed Ships.
Keep in mind that you will need at least 3 different Crashed Ships of the same type to get enough Customization Modules.
For example, to make a custom Explorer you will need to find and salvage 3 other Explorer ships first.
When you’re done ship hunting, it’s time to move on to the salvaging part of the process!
Salvaging Ships for Free Customization Parts
To salvage your recovered ships for parts, head to any inhabited Space Station and approach the Starship Outfitting Terminal.
At the terminal, select the ship you want to salvage for parts. Now, click on “Begin Salvage Analysis” and then “Extract Customization Module.”
Now you can just choose to salvage one of each of the ship’s parts for customization. Each ship type has three different parts you can salvage, as follows:
- Fighter – Wings, Thruster/Engines, Fuselage.
- Hauler – Wings, Cockpit, Thruster/Engines.
- Explorer – Left Wing, Right Wing, Hull.
Note that you only get to salvage one part at a time. The rest of the ship will be scrapped, so you only get one Customization Module part per ship!
This is why you need to salvage at least 3 ships to get enough parts to make a custom one, as you need one of each part type.
With all of that done, you can now finally start making your very own customized Starship! If you want to know more about it, feel free to check out our guide about how Ship Customization works.
Either way, though, you now know how to get the ship customization parts for free without having to spend millions of Units on Starships in No Man’s Sky Orbital update!
