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How To Salvage Customization Modules
Purchase A Reactor Core
How To Create A Custom Ship At The Starship Fabricator
As of the Orbital update, No Man’s Sky players can finally create their own custom ships. Travelers have long requested this feature, but after many years, Hello Games has finally released a means of creating new ships from custom parts.
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The process of creating a custom ship is fairly simple. First, you’ll need to salvage components from existing ships. Second, you must purchase a reactor core from the ship technology merchant. And finally, you’ll head to the Starship Fabricator to create a brand-new ship. You’ll even be able to give it a custom paint job in matte or metallic colors.
Updated July 29, 2024, by Sean Murray: No Man's Sky continues to evolve, and with it comes new options for custom ship construction. We've updated this guide to include information on custom Solar Ships as of the Worlds Part 1 update, and the Iron Vulture unique Hauler.
How To Salvage Customization Modules
The first step to creating your custom starship is salvaging customization modules from an existing ship. You can obtain ships for salvaging in one of two ways. You can either purchase the ship from other entities aboard space stations, freighters, or trading posts, or your freighter, or you can find crashed ships on planetary surfaces.
This process will destroy the ship you are salvaging. Only salvage parts from a ship you’re okay with losing forever.
Once you've obtained a ship, head to the nearest space station and seek out the Starship Outfitting terminal at the back near the station core. The Outfitting terminal is where you previously upgraded ships using nanites or scrapped them for credits. Now you can perform a 'salvage analysis' to determine what customization modules can be extracted.
At the Starship Outfitting terminal, select 'begin salvage analysis.' If the ship can be salvaged for parts, you will be presented with three options to salvage the ship. The salvageable parts depend on the ship type, Fighter, Explorer, or Hauler. Only one customization module can be salvaged from each ship.
Only Fighters, Explorers, Haulers, and Solar Ships can be salvaged as of the time of writing. Shuttles, Exotics, Sentinel Interceptors, and Living Ships cannot be salvaged for customization modules.
Of the Expedition Reward ships, only the Iron Vulture can be salvaged for parts. The Starborn Runner and Utopia Speeder do not have distinct parts that can be salvaged. While you can salvage the Iron Vulture, you'll only receive one of its three unique modules.
You’ll need at least one of each type of customization module for your desired type to create a custom ship. The required customization modules for each type are listed below.
Starship Type Customization Modules
Ship Type | Customization Modules | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Fighter | Wings | Thruster | Fuselage |
Hauler | Wings | Thruster | co*ckpit |
Explorer | Left Wing | Right Wing | Hull |
Solar Ship | Wings | Solar Sail | Fuselage |
The fastest way to get ship components is to wait on a space station for ships to land and then purchase those ships from their pilots. The ship’s class (C, B, A, or S) doesn’t affect the salvaging process, so be sure to purchase C-class ships to save on credits.
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Purchase A Reactor Core
Every custom ship requires a reactor core, which determines the ship’s class (C, B, A, or S class). The reactor core can be purchased for nanites from a space station’s ship technology merchant.
The nanites required for each class of reactor core are listed below:
- 12,000 nanites for S class
- 6,500 nanites for A class
- 3,000 nanites for B Class
- 300 nanites for C class
You can decrease the number of nanites required by increasing your standing with the faction you’re purchasing the nanites from. For example, the more standing you have with the Gek, the fewer nanites will be required to purchase a reactor core.
Once you have purchased a reactor core and salvaged the required customization modules, it is time to create your custom ship.
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How To Create A Custom Ship At The Starship Fabricator
The Starship Fabricator can be found beside the Starship Outfitting terminal at the back of the space station. Interact with the Fabricator terminal to begin the customization process.
To create your custom ship, select the type you’d like to create (Fighter, Explorer, Hauler, or Solar Ship). Then, select the three customization modules you’d like to use in creating your custom ship and the reactor core. Once the four items have been selected, the Starship Fabricator will allow you to customize the ship’s colors (in either matte or metallic finish).
Customization modules are single-use. Once used to create a new ship, they will be removed from your inventory and cannot be used again. You will have to salvage a new ship with the same components to obtain a new customization module.
Once you have selected both your desired colors and customization modules, hit the 'assembly' button to finalize your custom ship. Once complete, board your new custom ship where it stands on the Starship Fabricator, and fly it out of the space station.
Congratulations on your new custom-built starship!
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