Can You Repair Abandoned Ships in No Man’s Sky? A Guide to Salvaging and Upgrading

Finding Abandoned Ships in No Man’s Sky

Discovering abandoned ships in No Man’s Sky can be an exciting way to expand your fleet or earn some extra units. These crashed vessels are scattered across various planets, waiting to be claimed by intrepid explorers. To locate these ships, you can:
• Use Emergency Signal maps purchased from the Cartographer at Space Stations
• Follow distress signals detected by your ship’s scanner
• Interact with Transmission Towers to receive coordinates

Once you’ve found a crashed ship, you’ll need to decide whether to repair it or use it for other purposes.

Claiming and Repairing Abandoned Ships

When you encounter an abandoned ship, you have several options:

Claim the ship and add it to your collection (if you have fewer than six ships)
Exchange it for your current ship
Leave it and continue exploring

If you decide to claim the ship, you’ll need to repair its critical systems to make it flyable. The essential components to fix are:
• Launch Thrusters
• Pulse Engine
• Deflector Shield

Repairing these systems typically requires common resources like Ferrite Dust, Di-hydrogen, and Sodium. Once these are fixed, you can fly the ship to a Space Station or your freighter for further repairs.

Strategies for Handling Abandoned Ships

Here are some tips for making the most of abandoned ships:
• If you’re early in the game, repairing a crashed ship can be a cost-effective way to upgrade
• For more experienced players, it’s often more efficient to scrap the ship at a Space Station for valuable resources and units
• Consider using your freighter as a “tow lot” to store multiple crashed ships for later repair or scrapping
• Use the ship’s class and slot count to determine if it’s worth repairing or scrapping

Remember, repairing all damaged slots can be expensive, so weigh the costs against potential benefits before investing time and resources.

Alternative Uses for Abandoned Ships

Even if you don’t plan to fully repair an abandoned ship, there are other ways to utilize your find:
• Use it as a temporary storage container on a planet
• Scrap it for valuable resources and technology modules
• Trade it in at a Space Station for a discount on a new ship purchase
• Keep it in your collection as a project to work on gradually

The choice ultimately depends on your current needs and playstyle in No Man’s Sky.