How to get a Freighter // How to find it S-Class // How to Quickly Defeat a Dreadnought

Obtaining a freighter should be near the top of each player's priority list. Here's how to buy one, or get one for free!

What are Freighters for?

Freighters in No Man's Sky are a wonderful acquisition. These gigantic ships are like a home base, a storage container, a unit-farming machine, and a greenhouse, and more - all rolled into one! Freighters are mainly meant as a moveable and floating base, and a place to store additional items. But they have many other functions as well, and thus they should be near the top of a player's priority list in No Man's Sky.

A freighter in No Man's Sky isn't cheap, though, costing millions of units at minimum and upward of almost 200 million units at most. However, there is also a way to get a freighter for free.

Also, it is noteworthy that if you play on Creative Mode, then it's completely free. You can change the game mode anytime during your gameplay in Options -> Difficulty. You will also have to change the mode from Creative to something else like Normal Mode, so that pirate attacks on freighters actually trigger.

Before sinking millions of units into a freighter, it's best to know what they're for. Here's a quick rundown of some of the uses a freighter has:

• Starship "parking" spots
  
• Item storage
  
• Building a base
  
• Trading
  
• Farming
  
• Frigate expeditions
  
• Managing Squadron
  
• Summoning exocraft
  
• Higher warp distance

Primarily, freighters are a place to store extra items. Each provides a massive number of storage slots, up to 120 storage slots in an S-class! Each freighter also comes equipped with a handful of "parking spots" for starships, allowing the player to collect more than one and have a place to keep them.


Building

It's important to note that bases can be built on freighters. Not every kind of building structure can be used, but freighters do have their own building parts. Hallways, large rooms, and ramps can all be used to create an enormous floating base several stories high. Terminals, teleporters, farming equipment, decorative pieces, and more can all be built in the freighter base.

Interestingly, there are two special freighter rooms that players should build: The Fleet Command Room and the Orbital Exocraft Materialiser.

• The Fleet Command Room is arguably the most useful part of a freighter. Building a Fleet Command Room allows the player to send frigates on expeditions of different natures. Frigates will return after certain time periods with a ton of items, units, and more.
  
  
• The Exocraft Materialiser has a simple but very useful function: It allows the player to summon an exocraft on any planet as long as their freighter is in the same system.

One other use for a freighter is starship storage. Each freighter comes equipped with a handful of "parking spaces" for starships, allowing the player to collect more than one and have a place to keep them.


How to Buy a Freighter

Buying a freighter in No Man's Sky is very simple, but it can be very expensive. If a player is in the market to buy a freighter, it's easy: Simply fly up to one floating in space (marked by a freighter icon) and board it, then speak to the captain. The captain will show the price and allow the player to compare to their current freighter if they have one. From there, it's as simple as clicking purchase and handing over the cash. That freighter is now under the ownership and command of the player.

Only one freighter can be owned by the player at a time. This means that an existing freighter will disappear when a new one is purchased. However, all storage, frigates, and built bases will either automatically transfer over or you will be prompted whether it shall be transferred. However, any upgrades or installed tech will not be transferred.

Unfortunately, buying a freighter is easier than finding one. It's not extremely difficult to find them, but sometimes it can take jumping through a few systems before one pops up (or before a half-decent one does). Any freighter that is available for purchase will have the freighter icon on it. Those that can't be purchased won't have the icon.

Speaking to the captain of a freighter is not necessary to evaluate it. After landing in its docking bay, the important stats can be seen by using the Analysis Visor. This can save time when shopping around. The class can be seen under "Class".


"Farming" a Freighter (the first one is free!)

From time to time, if you're not playing on Creative Mode, you will encounter a pirate attack on a freighter after you warp.

The first pirate attack will trigger after 3 warps only. [confirmation needed] After that, in order to trigger a pirate attack on a freighter, you will need 3 hours playtime (after the last freighter attack) and 5 warps.

• If you warped before those 3 hours of playtime have passed, then these warps will count towards the 5 warps you need.
  
• The playtime of 3 hours refers to actual game time, like flying in your starship, walking on a planet, or being in your inventory. Being in the game menu pauses the game, and does not count towards the playtime you need. Note: You can also just stand on a planet and be AFK for 3 hours.

Your first freighter will be free, after you rescue it from pirates. You can only get a freighter for free if you don't already own a freighter. It will appear as if you're buying it, but you'll ultimately be charged nothing for it.

The freighter you're offered after your first freighter rescue battle, is always a regular freighter. If you kill the pirates, land on the freighter, talk to the captain, and decline the first freighter, from here on out, whenever you rescue a freighter, you will always be offered a capital freighter. That is also the method for "farming" an S-class freighter.

How to manually trigger pirate attack / freighter rescue mission

After you've accumulated 3 hours of playtime and 5 warps, your 5th warp will trigger a pirate attack on a freighter. Note: Although the playtime and warps will be counted and accumulated, the actual encounter will not trigger on Creative Mode. In this case, just change the mode to Normal, and warp. It will now trigger.

Which Freighter should you hunt for?

There are different kind of freighter types, and their sizes differ as well. If you want to know more about that, check the following list:
https://www.gamersdecide.com/articles/no-mans-sky-best-freighter

On top of that list, of course, is the so-called "Resurgent-Venator". Looking at that thing, it's like it came right out of the Star Wars universe, and quite invites you to get one for yourself. There are, however, different sizes of the same freighter (which any can be S-class), as the following picture shows very nicely:



So let's assume you want to get the large type of the Resurgent-Venator as S-class. What you need, apart from the accumulated 3 hours playtime and 5 warps, is to warp into wealthy (or Black Market/Outlaw) systems. Wealthy systems are 3-star systems that can have one of the following descriptions:

• Advanced
  
• Affluent
  
• Booming
  
• Flourishing
  
• High Supply
  
• Opulent
  
• Prosperous
  
• Wealthy

In order to find out the economic status of a system, you either have to visit them, or get an Economy Scanner, which is a starship technology that can be bought (for 150 Nanite Clusters) from the Anomaly's spaceship blueprint vendor, or found by following a distress beacon to a crashed ship.

Farming your desired Freighter

1. Before you warp for the 5th time and trigger a pirate attack, make a save, either on a planet or on a space station, so that you can reload that save ("Restore Point").
   
   
2. Then, warp into a system, and check the freighter that is being attacked. If it is not your desired freighter, reload the save, then warp into and try a different star system. Do that until you've found the star system with the freighter you're looking for. Note: Keep the location and star system in mind, so that you can easily find it again after reloading.
   
   
3. After finding the star system with your desired freighter, defeat the pirates. After defeating them, the freighter Captain will establish a communication with you and invite you to his freighter. Then dock with the freighter.
   
   
4. By either using your Analysis Visor or speaking to the Captain, you can find out the class of the freighter. If it is not S-class, reload the save, then warp into the same star system again. Do that over and over again, until it is an S-class. Note: You will need time and patience, as you can try for an entire day without finding an S-class once. But if you remain persistent, you will eventually get an S-class.

IF the pirate attack happens to be a Dreadnought freighter boss fight, you basically do the same, but you need to destroy the Dreadnought freighter before it destroys the freighter you're trying to save!

In order to destroy the Dreadnought as quickly as possible, follow this very easy guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvJ1DOPHAx8

The steps of taking out a Dreadnought quickly are as follows:
- Destroy the warp engines
- Destroy the shield generators and their exposed fuel roads
- Damage the remaining hull integrity until it reaches zero

And, again, you repeat the whole procedure, until your desired freighter is an S-class. Note: You can also switch back to Creative Mode while on the freighter, to "buy" the freighter for free.

Ship Prefixes

As a little fun side note: If you wonder about what the ship prefixes mean, or if you're looking for the right prefix for your Freighter, check out the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix#Generic_(merchant_navy)_prefixes

Sources not mentioned above:
https://gamerant.com/no-mans-sky-how-to-get-a-freighter/
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/nu2qfl/everything_you_want_to_know_about_getting_the/
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fzx6fmnzpuz131.jpg

Update:

Since the Omega update, Dreadnought freighters can now also be obtained as a player's freighter.
After defeating a Dreadnought, the pirates will surrender, and you'll be able to land on the freighter and acquire it.