The Desolation update has added Derelict Freighters to the universe of No Man’s Sky which turns the sandbox survival game into a space horror similar to Dead Space. These freighters are procedurally generated offering players a unique experience each time they encounter one. They also offer an abundance of rare items to those who dare to journey deep enough.
Derelict Freighters are gigantic haunted ships filled with hostile alien lifeforms. Each tells its own story of how it came to be overrun and requires the player to search crew logs to piece that story together. Each Derelict Freighter can offer players millions of units worth of materials as well as an hour or so of extra content. While the ships themselves are not the hardest to traverse for players who come prepared, they can be a bit tricky to locate.
Finding a Derelict Freighter In No Man’s Sky
Derelict Freighters are what No Man’s Sky calls a random space encounter. These space encounters happen randomly while the playing is using their ship’s hyperdrive to travel between planets. This should not be confused with the warp drive which is used to travel to a different planetary system. The hyperdrive is what players use when traveling short distances such as from a planet to a space station.
There are currently 28 different random space encounters, and while some require specific settings to appear, Derelict Freighters can appear in any galaxy under any conditions. To encounter a Derelict Freighter, the player will need to use their hyperdrive to fly through space. This will eventually trigger a random space encounter which could be a Derelict Freighter. When a space encounter has been triggered, the player will get an alert on their screen and will need to exit the hyperdrive. When a player slows their ship, the type of encounter will reveal itself. If it is not a Derelict Freighter, the player can pick a different direction and hyperdrive once again.
Alternatively, players can use an Anomaly Detector which is a rare item that forces random space encounters. These items can only be found by breaking asteroids in space, but they can be pretty hard to come by. It is random when random space encounters will appear without an Anomaly Detector, but finding an Anomaly Detector can be twice as long as finding a random space encounter. Once the Derelict Freighter has appeared, all the player needs to do is land their ship on the landing bay and head inside the ship’s crypt.
No Man’s Sky is available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.