In No Man's Sky, exploring a Derelict Freighter can be a great way to collect valuable items and even upgrades for your own freighter. However, these procedurally-generated abandoned ships are also filled with monsters, rogue AI, and other dangers. If you're venturing inside a Derelict to mine its resources, you'll want to come prepared.
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We've got some great tips to help you prepare, as well as some for making the most of your time on the abandoned freighter. Read on for some sage advice for Derelict Freighters.
Get Free Emergency Broadcast Receivers
There are a few ways to find a Derelict Freighter. If you're lucky, you can stumble upon one like any anomalous object in space (or make one appear with an Anomaly Detector). A more reliable method is to force one to appear with an Emergency Broadcast Receiver, purchased from the Scrap Dealer aboard a Space Station.
However, it can be expensive to buy these, as the first one of the day will cost 5 million units. Additional Receivers cost 10 million units, then 20 million, and finally 30 million, where the price caps. It'll reset each day back to 5 million, but it's still a steep cost.
Luckily, there's a cheaper method. After you've completed your first Derelict Freighter, Iteration Helios aboard the Space Anomaly will give you a free Receiver once a week. It's only one per week, but it's free!
Stock Up On Supplies
There are a few important items that you should consider stocking up on before heading to a Derelict Freighter. Most of them can be easily found on planets, purchased from trade terminals, or even refined. Some items, like Sodium, can be found aboard Derelicts, but you don't want to have to rely on what you can find!
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Since Derelict Freighters are floating in space, they're very cold, even inside. You'll want to stock up on items that charge your thermal protection and hazard protection. Easy recharge items include Sodium, Sodium Nitrate, and Ion Batteries. Make sure you stock up on these!
You'll also want to make sure you're stocked up on ammunition, since most Derelict Freighters are home to monsters and Abyssal Horrors, and some even have rogue sentinels and defense turrets. Whether you use the Boltcaster, Pulse Splitter, or whatever else, make sure you have ammo for it. If you use multiple types of weaponry, make sure they're all stocked.
Be sure to bring items to recharge your Life Support too. Oxygen, Dioxite, Life Support Gel, and some nutritional food items can all recharge your Life Support.
Make Sure You Have Inventory Space
Of course, while you should be stocked up on necessary supplies, you'll also want to ensure you have some inventory slots open. One of the primary reasons to loot a Derelict is for the valuable items and resources you can find on board. If your inventory is full, you're not going to have quite as nice a haul as you could otherwise.
Another option is to make sure your own freighter is equipped with a Matter Beam so you can teleport items to it if you need. The same goes for your Starship — if it has a Teleport Receiver installed, you'll have another place to send some items.
Otherwise, only bring what's necessary: recharge supplies, ammo — things like that.
Equip Thermal Protection
As mentioned, it's very cold aboard Derelict Freighters. The extremely low temperatures are going to be one of your biggest challenges, actually, probably even more so than anything else.
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You'll want to make sure that you make ample use of the emergency heating units on board. However, they have a very limited range, and there aren't a ton of them. If you invest in some low-temperature thermal protection upgrades for your Exosuit, it'll help you on Derelicts as well as elsewhere in the game. They can be found in many places or purchased from technology merchants on Space Stations.
Equip Scanner Recharge Upgrades
While you're on a Space Station upgrading your thermal protection, you might want to take a walk over to the Multi-tool station, too. If you really want to make looting a Derelict easier, you'll want to make sure your Scanner recharges quickly.
There are a ton of crates, containers, and lockers filled with loot on a Derelict. You can often tell what's lootable because it'll be blue, but you can also use your Scanner to easily see what's available for you to rummage through. The faster it recharges, the better.
Set Enough Time Aside
One challenge with Derelicts is that you cannot save aboard them. As soon as you park your Starship and step outside, you'll need to finish everything you want to do on the abandoned freighter before your game will save.
It's important, then, to set some time aside if you don't feel like leaving your PC or console powered on. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to upwards of an hour to finish a Derelict, depending on how you play and how thorough you want to be. Make sure to make time, and make ample use of the teleporters around the Derelict to make your way between sections quickly.
Keep The Slime
When you're making your way through most Derelicts, you'll find yourself accumulating a ton of Living Slime. It'll come from a few places, including blasting open doors that are held shut by Grasping Tendrils.
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While it's junk material and you might think to just trash it, don't! You can refine Living Slime into Runaway Mould, which can then be refined into Nanite Clusters. While there are faster ways to earn Nanites, this is an easy and passive way. Just throw it in your Exosuit's Personal Refiner if you have it, or another Refiner later if you don't.
As a result, it can be wise to bring some Carbon or Condensed Carbon to make sure you keep your Personal Refiner fuelled, allowing you to process the Living Slime while you make your way through the Derelict.
Use Your Scanner To Avoid Horrific Nests
Many Derelicts are infested by alien monsters. Typically, they'll be inside Horrific Nests, which will be all over the place. If you walk near them while they're stirring, they'll break open, spawning several Minifiends that'll attack you and scuttle all over the room.
You can avoid agitating these Horrific Nests by not moving when they stir, but there's an easier way. If you only move while using your Analysis Visor, they won't hatch. You can basically move around them as much as you want and they won't hatch. It's a bit of a slog because you can't run while using the Visor, but if you're trying to avoid combat, it's a great option.
If you're on a Derelict that has defense turrets, just stay out of their red visual zone and they won't attack you.
Give The Logs To The Scrap Merchant
After you leave a Derelict, you'll be able to offload the logs you find to an Envoy or a Scrap Dealer. It's entirely up to you, but it's recommended to give them to the Scrap Dealer.
Giving the logs to the Envoy will yield standing with the concerned race, which is always nice, but that can be gained in so many other ways. The Scrap Dealer, on the other hand, will pay you in Tainted Metal, which can be exchanged for a ton of cool goodies, including upgrades and tradeable treasures.
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