No Man's Sky: How to Find Crashed Ships: Get a 48 Slot Ship Free (2024)

Looking to upgrade your ship? Or just find some parts to salvage? Crashed ships are an excellent way to gain some extra inventory slots, or even a few extra resources that can help make all the difference as you make your way to the center of the galaxy. Not sure how to find these vessels? Don't sweat it. This guide will teach you every single thing you need to know about locating crashed ships, and why they're important.

The trick to finding crashed ships is actually really simple. Once you arrive on a new planet all you need to do is fly over the surface, and scan the ground using your ship’s built in Scanner. This will locate outposts, and points of interest on the ground and mark them with a ‘?’. Fly near these markers and keep an eye out for an orange beam shooting into the sky.

These orange beams mark Signal Scanners, which can be hacked using a Bypass Chip (crafted using 10 Plutonium and 10 Iron). Once hacked the Signal Scanner will offer you four options:

• Monolith
• Colonial Outpost
• Transmission
• Shelter

The option you need to choose is Transmission as this will point your towards the nearest Transmission Tower, which can be used to locate ship distress signals. It should be noted that sometimes you will also get pointed towards Observatories or Beacons. You can check these out if you wish, but the Transmission Tower is the only one that will point you towards crashed ships. Once you’ve located a Transmission Tower, hop in your ship, and fly to it.

TIP: Create multiple Bypass Chips and use the nearest Signal Scanner multiple times to ensure as many Transmission Tower locations as possible.

Inside the tower you’ll find a terminal that you’ll need to interact with. After activating the terminal, you’ll have to solve a simple mathematical equation. A common example: 1 – 2 – 6 – 24 – 120 – XXX. In this example equation you will be solving for XXX. To solve it you’ll need to figure out the pattern.

Example Solution: 1 x 2 = 2 / 2 x 3 = 6 / 6 x 4 = 24 / 24 x 5 = 120 / 120 x 6 = 720. XXX = 720

The pattern in this particular example is that the multiplier increases by one each additional sequence.

If you solve the equation correctly the terminal will pinpoint a Distress Signal for you. These signals lead you to crashed starships, which can be found in repairable and non-repairable conditions.

Already found a Transmission Tower? Go ahead and interact with it. You don’t have to use the Signal Scanner first.

So, why are these abandoned vessels important tools to find? Because they allow you to upgrade your ship inventory space at no cost. They also offer up a good way to gather resources that are important for ship upgrades, as you can claim the ship, tear down its parts, and then reclaim your old ship without any kind of cost. If done often, you can even manage to grab a 48 slot ship for absolutely no cost by simply completing this process over and over, and claiming the ships that offer more inventory space than your current vessel.

Sure, you’ll have to fix the various parts of the ship before you can fly it, but those resources like Heridium can be found very easily on every planet throughout the game. You can learn more about Hello Games space exploration adventure, as well as find more tips and tricks, by visitingour complete No Man’s Sky walkthrough and guide.