The Desolation update adds derelict freighters to the universe no man’s sky This turns a sandbox survival game into a space horror game similar to Dead Space. These freighters are procedurally generated, giving players a unique experience every time they encounter one. They also offer a wealth of rare items for those brave enough to explore further.
Derelict freighters are huge haunted vessels filled with hostile alien life forms. Each story tells its own story of how it came to be taken over, and requires players to search crew logs to piece the story together. Each derelict freighter can provide players with millions of units worth of materials and an hour or so of additional content. While the ships themselves aren’t the most difficult to traverse for players who are prepared, finding them can be a bit tricky.
Searching for abandoned freighters in No Man’s Sky
Abandoned cargo planes are what No Man’s Sky calls random space encounters. These space encounters occur randomly as players use their ship’s hyperdrive to travel between planets. This should not be confused with warp drives used to travel to different planetary systems. Players use hyperdrive 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 system under any conditions. To encounter an abandoned cargo plane, players will need to use a hyperdrive to fly through space. This will eventually trigger a random space encounter, possibly an abandoned cargo plane. When a space encounter is triggered, players will receive an on-screen alert and will need to exit hyperspace. When the player slows down the ship, the type of encounter becomes apparent. If it’s not an abandoned cargo plane, players can again choose different directions and hyperdrives.
Alternatively, players can use the Anomaly Detector, a rare item that can force random space encounters. These items can only be found by destroying asteroids in space, but they are difficult to obtain. When a random space encounter occurs without an anomaly detector, it is random, but finding the anomaly detector can take twice as long as finding a random space encounter. Once the derelict freighter appears, all players need to do is land their ship on the landing bay and enter the ship’s basement.
no man’s sky Available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.