Guides
Freighters in No Man's Sky, explained: which one to actually keep
Your first freighter is free — but it's the worst one you'll ever own, and turning it down for a better model costs you nothing but patience.
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Your first freighter is free — but it's the worst one you'll ever own, and turning it down for a better model costs you nothing but patience.
You get your first freighter for free by winning a pirate-siege encounter while warping between systems, and you should turn down the first offer — the second freighter that same captain scenario hands you is always a better one.
Freighter sieges show up as you jump from system to system: warp in and you'll sometimes land in the middle of a freighter under attack by a swarm of pirates, distress call already playing. GameRant and GamesRadar both put the odds at roughly one battle every five jumps on average, though it's random, not scheduled — you can't force it by save-scumming a specific system. Fight off the attacking ships (or, if you'd rather gamble on cargo instead of a ship, attack the freighter itself, though that forfeits the freighter offer). Once every pirate is down and the freighter itself is undamaged, the captain hails you and invites you aboard. Head to the bridge and they'll offer to either hand the freighter over for free or sell it to you.
Decline the first one. Both GamesRadar and GameRant describe the same pattern: the first freighter offered is always a standard, entry-level model — small storage, unremarkable stats. Turn it down, keep flying, and trigger another siege later; the next captain's offer is a step up, and you can keep declining until you land on a freighter worth keeping.
"Freighter" covers two visual tiers with the same underlying system: system freighters, the smaller-looking hulls with roughly 15-19 inventory slots, and capital freighters, the larger hulls that start around 24 slots and can be expanded further. GamesRadar notes the size difference is mostly cosmetic by this point in the game's life — what actually matters for a freighter is its inventory count and its class letter (explained below), not which hull shape it's wearing.
The Corvette is a different thing entirely, added in the Voyagers update (patch 6.0, released August 27, 2025, per PCGamesN and the game's own patch notes). It's not something you're offered in a siege — you build it piece by piece at a dedicated terminal, choosing every hull section, wing and corridor yourself, and it comes with a fully walkable interior other players can ride in with you. Where a freighter is a mobile base you fly, a Corvette is closer to a personal capital ship: smaller than a capital freighter, built rather than found, and meant to be flown and lived in rather than parked as a storage locker.
Once you own one, a freighter becomes several things at once:
None of this needs a top-tier freighter to function — even the free starter model gets you a teleporter and a Fleet Command Room. The class and slot count only start to matter once you're trying to run a serious frigate fleet or stash a lot of cargo.
The number worth checking on the offer screen is the inventory slot count — capital freighters GamesRadar and GameRant both cite starting around 24 slots versus roughly 15-19 on a system freighter, and slots are what let a freighter actually hold a fleet's worth of frigates and cargo instead of just being a pretty teleporter destination. Past that, freighters carry a class letter the same way starships do, which governs how far its stock hyperdrive can jump and how efficiently it burns fuel before you install any upgrades — a detail worth a glance if you plan to fly the freighter itself across the galaxy rather than just teleporting to it.
| What you're offered | Typical slots | Worth it? |
|---|---|---|
| First siege offer | ~15-19 | Decline — it's the baseline model |
| Second siege offer | ~24+ | Usually your real first freighter |
| Any later offer | Varies | Compare slot count and class letter to what you already have |
There's no penalty for sitting on a mediocre freighter — everything above still works. Switch when the slot count is actively limiting you: a fleet you want to grow past what your Fleet Command Rooms and cargo hold can support, or a base you've outgrown on the current floor count. Since sieges keep happening as you play, the practical approach both guides describe is the same one that got you your first freighter: keep declining offers below the size you want, and take the one that finally clears the bar. Buying a freighter outright at a space station is the other route, but it costs Units rather than the price of a little patience during your normal warping.