Finding crashed starships in No Man’s Sky is a great way to not only build up your inventory space, but also a really easy way to gather specific resources that are used in the making of ship upgrades. If you’ve been struggling to earn enough cash to grab a new ship, and you aren’t in to farming resources, you can easily travel around the galaxy commandeering the crashed vessels of other pilots. In fact, it’s entirely possible to earn yourself a 48 slot starship without ever paying a single Unit out to those price gouging Korvax.
Locate A Signal Scanner
The first thing you need to do when looking for crashed ships is to head down to a planet surface and locate a Signal Scanner on the ground. These can be found near outposts, trading posts, and randomly placed along the surface of various planets. The easiest way to spot them is to look for an orange beam of light shooting into the sky.
After finding a Signal Scanner you’re going to need to craft yourself some Bypass Chips. Actually, go ahead and craft multiple Bypass Chips as each one is relatively easy to make, costing only 10 Plutonium and 10 Iron to craft. With your Bypass Chips in hand, interact with the Signal Scanner to bring up these four types of locations to search for:
- Monolith
- Colonial Outpost
- Transmission
- Shelter
Choosing Transmission will locate the nearest Transmission Tower, Observatory, or Beacon. Ignore the last two, instead focusing in on any Transmission towers.
Crack the Code
Once you have found a Transmission Tower, hop in your ship, and fly to it. Be wary of Sentinels around the tower, as they might attack you depending on the type of planet the tower is located on. After landing, head inside and interact with the terminal to bring up a mathematical equation you need to solve to complete the next step in the process.
The equations posed by many of these towers will look something like 1- 2 – 6 – 24 – 120 – XXX. To decrypt the Distress Signal you’ll need to solve for XXX. In this case the solution can be found through multiplication. Looking at the equation it is clear that each number is found my multiplying the previous number by an increase of 1. So, 1 x 2 = 2 / 2 x 3 = 6 / 6 x 4 = 24 / 24 x 5 = 120 / 120 x 6 = 720. XXX = 720.
If you solve the equation correctly your camera will shoot into the sky, pinpointing the location of a crashed ship. Make your way to the waypoint to discover the ship. This is just one of many ways to progress in No Man’s Sky, and it can even be used to find a 48 slot ship along your journey.
