With No Man’s Sky Next finally available, players can take the role of commander of a fleet and start forming their own merchant groups. To begin, you'll need to get a cargo ship, the way we're going to show you now. Once you know how to get a cargo ship in No Man’s Sky Next , you can start building your fleet, unlock new storage options and command everything from your base.
How to get your first freighter
One of the best ways to make money in No Man's Sky is to get your hands on a freighter and start collecting loot and items you can sell. There are a couple of ways you can get your hands on a freighter, even if buying one permanently will cost you a small fortune. The good news is that you can also acquire a freighter for free, all you have to do is progress through the game for a while until you get a distress signal in another system.
How to get a free freighter
Getting your hands on a free freighter will save you millions in the long run, which will take some time. For this reason, continue to progress through the game until you reach a point where you receive a distress signal from a merchant ship that is under attack. Head towards the signal and kill all the pirates attacking the freighter, while ensuring that you do not cause any damage to the freighter in the process. You must keep the line of communication open with them in order to gain their trust.
After killing the final pirate, you should receive a new transmission from the cargo captain, who invites you to board the ship. Go aboard and circle the freighter until you find the captain. From here, talk to him, and he will offer you the use of the freighter as a reward for saving them all. Accept the offer and the ship will be yours.
How to get more freighters
Once you have your first merchant ship, and you've started working with trade and other things, it's time to start assembling a fleet of other merchant ships to accumulate even more wealth and treasures. Keep an eye on the frigate symbols on the galaxy map, then go there and communicate with the captains of the merchant ships. This will allow you to invite them into your fleet. If they accept your invitation, they will join your fleet, making it much stronger. You'll need to create a cargo command center to make that happen, so look around the ship and find a good place to do so.
You can access the Cargo base construction menu by pressing Up on your D-Pad or pressing Z on the keyboard. Here you can select the cargo command room, which will allow you to command your frigates and send them on missions and other adventures. You'll need to collect a lot of resources like gold, silver and tritium if you want to build additional rooms on your freighter, so make sure you go out and start collecting resources in advance.
