Get to know and master your starship types in No Man's Sky

Take to the skies and show off your best ship in the Nexus. Bragging rights are warranted.

One of the major pillars in No Man's Sky is exploration. You can do that on foot across various planets, but your greatest asset will be your starship. This will allow you to travel across galaxies and discover new and exotic locations. Wherever you go, your starship follows. Because of this, it's important to know which type you have, which type you may want depending on your playstyle, and what each class means.

Engage

No Man's Sky

$30 at Amazon

Take to the stars

No Man's Sky is an ambitious space exploration sim from Hello Games. With the most recent updates, you can catalog uncharted life on foreign worlds, build a home base with your friends and more. The sky isn't the limit anymore.

Starship types and uses

No Man's Sky has five starship types — excluding large Freighters — each with four classes. These types will dictate your ship's stats and generally what they should be used for, like fighting or storing materials. Each type, aside from the Hauler, has around the same number of inventory slots depending on their size.

• Fighter: Fighters feature class bonuses for damage and are best for space combat. They'll also generally be the type of ship that space pirates use.

• Shuttle: Shuttles are compact, blocky ships with balanced stats that don't provide a class bonus.

• Explorer: Explorers have a hyperdrive range class bonus so that they can be best used to explore the systems in No Man's Sky.

• Hauler: Haulers have the highest number of inventory spaces and boost a class bonus for shield absorption. They tend be larger than the other types of starships.

• Exotic: Exotics are the most rare ships, only spawning in the highest tiered S-class. They feature high class bonuses for damage, hyperdrive range, and shield absorption.

Starship classes

Each starship type will come in one of four classes: C, B, A, and S. The class of a starship will determine the amount of inventory spaces it has along with how much their class bonus is.

• C: The worst type of ship. Class C ships have the fewest inventory spaces and least amount of class bonuses, with a boost only as high as 20%.

• B: These ships will have a few less inventory slots than the maximum for their size and have 20% or more class bonus boosts.

• A: A-class ships have either the maximum amount of inventory slots or one less, and grant 35% or more boosts to your class bonus.

• S: This is the best type of ship you can get. S-class has the highest amount of inventory space possible and a 50% or more class bonus.

Freighters

Freighters are kind of the odd one out. These are by far the largest ships available in No Man's Sky. While you can normally only have one starship, a Freighter allows you to store multiple starships. Freighters can essentially serve as a mobile base in space.

Engage

No Man's Sky

$30 at Amazon

Take to the stars

No Man's Sky is an ambitious space exploration sim from Hello Games. With the most recent updates, you can catalog uncharted life on foreign worlds, build a home base with your friends and more. The sky isn't the limit anymore.