How to Upgrade the Starship and Living Ships

Learn how to upgrade your Starship and Living Ship inventory slots, class tiers, and understand the different ship types in No Man's Sky. Maximize your vessel's potential.

In No Man's Sky, Starship and Living Ship inventories function similarly to Exosuit inventories, with General, Technology, and Cargo slots serving distinct purposes. General slots can hold any item, Technology slots are exclusively for technology components, and Cargo slots are for stockpiling materials. The Outlaws update (3.85) introduced Cargo inventories for Starships, which can be upgraded to 21 slots (48 for Haulers) at S tier. Players can now own up to 9 ships.

Starships are categorized into four main class tiers: C, B, A, and S. C-class ships are the weakest with fewer starting components and slots. Your starting ship, the Radiant Pillar BC1, is a C-class Fighter with 15 General, 4 Technology, and 2 Cargo slots. As you explore, you'll encounter ships of higher tiers. Visiting space stations is a good way to find visiting pilots with ships you can purchase or trade for. Wealthier systems (indicated by 3 stars on the Galaxy Map) are more likely to feature A and S class ships. Higher class tiers offer more inventory slots initially and a higher maximum potential for purchased slots. You can upgrade a ship's class tier to S using Nanites at a Starship Outfitting hub, found on space stations.

There are seven Starship types: Fighter, Shuttle, Explorer, Hauler, Exotic, Solar, and Living Ship. Each type has inherent bonuses: Fighters excel in damage, Explorers in Hyperdrive range, and Haulers in shield strength. While default values are important, technology components can enhance any ship's capabilities. For example, an Explorer can be equipped with damage-boosting tech, or a Fighter with shield upgrades. The table below outlines the base performance of each ship type:

The inventory sizes of encountered starships are procedurally generated, meaning even ships with identical appearances can have different slot configurations.