No Man’s Sky: How to Find Crashed Ships

Crashed ships are pretty much free ships you can find on every planet in No Man’s Sky. You will have to repair them a bit, but if you just started playing, definitely try and find a couple of them. You can either keep them for yourself or sell them at Space Stations.

There are a few ways to find crashed ships in No Man’s Sky. You can use planetary charts or transmission towers to locate a distress signal. Or you can explore the deep depths of the ocean to find a sunken ship.

Planetary Chart (Emergency Cartographic Data)

The easiest way to find a crashed ship is to buy a “Planetary Chart (Emergency Cartographic Data)” item from a cartographer aboard any space station. Each chart costs one Navigation Data that you can get by interacting with glowing cubes on different desks on the station.

Planetary charts available at the Cartographer

To find a crashed ship using an emergency planetary chart:

1. Buy at least 5-10 emergency planetary charts
2. Head to space and start using your charts charts
3. Use them until you detect a distress signal
4. Head to the marker on your screen and land near it

Sometimes you will detect other markers like the Observatory. Don’t bother flying to them, just keep using the charts to find new signals. If charts don’t detect anything new, fly to a different spot and try again. Eventually, you will find the distress signal as every planet has hundreds of them.

Distress signal

Once you are at the crash site come up to the ship to inspect it and claim it if you want it. Do not swap ships as you will lose your current one which is pointless. The crashed ship will not fly straight away and it’s free anyway.

Crashed ship

To get your ship up and running you need to fix at least the launch thrusters and the pulse engine. With them, you will be able to take off and get to the station if you plan on selling the ship. Keep in mind that without the repaired shield you are a very squishy target for pirates.

Other Ways to Find a Crashed Ship

There are a few other ways to find a crashed ship in No Man’s Sky. Transmission towers are brown looking structures that you can use to find the same distress signal. But to find transmission towers you need to use your visor on the planet or buy a planetary chart (secret cartographic data).

The last thing you can do is build a Nautilon and head underwater. Use your scanner to potentially locate a sunken ship and claim it the same way you would on the surface. Be sure to have enough underwater breathing modules and oxygen to avoid dying in the depths of the ocean.