There is no perfect way to farm Salvaged Frigate Modules in No Man’s Sky. These suckers are just unabashedly one of the game’s biggest pains to acquire. Yet they’re more valuable than ever after the Endurance Update overhauled freighters altogether. Despite the name, every Salvaged Frigate Module is used to upgrade your capital ship — not frigates themselves. And you need quite a few to complete a full set of upgrades. So, while we have you, let’s look at the best way to farm NMS Salvaged Frigate modules in 2022!
Let’s break things down one method at a time. To start, we can talk about the previous best method: piracy.
Freighter Piracy: NMS Salvaged Frigate Modules
If you haven’t played NMS in a while, and still remember this as the number one method to guarantee a Salvaged Frigate Module drop, it was unfortunately nerfed several months back. The drop chance is now exceptionally low when attacking NPC freighters. Whether that’s in normal (a.k.a. regulated) systems or in outlaw systems. Though you can still get lucky from time to time. Not to mention, by committing piracy, you will receive a ton of other rewards in the process.
Finding freighters is as easy as can be. Just fly around in space. Freighters typically appear right next to space stations. Though they can be found pretty much everywhere in populated systems — normal and outlaw style. If you don’t see one, try boosting forward for a few seconds. One will very likely spawn in next to you. If that doesn’t work, run your Pulse Engine for a few seconds and try again.
Once you do see a freighter, simply shoot its exposed cargo pods. They’re all labeled and have circular health bars just like minerals and/or Sentinel loot canisters. Speaking of Sentinels: attacking a freighter will draw space cops to you. Get ready for a fight!
In addition, this sort of piracy will lower your standing with the dominant faction in whichever star system you picked the fight. Those fences are easy to mend, though. Worry more about your shields and weapons and not dying. You don’t want to lose the loot you’re about to scoop up from the damaged freighter. Especially not if one drops a Salvaged Frigate Module.
That being said: the odds of getting a module are pretty low. Much, much lower than they used to be. However, every cargo pod has at least a tiny percentage chance of dropping one. This makes piracy pretty efficient even today, in the sense that you get lots of chances in a very short window. If your starship can handle the heat.
Station Missions: NMS Salvaged Frigate Modules
Missions acquired at any space station can provide Salvaged Frigate Modules as a reward. Just don’t hold your breath. The drop rate is, once again, exceedingly low.
However, there are a few advantages to this method. One is that the drop rate for these missions isn’t really a drop rate at all. The rewards you get from each bounty are guaranteed and visible when you select them. By “drop rate” in this case really just means “are any of the bounties actually giving you what you want?” Oftentimes the answer is no. Which means waiting for new missions to refresh or traveling to a new system to get a new batch.
Another advantage is that you can hold multiple of these missions at the same time. This means you can grab a whole bundle, run out and complete the objectives, and come back to claim a bunch of rewards at once. Any many cases you might be able to complete these missions while doing something else anyway. So why shouldn’t you check with the mission agent?
You can find said NPC on every standard space station. Some of their missions will require you to rank up with the system’s dominant faction. Luckily, these missions also award standing anyway, so you can’t really lose!
Nexus Missions: NMS Salvaged Frigate Modules
Nexus missions function pretty much exactly the same as station ones. The main differences are that Nexus missions are multiplayer affairs (except you can easily complete them solo) and can only be accepted one at a time.
To find your Nexus missions, just head to the Space Anomaly. That’s the NMS multiplayer hub. The Nexus is the huge, robotic eye machine caged in a cube at the very center of the starting area. You can’t miss it. “Speak” to it to see its list of currently available missions. Specifically, you want to look at the top row of quests. These award the rare currency called Quicksilver (which you need to acquire a Living Ship). Besides that, however, each of these quests will award some sort of random item.
This can be a wide variety of things. The exact reward — and the objective of your mission — rotates out every 10 minutes or so. Just like station missions. So, you can theoretically hang out on the Space Anomaly and just check the Nexus every few minutes to see if the top row of quests is giving out a Salvaged Frigate Module. Eventually you should get lucky. And, just like station missions, the reward is a preset guarantee at the start.
Outlaw Missions: NMS Salvaged Frigate Modules
Last but not least on the bounty board are outlaw missions. These are basically a fusion of “normal” station quests and Nexus ones. You can only accept them one at a time. However, you pick them up from outlaw stations in outlaw systems.
To find such systems, you can just explore at random. Or you can equip a Conflict Scanner. This will show you a little skull icon on the Galaxy Map when you hover over any outlaw system. It should also say “pirate controlled” in the description. Another method is to use an Economy Scanner — which will indicate a “black market” in outlaw systems. Either method works!
Fleet Expeditions: NMS Salvaged Frigate Modules
This is another good backburner project. Fleet Expeditions are those real-time missions that you send frigates on from your freighter.
Speak to your Navigator: the NPC by the circular, central console on the command bridge of your own freighter. They will provide a list of five missions you can send your frigates to complete. Passively, in the background. You don’t even need to be logged into NMS!
Though you do need a Fleet Command Station first. Construct one using the base building menu aboard your capital ship. After you send a fleet on its mission, you can access the Fleet Expedition rewards from that same Fleet Command Station, once the real-world timer is complete.
Different missions come with different icons: such as a gun or the symbol for Units (the central No Man’s Sky currency). We want the ones with pickaxe symbols. Some of these missions have the “Constructed Technology” subcategory. These expeditions, specifically, will award Salvaged Frigate Modules. The rub is that which frigate quests you get served up by your Navigator are basically random… There’s no guarantee you will receive a Constructed Technology mission at all.
Still! Fleet Expeditions are a great source of other resources and money anyway. Plus, they’re basically free to complete. You might as well run as many as you can.
Crashed Freighters: NMS Salvaged Frigate Modules
What’s that? Yet another type of NMS freighter? This is the “crashed” variety. It’s probably just about the worst way to farm Salvaged Frigate Modules. It’s an option, though, so we’re dropping it here for posterity.
To find a crashed freighter, your best bet is to purchase a Planetary Chart (Emergency Cartographic Data) from the Cartographer on any space station. This NPC is always standing right next to the teleporter — just two stalls down from the mission agent you might have spoken to earlier.
Each chart costs you one Navigation Data. These are fairly easy enough to find. In fact, we have an entire guide to farming Navigation Data in NMS as well. Once you have a chart or three, use them from your inventory. Each one has a chance of leading to a downed freighter. You just need to keep buying charts and keep checking their objective markers until you get lucky. On the bright side, you can only have one type of each objective marker from each type of Planetary Chart.
In other words: use a bunch of the charts back-to-back without going to the markers. You’re guaranteed to get some crashed freighter coordinates eventually that way.
At the freighter site, you can see buried caches all around through your Analysis Visor. These containers will require some sort of common element — like Cobalt — to open. Like inserting a key. Doing so will provide you with some kind of reward in return. This can be a Salvaged Frigate Module in some cases. Though the whole process is so slow, tedious, and involved that you’d just as well not bother. Not unless a future NMS update makes them more lucrative.
Derelict Freighters: NMS Salvaged Frigate Modules
Speaking of lucrative: we finally come to the real best Salvaged Frigate Module farming method. We also already have a whole guide on how to complete Derelict Freighters. So, in this section, we’ll basically just lay out why they’re so good for getting more Salvaged Frigate Modules.
The gist is the same as piracy. The drop rates are low, just like everywhere else, but they’re condensed. The upgrade item has a chance to drop from the blue containers scattered throughout each derelict. Since there are tons of these suckers, all in one place, you have dozens of chances of acquiring what you need very quickly.
Also like piracy, Derelict Freighters give a lot of other good stuff. Namely Tainted Metal. This is a unique resource only found in this specific environment. You can turn it into some pretty good stuff, too. That’s all before you event factor in the regular loot you get from inside the ghost ship. It’s one win on top of another with these things.
The only downside is cost. Finding a Derelict Freighter in the wild is possible. It’s just not super likely. You can guarantee one by purchasing an Emergency Broadcast Receiver (check the guide). However, these are decently expensive and rise in price depending on how many you purchase. The cost resets every 24 hours, but this will make it more difficult for anyone but the richest players to run derelict after derelict after derelict hunting for Salvaged Frigate Modules.
That’s what we’ve got for now, though! Those are the best No Man’s Sky Salvaged Frigate Module farming methods we’ve discovered. We hope they help you kit out your capital ship quickly and efficiently. Best of luck!
