S Class has increased frigate capacity, more expansion slots, and a greater maximum jump distance. For me hunting for my perfect S Class was just another part of the game, which I enjoyed to an extent. Being in a a system with a high economy will help your search, it took me just over an hour of reloading to get my freighter.
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2023
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I could never get into reloading. I tried it a couple times and it just wasn't for me. Like I don't think it's cheating or anything but with the loading times being what they are on the Nintendo Switch (where I play) it felt to much like reloading to get a shiney starter. I'd rather spend the time complaining about not getting my dream ship on each new encounter than re-rolling the same encounter. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it like that it doesn't feel as frustrating no finding an S class at every turn. Thanks!
Just my take - if you’re planning on playing the same save file for 100s of hours like some people (myself included) the minor bonuses and ‘flex’ factor of an s class freighter can be worth it. For any normal ‘I’m going to play for a while and then move on’ save it’s absolutely not worth it and you shouldn’t worry.
Without save scumming, freighter events occur every 3 hours ish of active play. At a roughly 2% chance in T3 systems that’s 150 hours on AVERAGE. That assumes you’re also warping to a new eligible system every time that internal clock is running out. The only realistic way to get one is the reload method that others have mentioned. It’s up to you whether or not you go that route, I just wanted to emphasize that you really shouldn’t count on ever finding one naturally.
P.s. I think it goes up to 5% in pirate systems but the storage and tech slots are drastically reduced, so it’s kind of a wash time wise since bulkheads are time intensive to acquire.
Thanks for your reply, I think it really puts some things in perspective. If that 150 hour figure is accurate, and I don’t doubt that it is, it really changes the lens I’m looking through on what efforts one must go to to get an S class freighter, let alone one in your preferred make and model.
I know we collectively call it save scumming, but I’m not so sure it rises to that level. The first game I ever put any real time in was Nethack, where save scumming is reason enough for apostasy if not excommunication! I might not do it, but unlike with the folks doing it in Nethack, I won’t bring out my torch and pitchfork against anyone in this community.
I picked up an A class, and now when I’m hitting derelicts I’m fabricating bulkheads instead of tech. If I wasn’t on Switch, and multiplayer was a consideration, I think I could see my way to resetting for an S class. At this point my freighter is a platform for sending organic frigates out to get living ship upgrades. If a future update changes freighters in a big way, the way the recent update brought Nexus missions to Switch, I may regret not just putting in the effort to get an S class, but that for another time.
For now though, I’m happy with my A class but I still enjoy hearing what others went through to get the freighter of their dreams. Oh, and I think the increased frigate capacity may be a reason for me not to get an S class. Could be unrelated because stability on Switch has always been a bit off, but with three pages of frigates I think I’m seeing more crashes when I’m in the same system as my freighter.
No problem! I don’t mean to discourage you, I just don’t want you getting frustrated with the game when an S class never appears. I believe I have a combined 250-300 hours between main save and expeditions and I’ve seen a ‘natural’ S class freighter exactly once, and it was on an expedition file.
I use the term ‘save scumming’ but not in a derogatory way. It’s just the best way to get a lot of things done in NMS. I used it to get my S class venator freighter, and several community find ships at S class (prior to setting up my nanite farm - not worth it if you have one). I mainly spent the time to get the freighter because it felt bad to me spending bulkheads on anything that wasn’t S class. More of a FOMO type thing than anything else. These days my freighter is my sole base of operations, with my bases purely existing as markers and resource farms. (On pc though, bummer to hear that it’s unstable on switch)
The possible class of the freighter is tied to the system's economy. Same goes for the class of the ships you'll find in the system.
https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Economy
If you want an S-Class freighter (or ship), you need to be in a T3 or Black Market economy.
I'd recommend reading this guide on finding Capital Freighters: https://www.reddit.com/r/NMSGlyphExchange/comments/zmpc8w/how_to_acquire_capital_freighters_from_member/
System Freighters are easier to find since they're just flying around the system. They are also generally smaller than Capital Freighters when you get them, but they can be upgraded with Bulkheads just the same.
If I understand correctly, you have a better chance of an S-class freighter in Outlaw systems. The capital freighters can only be got from a freighter fight, which happens after at least 5 warps and at least 3 hours gameplay.
You can save before you do the fight and reload if the freighter isn’t S-class. Reports elsewhere suggested it still took hours to find one.
Note you can tell what class a freighter is by looking at a wall in analysis mode in the landing bay.
But an A-class is plenty good enough!
Okay let me just get way off-topic on this but can we talk about Capital Freighters vs freighters a second? Wiki's and Tubes all seem to make the distinction between freighters (lower-case f) and Capital Ships/Freighters (upper-case F).
Play enough and see enough under attack by pirates and you will notice yes, they sometimes are noticeably larger than the random freighters you might find in this or that solar system. Certainly they are larger than most of the freighters which you may see randomly warp into a solar system after you arrive. They all still show up as Your Capital Ship in navigation. So what's the deal with making the distinction? Is it some kind of save-editing data-mining thing where people have started differentiating the two because there's something intrinsically different?
I swear there are more layers of player-added classification...
There are two models that you can only get as Capital Freighters in varying lengths; Sentinels (long ones shaped like a bread knife) and Venators (look like an Imperial star destroyer). These will not normally show up in a system without going through the freighter fight. (They did show up for me in the expedition which was weird but I haven’t seen them in normal play).
Other than looks though I think there is no difference, and the smaller non-capitals are much easier to get.
I settled for an A class. It’s plenty.
How do you savescum an S-class freighter now that getting out of your ship creates a "restore point" instead of autosaving?
You have to save before the warp in; you can no longer save on the space station. IIRC you don’t get a save on exiting your ship after the freighter battle, so you can reload and warp back in again.
Don't do the battle. Go straight to the space station. Get out of your ship, get back in and go out to the freighter. Check its class. If not what you want, reload the bottom (oldest) save. You'll be back in the spave station. Rinse and repeat until you get what you want.
I know this used to be the case. Last time I tried though reloading the game no longer kicked off the battle (so the freighter was gone). You’re right that you can skip the fight if you land on the freighter, but I believe you now have to warp in each time.
I've nothing to offer other than I too was trying to figure out this very same issue before I took a hiatus a year ago. I ended up following what 1 guide said, checking on planet star ports (or whatever they're called) but I also never found one and just settled for the best A class I could find.