Freighter Upgrades — Hyperdrive and Fleet Modules
Buying a freighter is only the start. There are two upgrade tracks: technologies you learn on the bridge, and upgrade modules you slot into its inventory. The first covers warp range and convenience; the second mostly boosts frigate expedition performance.
Where it happens
The Upgrade Control on the bridge sells the technology blueprints. It occupies what used to be the guild mission console and also carries the frigate consumable blueprints.
You pay in Salvaged Frigate Modules, not units.
Farming Salvaged Frigate Modules
This item is effectively the only currency for freighter progression. Sources:
- Derelict Freighters (the most reliable)
- Crashed freighters
- Nexus missions
- Frigate expeditions — combat and exploration runs in particular
- Destroying NPC freighters’ cargo containers — fastest, but it draws sentinel attention and damages your standing with that race. The same applies to shooting the unarmed cargo pods around a freighter.
The six hyperdrive upgrades
Freighter hyperdrive expands along two lines: more range, and more star colours you can reach.
| Class | Technology | Effect | Cost (modules) |
|---|---|---|---|
| base | Freighter Hyperdrive | +100 ly, yellow systems | — |
| C | Warp Core Resonator | +200 ly | 4 |
| B | Plasmatic Warp Injector | +300 ly | 2 |
| A | Reality De-threader | +800 ly | 3 |
| C | Amplified Warp Shielding | +50 ly, unlocks red systems | 4 |
| B | Chromatic Warp Shielding | +50 ly, adds green systems | 8 |
| A | Temporal Warp Computer | +50 ly, adds blue systems | 12 |
The colour line must be learned in order to open each next colour. If you only want range, Reality De-threader (+800 ly for 3 modules) is by far the best value in the list.
Two convenience technologies sit alongside them:
- Matter Beam — 5 modules. Send and receive materials at long range without boarding. The biggest quality-of-life gain here.
- Interstellar Scanner — 4 modules. Scans a system’s economy and conflict data.
Worth knowing
- Fuel is the same as a starship: Warp Cells (20%) or Warp Hypercores (100%).
- You warp from the globe hologram on the bridge, which opens the galaxy map.
- Normal starship hyperdrive upgrades cannot be installed in a freighter.
- Economy and conflict scanners on your starship don’t apply to the freighter’s map — that’s why the Interstellar Scanner exists separately.
- Freighters bought before Atlas Rises have no hyperdrive at all, and one can’t be added later.
Fleet upgrade modules
These come from the Engineering Core aboard a Derelict Freighter. Slot them into the freighter’s tech or general inventory to raise hyperdrive range or your frigate fleet’s expedition stats.
| Module | Boosts | C | B | A | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freighter Hyperdrive | Hyperdrive range | 50–100 | 100–150 | 150–200 | 200–250 |
| Fuel Unit | Fuel efficiency | 2–5 | 6–10 | 11–15 | 16–20 |
| Beacon | Fleet speed | 2 | 6 | 11 | 15 |
| Combat Unit | Fleet combat | 2 | 6 | 11 | 15 |
| Exploration Unit | Fleet exploration | 2 | 6 | 11 | 15 |
| Mining Unit | Fleet industry | 2 | 6 | 11 | 15 |
| Trade Unit | Fleet trade | 2 | 6 | 11 | 15 |
One important property: unlike other upgrade modules, these are not seed-generated. Modules from the same derelict freighter always give identical stats regardless of install order. Modules from a different derelict give different stats. So when you find a derelict producing good numbers, farming that one is the reliable play.
Fleet stat modules feed directly into the star-rating check in fleet expeditions. When expedition difficulty feels like a wall, topping up these modules is often faster than buying more frigates.
Paint
Colour blueprints unlock permanently at the Upgrade Control for 5,000 nanite clusters each. Ten are available — red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue, purple, pink, white, black — and both unlocking and applying happen at the same terminal.
Squadron
Under Manage Squadron on the Manage Fleet terminal, you can recruit up to four NPC starships to fly with you. They join pirate fights and form up when summoned.
- Unlocking slots: 800 to 10,000 nanite clusters, depending on the slot
- Class upgrades: C→B 1,200 / B→A 4,100 / A→S 9,500 nanite clusters
Unlike frigates, squadron ships fight alongside you directly. It’s a separate system from expeditions.
FAQ
Where should my first modules go? If warping feels cramped, Reality De-threader (+800 ly, 3 modules) is the best value by a wide margin, followed by Matter Beam (5). The colour line is sequential and costs 24 modules in total, so it can wait unless you need those systems now.
What happens to these when I change freighters? All of it is lost. Installed technologies and upgrade modules do not transfer. So finish any freighter swapping before pouring modules into one.