Dreadnoughts

How do you get a class S dreadnought? Own a freighter first, then fight in a pirate system. Break the dreadnought's engines and it surrenders, and you can seize it. It comes at class S 5% of the time.

The pirate dreadnought of No Man's Sky: a long dark grey hull with red lights, gun turrets on its deck, and long spires hanging below — The pirate dreadnought, drawn from the game's own model.

When a dreadnought comes

Only once you own a freighter. When a battle is due, a pirate system always brings a dreadnought, and a third of the other systems do.

Some systems bring a dreadnought on every arrival, battle due or not: 10% of high conflict systems and 20% of pirate ones, or 4.6% of all systems. The game rolls for it with the same number every time you arrive in a system, because it draws that number from the system. So a system that brings one brings one every time, and you can farm it without waiting for the next battle.

Conflict	Of systems	Dreadnought on arrival	Of all systems
Low	34%	0%	0%
Medium	29%	0%	0%
High	28%	10%	2.8%
Pirate	8.8%	20%	1.8%

Systems of Euclid by conflict level, for a player who owns a freighter.

How the battle ends

What you do	What you get
Destroy it	One freighter module at class S, and the large reward for the freighter you saved
Break all four engines, and its hull below a quarter or all its large cannons	It surrenders: seize it, take 5 to 10 million units, or leave. Also the large reward
Let it warp out	Only the small reward for the freighter you saved

The end of a dreadnought battle.

You cannot hurt the dreadnought from far away: its shields are too strong. Fly in under them and shoot the hull from close up. Meanwhile it fires lasers and torpedoes at the civilian freighter. Leave the torpedoes alone: shooting them down changes nothing. Even if the civilian freighter is lost, a kill still pays the module: only a dreadnought that warps out takes it away.

To destroy it

Destroy it and you get a freighter module, not the ship. Freighter modules shows the trench to fight it from, step by step.

To make it surrender

When it is losing, the dreadnought charges its warp: 35 seconds, and 2 more for each broken engine. It surrenders when all four engines are broken and its hull is below a quarter or all six large cannons are gone.

Fly in under the shields and break the four hyperdrive engines fast. They sit in a row low at the stern.

The pirate dreadnought seen from behind: its four engines marked in red, in a row low at the stern — The four engines in red, in a row at the stern.

Fly low over the deck, still under the shields, and shoot the large cannons, the ones that fire the red laser beams. Five stand on the stepped deck at the stern, one at the bow.

The pirate dreadnought seen from above, bow to the right: six large cannons marked in red along the middle of the deck, five on the raised deck at the stern and one at the bow — The six large cannons in red: five on the stepped deck at the stern, one at the bow.

When it surrenders, fly into its hangar, which opens on the upper deck, and choose: seize the ship, demand tribute, or leave.

Class

There is one dreadnought, the same ship everywhere. Only its class changes, and it follows the wealth of the system as for freighters. In a pirate system it is class S 5% of the time, so half the players seize one at S within 14 tries.

Freighter modules

A dreadnought you destroy gives one freighter module at class S, and a system's dreadnought always gives the same one. Freighter modules lists the seven and where players farm them.