nipsen: Imo, it's sort of worth it to hunt for ships after you get the warp reactors and travel to the bigger stars. Because the variation on the ships increases along with the variation on the planets.

Drawback is that you have to build another warp reactor again to keep moving. But still - ships look more awesome.

Socratatus: In the early stages get a multi-tool only for cosmetics- Cos you like the look of it.

However, later (much later in my case), I found a really nice multitool with like 4 extra slots- It looks like a rifle! Not quite the colour I like, but I couldn`t pass it up.

New ships I`ll grab if they`re better even if just one slot , as long as its not too painful as in one case I wrote in my `Don`t get cocky, kid` thread...

misscrabtree456: Not necessarily, i just turned down a 2 slot upgrade multitool. It didn't have a Plasma Grenade Launcher. I use that all the time.I can due without a Boltcaster but not without a Plasma Grenade Launcher. So I had to let it go.

MrFob9138: I turned down ships and equipment with more slots in the beginning as well but I quickly learned that this is not the way to go. Always take equipment and ships with more slots. The reason is this:
The procedural algorithm will (at least in my experience) always generates replacement equipment that has a range of 1 slot less to 2 slots more than what you have (at least for ships, might be a bit different for tools).

For example, if you have a ship with 25 slots. Any ship wreck that you can find will have between 24 and 27 slots. So the way to gradually improve is to always update to the ship with more slots because if you take the replacement ship with 26 slots (even if it has worse upgrades and lot's of damaged stuff) the next wreck you find will have 25-28 slots. So this is how you improve. I didn't test quite as much with Multitools but I am 99% certain it's the same deal.

And slots are the only thing that really "sticks". You can always replace/make upgrades but this is the only way to improve slots.

Note: You can of course go faster by buying ships from traders but especially with 35 slots and above, they get so ridiculously expensive that farming ship wrecks will be way faster than farming enough units to buy a better ship.

Multitools, you can buy since they are not as expensive (I think a 24 slot Multitool only costs about 180.000 Units) but I think even when buying, the range of slots that are for sale depend on your current equipment (it's just that the range is much wider, e.g. I had a 17 slot tool and I could buy a 24 slot one).

Hope that info is helpful. Of course, this is only for people who try to upgrade efficiently. If you don't care and are happy to progress more slowly, never mind.

misscrabtree456: A Plasma Grenade Launcher is not not an upgrade. It's something you upgrade. If it's not there than you can't use it Period, no upgrading, no nothing, it's not there. So I turned it down. I am not going to grind to upgrade half a mulitool, then use half a mulitool while hoping to find find a better one when I have great one now. Let's get real.

MrFob9138: No, there is a formula for it. You can build it yourself. You can build everything for the Multitool yourself, except the base mining beam but every tool comes with one of those.

misscrabtree456: Ok, My bad, I just fired up the game and checked, you can dismantle the Plasma Launcher. Dam, I missed out on a better gun.

Herrick: Hi Cyion. I remember another thread where you suggested this. I've been trying it but I have a hard time finding ships and when I do, they're always worse than what I have. So I'm trying to save up for a really good one.

Same thing with the Multitools. They're almost always worse than what I have. I did get lucky a little while ago when a Korvax gave me a better one.

I just dread having to grind over and over again for these damn upgrades. I hope I get at least half of the materials back from dismantling upgrades. Haven't tried it yet.

XenophilicWanderer: When you find a transmission tower on a Gek planet you should use it repeatedly until you have 4 or 5 crashed ship sites visible on your hud. With this approach (and ample resources for a few ship repairs in your exosuit and current ship, but with a few free slots available) you can then visit each of the crash sites in turn, and often you'll find each ship will be 1 slot better than the last. I can normally progress by 4 slots within half an hour doing this.

Stick to the one planet, don't bother with any ship upgrades (in fact dismantle any ship upgrades instead of repairing them) so you only have the essential components repaired, and the ship progression will pass quickly :)

Zimnel: When I realized I was getting multitool upgrades from aliens and ruins, I stopped buying them at the outposts.
I'm now on a 24 slot : )

As for the ship, I change it two or three times on each solar system aprox.

Herrick: Where do you go to get Multitools from aliens? Are they in the Outposts?

Edit: I meant from talking to Aliens. I've done this a couple times but I don't remember if I went to an Outpost or an Observatory.

Zimnel: Check the big outposts and the ones having a trading building (the ones with landing platform). Some of the conversations lead to a multitool gift.

Other places where I got multitool gift:

*Ruins with "choose the good option" feature (sometimes you see a futuristic version of yourself, other times a warrior gives you the multitool).

*Observatory (after solving the riddle, if it involved a warrior).
*Crashed airship black box. After choosing the honorable option. Not common.

Hope this sheds some light.