How to Find your First Exotic Starship (for Beginner to Veteran Players)

Notice

The amount of time that this process will take will vary between individuals, as it is based on RNG (random number generation). For me, it took around an hour or two but eventually found my first Exotic with this method.

The Basics

Each star system has a set number of 20-21 certain types of starships. Each one will have seven Shuttles, three Fighters, three Haulers, three Explorers, four others based on the system's dominant race (Gek = Haulers, Korvax = Explorers, Vy'keen = Fighters) and one Exotic ship unique to that system.

Every system, regardless of its economy's wealth, will have an Exotic starship in it. They have a base launch fuel cost of 25 percent, their maneuverability is high, and their inventory size can be anywhere from 24 to 30 slots. However, they will not spawn in any sort of uninhabited system.

It is recommended to have an economy scanner installed in your current starship to make finding a wealthy system easier. If you don't have one, you can just jump around from system to system until you find a wealthy system.

Once you've found one, you can choose one of two places to conduct your search. You can settle at the space station in the center of the system or you can find a trading post on a planet's surface. The idea is to find a structure where NPCs will dock their starships to refuel.

Once you've chosen your spot, create a restore point using your starship as this process will require reloading. Find a vantage point where you can see most if not all of the docking bay spots and wait for some NPCs to fly in and land.

The NPCs will come in "waves" of about five to six starships. When you're stationed at a docking bay, the game will choose five or six starship designs to cycle through while you're there out of the 20-21 it has in total. These designs will keep reappearing in each "wave" until you reload. So if you don't see the Exotic starship in the first "wave" of starships that come in to land, just reload your restore point and rinse and repeat until you see it.

Exotic starships will look and sound very different from the other starships once they show up. Once you've spotted it, waste no time! Sprint over to the ship once it lands and talk to the NPC who owns it to negotiate buying the starship from them. If you're not fast enough, the NPC will eventually leave again and you will have to wait some more.

Exotic starships will always be an S-Class as they are very rare, so they can run anywhere from 5 million (low end) to 30+ million units (high end) in price. However, if you're not attached to the starship you currently own, you can exchange it with the NPC's to bring down the price. Just make sure you take out all of the technology modules you want to keep before you do this.

And that is all there is to it! This method may end up being a little tedious if you're not lucky, but rest assured it always eventually works. It just requires some patience.

If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer them :)

Happy hunting, Travellers!