How to Build a Salvage Hauling Corvette in No Man’s Sky

A Corvette fitted with a Tractor Beam can pull salvage in off a planet or out of open space, but the module does not behave like a normal ship inventory upgrade. The pieces it collects stay physical, and they need somewhere to land. Build the ship without that space and the beam will look like it is working while nothing accumulates.

Quick answer: Mount the Tractor Beam on a hab or walkway that has empty interior volume directly behind it, then use Vent Cargo at your outpost to eject the collected pieces for processing.

How the Corvette Tractor Beam stores salvage

The Tractor Beam is mounted as an external utility module, which makes it easy to treat as a self-contained tool. It is not. Salvage pulled in by the beam arrives as physical objects inside the ship rather than as items in a slot, so the interior geometry behind the mounting point decides whether the run produces anything.

The reliable arrangement is to bolt the beam onto a habitation module or a walkway that has clear, unfurnished space behind it. That empty volume becomes the working cargo hold. Habs are the main living area on a Corvette and come in three classes, Titan, Thunderbird and Ambassador, each with its own look, and multiple habs placed next to each other link up automatically with doorways. That linking is useful here, because it gives the beam a larger continuous space to fill.

Leave the section behind the beam clear of furnishings while you are hauling. Internal modules can be installed without limit, but every piece you place is volume the salvage cannot occupy.

Where to get Corvette modules

Structural modules are collected individually into your inventory and then spent when you assemble the ship. They come from a spread of sources, so there is no single farm you have to commit to:

Salvage containers buried on worlds across the universe
Derelict Freighters
Defeated pirates and freighter cargo pods
Crashed freighter crates and frigate expeditions
Mission rewards
The Corvette Workshop shop, plus a barter interface for advanced modules

Buried scrap is the most repeatable option for a hauler build, and salvageable scrap containers are no longer guarded by corrupt Sentinels. More planets now carry buried salvageable scrap as well, so digging sites are easier to find than they used to be.

Parts used in a flatbed salvage Corvette

A salvage hauler is a deliberately plain shape: a hab core with the beam on it, wide flat decks either side, and only the components the validation check demands. These are the pieces that do the work.

Module	Role in the build
Tractor Beam	Pulls salvage into the ship
Thunderbird-Class Hab	Interior volume behind the beam
Landing Gear	Core requirement for landing
Titan-Class Landing Bay	Wide flat deck extensions
Argonaut Cowling	Hull filler along the deck edges
Medusa-Class Reactor	Core power module
Thunderbird-Class Cockpit	Pilot position
Titan Sublight Thrusters	Required thrust
Photon Cannon Array	Required weapon hardpoint

Some modules are tied to technology upgrades and raise the ship’s stats automatically as you add them, so the reactor and thruster choices affect more than the silhouette. Decorative parts such as Ducting Outlets and Argonaut Winglets are optional and do not change how the beam behaves.

Build the salvage Corvette at the Corvette Workshop

Corvette Workshop terminals are found aboard Space Stations. The terminal is where collected modules are turned into a pilotable ship, and it is also where the shop and barter interfaces live if you are short on a part.

Open the Corvette Workshop and start with the Core Modules menu. Place Landing Gear first, then drop in your first Thunderbird-Class Hab to establish the fuselage. The Ship Validation readout will complain about missing parts at this stage, which is expected.

Corvette Workshop module menu with the Landing Gear module highlighted during placement — The Corvette Workshop with Landing Gear selected from Core Modules. Image: Hello Games

Mount the Tractor Beam onto the hab face, then duplicate and align more Thunderbird-Class Hab blocks behind it. Keep that run of habs hollow. This is the space the salvage will physically occupy.

Extend the flatbed. Titan-Class Landing Bay platforms arranged symmetrically along both sides of the hull give you the wide, flat deck the design is built around, with Argonaut Cowling pieces filling the edges. Work outward from the centre so the two sides stay even.

Ship Validation screen with a red module being positioned on the Corvette before finalising — A module shown in red on the Ship Validation screen while it is being positioned. Image: Hello Games

Return to Core Modules and mount a Medusa-Class Reactor and a Thunderbird-Class Cockpit on the raised upper section. Putting the cockpit above the deck keeps the flatbed clear and leaves the hab run untouched.

Fit thrusters and a weapon. Titan Sublight Thrusters and a Photon Cannon Array clear the two warnings the validation check raises most often, and the Thrusters list in Core Modules also holds options such as the Pyrodrive Booster if you want more speed.

Thrusters list inside the Core Modules menu with Pyrodrive Booster highlighted — The Thrusters section of Core Modules, with Pyrodrive Booster selected. Image: Hello Games

Finish the exterior. Windows, antennae, Argonaut Winglets and Ducting Outlets go on last, and the colour and material palette applies a finish across the whole ship at once. None of this affects the salvage hold.

Exit the workshop and choose whether to finalise. The exit menu lets you finalise the build, store the design for later, or keep modifying, and it lists anything still missing. Picking Store Design for Later saves a draft you can pick up from the same terminal with Resume previous design.

Exit Corvette Workshop prompt warning that thrusters and weapons are missing from the design — The exit prompt offering to finalise, store or keep editing, with missing thrusters and weapons flagged. Image: Hello Games

If you strip modules back out and your inventory is full, the refunded parts are not lost. A cache near the terminal collects the overflow.

Fit out the interior after finalising

Once the ship is claimed, walk up the ramp and open the Corvette Configuration menu from inside. Internal Stairway modules link a raised cockpit deck to the main hold below, which matters on a hauler because you will be moving between the pilot seat and the cargo space constantly. Multi-storey Corvettes are only possible with these stairways installed.

Furnishings and base decorations can be placed anywhere inside, and they take resources to construct rather than modules. Practical options include the Living Wall, Nutrition Unit, Refiner Unit and Mission Radar. Barricades along an open balcony edge are cosmetic, but they make an open hold easier to read at a glance.

First-person view of an exposed circular mechanism on a yellow machine aboard the Corvette — A close-up of exposed machinery on the finished industrial flatbed Corvette. Image: Hello Games

Keep the furnishing work forward or above the hab run you reserved for salvage. Anything you install in that stretch reduces the usable hold.

Unload salvage with Vent Cargo

Bring the loaded Corvette back to your outpost and use Vent Cargo to eject the collected pieces. They drop out as objects you can then process for the salvage mission. Because the hold is physical, the ship’s accessway teleporter is handy when the ground below is rough, letting you hover the Corvette and beam down rather than hunting for a flat landing spot.

You will know the setup is correct before you ever reach the outpost. Look into the space behind the Tractor Beam mid-run: salvaged pieces should be visibly sitting there. If the beam fires and that space stays empty, the mounting point has no interior volume behind it, and the fix is to move the beam onto a hab or walkway section that does.