No Man’s Sky: Ranking Every Ship Weapon

When it comes to space combat in No Man’s Sky, it’s good to have a solid understanding of all the weapons you can equip on your starships. You’ll take part in some exciting aerial set-pieces, especially while fighting pirates and attacking freighters. You may also want to use your ship as a battering ram against ground-based Sentinels, too.

With seven different starship weapons on offer, it can be hard to know which weapons are the best to equip. Your ship comes with limited technology slots, especially at lower ship classes, so we’re here to help you decide on what armaments to engineer on your vessel.

Updated on November 1, 2024, by Sean Murray: No Man’s Sky continues to evolve with every new update, and starship weapons are far different today compared to the game’s initial launch. We’ve updated this guide to reflect the game as it is today, and also included the Sentinel Cannon this time around.

To get the blueprints for these weapons, summon the Space Anomaly and visit the technicians towards the back. The starship merchant will be the first on your left. You’ll need a whole bunch of Nanites to purchase the relevant blueprints and any potential upgrades.

7

Cyclotron Ballista

The Cyclotron Ballista can be a difficult weapon to use. It fires two slow-moving projectiles per trigger pull, but each of those projectiles can deal massive damage.

In a high-speed dogfight, however, the slow speed and relatively slow fire rate of the Cyclotron Ballista can make it difficult to take out swarms of fighters quickly. Use the Ballista against larger stationary targets, such as Sentinel Dreadnoughts, for best effect.

6

Photon Cannon

The Photon Cannon is the default weapon on all starships. It can be upgraded and turned into a solid choice if you prefer a weapon that feels like the sort of ‘pew pew’ lasers you’d get from other sci-fi franchises like Star Wars.

As with other weapons, it comes with a range of 1,500 units, making it a decent mid-range option. Its damage is nothing to write home about, but the main reason it’s not at the bottom of this list is its impressive capacity before overheating. With maximum upgrades, you’ll be able to fire this weapon for a very long time before needing to cool down.

The Photon Cannon cannot be removed until a different weapon has been installed.

5

Rocket Launcher

In No Man’s Sky, the Rocket Launcher functions similarly to the Cyclotron Ballista, as it has the ability to hit both close and long-range enemies. It has by far the longest range, at 5,000 units, more than triple the distance an enemy pirate will first attack you. However, you’ll only get one shot before it needs to cool down.

The Rocket Launcher cannot track targets like many other weapons, relying on you to anticipate the trajectory of an enemy ship. It’s best used up close to finish off enemy fighters that already have their shields down where a single well-aimed shot can take them out.

4

Phase Beam

The Phase Beam has a longer range than almost all the other weapons on this list at 3,000 units, and is great for sustaining your ship in space battles. This is because it can drain the shield of an enemy ship, recharging your own in the process. When you’re being strafed by several enemies, this can be a real boon.

However, the trade-offs here are that there’s no lock-on, meaning you’ll have to rely entirely on your own skill, and that the Phase Beam quickly overheats. You’ll get a few solid seconds to blast enemies when fully upgraded, before waiting a couple more seconds for it to cool down.

The Phase Beam is best paired with an alternate weapon for when it inevitably overheats.

3

Sentinel Cannon

For all intents and purposes, the Sentinel Cannon is a Photon Cannon, but better. It has higher DPS thanks to its greater damage and faster fire rate. The Sentinel Cannon is unique, however, because it can only be found natively on Sentinel Interceptors.

The damage potential on the Sentinel Cannon is so great that it cannot be overlooked. It’ll outperform most weapon systems on other spacecraft (including exotics and fighters) and even compete with other weapons higher on this list. If you’ve got a Sentinel Interceptor, rest assured you will be a force to be reckoned with.

2

Infra-Knife Accelerator

If you want your starship to feel like it’s firing a 30mm Gatling cannon, then the Infra-Knife Accelerator is for you. This weapon offers high damage thanks to its rapid-fire projectile. It also has a fairly high speed, being just short of the phase beam in terms of velocity.

The downside to the Infra-Knife is its comparatively short range. You’ll need to get in close before unleashing this weapon, although you’ll find that it chews through shields and hull hit points equally effectively.

1

Positron Ejector

No other weapon in No Man’s Sky offers the immense destructive capacity of the Positron Ejector. With this weapon, you can eliminate entire swarms of fighters and pick off components of Sentinel Dreadnoughts faster than you can blink.

Even though the Positron Ejector can only be used at near-point-blank range, it doesn’t matter. Whatever comes close simply dies after just a few blasts. You’ll want to fully upgrade this weapon to avoid an overheating problem and have a secondary weapon to pick off opponents at range, but there’s not a single starship that doesn’t benefit from having the Positron Ejector onboard.