Freighter

Freighters are colossal-sized interstellar starships. Players have the ability to purchase a freighter using units and customize them using the Base building system, implemented in the Foundation update. Freighters can be transported through any number of star systems at will. Freighters allow players to have more than one Starship.

Presently, there is no way to track them.

Purchasing

To purchase a freighter, use the following steps:

Search for a space fleet that appears to gains an icon as you get closer to them. Alternatively, if you save a Freighter from pirates, it will become available to purchase.
Find the docking area (marked with a blue beacon) and dock your ship, then take a series of winding staircases (3 or 4) until you reach the bridge.
Find the captain, who will be represented by an icon. You will then be able to review ship stats, including the amount of inventory slots available.
If the freighter is acceptable, it may be purchased. The greater the number of inventory slots, the higher the price.

Inventory

The first freighter purchased will cost between six and ten million units, and provide 10-13 slots. Each slot will handle up to 1000 stackable inventory items, or twice the size of an inventory slot on a regular starship.
The maximum number of freighter slots is 48; a freighter with a full series of slots will cost roughly 100 million units to purchase
When transferring items to a freighter, you choose a slot on the freighter's inventory screen and the items are teleported there
Retrieving items from your freighter requires a visit to the ships bridge, and an interaction with the ship's captain.

Building spaces

You can customize certain areas of the freighter, which are located on the top floor on the opposite end of the ship from the bridge. General rules of basebuilding apply here.

Certain items such as Storage Containers and specialists are shared between the planetary base and freighter base. For example, if a weapon specialist exists in your planetary base, one cannot be added to your freighter base. The same goes for numbered vaults, of which the maximum is 10.

The available building space occupies a 19 x 19 square area extending outward from the base entrance. Rooms can be places four-high above the starting layer, and one below the starting layer, for a total of six buildable 19 x 19 layers.

Additional storage units can be built in this area, increasing the number of inventory slots the freighter holds. Each container provides an additional five slots that will hold 1000 resource units each.

Upgrading

Freighters can be upgraded in the same general manner as individual ships, with each upgrade adding a slot or two to what your current freighter contains (cost per upgrade will be roughly 2.5 million units).
When upgrading to a new freighter, all customized building spaces will be dismantled, and the resources loaded into a vault in the new ship's building area
Moving inventory to the new freighter is done using a screen similar to that used when transferring between regular ships

Starship storage

Freighters can be used to store up to six starships, allowing the player to have ships of different specialties.
To purchase additional ships, you must speak with their owner when they are docked in your freighter.

Additional information

If you wish to summon your freighter to your current location, use Dpad Down (Ps4) and then find the shortcut for Call Freighter. Chose the freighter's destination and call it.
Freighters can NOT defend themselves against pirates. They may be seen shooting at the attacking pirates, but it does no damage. The player must be the one to save the freighter, although they can choose to ignore it.

The Foundation Update added two types of unique super-massive freighters, each with three sizes (small, medium, and large), that will spawn in a star system after a certain amount of times the player warps to a new system, and it will instantly start a space battle. There can be up to 12 pirates and other ships flying by will join the fight. These freighters will also warp into a system by obtaining a Tier 5 Sentinel Pursuit Level in space.
Each star system has a unique model of super-massive freighter in it, so if a player finds a particular model they like, but can't afford it yet, they can always try to get it to spawn in that system again later, and it will be the same.