Thanks for your reply, I think it really puts some things in perspective. If that 150 hour figure is accurate, and I don’t doubt that it is, it really changes the lens I’m looking through on what efforts one must go to to get an S class freighter, let alone one in your preferred make and model.

I know we collectively call it save scumming, but I’m not so sure it rises to that level. The first game I ever put any real time in was Nethack, where save scumming is reason enough for apostasy if not excommunication! I might not do it, but unlike with the folks doing it in Nethack, I won’t bring out my torch and pitchfork against anyone in this community.

I picked up an A class, and now when I’m hitting derelicts I’m fabricating bulkheads instead of tech. If I wasn’t on Switch, and multiplayer was a consideration, I think I could see my way to resetting for an S class. At this point my freighter is a platform for sending organic frigates out to get living ship upgrades. If a future update changes freighters in a big way, the way the recent update brought Nexus missions to Switch, I may regret not just putting in the effort to get an S class, but that for another time.

For now though, I’m happy with my A class but I still enjoy hearing what others went through to get the freighter of their dreams. Oh, and I think the increased frigate capacity may be a reason for me not to get an S class. Could be unrelated because stability on Switch has always been a bit off, but with three pages of frigates I think I’m seeing more crashes when I’m in the same system as my freighter.

I could never get into reloading. I tried it a couple times and it just wasn't for me. Like I don't think it's cheating or anything but with the loading times being what they are on the Nintendo Switch (where I play) it felt to much like reloading to get a shiney starter. I'd rather spend the time complaining about not getting my dream ship on each new encounter than re-rolling the same encounter. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it like that it doesn't feel as frustrating no finding an S class at every turn. Thanks!

Okay let me just get way off-topic on this but can we talk about Capital Freighters vs freighters a second? Wiki's and Tubes all seem to make the distinction between freighters (lower-case f) and Capital Ships/Freighters (upper-case F).

Play enough and see enough under attack by pirates and you will notice yes, they sometimes are noticeably larger than the random freighters you might find in this or that solar system. Certainly they are larger than most of the freighters which you may see randomly warp into a solar system after you arrive. They all still show up as Your Capital Ship in navigation. So what's the deal with making the distinction? Is it some kind of save-editing data-mining thing where people have started differentiating the two because there's something intrinsically different?

I swear there are more layers of player-added classification...

How do you savescum an S-class freighter now that getting out of your ship creates a "restore point" instead of autosaving?