“What do you do in No Man’s Sky?” is a question that’s followed Hello Games’ ambitious space opus around ever since it was unveiled back in 2014. Truth is, it’s never been an easy proposition to explain; when there’s an entire galaxy to explore, how do you tell someone where to start?
You might already know that the goal is to make your way to the center of a galaxy full of unique, procedurally-generated planets, but it’s what happens on the way there that’s a mystery. Now, with about five hours game time behind me, it’s becoming clear that there’s a lot to do. As millions of travelers prepare to make their way into this vast, unknown universe, here are a few things that will help get your journey underway…
1. Fix Your Ship
You’ll start No Man’s Sky in sight of your small starship and it won’t be in good shape, so making essential repairs, fuelling up, and taking your first tentative steps into space flight are job #1.
Some milestones are laid out for you as you progress through the game — like locating a space station, repairing your ship’s Hyperdrive, and eventually travelling between star systems — but for the most part, you’re free to explore as you please. And before blasting off, there’s already a lot you can do on that first planet.
2. Collect Essential Elements
Your Exosuit’s scanner reveals valuable elements that are scattered across every planet. Plutonium fuels various parts of your ship and keeps your life support systems online, while iron keeps your shields powered up, protecting you from the hostile conditions on a planet’s surface — so you’ll want to stock up on those early.
Combining elements lets you craft materials to fix your ship or enhance your Exosuit and Multi-Tool — while others fetch a high price on the galactic market. Inventory space is limited, but it pays to learn which elements are worth keeping hold of.
3. Meet the Sentinels
An early mining expedition introduces me to the sinister, ever-present Sentinels — a galactic police force of sorts, who silently patrol each planet to ensure order is maintained. They hover around, scanning the area I’ve been mining to check I haven’t been greedy before focusing on me with a large, techno-cyclops eye.
Satisfied I’m not upsetting the galactic order (for now), they leave me alone. But it’s a chilling reminder that I’m being watched — and I certainly don’t feel ready to mess with them… yet.
4. Explore a Planet
Wandering around even a small area of your first planet, you’ll encounter unique creatures, plant life, and minerals to scan, name, and upload to the Galactic Library (who, by the way, pay handsomely for discoveries) — as well as evidence of alien civilizations. Knowledge Stones teach you words from strange languages, which make trade negotiations with their native speakers easier and raise your standing with their cultures.
There are also signs of less fortunate travellers. Smoking debris can be seen on the horizon and investigating these provides blueprints for new technology or improvements to your Exosuit, ship, or Multi-Tool. You’ll also stumble across abandoned signal scanners — beacons that, if you’ve got the elements needed to get them working, highlight points of interest like trading posts, downed ships, or transmission signals. Each of these could lead to rewards like valuable resources, a new Multi-Tool, or even a bigger, better ship.
5. Blast Off
Leaving solid ground for the vastness of space is a mind-blowing experience — there are asteroids to blast through, colossal freighters to marvel at, and other pilots to dodge (or engage in a dogfight if you’re feeling brave). But it’s when you take a look at the galactic map for the first time that the overwhelming sense of scale takes over.
Every star system is charted, each is home to a multitude of planets that are yours to discover, once you have a hyperdrive blueprint. It’s an exciting prospect that every pinprick of light can be explored, particularly when a path to the galaxy’s center begins to open up. A true sense of purpose takes over, and travelling onward to a space station to buy, sell, and craft the necessary parts becomes an important goal.
6. Make Some Upgrades
The role you play in the galaxy is very much defined by your gear. Your Exosuit, Starship, and Multi-Tool can be modified in countless ways and blueprints for new technologies and enhancements are common — but inventory space is limited, so giving some thought to the kind of traveller you want to be is wise when making upgrades.
If exploration and discovery is your focus, adding extra range to your Multi-Tool’s scanner will make new species discovery a breeze, while enhancing your mining beam will help you become an efficient, wealthy trader. If a more aggressive approach is your thing, adding a Plasma Launcher or upgraded Photon Cannon to your vessel can aid a life of piracy and take down traders and Sentinels faster.
7. Cause Some Trouble
If you find the eyes of the Sentinels on you to be intimidating, or the lure of plundering space freighters gets too much, it’s easy to start a fight. A warning though: early-game aggression is likely to be over pretty quickly and the chances of you coming out on top are slim.
With the right upgrades, you’ll stand more of a chance — at least against the first wave of Sentinels. Attaching a shotgun-esque attachment to my Multi-Tool let me take a few down, but revenge came swiftly as my wanted level increased, more Sentinels arrived and I was brought to justice. Equally, my attempts at interstellar piracy were short lived as Sentinel fighters were instantly scrambled in response to taking a shot at a cargo freighter.
Of course, the thing with No Man’s Sky is that you don’t have to do any of this — there’s a lot more you could do in your first five hours, but equally you could spend all of that time and more on your first planet and still come nowhere close to getting bored.
It all depends on how you want to play the game; in this relatively short time I feel like I know what I want to do with my game and have an idea of how to get there — but that might be entirely different to how you want to play. That’s what makes No Man’s Sky such a unique, intriguing prospect — and I can’t wait to spend many more hours in its universe.
Hello Games breaks radio silence, announces big update for No Man's Sky
Foundation Update Incoming
This week Hello Games will be releasing an update to No Man’s Sky. We’re calling it The Foundation Update, because we have added the foundations of base building, and also because this is putting in place a foundation for things to come.
Detailed patch notes will follow, and release will be soon.
Coming from five years of intense development, immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with 7 patches across both platforms (the last of these was 1.09 on Sept 24th which you can read about them all here). These fixed many of the most common or critical bugs and issues post-release.
In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for the Foundation Update. It won’t be our biggest update, but it is the start of something.
The discussion around No Man’s Sky since release has been intense and dramatic. We have been quiet, but we are listening and focusing on improving the game that our team loves and feels so passionately about.
Positive or negative feedback, you have been heard and that will truly help to make this a better game for everyone.
This update will be the first small step in a longer journey. We hope you can join us.
No Man’s Sky update adds base building, new game modes and freighters
Since No Man’s Sky released, we’ve been overwhelmed with feedback, and it’s good to finally be able to share with you what we’ve been up to.
Immediately after No Man’s Sky released the team spent six weeks updating the game with several patches (the last of these was 1.09 on 24th September which you can read about them all here. These fixed many of the most common and critical bugs and issues.
In the nine weeks since then our small team has been hard at work on development, testing and certification for this first update.
Update 1 adds base building, and it’s a foundation of things to come.
You can also read very in depth patch notes here.
Firstly, we have introduced three game modes:
• Normal mode is the original chilled exploration experience.
• Creative mode allows players to explore the universe without limits, and build the biggest base they can (more on this below).
• Survival mode creates a much more challenging endurance experience.
Secondly, the update brings base building to the game, allowing players to start building a homestead on a planet of their choosing. Bases are used for shelter and storage, but we’ve also introduced farming crops and you can hire NPCs from Space Stations to research new tech and products for you. Players can teleport back to their base at any time.
Having a base from which to explore the No Man’s Sky universe unlocks many new abilities and features. Players can also build equipment in the field, such as save points (essential for Survival mode), way points (to permanently mark and return to your discoveries), mining harvesters (to gather resources in your absence) and Signal Scanners (to find nearby resource deposits).
Freighters are the third key update being introduced in Update 1. These ships can be found cruising through space and, upon boarding, players can choose to buy the loyalty of the ship’s captain to take control of them. Goods can be teleported to your freighter from on-planet, and stockpiled for trading, and owned freighters can be summoned from anywhere in the Galaxy.
There’s a number of other improvements to the game too, including requested tweaks such as Stackable Products, larger inventories, a quick menu and more.
We hope you enjoy it, and get in touch to let us know where you’d like to see the game go in the future.
This week Hello Games will be releasing the next content update for No Man's Sky. We're calling it the Path Finder Update; it introduces a new vehicle that will aid home planet exploration, building on the Foundation Update to hint at a path ahead for the future.
Detailed patch notes will be released when the update goes live.
Shortly after we launched the Foundation Update, we released a number of patches to address issues reported by players before beginning work on the Path Finder update. We were surprised and excited by the response to Foundation, and we have been listening carefully to community feedback since then.
To those of you who have spent time sharing feedback, whether positive or negative, we are listening.
This is the next step in our journey. It shows the path forward. We hope you'll join us.
It’s been a year since No Man’s Sky first released, and it’s been an exciting, intense and emotional time for us at Hello Games. We have been quiet, but we have been listening intently.
We’ve spent that year working hard on free updates. Update 1.3, releasing today, is our biggest to date and will be available for free to all No Man’s Sky players.
Read on to learn a bit more about what you can expect to discover in the latest update — a lot has changed in a year!
Atlas Rises
Featuring a new central storyline players can discover more about the universe and themselves, as well as a wide array of new and improved features. Whether you’re a veteran interloper or completely new to the No Man’s Sky universe, there has never been a better time to start your journey.
Full patch notes are available here.
Here’s a quick run down of the main features:
• 30 hours of branching story and deeper lore
• Procedurally generated guild missions
• Much deeper interstellar trading
• Star Systems have varying wealth, conflict and economies
• Overhauled Space combat controls, weapons and AI
• Portals stargates enable quick travel
• Terrain manipulation for more complex bases
• New farming and mining interactions bring increased depth
• Increased biome variety and Rare exotic biomes
• Analysis visor & discovery improvements
• Galaxy map and many other UI improvements
• New S Class ship designs
• Low altitude flight and the ability to crash your ship
• Crashed Freighters to salvage on planets
• Joint exploration
Our story gives a new context, quest system and branching narrative to No Man’s Sky. In the Atlas Rises story, the fabric of existence is starting to falter. A mysterious new interdimensional race have appeared, and ancient portals have begun to open.
Glitches in the simulation, visualised by strange floating orbs, allow players to see and communicate with up to 16 other travellers and explore the universe together.
While interaction with others is currently very limited, this is an important first step into the world of synchronous co-op in No Man’s Sky.
We hope you enjoy this and what follows – look forward to seeing you out there!
This week marks the one year anniversary of No Man’s Sky and on behalf of myself, and the team at Hello Games I just want to say – Thank you for this year. Thank you for playing, providing feedback, discovering, sharing and so much more…
Hello Games 宣布,他们将在今年八月为《无人深空》推出一个全新的更新内容,名为“Next”,并且游戏将在那时登陆 Xbox One 和腾讯 WeGame 平台。在 Xbox One 平台游戏将支持 4K/HDR 以及 Xbox One X 强化。
根据 Hello Games 联合创始人 Sean Murray 的描述,“Next”更新是基于玩家对于游戏反馈的内容进行开发的,同时它将扩展游戏在之前几个更新中提到的故事主题。
“之所以称其为‘Next’,是因为它对于我们和玩家群体来说是漫长旅程非常重要的一步,它将是《无人深空》最大型的一次更新,并且将对所有玩家免费提供。Hello Games 还将在未来持续对游戏提供更多的支持。”
《无人深空》最早于2016年8月9日发售,登陆了 PS4 和 Steam 平台。虽然游戏在首发期间内口碑非常差,但是经过 Hello Games 为游戏不断提供的修正与更新,游戏在玩家中的口碑持续改善。《无人深空》上一个更新“阿特拉斯的崛起”在去年夏季推出,追加了近30小时的全新故事内容。
Hello Games has announced No Man’s Sky NEXT, the next major update for No Man’s Sky due out this summer, as well as an Xbox One version, which publisher 505 Games will distribute at retail worldwide later in 2018.
“We are calling this No Man’s Sky NEXT because it is an important next step in a journey for No Man’s Sky, for Hello Games and for our devoted community,” said Hello Games founder Sean Murray in a press release. “Each update for No Man’s Sky has been more successful than the last; this was especially true of our last update Atlas Rises. It emboldens the team to push ourselves further. This journey is far from over, and it’s exciting to be working again on something you know will surprise people.”
The Xbox One version of No Man’s Sky will include the Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises and NEXT updates from day one, and 4K resolution and HDR support on Xbox One X.
No Man’s Sky is available now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
The No Man’s Sky Next update will launch alongside the release of the Xbox One version of No Man’s Sky on July 24, developer Hello Games announced.
The No Man’s Sky Next update will add full multiplayer, including the ability to meet up with friends and strangers, and work together to survive, prey on others, or build bases.
No Man’s Sky is available now for PlayStation 4 and PC.
《无人深空》现有PS4和PC版本,7月24日伴随着更新会首次登陆Xbox One。新的更新将包括与朋友和陌生人的相遇,协力生存,掠夺他人,建造基地。预订 Xbox One 版本将会包括一个“新手包”其中会有X.O套装,Artios-VI多用工具以及“新手加速".
505 Games has released a new trailer for No Man’s Sky detailing 11 things that have changed since the game’s initial launch in August 2016.
Here is a message from developer Hello Games’ Sean Murray regarding the video:
Hello everyone – it’s an exciting and super busy month for Hello Games and No Man’s Sky as we have our massive NEXT update launching across all platforms on July 24, and for the first time on Xbox One!
We will be sharing more details about the new content in the run up to launch. But a question we get asked all the time is ‘what’s changed in No Man’s Sky?’, so our friends at 505 Games have made a handy vid “11 Things That Have Changed in No Man’s Sky Since Launch” to remind everybody about the many many things that have changed… since launch.
There are a lot more than 11, in fact there are 100’s as you can see in the lists here:
But we chose our favourite 11 as the video would go on for far too long…
Changes we’ve highlighted include a regenerated universe, newly opened portal stargates, new biomes, deeper trading, exocraft for advanced exploration, new modes (Survival / Permadeath / Creative), base building, new missions/story, terrain manipulation, crashed / interstellar freighters, and deeper space combat.
Thanks so much,
Sean
No Man’s Sky is available now for PlayStation 4 and PC, and will launch for Xbox One on July 24 alongside the “NEXT” update, which adds full multiplayer, including the ability to meet up with friends and strangers, and work together to survive, prey on others, or build bases. Pre-orders for the Xbox One version include the “Next Generation Starter Pack,” which includes the X.O. Suit, Artios-VI multi-tool, and Starting Boost.