No Man’s Sky Guide: Quick Tips & Tricks for Cosmic Explorers

Chapter 1: The First Sunrise – Essential Survival Tips for No Man’s Sky

Your first moments in No Man’s Sky are a frantic race against the clock. Your equipment is broken, your shields are failing, and the planet itself seems hostile. Do not panic. This initial trial is designed to teach you the fundamental rhythm of survival that will serve you for your entire journey.

Your First Priorities

1. Repair Your Scanner First. Your first objective is always to repair your Multi-Tool’s Scanner. The game will guide you. This is non-negotiable. Your Scanner is your lifeline, allowing you to locate the resources needed to survive and escape.
2. Learn the Core Survival Elements. Your survival depends on four key resources you can find everywhere. Use your scanner to locate them:
   • Carbon: Harvested from plants. It powers your Mining Beam and is a key ingredient in many early crafting recipes.
   • Ferrite Dust: Harvested from small rocks. This is the universe’s duct tape, used for repairing components and basic construction.
   • Oxygen: Harvested from glowing red plants. This recharges your Life Support system.
   • Sodium: Harvested from glowing yellow plants. This recharges your Hazard Protection, which shields you from extreme temperatures, radiation, and toxins.
3. Master Your HUD. Pay close attention to the bottom-left of your screen. The white bar is your Life Support, which depletes over time. The orange bar is your Hazard Protection, which depletes when you are exposed to environmental dangers. Sprinting and using your jetpack drain your Life Support much faster. Walk to conserve energy.
4. Caves are Your First Sanctuary. If a storm rolls in or your Hazard Protection is low, find a cave. Natural caves offer complete immunity to all environmental hazards, allowing your protection to recharge for free. They are also excellent sources of Cobalt, a valuable mineral for crafting batteries.
5. Craft Life Support Gels. While Oxygen plants work in a pinch, a more efficient strategy is to craft Life Support Gels. Use your portable refiner to turn Di-hydrogen (the blue crystals) into Di-hydrogen Jelly. Then, combine that jelly with Carbon to create a Life Support Gel. These gels restore a large amount of life support and stack in your inventory, making them perfect for long expeditions.
6. Avoid Sentinels Early On. You will notice small floating drones called Sentinels scanning the environment. If you mine resources too aggressively near them, they will investigate. At the start of your No Man’s Sky adventure, your best defense is to simply walk away. Let their alert timer run down and they will leave you alone. Do not try to fight them yet.
7. Your Ship is a Mobile Save Point. Every time you enter and exit your starship, the game creates an autosave. This is the most reliable way to save your progress on a planet. It also completely refills your Life Support and Hazard Protection, making it a perfect mobile shelter. If you are exploring far from your ship, you can summon it to your location (once its Launch Thrusters are repaired).
8. Gather Rusted Metal. You will find deposits of Rusted Metal in damaged machinery. Do not ignore it! In a refiner, one Rusted Metal becomes two Ferrite Dust, making it an incredibly efficient source for this vital building material.
9. Use the Photo Mode for Recon. Photo Mode freezes time and gives you a free camera. You can use this to scout your surroundings from a safe position, look over a ridge, or spot distant resources without exposing yourself to danger.
10. Turn Off PvP. In your Network settings, you can disable Player vs. Player damage. It is on by default. Turning it off is highly recommended to prevent accidental (or intentional) harm from other players you may encounter, especially when visiting the Space Anomaly.

Chapter 2: Charting the Stars – Exploration and Resource Gathering in No Man’s Sky

Once you have stabilized your life support and repaired your ship, the true scope of No Man’s Sky begins to unfold. Exploration is the heart of the game. Learning to traverse planets efficiently and gather resources effectively will dramatically accelerate your progress and unlock the universe’s deeper secrets.

Advanced Movement and Discovery

11. Master the Melee-Boost. This is the single most important movement technique in No Man’s Sky. While sprinting, press your melee button, and a split-second later, activate your jetpack. This will launch you forward at incredible speed, covering huge distances in seconds. Practice this until it becomes second nature; it will change the way you explore forever.
12. Scan Everything for Nanites. Use your Analysis Visor to scan every new plant, animal, and mineral you find. Once scanned, go to your Discoveries tab in the menu. You can upload each discovery for a small reward of Nanites, the game’s secondary currency used for buying upgrades.
13. Upload All Fauna for a Big Bonus. If you manage to find and scan every animal species on a planet, a special button will appear on that planet’s Discoveries page. Clicking it will grant you a massive Nanite bonus, often in the thousands. The page will even give you hints about where to find the remaining creatures (e.g., land, air, water, cave, day, night).
14. Your Analysis Visor is a Telescope. The Analysis Visor does more than just scan things up close. Use it to look at distant buildings and points of interest. It will identify them and tell you how far away they are. You can also zoom in for a better look.
15. Tag Custom Waypoints. While looking through your Analysis Visor, you can aim at a building, resource deposit, or even just a spot on the ground and press a button to create a custom waypoint. This is invaluable for keeping your bearings or marking a location to return to later.

Efficient Resource Gathering

16. Dig Up Buried Technology Modules. As you explore, your visor will often detect buried items marked with a Wi-Fi-like symbol. These are Buried Technology Modules. Dig them up with your Terrain Manipulator. You will need dozens of these to unlock new base-building blueprints at the Space Anomaly, so start collecting them early.
17. Bypass Mining Beam Overheating. Your Mining Beam will overheat if used continuously. To prevent this, simply release the trigger for a single second just before the heat gauge fills completely. When you fire again, the gauge will be reset to zero. This allows for near-continuous mining without the long cooldown period.
18. Adjust Your Terrain Manipulator Beam Size. When mining large resource deposits (like Copper or Cobalt) with the Terrain Manipulator, you can change the size of your mining beam. A smaller beam size is slower but yields significantly more resources from the deposit. A larger beam is faster but less efficient.
19. Follow Trade Routes to Outposts. When flying in space, look for faint lines arcing between planets and the space station. These are interstellar trade routes. Following one of these lines down to a planet’s surface will almost always lead you to a Trade Outpost, a fantastic hub for trading, meeting NPCs, and ship-watching.
20. Use Parabolic Flight for Speed. To travel to a faraway location on the same planet, do not fly in a straight line through the atmosphere. Instead, point your ship’s nose straight up and fly into space. Once in orbit, use your Pulse Drive to travel directly over the destination marker, then dive straight back down. This is exponentially faster.
21. Shoot Asteroids for Tritium. Your Pulse Drive requires Tritium for fuel. The best way to get it is by shooting asteroids in space. Keep a healthy stock so you never get stuck between planets.
22. Your Ship’s Weapons Can Mine. You can use your starship’s Photon Cannons to gather resources like Carbon from forests or Ferrite from rock formations much faster than on foot. This is also a great way to mine large surface mineral deposits without landing.
23. Demystify the Refiner. The Portable Refiner is one of your most powerful tools. Learning a few key recipes early on can save you immense amounts of time and effort.

Table: Essential Refining Recipes

Input	Output	Ratio	Notes
Carbon x2	Condensed Carbon x1	2:1	The best fuel for your refiner and other technologies.
Ferrite Dust x1	Pure Ferrite x1	1:1	A core building material for basic base parts.
Pure Ferrite x1	Magnetised Ferrite x1	1:1	Used for more advanced base components and tech.
Di-hydrogen x30	Di-hydrogen Jelly x1	30:1	More efficient than crafting. Key for Life Support Gels.
Copper x1	Chromatic Metal x1	1:1	The most essential material for crafting new technologies.
Oxygen x1 + Chlorine x1	Chlorine x6	1:1 -> 6	The foundation of the powerful “Chlorine Expansion” money-making method.
Rusted Metal x1	Ferrite Dust x2	1:2	An incredibly efficient way to stock up on Ferrite Dust. Never discard it!

Chapter 3: Building an Empire – Mastering the No Man’s Sky Economy

Wealth in No Man’s Sky grants freedom. With enough Units (the main currency) and Nanites (the upgrade currency), you can buy any ship, tool, or freighter you desire. The path to riches evolves as you progress, from a simple explorer’s hustle to complex market manipulation and industrial-scale production.

The Explorer’s Hustle: Early Game Units

24. Upgrade Your Scanner Immediately. This is the most important tip for making early money. As soon as you have Nanites, visit a space station’s Multi-Tool technology merchant and buy S-Class Scanner upgrade modules. Install three of them in your Multi-Tool, making sure they touch each other to get a colored border, which signifies an adjacency bonus. A fully upgraded scanner can earn you over 400,000 Units for a single rare creature scan.
25. Become a Space Archaeologist. Certain planets are designated in your Discoveries tab as having “Ancient Bones.” Use your Analysis Visor to locate dig sites (marked with a yellow icon) and excavate these valuable fossils. They exist only to be sold and are a fantastic source of income for new players.
26. Hunt for Salvageable Scrap. Similar to Ancient Bones, some planets have “Salvageable Scrap.” These buried caches also appear as yellow icons on your visor and contain valuable trade goods that can be sold for a quick profit.
27. Brave the Storms for Crystals. On planets with extreme weather, violent storms will periodically sweep across the landscape. During these storms, “Storm Crystals” will appear, glowing brightly. They are worth a fortune but can only be harvested while the storm is raging. Dash between crystals, grab them, and retreat to your ship or a building to let your shields recharge.
28. Loot Ancient Ruins. Planetary Charts (bought from a Cartographer on a space station) can lead you to Ancient Ruins. Here, you can excavate keys to open a large chest, which often contains an artifact worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of Units.

Market Manipulation: Mid-Game Fortunes

29. Crash the Cobalt Market. This is a legendary method for making fast money. First, acquire a large stack of Cobalt (at least 4,000-5,000) by mining it in caves. Then, fly to any space station with a Galactic Trade Terminal. Sell your entire stack of Cobalt in a single transaction. This will flood the market and crash the local price to around -80% of the galactic average. Now, open the buy menu. You can buy back all of your Cobalt, plus all the Cobalt the station had in stock, for a fraction of what you sold it for. Fly to a new system and repeat the process. Each jump will net you millions in profit.
30. Expand with Chlorine. This method requires a Medium or Large Refiner but is even more profitable. Acquire a starting stack of Chlorine and a large amount of Oxygen. In the refiner, combine 1 Chlorine with 2 Oxygen. The output will be 6 Chlorine. You are creating a valuable resource from a very common one. You can generate massive stacks of Chlorine this way and sell them for enormous profits. Note that, like with Cobalt, selling a large stack will crash the market, so you cannot sell it all in the same system repeatedly.
31. Trade with Trade Routes. Install an Economy Scanner on your ship. This will show you the economy type of each star system on the galactic map (e.g., Mining, Manufacturing, Technology). It also reveals profitable trade loops. For example, you can buy goods cheaply in a Mining system and sell them for a high price in a Manufacturing system. Following these loops can be a very engaging way to make money.

The Industrialist: Late-Game Empires

32. Build Automated Mines. Once you have the Survey Device upgrade for your Analysis Visor, you can scan for deep-level resource hotspots. These can be for minerals (like Activated Indium), gases (like Radon), or electromagnetic power. Find an S-Class mineral deposit and an S-Class power hotspot that are within 1,000u of each other. Build a base, then construct Mineral Extractors on the mineral spot and Electromagnetic Generators on the power spot. Connect them with wires and pipes to Supply Depots. This will create a fully automated mine that generates thousands of valuable resources per hour, completely passively.
33. Become a Galactic Farmer. The base-building missions will eventually unlock the ability to farm plants. You can build large-scale farms in Biodomes or on your freighter. These plants are the essential ingredients for crafting the most valuable products in the game.
34. Craft Stasis Devices and Fusion Ignitors. These are the pinnacle of profitable crafting in No Man’s Sky, each selling for over 15 million Units. Creating one requires a complex tree of components made from farmed plants, collected gases, and mined minerals. Setting up a full production chain for these items is a significant but incredibly rewarding late-game project.

The Path to Nanites

35. Refine “Gloop” and Mould. Damaged machinery often yields Viscous Fluids or Living Slime. Curious Deposits, which look like a cluster of rolling metal balls, yield Runaway Mould. All of these substances can be put through a refiner (sometimes requiring multiple stages) to produce Nanites. Building a base next to a large field of Curious Deposits is one of the best ways to create a Nanite farm.
36. Scrap Ships for Modules. A very effective Nanite farming method involves ship flipping. Go to a space station (preferably in a wealthy system) and buy any A-Class or S-Class ships that land. Immediately take the ship to the Starship Outfitting terminal and scrap it. You will receive scrap parts to sell for Units and, more importantly, upgrade modules. Sell these modules to the technology merchants on the station for thousands of Nanites each.
37. Hunt Pirates in Outlaw Systems. In Outlaw (pirate-controlled) systems, you can attack the cargo pods on large freighters without being punished by system authorities. This yields contraband goods that sell for a high price to legitimate vendors. You can also buy Suspicious Packets (Arms & Tech) from the Outlaw station vendor. Opening these gives you X-Class upgrade modules, which can be sold for a large number of Nanites.
38. Complete Missions. The Mission Agent on space stations offers tasks that reward Nanites. These can range from scanning plants to destroying Sentinels. You can “stack” missions of the same type (e.g., accept three “kill creatures” missions) and complete them all at once for greater efficiency.
39. Eat Delicious Cakes. Cooking food with the Nutrient Processor and giving the results to Cronus on the Space Anomaly will reward you with Nanites. Some complex dishes can yield a significant amount.

Chapter 4: The Tools of a Traveller – Upgrading Your Gear in No Man’s Sky

Your journey through No Man’s Sky is one of constant improvement. Your Exosuit, Multi-Tool, and Starship are not just equipment; they are extensions of yourself. Upgrading them strategically is key to surviving harsher environments, winning tougher fights, and exploring more efficiently.

Upgrading Your Exosuit

40. Expand Your Inventory Slots. Inventory space is one of the most critical resources in the game. You can add one new Exosuit inventory slot in every star system you visit. Find the Exosuit upgrade vendor on the space station.
41. Double Up on Upgrades at the Anomaly. You can get a second inventory slot in each system by summoning the Space Anomaly. There is an Exosuit upgrade station located behind the technology vendors in the back room. Visiting both the station and the Anomaly in every new system will double the speed at which you max out your inventory.
42. Find Drop Pods for Cheaper Slots. Use a Planetary Chart (Exosuit Upgrade Data) from a Cartographer to locate Drop Pods on planets. You can repair these pods to gain an inventory slot. While this costs resources instead of Units, it becomes much cheaper than buying slots once the price exceeds a few hundred thousand Units.
43. Install Movement Upgrades. Prioritize installing three S-Class Movement Modules in your Exosuit’s technology slots. These will dramatically improve your jetpack’s efficiency, allowing you to fly higher and longer, which is essential for exploration and escaping danger.
44. Specialize Your Hazard Protection. In addition to your main Hazard Protection, you can install specific modules for heat, cold, radiation, and toxicity. These act as a powerful secondary shield and can be recharged with common elements like Dioxite or Phosphorus. Having these makes exploring extreme planets much safer.
45. Unlock Cargo Slots. Your Exosuit has three inventories: General, Technology, and Cargo. When you upgrade your slots, you can choose which inventory to expand. Cargo slots can hold double the amount of resources per stack (or even more for some items), making them incredibly valuable for hauling materials. Unlock these as soon as you can.

Mastering the Multi-Tool

46. Understand Adjacency Bonuses. This is a critical mechanic for all technology. When you install upgrade modules of the same type (e.g., three Scanner modules) so that they are touching each other and the base technology they affect, their borders will light up. This indicates an adjacency bonus, which significantly boosts their combined stats. Always arrange your upgrades in a square or line for maximum effect.
47. Place Key Upgrades in Supercharged Slots. Some technology slots in your Multi-Tool, Ship, and Exosuit have a special glowing effect. These are Supercharged Slots. Any technology or upgrade module placed in one of these slots receives a massive performance boost. Put your most important module—like your main weapon damage module or a key scanner module—in these slots.
48. Look for S-Class Tools at Space Stations. Every inhabited system has a Multi-Tool cabinet on the space station. To find the best tool a system has to offer, fly to each planet, land, and exit your ship to create a save. Then, reload that save and fly directly back to the space station. This will change the tool available in the cabinet, cycling through the planet’s “pool” of available tools. Check every planet to find the S-Class model.
49. Get a Free Tool from the Anomaly. Follow the main story quest, and you will eventually be directed to Polo on the Space Anomaly. He will guide you to a special Multi-Tool research station where you can get a free tool.
50. Carry Multiple Multi-Tools. You can own up to six Multi-Tools and switch between them at any time. This allows you to have specialized tools: one optimized for maximum scanning rewards, one for mining efficiency, and one kitted out for pure combat damage.

Optimizing Your Starship

51. Every System Has an Rare. Each inhabited star system has one unique “Rare” S-Class ship. These ships have high base stats and a distinctive look. They can spawn anywhere other ships do (space stations, trade outposts), but they are rare.
52. Upgrade Ship Storage. You can increase your starship’s inventory size at the Starship Outfitting station on any space station. You can pay with Units, or use Storage Augmentations, which are sometimes awarded from missions or obtained by scrapping other ships.
53. Scrapping Ships is a Win-Win. When you scrap a ship, you get valuable items to sell and a chance to receive Storage Augmentations. This is often a more cost-effective way to expand your main ship’s inventory than paying millions of Units for each new slot.
54. Don’t Take the First Free Freighter. The game will offer you your first freighter for free after you save it from pirates. Decline the first one! It will always be a smaller, standard freighter. If you decline it, the next freighter you save (after another 3 hours of play and 5 warps) will be a massive Capital Freighter, which you will also be offered for free.

Chapter 5: A Dangerous Universe – No Man’s Sky Combat Survival Guide

While No Man’s Sky is often a peaceful game of exploration, danger is never far away. Aggressive Sentinels guard planetary resources, and ruthless pirates prowl the trade lanes. Knowing how to fight—and when to run—is an essential skill for any Traveller.

Ground Combat: Facing the Sentinels

55. The Scatter Blaster is Your Best Friend. For close-quarters combat, the Scatter Blaster is king. With a few S-Class upgrades, it can destroy even the toughest Sentinels in one or two shots. Think of it as the ultimate space shotgun.
56. Use the Terrain Manipulator as a Weapon. The Terrain Manipulator isn’t just for mining. You can use it to create instant cover during a fight. Dig a trench to shoot from, or create a pillar to stand on, forcing Sentinels into a bottleneck. Their AI struggles with uneven terrain, giving you a major advantage.
57. Create an “L” Shaped Bunker. For intense fights, like clearing a Sentinel Pillar, dig a short tunnel straight into the ground, then turn 90 degrees and dig a bit further. You can stand at the back of this “L” shaped hole. The Sentinels will gather at the entrance but will be unable to shoot you, allowing you to pick them off safely.
58. Snipe from High Ground. Sentinels, especially the quadrupedal ones, have trouble attacking you if you are high up. Use your jetpack to get on top of a building or a tall rock formation to gain a tactical advantage.
59. Prioritize the Summoners and Healers. In a Sentinel wave, you will encounter small, triangular drones that repair other Sentinels, and larger drones that summon reinforcements. Always destroy these first to control the flow of battle.
60. Use Your Ship for Cover. If a fight goes badly, you can retreat to your ship. You are immune to damage while inside, allowing your shields to recharge. Sentinel Interceptors won’t spawn until you actually take off.
61. Install a Cloaking Device. The Personal Cloaking Device, or “Ghost in the Shell,” is an incredibly powerful Multi-Tool technology. It makes you invisible for a short time, allowing you to escape a losing fight, reposition, or get a critical repair off without being shot.
62. The Minotaur is Your Personal Bodyguard. The Minotaur Exocraft is immune to all environmental hazards and can be equipped with powerful weapons. More importantly, you can install an AI Pilot, which will cause it to follow you around and fight alongside you, drawing enemy fire and acting as a powerful robotic bodyguard.
63. Disable an Entire Planet’s Sentinels. Many planets have a Sentinel Pillar. If you can fight your way through the guards and access the central terminal, you can shut down all Sentinel activity across the entire planet for a limited time. This is perfect for peaceful resource gathering on an otherwise aggressive world. Use a Sentinel Boundary Map to locate one.

Space Combat: Surviving the Void

64. The Infra-Knife Accelerator Dominates. For starship combat, the Infra-Knife Accelerator is arguably the best all-around weapon. When fully upgraded with S- or X-Class modules and placed in Supercharged Slots, its damage output is immense, capable of shredding enemy ships in seconds.
65. Master the Auto-Lock Feature. No Man’s Sky has a powerful combat auto-lock system. While slowing down or reversing, your ship will automatically track your selected enemy target, keeping them in your sights. This makes dogfighting much more manageable. You can even change the settings so it toggles on instead of requiring you to hold the button.
66. Keep Sodium on Hand. Your ship’s shields are your life. Always carry a large stack of Sodium or Sodium Nitrate in your inventory. You can use the quick menu to instantly recharge your shields in the middle of a fight.
67. Use the Phase Beam to Steal Shields. The Phase Beam has a unique property: when upgraded, it can drain shield energy from enemy ships and use it to recharge your own. This can make you incredibly resilient in long battles.
68. Boost Through Explosions. When you destroy an enemy ship, it drops resources. Fly through the explosion to automatically collect them. These often include Sodium or other materials that can help you recharge your shields.
69. Divert Power to Systems. Your ship has four power presets: balanced, weapons, shields, and engines. You can switch between them using the quick menu. If you need to escape, divert power to engines for a speed boost. If you’re in a tough fight, boost your weapons or shields.
70. Don’t Fight in Asteroid Fields. While they provide cover, fighting in a dense asteroid field is a recipe for disaster. It is far too easy to crash into an asteroid while chasing an enemy, taking massive damage. Lure enemies into open space.
71. Know Your Enemy by Their Trail Color. Pay attention to the engine trails of other ships in a battle:
    • Red Trail: Hostile pirate or Sentinel. These are your targets.
    • Green Trail: Friendly NPC or system authority ship. Do not shoot them!
    • Orange Trail: A pilot from your own squadron. They are here to help.
72. Summon the Anomaly to Escape. If you are ambushed by pirates and are not equipped to fight, you can summon the Space Anomaly. Flying inside it will immediately end the combat, providing a perfect escape route.
73. Hire a Squadron. At any space station, you can recruit NPC pilots to form your own squadron. They will fly into battle alongside you, providing extra firepower and drawing enemy attention.

Chapter 6: Your Home Among the Stars – Freighters, Fleets, and Base Building

As you travel the galaxy, you will want to establish a foothold—a place to call your own. No Man’s Sky offers two primary ways to do this: building planetary bases and commanding a massive capital freighter. Mastering both will give you a permanent, powerful presence in the universe.

Your Mobile Command Center: The Freighter

74. Get Your First Freighter for Free. After you have been playing for about three hours and have warped at least five times, your next warp will trigger a space battle where a freighter is under attack by pirates. Defeat the pirates, and the freighter’s captain will invite you aboard and offer you command of the ship for free.
75. Decline the First Offer for a Better Ship. The first free freighter you are offered will always be a smaller, standard model. If you politely decline the offer (choosing to take payment instead), the game will trigger another, similar battle after another three hours and five warps. The second freighter you save will be a massive Capital Freighter (either the “Star Destroyer” Venator-type or the sleek Sentinel-type), which will also be offered to you for free. This is a much better deal.
76. A Freighter is the Ultimate Base. You can build an extensive base inside your freighter. Unlike planetary bases, your freighter base can be summoned to any system you are in, giving you access to all your resources, storage, and facilities no matter where you are in the galaxy.
77. Install a Matter Beam. This is the single most important freighter upgrade. The Matter Beam allows you to access your freighter’s inventory, including all 10 of your storage containers, from anywhere in the same star system. This effectively gives you a massive, extended inventory at all times.
78. Build a Fleet of Frigates. You can purchase frigates to add to your fleet. These ships can be sent on daily expeditions from your freighter’s command bridge. They will travel the galaxy on their own, bringing back money, rare resources, and valuable items. This is one of the best sources of passive income in No Man’s Sky.
79. Match Frigates to Mission Types. Frigate expeditions come in several types: combat, industrial, exploration, trade, and balanced. Sending the right type of frigate on a mission (e.g., combat frigates on a combat mission) will increase its chance of success.
80. Build Fleet Command Rooms. You need to build one Fleet Command Room inside your freighter for each expedition you want to run simultaneously. You can run up to five expeditions per day, so building five command rooms is ideal.
81. Frigates Level Up. As your frigates successfully complete expeditions, they will gain experience and rank up, eventually reaching S-Class. This improves their stats and makes them more effective. Damaged frigates must be repaired by landing on them.

Building Your Planetary Outposts

82. Claim a Base with a Base Computer. To build on a planet, you must first place a Base Computer. This claims a circular area with a radius of 300u where you can build. You can upload your base to make it visible to other players.
83. Don’t Build into the Ground. Avoid using the Terrain Manipulator to dig out large underground sections for your base. The terrain in No Man’s Sky has a tendency to slowly grow back over time, and you may log in to find your rooms filled with rock and dirt. It is much safer to build on stilts above the ground or inside a large, natural cave.
84. Find an Electromagnetic Hotspot for Power. The best way to power your base is with Electromagnetic Generators. Use your Survey Visor to find an “S” or “A” class power hotspot. These provide a constant, massive supply of energy day and night, without the need for solar panels or batteries.
85. Extend Your Base’s Radius. You can build beyond the initial 300u radius. Go to the very edge of your buildable area and place any base part, like a wall or a battery. This will extend the buildable radius out from that new part, allowing you to create massive bases that can reach resource hotspots up to 1,000u away from your base computer.
86. Use Short-Range Teleporters as Elevators. Connecting two Short-Range Teleporters, one on a lower floor and one on an upper floor, creates an instant elevator. This is much faster and more space-efficient than building stairs or ladders.
87. Unlock Blueprints with Salvaged Data. To build more advanced structures, you need to unlock their blueprints. Take the Buried Technology Modules you have collected to the Construction Research Station on the Space Anomaly to unlock new parts.
88. The Build Camera is Essential. When in the build menu, you can toggle a free-fly build camera. This allows you to place parts with much greater precision and is invaluable for constructing complex structures.

Chapter 7: The Veteran Traveller – Advanced Tips & Tricks for No Man’s Sky

You have survived. You have explored. You have built an empire. Now it is time to learn the secrets that separate the seasoned Travellers from the newcomers. These are the advanced, quality-of-life tips that will streamline your gameplay and reveal the deeper mechanics of the No Man’s Sky universe.

Quality of Life and Hidden Mechanics

89. Use Your Personal Refiner. Your Exosuit comes equipped with a Personal Refiner. This allows you to refine materials on the go without needing to deploy a Portable Refiner. It is perfect for crafting essentials while exploring.
90. Quickly Access the Galactic Map. When in your ship in space, you can bring up the quick menu and select the galaxy icon to instantly access the galactic map, without having to point your ship at open space.
91. Recharge Tech with the Right Materials. You can recharge technologies by clicking on them and selecting the appropriate resource. However, you can also quickly recharge them by hovering over the technology and pressing the corresponding hotkey shown on the screen.
92. Pin Crafting Recipes. If you are trying to craft a complex item, you can “pin” its recipe from the catalogue. This will display its required components on your HUD, making it much easier to track what you need to gather.
93. Rocket Boots for Controlled Falls. The Rocket Boots upgrade allows you to engage your jetpack for a short burst by tapping the jump button, even when the main jetpack is empty. This is perfect for slowing your descent and preventing fall damage from a high drop.
94. Tame and Ride Animals. You can craft Creature Pellets to feed to animals. Once an animal is friendly, you can interact with it to adopt it as a companion or even ride it, providing a fun alternative for planetary traversal.
95. Learn Alien Languages. Interact with Knowledge Stones on planets and talk to NPCs in space stations and trading posts to learn new words in the Gek, Korvax, and Vy’keen languages. Understanding these languages will open up better dialogue options and rewards.
96. Use Photo Mode to Find Your Lost Ship. If you get separated from your ship on a vast planet, enter Photo Mode. The free camera can often travel much further and faster than you can, allowing you to locate your ship’s icon from the air.
97. Change Game Difficulty on the Fly. No Man’s Sky allows you to adjust difficulty settings at any time from the options menu. If you find resource gathering too grindy, you can temporarily set crafting to be free. If combat feels too easy, you can ramp it up. Tailor the experience to your liking.

Advanced Ship Hunting

98. Hunt for Ships at Trade Outposts. While space stations are good for ship spotting, planetary Trade Outposts are better. They have more landing pads, and ships land and take off more frequently, giving you more opportunities to see the models available in a system and find one with the class you want.
99. Force Ship Spawns by Reloading. The quickest way to hunt for a specific ship is to find a Trade Outpost, land your ship, and get out to create an autosave. Watch the first wave of 5-7 ships that land. If the ship you want isn’t there, or isn’t an S-Class, simply reload your autosave. This will instantly spawn a new wave of ships. Repeat this process until your desired ship appears.
100. Wealthy Systems Have Better Ships. The economy of a star system directly impacts the chance of high-class ships spawning. In a poor (Tier 1) economy, there is a 0% chance of an S-Class ship spawning (besides the system’s rare). In a medium (Tier 2) economy, it is a 1% chance. In a wealthy (Tier 3) economy, it is a 2% chance. Always hunt for S-Class ships in wealthy systems to maximize your odds.
101. Every System Has 21 Ship Models. Each inhabited system has a fixed pool of 21 different starship models: 7 shuttles, 3 explorers, 3 fighters, 3 haulers, 1 rare, and 4 models specific to the dominant alien race’s system (e.g., more haulers in a Gek system). If you don’t like the look of the ships in a system, you need to warp to a new one to find a different pool.
102. Find Crashed Ships for Free. Use a Planetary Chart (Distress Signal) to locate crashed starships. You can claim these ships for free. While they are heavily damaged, you only need to repair their Pulse Engine and Launch Thrusters to get them flying. You can then fly them to a space station and scrap them for profit or keep them as your own.
103. Find Crashed Sentinel Interceptors. On Dissonant planets, you can find crashed Sentinel Interceptor ships. Locate a Harmonic Camp (by defeating Corrupted Sentinels and using an Echo Locator) and use its terminal to find a nearby crash site. These ships are highly valuable and have unique technologies, making them some of the best in the game.
104. Use Portals to Travel Instantly. Once you have learned all 16 portal glyphs (by finding Traveller graves in space stations), you can use planetary Portals to dial a specific address and travel to any planet in your current galaxy instantly. This is how players share coordinates for finding specific ships, multi-tools, and amazing planets.

The Endless Horizon

You stand on the bridge of your capital freighter, the star-dusted void stretching out before you. Your fleet of frigates awaits your command. Your bases across the galaxy hum with automated industry. The broken survivor who once huddled in a cave for warmth is a distant memory. You have become a master of this universe.

But the journey in No Man’s Sky is never truly over. There is always another star system to discover, another strange creature to document, another mystery to unravel at the center of the galaxy. This guide has given you the tools and the knowledge, but the path you forge from here is your own. The universe is vast, beautiful, and filled with endless possibilities. Go forth, Traveller. The stars are waiting.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for No Man’s Sky belong to the developer Hello Games.

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