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

Chapter 1: The First Sunrise – Essential Survival Tips 🌅

Your first moments in No Man’s Sky are a frantic race against the clock! 🏃‍♂️💨 Your gear is broken, your shields are failing, and the planet wants you gone. DON’T PANIC. 🧘 This is the tutorial, and it’s teaching you how to be an awesome survivor.

Your First Priorities

Repair Your Scanner First 🛠️: This is your #1 job. The game will guide you. Your Scanner is your lifeline, letting you find all the good stuff you need to survive and escape.
Learn the Core Survival Elements ❤️: Your survival depends on four key resources you can find everywhere. Use that newly repaired scanner to find them:
- Carbon 🌿: Get it from plants. It powers your Mining Beam and is used in tons of early crafting.
- Ferrite Dust 🪨: Get it from small rocks. This is the universe’s duct tape, used for repairs and building.
- Oxygen ❤️: Get it from glowing red plants. This recharges your Life Support system.
- Sodium 🛡️: Get it from glowing yellow plants. This recharges your Hazard Protection from nasty weather.
Master Your HUD 👀: Look at the bottom-left! The white bar is your Life Support (don’t let it run out!). The orange bar is your Hazard Protection. Sprinting and jetpacking drain your life support super fast, so walk to conserve energy!
Caves are Your First Sanctuary 🦇: If a storm rolls in ⛈️ or your shields are low, find a cave! They give you total immunity to all weather, letting your shields recharge for free. Plus, they’re full of Cobalt, which is great for making batteries! 🔋
Craft Life Support Gels 🧪: Oxygen plants are good, but Life Support Gels are better. Use your portable refiner to turn Di-hydrogen (blue crystals) into Di-hydrogen Jelly, then combine that jelly with Carbon. These restore a ton of life support and stack in your inventory!
Avoid Sentinels Early On 🤖: You’ll see little floating drones scanning stuff. If you mine too much near them, they’ll get mad. Early on, just walk away. 🚶‍♀️ Let them calm down. Don’t try to fight them yet!
Your Ship is a Mobile Save Point 🚀: Every time you hop in and out of your starship, the game autosaves. 💾 It also completely refills your Life Support and Hazard Protection, making it a perfect little shelter.
Gather Rusted Metal 🔩: Find this in damaged machinery. Don’t ignore it! In a refiner, one Rusted Metal becomes two Ferrite Dust, making it a super-efficient way to get this vital material.
Use the Photo Mode for Recon 📸: Photo Mode freezes time and gives you a free camera. Use it to peek over a ridge or spot resources from a safe spot without getting zapped by the environment.
Turn Off PvP ⚔️: In your Network settings, you can disable Player vs. Player damage. It’s on by default. Turn it off to prevent other players from accidentally (or intentionally!) hurting you.

Chapter 2: Charting the Stars – Exploration and Resource Gathering 🗺️

Once you’re stable and your ship is fixed, the universe opens up! 🌌 Exploration is the heart of the game. Learning to get around and gather resources efficiently will speed up your progress greatly.

Advanced Movement and Discovery

Master the Melee-Boost 🚀💨: This is the MOST important movement trick. While sprinting, press melee, then immediately hit your jetpack. You’ll launch forward at incredible speed! Practice this until it’s second nature. It will change how you explore FOREVER.
Scan Everything for Nanites 💰: Use your Analysis Visor to scan every new plant 🌿, animal 🐾, and rock 💎 you find. Then, go to your Discoveries tab and upload them for Nanites, the game’s upgrade currency.
Upload All Fauna for a Big Bonus 👽: If you find and scan every single animal on a planet, a special button will appear on that planet’s Discoveries page. Click it for a MASSIVE Nanite bonus!
Your Analysis Visor is a Telescope 🔭: Your visor does more than scan things up close. Use it to look at distant buildings to identify them and see how far away they are.
Tag Custom Waypoints 📍: While looking through your visor, you can aim at anything and press a button to create a custom waypoint. This is amazing for keeping your bearings or marking a spot to return to.

Efficient Resource Gathering

Dig Up Buried Technology Modules 📦: Your visor will often detect buried items with a Wi-Fi symbol. These are Buried Technology Modules. Dig ’em up! You’ll need tons of these to unlock new base-building blueprints.
Bypass Mining Beam Overheating 🔥: Your Mining Beam will overheat if you hold the trigger down. To avoid this, just release the trigger for a split second right before the bar fills up. The gauge will reset to zero!
Adjust Your Terrain Manipulator Beam Size ⛏️: When mining big deposits, you can change your beam size. A smaller beam is slower but gives you WAY more resources. A larger beam is faster but less efficient.
Follow Trade Routes to Outposts 📈: In space, look for faint lines between planets. These are trade routes! Following one down to a planet will almost always lead you to a Trade Outpost, a great place to buy/sell and see cool ships.
Use Parabolic Flight for Speed 🛸: To travel to a faraway spot on the same planet, point your ship straight up into space. Use your Pulse Drive to fly over the destination, then dive straight back down. It’s SO much faster than flying through the atmosphere.
Shoot Asteroids for Tritium ☄️: Your Pulse Drive needs Tritium for fuel. The best way to get it is by shooting asteroids. Keep a big stack so you never get stranded!
Your Ship’s Weapons Can Mine 💥: You can use your ship’s Photon Cannons to gather Carbon from forests or Ferrite from rocks way faster than on foot.

Demystify the Refiner 🧪

The Portable Refiner is one of your best friends. Learning a few key recipes early on will save you a ton of time.

Input	Output	Ratio	Notes
Carbon x2	Condensed Carbon x1	2:1	The best fuel for your refiner and other tech! 🔥
Ferrite Dust x1	Pure Ferrite x1	1:1	A core building material for your first base parts. 🧱
Pure Ferrite x1	Magnetised Ferrite x1	1:1	Used for more advanced base stuff and tech. 💪
Di-hydrogen x30	Di-hydrogen Jelly x1	30:1	More efficient than crafting it. 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 throw it away! 👍

Chapter 3: Building an Empire – Mastering the Economy 👑

Wealth in No Man’s Sky buys you freedom. 🤑 With enough Units and Nanites, you can buy any ship, tool, or freighter you want.

The Explorer’s Hustle: Early Game Units

Upgrade Your Scanner Immediately 📈: This is the best tip for early money. Buy three S-Class Scanner upgrade modules from a space station. Install them so they’re touching each other. A fully upgraded scanner can earn you over 400,000 Units for a single rare animal scan! 📸
Become a Space Archaeologist 🦴: Some planets have “Ancient Bones.” Use your visor to find dig sites (yellow icon) and excavate these valuable fossils. They exist only to be sold and are a fantastic early-game money maker.
Hunt for Salvageable Scrap 💎: Similar to Ancient Bones, some planets have “Salvageable Scrap.” These buried caches also appear as yellow icons and contain valuable goods you can sell for a quick profit.
Brave the Storms for Crystals ⛈️: On extreme weather planets, storms will bring out glowing “Storm Crystals.” They’re worth a fortune, but you can only grab them while the storm is raging! Dash in, grab ’em, and get back to your ship!
Loot Ancient Ruins 🏛️: Planetary Charts can lead you to Ancient Ruins. Dig up keys to open a large chest, which often has an artifact worth millions of Units.

Market Manipulation: Mid-Game Fortunes

Crash the Cobalt Market 📉: A legendary money-making method. Get a huge stack of Cobalt (at least 4,000) from caves. Go to a space station and sell your entire stack at once. This will crash the price. Then, immediately buy it all back, plus all the station’s stock, for super cheap. Fly to a new system and repeat for millions in profit!
Expand with Chlorine 🧪: This is even more profitable. You need a Medium or Large Refiner. Combine 1 Chlorine with 2 Oxygen to get 6 Chlorine! You’re basically printing money. Generate huge stacks and sell them for enormous profits.
Trade with Trade Routes 🚚: Install an Economy Scanner on your ship. This lets you see what each system specializes in. Buy goods cheap in a “Mining” system and sell them for a high price in a “Manufacturing” system.

The Industrialist: Late-Game Empires

Build Automated Mines 🏭: Get a Survey Device for your visor to find deep-level resource hotspots. Find an S-Class mineral deposit (like Activated Indium) near an S-Class power hotspot. Build Mineral Extractors and Electromagnetic Generators to create a fully automated mine that generates thousands of valuable resources per hour, completely passively! 😴
Become a Galactic Farmer 🧑‍🌾: You can build large-scale farms in Biodomes or on your freighter. These plants are the ingredients for the most valuable crafted products in the game.
Craft Stasis Devices and Fusion Ignitors 🛠️: These are the pinnacle of crafting, each selling for over 15 million Units! Setting up a full production chain is a huge but incredibly rewarding late-game project.

The Path to Nanites

Refine “Gloop” and Mould 🤢➡️🔩: Damaged machinery often drops Viscous Fluids or Living Slime. Curious Deposits (rolling metal balls) give you Runaway Mould. All of this stuff can be refined into Nanites! A big field of Curious Deposits makes a great Nanite farm.
Scrap Ships for Modules 🚀💥: A super effective Nanite farm. Go to a wealthy system’s space station, buy A-Class or S-Class ships, and immediately scrap them. You’ll get parts to sell and, more importantly, upgrade modules. Sell these modules to the tech vendors for thousands of Nanites each.
Hunt Pirates in Outlaw Systems 🏴‍☠️: In pirate systems, you can attack freighters to get contraband goods that sell for a lot. You can also buy Suspicious Packets from the Outlaw vendor and sell the X-Class modules inside for Nanites.
Complete Missions 📜: The Mission Agent on space stations offers tasks that reward Nanites. You can “stack” missions of the same type (e.g., take three “kill creatures” missions) and do them all at once.
Eat Delicious Cakes 🍰: Cook food and give it to Cronus on the Space Anomaly. He’ll give you Nanites for your tasty creations!

Chapter 4: The Tools of a Traveller – Upgrading Your Gear ⬆️

Your journey is one of constant improvement. Your Exosuit 🎒, Multi-Tool 🔫, and Starship 🚀 are extensions of you. Upgrading them is key to survival and efficiency.

Upgrading Your Exosuit

Expand Your Inventory Slots ➕: Inventory space is critical! You can add one new slot in every space station.
Double Up on Upgrades at the Anomaly ✌️: You can get a second inventory slot in each system by summoning the Space Anomaly and visiting the Exosuit station there.
Find Drop Pods for Cheaper Slots 💰: Use special Planetary Charts to find Drop Pods. You can repair them to gain an inventory slot, which is much cheaper than buying them once the price gets high.
Install Movement Upgrades 🏃‍♂️💨: Get three S-Class Movement Modules! These will make your jetpack way better, letting you fly higher and longer.
Specialize Your Hazard Protection 🔥🥶☢️☣️: You can install specific modules for heat, cold, radiation, and toxicity. These act as a powerful secondary shield.
Unlock Cargo Slots 📦: Your Exosuit has General, Technology, and Cargo inventories. Cargo slots can hold double the resources per stack! Unlock these ASAP.

Mastering the Multi-Tool

Understand Adjacency Bonuses ✨: When you install upgrades of the same type so they’re touching, their borders light up. This is an adjacency bonus, and it gives their stats a HUGE boost. Always arrange upgrades in a square or line!
Place Key Upgrades in Supercharged Slots 🔋💥: Some tech slots have a special glow. These are Supercharged Slots. Any module placed here gets a MASSIVE performance boost. Put your best damage or scanner module here!
Look for S-Class Tools at Space Stations 👀: To find the best tool in a system, fly to each planet, save, and reload. Then fly back to the space station. This will change the tool in the cabinet. Do this for every planet to find the S-Class model.
Get a Free Tool from the Anomaly 🎁: Follow the main story, and Polo on the Anomaly will eventually guide you to a free Multi-Tool.
Carry Multiple Multi-Tools 🔫🔫🔫: You can own up to six Multi-Tools! Have one specialized for scanning, one for mining, and one for pure combat damage.

Optimizing Your Starship

Every System Has a Super Rare 🛸: Each inhabited system has one unique Super Rare S-Class ship. They have high stats and look super cool, but they’re rare!
Upgrade Ship Storage 📦: You can increase your ship’s inventory at any space station by paying with Units or using Storage Augmentations (which you get from scrapping ships).
Scrapping Ships is a Win-Win 👍: When you scrap a ship, you get valuable items and a chance for Storage Augmentations. This is often cheaper than buying slots directly.
Don’t Take the First Free Freighter ❌: The game will offer you a free freighter after you save it. DECLINE THE FIRST ONE! The second freighter you save will be a massive Capital Freighter, which will also be offered for free. It’s a way better deal! ✅

Chapter 5: A Dangerous Universe – Combat Survival Guide 💥

While often peaceful, No Man’s Sky has its dangers. Aggressive Sentinels and ruthless pirates are everywhere. Knowing how to fight—and when to run—is essential.

Ground Combat: Facing the Sentinels 🤖

The Scatter Blaster is Your Best Friend 💥🔫: For close-quarters combat, the Scatter Blaster is KING. With S-Class upgrades, it’s a space shotgun that can one-shot tough Sentinels.
Use the Terrain Manipulator as a Weapon 🧱: You can use it to create instant cover! Dig a trench to shoot from or create a pillar to stand on.
Create an “L” Shaped Bunker 🕳️: Dig a short tunnel straight down, then turn 90 degrees and dig a bit more. You can stand at the back, and the Sentinels who gather at the entrance won’t be able to shoot you!
Snipe from High Ground 🧗: Sentinels have trouble attacking you if you’re high up. Jetpack on top of a building or a tall rock for a tactical advantage.
Prioritize the Summoners and Healers ❤️‍🩹: In a Sentinel wave, always destroy the little triangular drones that heal others and the bigger drones that summon reinforcements first.
Use Your Ship for Cover 🛡️: If a fight goes bad, jump in your ship. You’re invincible inside, and your shields will recharge.
Install a Cloaking Device 👻: The Personal Cloaking Device makes you invisible for a short time. It’s perfect for escaping a losing fight or repositioning.
The Minotaur is Your Personal Bodyguard 🤖🦾: This exocraft is immune to hazards and can be equipped with powerful weapons. Install an AI Pilot, and it will follow you around and fight alongside you like a big robot bodyguard!
Disable an Entire Planet’s Sentinels 🌍: Find a Sentinel Pillar (use a Sentinel Boundary Map). Fight your way to the terminal, and you can shut down all Sentinels on the entire planet for a while.

Space Combat: Surviving the Void 🚀

The Infra-Knife Accelerator Dominates 🔥: For ship combat, this weapon is arguably the best. Fully upgraded, its damage output is huge and will shred enemy ships in seconds.
Master the Auto-Lock Feature 🎯: The game has a powerful auto-lock. While slowing down, your ship will automatically track your target. This makes dogfighting so much easier.
Keep Sodium on Hand ❤️: Your ship’s shields are your life. Always have a big stack of Sodium or Sodium Nitrate to instantly recharge them mid-fight.
Use the Phase Beam to Steal Shields 빔: When upgraded, the Phase Beam can drain shield energy from enemies and recharge your own!
Boost Through Explosions 💥: When you destroy an enemy, they drop resources. Fly through the explosion to auto-collect them.
Divert Power to Systems ⚡: You can divert power to weapons, shields, or engines. Need to escape? Power to engines! Tough fight? Power to weapons or shields!
Don’t Fight in Asteroid Fields ☄️: It’s way too easy to crash into an asteroid while chasing an enemy. Lure them into open space.
Know Your Enemy by Their Trail Color 🎨:
- 🔴 Red Trail: Hostile pirate or Sentinel. Shoot them!
- 🟢 Green Trail: Friendly NPC. Do NOT shoot them!
- 🟠 Orange Trail: A pilot from your own squadron. They’re here to help!
Summon the Anomaly to Escape 🌌: If you’re ambushed and can’t win, summon the Space Anomaly. Flying inside immediately ends the combat. Perfect escape route!
Hire a Squadron 🧑‍✈️: You can recruit NPC pilots to form your own squadron. They’ll fly into battle with you, providing extra firepower.

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

As you travel, you’ll want a place to call home. No Man’s Sky gives you two main options: planetary bases and massive capital freighters.

Your Mobile Command Center: The Freighter 🛰️

Get Your First Freighter for Free 🎁: After about 3 hours and 5 warps, you’ll warp into a space battle. Save the freighter, and the captain will offer it to you for free.
Decline the First Offer for a Better Ship ✅: The first free freighter is always a smaller model. If you decline it, the next one you save will be a massive Capital Freighter (like a Star Destroyer!), which will also be offered for free. This is a much better deal.
A Freighter is the Ultimate Base 🏰: You can build a huge base inside your freighter. Unlike planetary bases, you can summon it to any system, giving you access to all your stuff anywhere in the galaxy!
Install a Matter Beam 📡: This is the MOST important freighter upgrade. It lets you access your freighter’s inventory (including all 10 storage containers!) from anywhere in the same star system.
Build a Fleet of Frigates 艦隊: You can buy frigates and send them on daily expeditions. They’ll bring back money, rare resources, and valuable items. This is one of the best sources of passive income in the game!
Match Frigates to Mission Types ⚔️🏭: Send the right type of frigate on a mission (e.g., combat frigates on a combat mission) to increase the chance of success.
Build Fleet Command Rooms 💻: You need one Fleet Command Room for each expedition you want to run at the same time. Build five to run the max of five expeditions per day.
Frigates Level Up 🆙: As your frigates complete missions, they’ll gain experience and rank up, eventually reaching S-Class!

Building Your Planetary Outposts

Claim a Base with a Base Computer 💻: To build on a planet, you must first place a Base Computer. This claims an area where you can build.
Don’t Build into the Ground ❌🌱: Avoid digging out large underground sections for your base. The terrain tends to slowly grow back, and you might log in to find your rooms filled with dirt! Build on stilts or inside a natural cave instead. ✅
Find an Electromagnetic Hotspot for Power ⚡: The best way to power your base is with Electromagnetic Generators. Find an “S” or “A” class power hotspot for a constant, massive supply of energy.
Extend Your Base’s Radius ↔️: You can build beyond the initial 300u radius. Go to the very edge and place any base part. This will extend the buildable area, letting you create huge bases.
Use Short-Range Teleporters as Elevators ⬆️⬇️: Connecting two Short-Range Teleporters on different floors creates an instant elevator. It’s much faster than stairs or ladders.
Unlock Blueprints with Salvaged Data 📜: Take your Buried Technology Modules to the Construction Research Station on the Anomaly to unlock new building parts.
The Build Camera is Essential 📸: When in the build menu, you can use a free-fly build camera. This lets you place parts with much greater precision.

Chapter 7: The Veteran Traveller – Advanced Tips & Tricks 💡

You’ve survived. You’ve explored. You’ve built an empire. Now learn the secrets that separate the pros from the newcomers.

Quality of Life and Hidden Mechanics

Use Your Personal Refiner 🎒: Your Exosuit has a Personal Refiner. This lets you refine materials on the go without deploying a portable one.
Quickly Access the Galactic Map 🌌: In your ship in space, use the quick menu to instantly access the galactic map.
Recharge Tech with the Right Materials ⚡: You can quickly recharge tech by hovering over it and pressing the hotkey shown on the screen.
Pin Crafting Recipes 📌: If you’re crafting a complex item, “pin” its recipe from the catalogue. This will display its required parts on your HUD.
Rocket Boots for Controlled Falls 👢: This upgrade lets you tap the jump button for a short jetpack burst, even when it’s empty. Perfect for preventing fall damage!
Tame and Ride Animals 🐾: Craft Creature Pellets to feed animals. Once they’re friendly, you can adopt them as a companion or even ride them!
Learn Alien Languages 🗣️: Interact with Knowledge Stones and talk to NPCs to learn new words. Understanding the alien languages will open up better dialogue options.
Use Photo Mode to Find Your Lost Ship 📸: If you lose your ship, enter Photo Mode. The free camera can often travel much further and faster than you, letting you spot your ship’s icon from the air.
Change Game Difficulty on the Fly ⚙️: You can adjust difficulty settings at any time. If gathering resources feels too grindy, set crafting to be free for a bit! Tailor the experience to you.

Advanced Ship Hunting

Hunt for Ships at Trade Outposts 📈: Trade Outposts are better than space stations for ship spotting. More landing pads and faster ship turnover!
Force Ship Spawns by Reloading 🔄: The fastest way to hunt for a specific ship is to find a Trade Outpost, save, and then watch the first wave of ships that land. If your ship isn’t there, just reload your autosave to spawn a new wave instantly.
Wealthy Systems Have Better Ships 💰: The economy of a system affects the chance of S-Class ships spawning. A wealthy (Tier 3) system has a 2% chance, while a poor system has a 0% chance. Always hunt for S-Class ships in wealthy systems!
Every System Has 21 Ship Models 🔢: Each system has a fixed pool of 21 ship models. If you don’t like the look of the ships, you need to warp to a new system.
Find Crashed Ships for Free 🛸: Use a Planetary Chart (Distress Signal) to locate crashed ships. You can claim them for free! You only need to repair their basic engines to get them flying, then you can scrap them for profit or keep them.
Find Crashed Sentinel Interceptors 💥: On Dissonant planets, you can find crashed Sentinel Interceptor ships. These are highly valuable and have unique tech, making them some of the best ships in the game.
Use Portals to Travel Instantly 🌀: Once you learn all 16 portal glyphs, you can use Portals to dial a specific address and travel to any planet instantly. This is how players share coordinates for cool ships and planets!

The Endless Horizon 🌟

You stand on the bridge of your capital freighter, the star-dusted void before you. Your fleet awaits. Your bases hum with industry. The broken survivor who huddled in a cave is a distant memory. You are a master of this universe.

But the journey is never truly over. There’s always another star to see, another creature to find, another mystery to solve. This guide has given you the tools, but the path from here is your own. The universe is vast, beautiful, and endless.

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.

Find the game here! No Man’s Sky – No Man’s Sky

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