Game Flow

The game's general flow is this: explore planets by landing on them and mine resources. Look for new blueprints to improve your gear. As you acquire stacks of elements, visit a space station to sell those you do not need for crafting. Some are much, much more valuable than others. Walking around on foot on planets is generally a waste of time unless you're enjoying the views, you can fly faster than you can walk. It is better to use scans to find new points of interest and locate technology, monoliths, and colonial outposts that may yield blueprints. Sometimes you will see giant deposits of uncommon elements such as aluminum, land and extract them along with anything else useful in the area. Having fun, of course, is priority one. Nothing is quite as boring as it sounds here, it is just a summary, though the game has not yet met the community's expecations and will hopefully receive updates over time.

While you are visiting planets, it's up to you if you want to try to explore everything they have to offer. Each planet has randomly-generated plants and wildlife (unless it's barren). Only about 10% of planets contain abundant life, but some contain flora without that. You can scan and upload your discoveries to the server in order to earn credits. It's worth doing, even if you will not go out of your way to scan every plant and animal on a planet. See the Scanning and Analysis page to learn more. Scanning animals gives you credits immediately, later you can go to the discovries page and get extra credits for uploading every plant, animal, and waypoint you discovered to the main server.

All of the important tools require resources to operate, but you can gradually upgrade your inventory. This is how No Man's Sky manages to call itself a survival game. Unfortunately most of these things are readily available, such as Plutonium being found on literally every planet. Why? You'd be stranded without the ability to launch. The greatest thing you face in that case is inconvenience as you go about looking for the red crystals you need to power your ship and lift-off. Resource management is still part of the game, however, and there are good ways to do it. Most of the game's equipment takes Isotope-type elements to recharge - the majority, but not exclusively.

The general direction of the game is toward the center of the galaxy. There are naturally many paths to get there, and an upgraded hyperdrive will help you to do that much faster if that's all you want to do. Be sure to keep any Atlas Stones you receive. If you're using a controller on PC or playing the PS4 version, the controls page may be of help to you.

Progression in No Man's Sky

Ship, Multitool, and Exosuit

Three things distinguish your character from other players' builds and help to mark your progression in No Man's Sky. The Ship you fly in, the multitool you use to explore planets and fight creatures and sentinels, and the exosuit that protects you while embarked on planetary exploration that also aids your mobility. Each of these has its own inventory tab. The ship and exosuit can hold cargo which you can trade at space stations and planetary bases or ues for crafting.

Slots are used to customize gear, as each slot can be used for either storage (for elements and other loot) or an upgrade. Simply having an item that improves a piece of gear in an inventory slot causes it to expand on your abilities. New blueprints can be found regularly if you know to look for them, and any blueprints you find are permanently added to your character. Farming mindlessly will only net you credits, while exploration rewards you with things you can spend the money on.

Ship

Your ship is what takes you from planet to planet. It features several modes of travel, from basic impulse engines, to pulse drives that accelerate travel through local systems, to hyperdrive for traveling among the stars. The ship features two main weapon types that can be used during combat but also utilized to mine resources (in the form of asteroids): the laser and photon cannon. The two weapons can be upgraded to have greater firing rates, damage potential, and improved heatsinks. Naturally, your ship features a shield to protect against damage from enemy weapons. Engagements from pirates are infrequent, but do happen. Sometimes in intimidating fashion.

How to Upgrade the Ship: You can find crashed ships and repair them, but perhaps the best way is to simply save up credits. The traders who visit space stations will have vessels a little better than what you're flying. Making money, you can gradually work your way up the ladder. If there are no ships in the space station, simply wait. The first ship you will want to buy should cost somewhere between 400,000 and 800,000 credits so as to be efficient. Later, you'll want a ship worth a couple million. You can read a bit more about this on the buy a better ship page.

Multi-Tool

This is your main way of interacting with the worlds you'll visit. The Multi-tool is both your pickaxe and phase rifle while also functioning as a grenade launcher and life-form scanner. It does everything as its name implies. Players can get new multi-tools with more slots, allowing further customization. The main thing distinguishing one multi-tool from another are its upgrades. You can design your multi-tool to be better at mining, combat, scanning planets, or to be a little better at everything using upgrades. Buying new multi-tools with more slots is part of the game's progression and will allow you to Learn more about the Multi-tool, Its Weapons and Utilities.

How to Upgrade the Multi-Tool:: Explore planets and search for structures. Trade stations on planets often have multi-tool dispensers that will offer to sell you a new multi-tool. Scanning stations are your friends (look for Colonial Outposts). Use these repeatedly to eventually come across improved versions over time. They are more rare than the other upgrades (Ship/Exosuit), though there will always be a multi-tool for purchase inside Anomalies. Improving relations with aliens may lead to them offering you an upgraded model.

Exosuit

The Exosuit keeps you safe while exploring dangerous environments. It features life support systems, a jetpack to help you navigate, and a shield to protect you against aggressive alien life and sentinels you've upset by your hoarding of planetary resources. The Exosuit can be upgraded to increase your stamina, protect against certain alien environments, or to have a strengthened shield or jetpack. The exosuit's environmental shielding and life support systems regularly require fuel, depending on how harsh the planet you're visiting tends to be. Different weather can result in different drains on resources.

How to Upgrade the Exosuit: You can easily reach the maximum amount of slots on the exosuit by simply getting an AtlasPass V1 and continuing to explore the galaxy. Stop inside the right space station door (facing the exit) every time, and you'll find an upgrade you can purchase. In addition to these, you may also find multiple drop pods on one planet using scanning stations. Every planet usually has several drop pods, but the extra slots grow more and more expensive. The maximum amount of slots is 48, with those last slots being over 300,000 credits each.

How to Customize Your Character

The Ship, Multi-tool, and Exosuit all feature inventory slots. As you progress through No Man's Sky, you'll be able to acquire ships and equipment with more slots, or else add slots to existing equipment as in the case of the exosuit. Modules can be scrapped at any time (except the essential ones), so there's no risk in trying something out just to see if you like it. This particularly applies to things like turning the boltcaster into a shotgun-type weapon or making the plasma grenade bouncy.

Other Guides

• Walkthrough Part 1: Leaving First Planet
• Walkthrough Part 2: Getting First Warp Drive
• Discovering Plants an Animals (Scanning)
• Making Antimatter for Warp Fuel
• AtlasPass V1 & Anomalies
• Finding AtlasPass V2 and V3
• Adding Inventory Slots
• How to Buy Better Ships
• Signal Scanners, Monoliths, Outposts, and Crashed Ships
• Best Elements to Recharge Gear
• Multi-tool and its Functions
• Mining in No Man's Sky
• Sentinels and Wanted Level
• Where to Find Better Warp Reactors