There are 256 galaxies in No Man’s Sky. Most players never leave the first one, and that’s fine. Euclid alone is enormous. But the rest are real, the systems for getting between them are well established, and the differences are bigger than people think. This is a complete guide to how galaxies work, what changes between them, and how to actually travel through them.
How galaxies work
The universe in No Man’s Sky is split into 256 unique galaxies. Galaxies 1 through 255 are reachable through normal gameplay; galaxy 256 (Odyalutai) and the legacy Yilsrussimil exist in the data but were closed off in the Atlas Rises update back in 2017. After Iousongola (galaxy 255), the sequence loops back to Euclid.
Each galaxy contains billions of procedurally generated star systems, regions, and planets. The underlying mechanics are identical across all of them. Resources, recipes, factions, faction progression, base building, expeditions, multiplayer. Galaxy hopping doesn’t unlock new content. It changes the seed.
What changes for real:
- The proportion of biomes the galaxy is allowed to spawn (its type, see below).
- The galaxy’s core colour. Euclid is yellow, Hilbert Dimension is deep pink, Eissentam is orange, and so on.
- Region naming patterns and the names attached to systems.
- Where the active player community lives. Euclid and Eissentam have most of it. Once you push past those, traffic at the Nexus and the visibility of other players drops sharply.
What doesn’t change: the resource pool, item drops, Hyperdrive range, refining recipes, Cooking, Sentinel behaviour, your Base Computer limit, or any progression system. Galaxy 47 plays identically to galaxy 1 from a mechanical standpoint.
The four galaxy types
Galaxies are sorted into four types. The type controls how planet generation is weighted in that galaxy.
Norm. The default. 178 of the 256 galaxies. Cyan hologram. In-game names: Imperfect, Improved, Parallel, or Rebuilt. Standard biome distribution, balanced weather, the closest thing the game has to a baseline.
Lush. 25 galaxies. Green hologram. Names: Halcyon, Inspiring, Serene, or Tranquil. Yellow stars in Lush galaxies are weighted to produce roughly 4× the lush-biome chance compared with Norm galaxies, and dead-biome rolls are halved. The visible result: more Earth-like planets, milder weather, friendlier worlds for base building. Eissentam (galaxy 10) is the most well-known.
Harsh. 26 galaxies. Red hologram. Names: Burning, Raging, Relentless, or Ruthless. Same biome weighting as Norm, but yellow systems behave like the red/green/blue extremes. Toxic, scorched, frozen, irradiated and “weird” worlds dominate. Sentinel aggression skews higher. Visually striking, mechanically punishing.
Empty. 26 galaxies. Blue hologram. Names: Ancestral, Frozen, Exhausted, or Silent. Sparse system layouts, dead-biome rolls weighted up roughly 4×, almost no flora or fauna on most worlds. Lower atmosphere, lower gravity in places. A specific kind of vibe.
The type is purely about planet generation. You can collect every resource and craft everything in any galaxy.
| Type | Galaxies | Hologram | In-game names | Yellow-star bias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norm | 178 | Cyan | Imperfect / Improved / Parallel / Rebuilt | Balanced |
| Lush | 25 | Green | Halcyon / Inspiring / Serene / Tranquil | 4× lush, fewer dead worlds |
| Harsh | 26 | Red | Burning / Raging / Relentless / Ruthless | More extreme biomes |
| Empty | 26 | Blue | Ancestral / Frozen / Exhausted / Silent | 4× dead, sparse systems |
What carries over and what breaks
This is the most-asked question in galaxy travel and the most-misunderstood.
Carries over:
- Active starship, freighter, exocraft, multi-tool, exosuit
- Units, nanites, quicksilver
- Inventory contents (ship cargo, exosuit, refiners, everything)
- Blueprints, faction reputation, expedition rewards, milestones
- Other ships in your collection (the freighter takes them along)
- Base teleporters and the Space Anomaly Nexus
Breaks during a Galaxy Centre transition (and only then):
- Every upgrade module in your active ship
- Every upgrade module in your active multi-tool
- Every upgrade in your exosuit
Repair these with Repair Kits or by manually restoring each module’s component. Bring more kits than you expect to need. There’s nothing worse than landing on a hostile starter planet with a half-broken hazard protection.
Important nuance: core technology (the Hyperdrive itself, Launch Thruster, Pulse Drive, Hazard Protection) is not considered an upgrade module and survives the transition intact. Only modules built into upgrade slots break.
Black holes do not damage anything anymore. That changed with the Waypoint update. Older guides still say otherwise; ignore them. Every black hole jump is now a clean teleport that pushes you closer to the centre.
How to reach the Galaxy Centre
This is the main route between galaxies and the one that takes the most planning.
Step 1: Set the Galactic Map waypoint
Open the Galactic Map and select Galactic Centre as your destination. The route appears as a glowing line. The catch is distance. The centre is typically hundreds of thousands of light-years from the rim, and a stock Hyperdrive covers 100 light-years per jump. Even a fully upgraded build with Cadmium Drive, Emeril Drive, and Indium Drive installed only does a few thousand per warp. Manually flying it would take hours.
This is what black holes are for.
Step 2: Use black holes to skip distance
A black hole jump pulls you, on average, around 7,000 light-years closer to the centre per use. The trip isn’t linear. You might travel further but end up at a tangent. Each jump still nets a meaningful chunk of distance. Stack five to eight of them and you’re inside Galactic Centre range.
To find black holes:
- Talk to Polo at the Space Anomaly. Ask for a shortcut to the centre. A black hole system gets pinned on your Galactic Map.
- After the Atlas Path’s “birth a new star” beat, you can see black holes natively on the local map.
- Region scan trick: every region of every galaxy contains exactly one black hole system, and it always sits at portal address
0079. If you’ve activated a portal in that region, you can find it by signal booster.
A small subset of black holes (called hyper black holes, located in the four spiral arms of the galaxy) can carry you over 300,000 light-years toward the centre in a single jump. They’re rare and worth the detour.
Black hole jumps no longer damage anything. You don’t need repair kits between jumps anymore, only for the centre transition itself.
Step 3: The final jump
Once you’re inside roughly 5,000 light-years of the core, the Galactic Centre objective on the Galactic Map becomes selectable directly. Charge your Hyperdrive all the way (with Warp Cells or a Warp Hypercore), select the centre, hold the input until it confirms, and you’re gone.
You arrive in the next galaxy with a forced crash landing on a random planet. Your active ship, suit, and multi-tool upgrade modules are broken. Repair what you need to survive, then proceed.
Pre-flight checklist
- Fully charged Hyperdrive. Bring at least one extra Warp Cell for the next galaxy.
- Stack of Repair Kits
- Spare Carbon, Di-hydrogen, Ferrite Dust for storm-shelter and ship-repair busywork
- A Base Computer dropped in your current galaxy if you ever want to teleport back
- Optional: a junk shuttle to take the centre transition damage instead of your main ship
The New Beginnings galaxy skip
Finishing the Artemis Path culminates in the New Beginnings mission. The final choice lets you reset the simulation into a galaxy of a chosen type (Norm, Lush, Harsh, or Empty) and the game drops you in the next galaxy of that type in sequence.
If you want Eissentam and you’re still in Euclid, this is the fastest legitimate route. Pick Lush at the New Beginnings prompt and you arrive in Eissentam (galaxy 10) regardless of where you currently are. Pick Harsh from Euclid and you land in Calypso (galaxy 3). Pick Norm and you go to Hilbert Dimension (galaxy 2).
This skip can be repeated by replaying the Atlas storyline, but it is gated by an in-game cooldown and tied to the Atlas Rises. For one-off, deliberate galaxy choice, it’s the cleanest method available.
Travelling back to a previous galaxy
Most guides bury this. The teleporter network ignores galaxy boundaries.
If you have a Base Computer placed in any previous galaxy, you can warp back to it from any base teleporter, anywhere. No centre run required, no tech damage, no repair cycle. The same applies to the Space Anomaly Nexus: any other player’s recently visited base shows up in the destination list, regardless of which galaxy it’s in.
The only requirement is the anchor. Drop a Base Computer in every new galaxy you enter, even if you never build anything else on it. It costs almost nothing, takes thirty seconds, and is the difference between “I can come back” and “I’m starting a centre run.”
There’s a soft cap on bases at 449. After that, new Base Computers won’t appear in the teleporter list until you remove one. If you’re a serial galaxy hopper, plan accordingly.
Notable galaxies
Most galaxies are functionally interchangeable. A few stand out for specific reasons.
Euclid (1)
The starting galaxy for every player. By far the largest active community, the busiest Nexus, and the original home of every long-running civilization (Galactic Hub Project, Eyfert Khannate, Federation of Travellers, etc.). If you care about multiplayer activity at all, Euclid is where it lives.
Hilbert Dimension (2)
Norm-type, deep pink core. The first stop for anyone running the galaxy ladder. More milestone than destination. Players arrive here, snap a photo, and usually keep going.
Calypso (3)
Harsh-type, medium orchid core. The first Harsh galaxy in the sequence and the destination when you pick Harsh at New Beginnings from Euclid. Expect more extreme biomes and higher Sentinel aggression than the early Norm galaxies.
Eissentam (10)
The most popular destination after Euclid. Lush-type, orange core, home to the Galactic Hub Eissentam civilization, which is the second-largest player community in No Man’s Sky. If you’ve heard about Hub bases, traveller civilizations, or community projects outside Euclid, they almost all live here. Lush biome odds make it genuinely scenic. The fastest way in is the New Beginnings Lush skip from Euclid.
Hesperius Dimension (4), Hyades (5)
Norm galaxies that get a fair amount of community traffic, mostly from explorers chasing the count.
Budullangr (7)
Empty-type, green core. One of the quieter galaxies on the ladder. Sparse systems, dead-heavy planet rolls, almost no fauna. Appeals to a specific kind of player who likes the solitude. The New Beginnings Empty skip from Euclid (and several galaxies after it) lands here.
Iousongola (255)
The end of the line. After this galaxy, the sequence loops back to Euclid. Reaching it is a long-term project. 254 centre runs, give or take some New Beginnings skips. There are documented players who’ve done it. There are far fewer who’ve done it twice.
Tips for galaxy hopping efficiently
A few things that make the process less painful.
Chain black holes ruthlessly. Five to eight jumps gets you within Galactic Centre range. The damage that older guides warned about doesn’t exist anymore.
Always drop a Base Computer. Thirty seconds, near-zero materials, full teleporter access forever. Skipping this is the single biggest galaxy-travel mistake.
Carry Repair Kits. Craft them from Di-hydrogen Jelly and Metal Plating before you leave. Bring more than you think you need.
Run a junk-ship for transitions. Keep a cheap shuttle around specifically for centre jumps. Let it eat the upgrade-module damage. Repair it on arrival, switch back to your main ship at the next station.
Use portal addresses. With all 16 glyphs, the address 100104005005 lands you in a system extremely close to the centre in most galaxies. That cuts out the manual approach entirely. Every galaxy also has its own gateway-system list documented on the wiki.
Keep a Hyperdrive Augmentation on standby for the jump itself. The base Hyperdrive is fine, but don’t show up at the centre with an empty fuel tank. Fuel one Warp Cell for the trip and one for the spawn jump on the other side.
Don’t bother with manual exploration during a run. Black-hole-and-portal your way to the centre, do your scan run on the new starter planet, then start exploring. It’s faster and saves resources for the climb.
The 255-galaxy loop
The full sequence (Euclid through Iousongola) is the longest-running endgame goal in No Man’s Sky. Players who push the full ladder typically use New Beginnings skips for as much of the path as the game lets them, then black-hole-chain the rest. Hundreds of hours of play, tracked publicly by some traveller civilizations.
Galaxies 256 (Odyalutai) and the older Yilsrussimil are accessible only by:
- Joining a multiplayer session with someone already there
- Visiting another player’s base via the Space Anomaly Nexus
- Save editing on PC
For everyone else, the loop quietly resets at galaxy 1 once you cross out of Iousongola.
What this all means in practice
Most players don’t need to leave Euclid. The game has more content than any single galaxy can show you in 1,000 hours, and the galaxy you’re in doesn’t gatekeep recipes, resources, or progression.
Galaxies are interesting if:
- You want a Lush biome run and the New Beginnings Lush skip to Eissentam appeals
- You like the long-term goal of climbing the count
- You want to escape the noise of Euclid and live somewhere quieter
- You want the Galactic Hub Eissentam community specifically
- You like the cosmetic variety of different core colours and naming patterns
Galaxies aren’t worth the effort if:
- You think there’s locked content beyond Euclid (there isn’t)
- You don’t want to manage a base teleporter network across multiple galaxies
- You hate repair-kit busywork
Either way, now you know how the system actually works.