No Man's Sky iOS Guide: Requirements, Settlements & Limits

No Man’s Sky is coming to iPhone and iPad. Hello Games announced it on October 12, and it’s not a cut-down spin-off. Here’s what you need to run it, what’s missing, and what to craft in your first hour.

Everything below comes from the official announcement and Hello Games’ iOS Deep Dive video. I’ll update this page at launch.

Release date and price

• Pre-orders: live now on the App Store, as part of Apple’s Indie Games Week.
• Launch: October 28, 2026.
• Price: free to try at launch. Hello Games hasn’t said yet how the trial works or what the full unlock costs.

Supported iPhones and iPads

What	Minimum device
Playing the game	iPhone 11, or iPad Air (3rd generation)
Planetary Settlements	iPhone 15 Pro
Storage	4-5GB (sources differ, see below)

That device floor is low for a game this size. The universe is generated on your device as you play, which is also why the download is so small. Hello Games hasn’t settled on one number, though: the announcement says under 4GB and the Deep Dive video says just under 5GB. Leave yourself 5GB.

The announcement names iPhone 15 Pro for settlements. It doesn’t say which iPads support them, so I’d wait for launch before you plan a settlement on an iPad.

What’s different on iOS

Two limits, both stated plainly by Hello Games:

1. No multiplayer. You’re playing solo.
2. Settlements need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. Older supported phones run everything else.

Sean Murray, writing for Hello Games, compared it to the first Switch launch, where they listened to players and built on it later. He also said support will scale with how many people play. So these limits could change, but nothing is promised.

Hello Games also says they’ve done a lot of work on battery life and heat, aiming for long, comfortable sessions. I’ll believe that once I’ve played an hour on an iPhone 11, but it’s good they’re saying it out loud.

Controls

Touch controls were rebuilt from scratch. That matters in a game where you spend half your time in menus and inventory. You also get:

• Controller support
• Casting to a TV
• Mouse and keyboard, on iPad only

What’s included

It’s the full game. That means over forty major updates, including Cosmos from a few weeks ago and Voyagers from 2025, which added Corvettes, starships you build yourself.

The Deep Dive video also confirms you can manage a Cosmos space station and play the current Expedition on your phone. Sean says the game has been a side project for nearly three years, and some of the work behind it improves every platform.

First crafts for new iOS Travellers

If iOS is your first time playing, these are the early recipes you’ll lean on. All amounts come from the game data on this site.

Raw materials to grab first:

• Carbon
• Ferrite Dust
• Di-hydrogen
• Sodium
• Oxygen

Early crafts:

Item	Recipe	Why you need it
Metal Plating	50 Ferrite Dust	Repairs and lots of early builds
Di-hydrogen Jelly	40 Di-hydrogen	Ingredient for Life Support Gel
Life Support Gel	1 Di-hydrogen Jelly + 20 Carbon	Refills life support
Starship Launch Fuel	40 Di-hydrogen + 1 Metal Plating	Takeoff fuel
Carbon Nanotubes	50 Carbon	Common tech repair part
Ion Battery	10 Cobalt + 5 Ferrite Dust	Recharges hazard protection
Portable Refiner	1 Metal Plating + 30 Oxygen	Your first refiner

First refiner recipes:

• 2 Carbon → 1 Condensed Carbon
• 1 Ferrite Dust → 1 Pure Ferrite
• 2 Sodium → 1 Sodium Nitrate

Once you’ve got a refiner going, our list of the best refiner recipes covers the rest. Coming back from another platform? The returning player guide covers what’s changed recently.

Sources

• No Man’s Sky: iOS, Hello Games
• No Man’s Sky iOS Deep Dive, Hello Games (YouTube)