No Man’s Sky launched in August 2016 as a controversial solo experience with big promises and a rough delivery. It’s now April 2026, nearly ten years and over 40 free updates later. The game you remember and the game that exists today are not the same game in any meaningful way.
This is the definitive history of every major update, what each one actually added, and a practical guide for anyone returning after time away.
Every No Man’s Sky update at a glance
| Version | Name | Date | What it added |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.00 | Release | Aug 9, 2016 | Procedural exploration, survival, trading — no multiplayer, base building limited |
| 1.10 | Foundation | Nov 26, 2016 | Base building, Creative/Survival/Normal modes, freighters, farming |
| 1.20 | Pathfinder | Mar 7, 2017 | Exocraft land vehicles, base sharing online, ship class ratings, Permadeath mode |
| 1.30 | Atlas Rises | Aug 11, 2017 | New story, improved terrain, portal travel, first proto-multiplayer |
| 1.50 | NEXT | Jul 24, 2018 | Full multiplayer, third-person camera, bases anywhere, Xbox launch, graphical overhaul |
| 1.70 | The Abyss | Oct 29, 2018 | Underwater overhaul: new creatures, buildings, submarine, horror narrative |
| 1.75 | Visions | Nov 22, 2018 | New alien biome types, colourful worlds, discoveries catalogue, crashed freighters |
| 2.00 | Beyond | Aug 14, 2019 | Full VR support, Space Anomaly multiplayer hub, NMS 2.0 tech trees, NPCs |
| 2.20 | Synthesis | Nov 28, 2019 | Ship scrapping, tech transfer between ships, inventory improvements |
| 2.30 | Living Ship | Feb 27, 2020 | Organic living ships grown from Void Eggs with unique upgrade system |
| 2.40 | Exo Mech | Apr 8, 2020 | Minotaur mech exocraft, improved terrain manipulator |
| 2.50 | Crossplay | Jul 8, 2020 | Cross-platform multiplayer: PC, PlayStation, Xbox all play together |
| 2.60 | Desolation | Jul 22, 2020 | Derelict freighters: abandoned ships to board and loot |
| 3.00 | Origins | Sep 23, 2020 | Massive planet overhaul: mountains 4× bigger, sandworms, new biomes, binary stars |
| 3.10 | Next Generation | Nov 11, 2020 | PS5 and Xbox Series X: 60fps, ray tracing, faster loading |
| 3.20 | Companions | Feb 17, 2021 | Adopt, name, breed and hatch creature companions from eggs |
| 3.30 | Expeditions | Mar 31, 2021 | New Expeditions game mode with time-limited community challenges |
| 3.50 | Prisms | Jun 2, 2021 | Visual overhaul: reflections, improved lighting, creature fur, new sky effects |
| 3.60 | Frontiers | Sep 1, 2021 | Settlements: player-managed alien villages, reworked build menu |
| 3.80 | Sentinel | Feb 17, 2022 | Complete Sentinel AI rework, mech Sentinels, mechanical companions, new story |
| 3.85 | Outlaws | Apr 6, 2022 | Outlaw systems, solar ships, pirate space stations, smuggling economy |
| 3.94 | Endurance | Jul 20, 2022 | Freighter interiors fully customisable, major fleet and frigate overhaul |
| 4.00 | Waypoint | Oct 7, 2022 | Nintendo Switch launch, complete inventory rework, adjustable difficulty |
| 4.10 | Fractal | Feb 22, 2023 | PSVR2 support, VR visual overhaul, Wonders catalogue |
| 4.20 | Interceptor | Apr 6, 2023 | Corrupted Sentinel ships, Dissonant corrupted planets |
| 4.30 | Singularity | Aug 2023 | Autophage story expansion via ARG-style expedition |
| 4.40 | Echoes | Aug 24, 2023 | Autophage robot race, ownable pirate freighters, new factions |
| 4.50 | Omega | Feb 2024 | Free-to-play event for 8th anniversary, new expedition, improvements |
| 4.60 | Orbital | Mar 27, 2024 | Space station redesign, ship customisation from modular components, guilds |
| 4.70 | Adrift | May 29, 2024 | Expedition in a universe with no NPCs, no active stations |
| 5.00 | Worlds Part I | Jul 17, 2024 | Second planet overhaul: new water tech, fauna, clouds, atmospheric improvements |
| 5.10 | Aquarius | Sep 4, 2024 | Fishing: 200+ fish species, Fishing Rig, Exo-Skiff, Automated Traps, new recipes |
| 5.20 | The Cursed | Oct 23, 2024 | Halloween expedition with cursed planet mechanics |
| 5.25 | Cross-Save | Nov 7, 2024 | Cross-save and cross-play across every platform |
| 5.50 | Worlds Part II | Jan 29, 2025 | Gas giants, water worlds, new star types, ancient ruins, new story |
| 5.60 | Relics | Mar 26, 2025 | Fossil hunting and excavation, improved settlements |
| 5.70 | Beacon | Jun 4, 2025 | Nintendo Switch 2 launch, settlement improvements, new base parts |
| 6.00 | Voyagers | Aug 27, 2025 | Corvettes: massive modular ships with walkable interiors, multiplayer crews |
| 6.10 | Breach | Oct 22, 2025 | New corvette modules, deep-space corvette wrecks for salvage |
| 6.20 | Remnant | Feb 11, 2026 | Gravitino Coil gravity tool, Colossus exocraft overhaul, industrial waste |
| 6.30 | Xeno Arena | Apr 8, 2026 | Creature battles: adopt, train, and fight fauna in the Arena League |
The six updates that changed everything
Before reading the full history, here are the six updates with the biggest impact on how the game actually plays. If you skipped any of these, the game will feel meaningfully different.
NEXT (July 2018): This is where No Man’s Sky became the game it was supposed to be. Full multiplayer, third-person camera, bases on any planet, complete visual overhaul. The game you remember from before NEXT barely exists anymore.
Beyond (August 2019): VR support, the Space Anomaly as a proper multiplayer social hub, and tech trees that replaced the old blueprint system. If NEXT rebuilt the foundation, Beyond made it feel alive.
Origins (September 2020): The first planet overhaul. Mountains became four times bigger than they’d ever been. Sandworms emerged. Binary and ternary star systems appeared. The universe felt genuinely alien for the first time.
Waypoint (October 2022): Completely rebuilt the inventory system. If you haven’t played since before this, your old save will look like it’s been through a translator. Also launched on Nintendo Switch.
Worlds Part I (July 2024): The second planet overhaul, and even more dramatic than Origins. New water technology, new fauna types including megafauna, better clouds and atmospherics. Every planet looks different now.
Voyagers (August 2025): Added Corvettes, the largest ship class in the game. You build them module by module, walk around inside them, and fly them as a mobile base.
What every major update actually changed
Foundation — November 26, 2016
The first real update after a troubled launch, and the one that proved Hello Games was serious about sticking with the game. Foundation added base building, simple at first and limited to pre-existing sites, but the start of a system that now has hundreds of parts. Three game modes arrived: Normal (the original experience), Creative (unlimited resources, no hazards, pure building), and Survival (brutal difficulty). Freighters became purchasable for the first time, and a farming system let you grow crops in hydroponic labs. Nanite Clusters appeared as a new secondary currency. The quick menu was introduced. None of it sounds dramatic now, but after launch-day No Man’s Sky, it was transformative.
Pathfinder — March 7, 2017
Pathfinder added the Exocraft, which are planetary land vehicles. Three types launched: the Nomad, Roamer, and Colossus (hovercraft, all-terrain, and cargo hauler respectively). You could now cover a planet’s surface without flying. Ship class ratings (C, B, A, S) arrived, giving progression a visible hierarchy. Base sharing went online, letting other players visit your outpost. Permadeath mode appeared for the first time. Nanite Clusters became properly usable for purchasing tech. New traders appeared in space stations.
Atlas Rises — August 11, 2017
Atlas Rises was the first update that attempted to give No Man’s Sky a proper story. A new Atlas storyline ran through the game. Terrain generation improved significantly. Portals became a real system: share a glyph address to teleport to that exact planet anywhere in the galaxy. A new alien race added more lore depth. The first proto-multiplayer appeared in the form of “proximity awareness”. You could see other players as floating orbs in the same system, though you couldn’t interact. Procedural missions from NPCs gave more structured things to do.
NEXT — July 24, 2018
NEXT is the update that saved No Man’s Sky. Two years after a disastrous launch, Hello Games released the update that delivered what had originally been promised. Full multiplayer arrived: explore, build, and interact with friends or strangers. Third-person perspective became available, changing how exploration felt completely. Bases could be built anywhere on any planet, not just at pre-existing sites, and hundreds of new base parts were added. The game received a major graphical overhaul. No Man’s Sky launched on Xbox for the first time. Freighter armadas (multiple frigates sent on timed expeditions) began the fleet system that still exists today. The Galactic Atlas website launched as a community hub. If you left before NEXT and haven’t been back since, almost everything you know about the game is no longer accurate.
The Abyss — October 29, 2018
The Abyss turned the oceans from empty blue voids into actual places worth visiting. New underwater creatures, structures, and resources made aquatic exploration genuinely rewarding. The Nautilon submarine exocraft arrived. A short horror narrative with its own distinct tone gave the update a memorable identity, darker and stranger than anything else in the game at the time.
Visions — November 22, 2018
Visions introduced new biome types that made planets far more varied and alien. Bioluminescent plants, new creature types, and much greater colour palette variation made exploration feel more interesting. Crashed freighters appeared on planet surfaces. The discoveries catalogue began tracking everything you found.
Beyond — August 14, 2019
Beyond was billed as No Man’s Sky 2.0, and it earned the label. Full VR support arrived. The entire game became playable from start to finish in virtual reality, on both PC and PSVR. The Space Anomaly became the game’s proper multiplayer social hub, capable of holding 16 players on console and 32 on PC. Tech trees replaced the old blueprint system, visualising crafting progression in a way that made it much clearer. Multiplayer missions launched from The Nexus aboard the Anomaly. The Pinning system let players track crafting chains step-by-step. NPCs became more interesting, with better dialogue and more variety. The game was heavily optimised. You could finally sit in chairs.
Synthesis — November 28, 2019
Synthesis was quality-of-life work that removed a lot of friction. Ship scrapping let you break down unwanted ships for components and units instead of just trading them in. Technology could be transferred between ships. The inventory system improved. Multi-tool upgrades got a cleaner interface. A lot of small things that had felt awkward got fixed.
Living Ship — February 27, 2020
Living Ship added a completely different ship class: organic spacecraft that function more like creatures than machines. You hatch one from a Void Egg through a questline that takes several real-world days. The resulting ship upgrades by growing new organic modules rather than installing standard tech. They have unique abilities and a visual style completely unlike conventional ships. If you’ve never seen a Living Ship, they’re genuinely striking.
Exo Mech — April 8, 2020
Exo Mech added the Minotaur, a mech-style exocraft that handles extreme planetary conditions without the pilot needing to leave the cockpit. It can harvest resources, fight Sentinels, and operate in toxic or radioactive atmospheres that would burn through a standard exosuit fast. The terrain manipulator received significant upgrades alongside it.
Crossplay — July 8, 2020
Crossplay did exactly what the name says: removed the walls between PlayStation and Xbox and PC players. Previously, platforms played in separate pools. From this update onward, everyone is in the same universe. The practical result was more encounters with other players and a more populated multiplayer experience.
Desolation — July 22, 2020
Desolation added derelict freighters: massive abandoned ships drifting in deep space. Board one and you find dark corridors, malfunctioning systems, hostile robots, and environmental hazards including low oxygen. Narrative logs scattered through each derelict tell a story about what happened to the crew. The loot, including rare technology upgrades and valuable components, is some of the best in the game. Exploring a derelict freighter is unlike anything else No Man’s Sky offers, genuinely tense in a way the rest of the game rarely is.
Origins — September 23, 2020
Origins was the first major planet overhaul, and it changed the universe so dramatically that players who left before it would barely recognise the worlds they used to explore. Mountains became up to four times taller than the previous maximum. New planets spawned in existing star systems. Binary and ternary star systems appeared for the first time. Sandworms emerged from beneath planet surfaces. Storm gameplay now had beneficial effects alongside hazards. New biomes, new creatures, new weather conditions, and new flora poured into the galaxy. The UI received a complete visual refresh. If you left before Origins, the planets you land on now are fundamentally different.
Next Generation — November 11, 2020
Next Generation launched No Man’s Sky on PS5 and Xbox Series X with 60fps gameplay, ray tracing, dramatically faster loading, and 4K resolution. Existing players on compatible hardware got the upgrade for free. The game ran and looked significantly better.
Companions — February 17, 2021
Companions turned the existing creature interaction system into something meaningful. You could now adopt fauna as companions, name them, level up their traits, and breed them using the Egg Sequencer aboard the Space Anomaly. Companions can mine resources passively, produce materials over time, and serve as mounts. The genetic modification system introduced here was later expanded into the full creature battle system that Xeno Arena builds on.
Expeditions — March 31, 2021
Expeditions added a new game mode: time-limited community events where all participants start on the same planet with a fresh save and work through shared milestones together. Completing milestones earns exclusive cosmetics (ships, companions, suits, emotes) that can’t be obtained any other way. Over 20 expeditions have run since. Missing one usually means missing its exclusive rewards, though Hello Games has re-run popular ones as holiday redux events. The Expedition Terminus on the Space Anomaly is where you join.
Prisms — June 2, 2021
Prisms was a dedicated visual upgrade. Reflective surfaces appeared on ships and bases. Volumetric lighting improved dramatically. Creature fur rendered properly. New sky effects, improved warp visuals, and better texture quality made the game look considerably better without any mechanical changes. Screenshots from before and after Prisms look like different games.
Frontiers — September 1, 2021
Frontiers added Settlements, alien villages populated by NPCs that players can discover, claim, and manage. As settlement overseer, you make ongoing decisions for the population: where to build, how to allocate resources, how to respond to crises. Decisions compound over time and shape how the settlement develops. A fully invested settlement generates passive income and becomes a useful second base. The build menu also received a major structural rework in this update, making it much easier to navigate. Browse all base building parts.
Sentinel — February 17, 2022
Sentinel completely rebuilt the law enforcement system. The old Sentinels were essentially passive drones you could mostly ignore. The new ones come in waves with different types (aerial drones, ground walkers, Hardframe mechs) and coordinate intelligently. The Hardframe mechs drop pilot modules when destroyed; collect enough and you can build a mechanical companion who fights alongside you. A new storyline uncovered the Sentinel origins and their relationship with the Atlas. Combat in No Man’s Sky is a fundamentally different experience after this update.
Outlaws — April 6, 2022
Outlaws added the criminal side of the galaxy. Outlaw star systems have pirate-run space stations with their own economy, contraband markets, and missions. Solar ships arrived as a new ship class: lightweight, sun-powered vessels with a unique silhouette. The smuggling economy created an actual reason to visit outlaw space. Pirate raids on freighters became more structured and challenging.
Endurance — July 20, 2022
Endurance rebuilt freighters from the inside out. Before this update, freighter interiors were fixed and couldn’t be changed. After, they became fully customisable with base-building parts: rooms, corridors, refiners, farms, crew quarters, whatever you want. New frigate types and improved expedition mechanics made fleet management worth engaging with seriously. If you have a freighter from before Endurance, you’ll notice the interior looks completely different.
Waypoint — October 7, 2022
Waypoint launched No Man’s Sky on Nintendo Switch and rebuilt the inventory system from scratch. The old grid-based inventory (where item size determined how many slots it took up) was replaced with a unified slot system where every item takes one slot. Tech, cargo, and general inventories became clearly distinct. The game received adjustable difficulty settings for the first time, letting players tune survival pressure, resource availability, and combat intensity to their preference. Custom modes can be saved and named. This is one of the most practically important updates for returning players: if you haven’t played since before Waypoint, your inventory will look completely different when you load your old save.
Fractal — February 22, 2023
Fractal added PSVR2 support with a full visual overhaul for VR players. It also introduced the Wonders Catalogue, a persistent record of the most unusual or impressive things you’ve discovered across your travels, from the heaviest creature to the tallest tree to the largest planetary body. If you’re a collector, the Wonders Catalogue gives you a permanent list of records to chase.
Interceptor — April 6, 2023
Interceptor added Corrupted Sentinel ships as a buildable starship class. To find and disassemble them, you explore Dissonant planets, worlds with a distinctive red-glitched aesthetic and uniquely hostile Sentinel variants. The resulting ships look unlike anything else in the game. Combat mechanics also improved alongside this update.
Echoes — August 24, 2023
Echoes introduced the Autophage, a new robot race with their own culture, dialogue trees, lore, and rewards. They’re secretive and harder to find than the Gek, Vy’keen, or Korvax, and building relationship with them unlocks new story content and cosmetics. More importantly, pirate freighters became capturable: board one, fight through it, take out the captain, and claim it as your new capital ship. The Multi-Staff became a new multi-tool type. If you haven’t met an Autophage yet, there’s an entire faction worth of content waiting.
Omega — February 2024
Omega made No Man’s Sky free to play for a limited period to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the game. A new expedition, bug fixes, balance improvements, and better planetary missions came alongside. The free period brought a significant wave of new players in.
Orbital — March 27, 2024
Orbital redesigned every space station in the game with new architecture and much more NPC variety. New traders, new mission types, and a guild system with standings appeared. The bigger change: full ship customisation from modular components launched here, letting you hunt for specific parts and assemble a custom vessel. This is the same modular building philosophy that Corvettes later expanded into a full ship class.
Adrift — May 29, 2024
Adrift was an expedition with an unusual premise: an abandoned universe where NPCs don’t exist, space stations are dark and empty, and you’re truly alone in the galaxy. The isolation was the point. It introduced a new star system “abandonment” mechanic and a specific tone of loneliness that stands out from anything else Hello Games has done.
Worlds Part I — July 17, 2024
Worlds Part I was the second major planet overhaul, and in many ways more dramatic than Origins. New water technology made oceans behave more realistically with proper wave physics. New cloud rendering produced genuinely atmospheric skies. New fauna types including megafauna (massive creatures that dwarf the player) changed the feel of planetary exploration. Greater terrain diversity and a wider range of biome subtypes meant planets felt more distinct from each other. Players who had explored the same systems for years suddenly found them changed.
Aquarius — September 4, 2024
Aquarius added fishing: over 200 species spread across 8 biomes, four rarity tiers, and a depth-based size mechanic. The Fishing Rig is a Multi-Tool attachment purchased for 1 Nanite from Iteration Eos at the Space Anomaly. The Exo-Skiff provided a deployable water platform. Automated Traps let you fish passively. New seafood recipes for the Nutrient Processor gave fish practical culinary value. Browse all food items. Browse the full fish catalogue. Rare fish sell for up to 50,000 units each and legendary fish up to 200,000. See our full fishing guide for everything you need to know.
The Cursed — October 23, 2024
The Cursed was a Halloween expedition running for roughly two weeks with unique mechanics around cursed planetary conditions. Exclusive cosmetics were available, some of which returned in the Holiday 2024 expedition redux.
Cross-Save — November 7, 2024
Cross-Save is one of the most practically useful updates for anyone returning to the game. No Man’s Sky now supports cross-save and cross-play across every platform: PC via Steam and GOG, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, Game Pass, Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and PSVR. You can start on PC, continue on console, or switch platforms without losing progress. If you want to move platforms, this update makes it finally possible.
Worlds Part II — January 29, 2025
Worlds Part II expanded the universe with entirely new planet types. Gas giants became visitable for the first time: massive swirling atmospheric worlds with their own unique conditions and resources. Water worlds, planets almost entirely covered in ocean, appeared with new underwater terrain. New star types brought new system aesthetics. Ancient ruins scattered across planets added new lore artefacts. A new story thread ran through the update.
Relics — March 26, 2025
Relics added fossil hunting. Relic sites on planets hold the skeletal remains of ancient alien creatures, scannable and excavatable with a visor tool. Completing a full specimen rewards rare materials and lore about the creature. Settlement mechanics also improved with more building variety, more decision types, and the addition of infestation events.
Beacon — June 4, 2025
Beacon launched No Man’s Sky on Nintendo Switch 2 with significant visual improvements. Settlements received another round of improvements including more management options. New base building parts expanded what you could construct.
Voyagers — August 27, 2025
Voyagers added Corvettes, the biggest ship type in the game. Built module by module at the Corvette Workshop inside any Space Station, a Corvette is a massive ship with real interior sections you walk around in. Install refiners, storage, and decorations. Crew it with other players in multiplayer. Scan planets from the cockpit without landing. A lot of players now use them as flying bases that replace the need for a permanent planetary base. Browse all corvette parts on the site. See our full Corvette guide.
Breach — October 22, 2025
Breach expanded the Corvette system with new module types and added corvette wreck sites in deep space: zero-gravity salvage missions where you exit your ship to strip parts from abandoned Corvettes floating between stars. A Halloween expedition with its own progression ran alongside.
Remnant — February 11, 2026
Remnant added the Gravitino Coil, a gravity manipulation attachment for the Multi-Tool. With it you can magnetise, carry, and launch physical objects: industrial waste, golden artefacts from ruins, Sentinel drones in combat. Planets with salvageable scrap now also generate industrial waste that you collect and process at new Waste Processing Plants for materials and rewards. The Colossus exocraft received a major overhaul: customisable cabins, chassis options, paint finishes, new modules including a flatbed for hauling waste and a furnace for on-road processing.
Xeno Arena — April 8, 2026
Xeno Arena added the creature battle system. Adopt wild fauna using Creature Pellets (or Ion Batteries for mechanical creatures), build a team of three, and fight at Holo-Arena tables found at space stations, planetary outposts, and the Space Anomaly. Eight elemental affinities (Fire, Frost, Radioactive, Toxic, Tropical, Anomalous, Mechanical, Desert) determine matchups. Creatures earn experience through battles and can be genetically modified using Retroviral Pellets. The Arena League faction tracks your ranking. Iteration: Oceanus at the Space Anomaly hosts daily challenges. See our full Xeno Arena guide.
What you’ll find when you return, by era
| You left around… | What you’ll recognise | What will be completely new |
|---|---|---|
| Launch — 2016 | The basic loop: land, mine, sell, warp | Multiplayer, base building, VR, companions, settlements, fishing, Corvettes, creature battles — basically everything |
| NEXT era — 2018–2019 | Multiplayer, third person, basic bases anywhere | Space Anomaly as a hub, VR, the full tech tree system, Companions, Expeditions, Prisms visuals, Frontiers settlements, all 2021+ content |
| Origins era — 2020–2021 | Better planets, companions, expeditions | Sentinel rework, Outlaws and pirate factions, Endurance freighter interiors, Waypoint inventory overhaul, Echoes Autophage race, all 2022+ content |
| Waypoint era — 2022–2023 | New inventory system, difficulty settings, Sentinel combat, settlements | Echoes Autophage race, Orbital ship building, Worlds planet overhaul, fishing, Corvettes, Remnant, Xeno Arena |
| Worlds era — mid 2024 | Planet overhaul, fishing, ship building | Worlds Part II gas giants and water worlds, Relics fossils, Corvettes, Remnant Gravitino Coil, Xeno Arena |
| Voyagers era — Aug 2025 | Corvettes, Breach salvage missions | Remnant Gravitino Coil, Colossus overhaul, Xeno Arena creature battles |
Things that changed and will confuse you
Beyond what’s new, several core systems are different enough from older versions to catch returning players off guard.
The inventory system (Waypoint, October 2022): Before Waypoint, items had sizes. Some took 1 slot, some took 2. After Waypoint, everything takes 1 slot regardless. Your old save might look overhauled when you load it. The distinction between Exosuit, Ship, and Multi-Tool inventories remains, but the slot economy is completely different.
Space stations (Orbital, March 2024): Every space station was redesigned. If you remember them as a specific layout, it’s gone. The architecture, the NPC placements, the trade terminal locations, all different. The Corvette Workshop is now accessible via blue teleport columns on the left side of the shop area.
Sentinels (Sentinel, February 2022): If you remember Sentinels as passive drones you could mostly ignore, they’re now a real combat system with wave escalation, mech types, and coordinated AI. Getting a four-star wanted level is a genuine fight. This is a good change, but it will surprise you if you’ve forgotten about it.
Portal interference (Origins, September 2020): Portals used to prevent you from calling your ship or making progress after using one. This restriction was removed in Origins. You can portal freely now without being stranded.
Ship building (Orbital, March 2024 onwards): You no longer need to find a pre-built ship on a planet or in a space station. You can hunt for ship parts from salvage and assemble a custom vessel, or build a Corvette from scratch at the Workshop.
What to do when you first load back in
Five things to check before anything else:
1. Check your tech slots for broken upgrades. Major updates occasionally invalidate old technology. Anything showing a warning icon is actively hurting your stats. Dismantle broken tech and reinstall from scratch.
2. Visit the Space Anomaly. It’s the game’s main hub and receives new NPCs with most major updates. Talk to Iteration: Oceanus to pick up the Xeno Arena tutorial quest. Check the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion for new cosmetics. Look at the Expedition Terminus to see if a current expedition is running. If one is, you can join mid-way.
3. Check the Wonders Catalogue. It tracks your catch records, fossil discoveries, creature records, and more. If you have companion creatures, check their status. They need feeding periodically.
4. Look at your settlement. If you claimed one before leaving, it has queued up decisions in your absence. Clear the backlog in the management panel to get it running properly again.
5. Open the build menu and look at what’s new. Every update adds base parts. If you’re a builder, there will be components in the menu you’ve never seen before. The full build catalogue is worth a scroll.
What still works exactly the same
The core economy loops have survived every update intact. If you had a working setup, it still works.
Chlorine loop: 1 Chlorine + 2 Oxygen refines into 6 Chlorine in any refiner. Feed the output back as input and your stack multiplies every cycle. Sell at any Galactic Trade Terminal for millions of units per session. Browse the full list of refiner recipes or plan your run with the crafting calculator.
Nanite farming: Refine Runaway Mould from Curious Deposits into Nanite Clusters, or collect and refine Tainted Metal. Both methods still work. See the Nanite farming guide.
Frigate expeditions: If you had a fleet before you left, your frigates have been sitting idle. Send them on timed expeditions from your freighter command room and they’ll return with resources, units, and occasionally Corvette parts now.
Base building fundamentals: Everything you built is still there. New parts have been added with most updates, but the underlying system works the same way. Browse all base building parts.
Portal travel: You can still use player-shared glyph addresses to reach specific planets. Portal interference was removed in Origins, so you won’t get stranded after using one.
The three systems worth learning immediately
These are the biggest additions since 2022 that most returning players will know nothing about: fishing, Corvettes, and Xeno Arena.
Fishing
Added in Aquarius (September 2024). Get the Fishing Rig blueprint from Iteration Eos at the Space Anomaly for 1 Nanite, craft it (3x Carbon Nanotubes + 1x Di-hydrogen Jelly + 60x Chromatic Metal), and you can fish in any body of water. Shallow water produces small and medium fish; deep water produces large and colossal. There are over 200 fish species across 8 biomes, with legendary fish selling for up to 200,000 units each. Full breakdown in the fishing guide.
Corvettes
Added in Voyagers (August 2025). The Corvette Workshop inside any Space Station (via the blue teleport columns on the left side) lets you build a massive modular ship from parts. You walk around inside it, decorate it, install refiners and storage, and crew it with other players. Buying all the basic parts from the Workshop costs roughly 7.6 million units, but salvaging from scrap planets cuts that down significantly. Browse all corvette parts on the site. Full breakdown in the Corvette guide.
Xeno Arena
Added April 8, 2026. Full breakdown: Xeno Arena guide. Adopt wild creatures, build a team of three, and fight at Holo-Arena tables at space stations, planetary outposts, and the Space Anomaly. Eight elemental affinities determine matchups. Rewards include Nanites, Retroviral Pellets for upgrading creature genetics, and exclusive companions from Iteration: Oceanus. Full breakdown in the Xeno Arena guide.
Should you start a new save?
Start fresh if you left before Waypoint (October 2022). The inventory system changed so significantly that your old save will feel like it was translated badly. Starting fresh also means the game’s introductory quests will properly introduce you to systems (Corvettes, fishing, Xeno Arena) that your old save will skip over entirely because it assumes you already know them.
Keep your old save if you left after Waypoint. The inventory change won’t affect you, your bases and ships are intact, and your currency carries over. You’ll just need to catch up on the new systems, which is what this guide is for.
Either way, Cross-Save (November 2024) means you can now play on any platform without losing progress. If you want to switch devices, that’s finally possible.
Sources
- Official No Man’s Sky release log
- Individual update pages linked throughout above