• Published August 1, 2016
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Sean Murray’s space epic finally hit us and you can’t seem to look anywhere online without finding some sort of No Man’s Sky article floating around promising news or some Tweet from Sean himself.

We’ve read it all and seen pretty much everything No Man’s Sky is at this point and while some people don’t really like it there are others who adore it so for those of you still going through the paces intending to have a long term commitment to doing absolutely everything there is to do in No Man’s Sky, keep on reading as here follow some tips and things I myself have discovered during my own playthrough.

Spoiler Warning:

This post contains spoilers so if you’re not deep into the game or don’t want to know what happens in one of the possible endings, don’t scroll down. You’ve been warned.

Still here? Proceed Traveller…

Need To Know Basis

Right then. So, everyone is always going on about the starting process and what you need to do once you awake at your crashed little ship in the middle of nowhere but what they don’t tell you is that by pressing ‘up’ on your D-Pad on PS4 turns on a flashlight when you’re in dark areas. They don’t tell you that you can go up to any surface and jetpack infinitely along it. Nobody tells you that you’re ass WILL drown when you go under water because you swim like a 3 year old in a tub of custard.

It’s also not mentioned that when you happen to mine a resource that sticks out of the ground and decide to mine it downwards to the very limit of how deep it actually goes – you’ll reach a textured green surface and then you can fall through the planet, get stuck under the landscape and have to run to the seaside to blow a hole in the shoreline to jetpack out of The Matrix.

Yes. No Man’s Sky is indeed large, complicated and very buggy but once you figure out the basic things it’s not that hard. A lot is just patience and repeating until you eventually lose said patience and have to go outside for a bit.

Here are some of the things I’ve learnt so far…..

Mysteries Revealed?

Generally:

  • You don’t have to scan everything you see or come across or name everything for that matter as random names are assigned and uploading your discoveries often yields minor units at best. Only when submitting a planet explored to 100% capacity do you get a substantial monetary reward.
  • Words aren’t that important as you can usually guess what an alien or monolith wants from you by just selecting the option you deem the most dangerous to your health. You’re often given an awesome reward at the cost of minor damage to your health or shields.
  • Sac Venom is insanely valuable and if you can find some it takes up an entire inventory slot. What makes them worth it though is that one sells for about 30 000 units and on planets where this resource is found it’s usually abundant. Selling 6 of them at a time yields 150 000 units per trip. Beware though because Sentinels usually attack you as soon as you so much as touch one of these things.
  • Don’t mine too deep underground as you’re sure to uncover a game breaking bug at some point that will toss you into oblivion.
  • Stay out of caves. These things are randomly generated and once you get lost inside you’ll almost certainly never find a way out again unless you blast your way through the landscape until you see daylight.
  • Doing random things in space like responding to distress signals actually progresses your game and increases your standing and rank with whichever native alien species present in the system you choose to adventure in.
  • The MAIN ending of No Man’s Sky might leave you disappointed, in other words – the Atlas ending. Do not rush to it because you’ll regret it when you do. The ending simply results in you waking up again on a random planet with a broken ship except this time you have all your upgrades and weapons that you worked for previously.

The Scanner:

  • Zooming in with the scanner on the landscape might reveal life forms. These life forms are signified with tiny white dots that are usually behind landscape obstructions in the distance. Undiscovered life forms can be found in this way.
  • You can set waypoints by zooming in on a point of interest or object of interest on the landscape. The scanner will mark the uninvestigated area for later inspection . This waypoint is visible from space and can make your life easier, trust me.

The Multitool:

  • Upgrade with caution as you might end up expending resources on a Multitool upgrade that does little in the way of functionality. Prioritise mining upgrades, cooldown upgrades and Boltcaster upgrades instead of getting fancy with grenades as these are an aesthetic distraction at best. Later on you can craft homing shots that track your enemies which eliminates the need to even take proper aim at something.
  • You can find new Multitools in many shelters or settlements on planets. Compare and make sure the new Multitool is worth it, remember you can’t transfer your upgrades between tools and more available slots translate directly into a better weapon and mining tool.
  • Often the cooldown is an issue while mining. You can counter this overheating effect by keeping in the trigger until almost full and releasing it for less than a second. This resets the heat chamber and allows you to continue mining.
  • Sentinels will often take notice of you when you mine certain resources. They’ll fly over and come take a look at you. Just chill out and let them scan you. As soon as the sentinel leaves again you can continue with what you were doing.

The Space Suit:

  • Upgrade your jetpack as soon as you can and use it against vertical surfaces when in a jam to jetpack (infinitely) to either a vantage point or safety.
  • Cold & Heat are a pain in the ass but there are numerous upgrades available to provide shielding against the elements, search for these in particular and do the effort to install them. You won’t be sorry later on.
  • Radiation shielding is not immediately needed but you’ll need it when you find an irradiated planet. These dangerous planets are usually rich in resources and the resources spent on radiation shielding will be well worth it when you find one.
  • Oxygen Shielding is a must if you intend to go underwater in any significant manner. Usually you expend life support under water but Oxygen Shielding gives you an extra bar of health to use exclusively in the deep blue depths.
  • You can use your jetpack under water to quickly ascend to the surface when in need of oxygen.
  • There are upgrades to increase your sprint speed, focus on these if you have trouble moving around quickly. It soon becomes clear to even the most basic player that mobility is a big issue in this game and getting around quickly is often the difference between life and death.
  • Sentinels are a problem but you can easily survive an advanced sentinel onslaught if you have a minor shield upgrade or by simply running in doors for a bit until they lose sight of you and forget you were there.
  • Pressing ‘up’ on D-Pad on PS4 activates a flashlight component in your suit that only works in dark areas or while it’s night time.

The Ship:

  • You cannot land under water. You also cannot land on certain surfaces or areas. You might also sometimes leave your ship in an area you can’t get back to but you can easily summon your ship at certain settlements again using a console found in them.
  • You can usually land on the available landing areas on a planet inside a settlement by flying in their general direction and initiating a landing sequence. If another ship isn’t landed on the landing platform before you, you can safely land on it.
  • You can mine asteroids during space flight by shooting them and easily obtain some rarer resources. Some resources I’ve found so far are Iron, Emeril and Thanium.
  • Inventory space is an issue, try to only keep the resources you will need to recharge crucial things like shields, landing thrusters etc on your ship unless you’re out on a mineral hauling session.
  • You can actually get out of range of your ship and can then no longer teleport items to it and from it.
  • It’s possible for pirates to detect you in space and then attack you to get at your cargo. Carrying more valuable cargo increases your risk of pirates.
  • Attacking other ships at random activates the sentinel force in space. These will hunt you down and kill you unless you’re very careful or sport some serious shielding upgrades or a ton of resources to keep recharging your shields.

Well then there you have it. We’ll have a review up about No Man’s Sky soon as our very own Paul is currently lost somewhere on a Space Station.

When we manage to find him we’ll ask him to post his review…providing we understand him and have gathered sufficient alien words that is….

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Desolation Morris

Guest Contributor - Entertainment

Werner is a strange one...he quotes a lot of things...incoherently I might add, also he reviews stuff from time to time. We still don't truly understand what he is or where he came from.

To quote him verbatim:

Make sure they see my twitter handle so I can get hookers and drugs.

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Article Tags: Game Tips · Gaming Tips · Geek Node · Geek Node South Africa · no man's sky · No Mans Sky Ending · No Mans Sky Hints · No Mans Sky Tips · No Mans Sky Tricks · Sean Murray

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