No Man’s Sky Ultimate Guide

No Man’s Sky is a very involved game that takes time and patience to get through. If you can understand how everything works, then you will have an easier time getting the items that you want. Currency is actually very easy to get in this game if you know what you are doing and if you have all the units you need, that is one less thing to worry about. The game can get a little grindy, but once you get past a certain point, it is only a matter of time before you are rich and you don’t even need to do anything. Here is the Ultimate Guide to No Man’s Sky.

Related: If you want to have a great guide on discovery in No Man’s Sky, then I would check out this very helpful guide I found on Amazon here.

Fixing your first Starship

When you first start playing, the game tells you everything you need to do but it can still be a little confusing for new players. The easiest thing for you to do is to just follow the directions because when you get your first ship, everything changes. You don’t have a base or any place to go, it is just you and your Starship. Later on, when you start accruing more that one Starship and you have a huge Fleet, it will seem entirely different, but in a good way.

Initially fixing your ship is actually pretty easy, it will have you look for materials to finally fix the broken parts of it. Later on, you can find broken ships on the ground and you will be able to repair them to add it to your arsenal. Don’t get too overwhelmed by everything, you don’t have to get everything right away. It takes a lot of time and patience to get where you want to go.

Get your first Freighter as fast as you can

There are two types of freighter space battles. The first kind is a common space battle, where you’ll get a distress signal icon on your screen, and then the player can fly to the battle if the player wants to participate. There can be up to eight pirates, which will fly in pairs of two, and shoot at the freighter’s turrets and containers. If you defeat all the pirates, the captain will reward you. In order to get your reward, you must wait until the bay door’s color turns from red to blue before you can fly inside and land. Then you must find the captain and talk to them.

The second type of freighter space-battle is much bigger and may include a class of super-massive freighters with three versions of differing sizes. They are often collectively referred to by many as “Star Destroyers”, even though only the flat Venator design seems to be inspired by the Star Wars universe. These battles begin where a player warps to a new system, and there is a rare chance that a space battle will immediately begin the second the player arrives at the system. Once the player detects the battle, a transmission will be received from the freighter’s captain asking for help.

Your first initial Freighter battle will allow you to get a Freighter for free and it is the easiest way to get it at first. Later on, you must purchase the Freighters that you rescue, but those can cost in the 100,000,000 Units. If you don’t have enough, then you can just ask for compensation from the Captain.

Find a planet with Natural Burial Sites

Natural Burial Sites are the easiest and best way to get money without a Fleet. When I was playing, I would empty out my inventory and fill up my entire inventory with these Bones. I would go to the nearest trader and sell them. Every trip I made, I would usually make around 2-3 million Units. I then did that 10-20 times and then had enough to build up my Fleet. I am telling you, this is the best way to get money before your Fleet so find a planet with them as fast as you can.

Natural Burial Site can be found less than 100u under the planet surface. It can be located with the Analysis Visor by looking for the yellow icon. The Terrain Manipulator is needed to dig the Ancient Bones out of the ground. To know if the p[lanet has them, make a scan before entering the atmosphere and it will be indicated on the information panel.

Try to buy a class A or class S Starship

Starships are very important because it is your main way of transportation around the galaxies. They are necessary for gameplay progression unless a player plans to stay on one planet the whole game. Starships allow players to travel between planets and solar systems, fight in space battles, engage in space encounters, reach the center of the galaxy, store resources, and trade. The player begins the game with one starship and can acquire additional starships later, up to a maximum of six starships at any one time.

Here are the Archetypes for Starships:

C-Class – They have the fewest inventory spaces, and if there is a class bonus, it will be no more than 20%.

B-Class – They take up the three inventory sizes below the maximum of the tier size, and they have a 20% or more class bonus.

A-Class – They will have either the maximum number of slots or one slot less than max, and has a 35% or more class bonus.

S-Class – They do not necessarily have the max amount of inventory slots. You can have an S-class ship with fewer slots than other ships of the same type. They also have a 50% or more class bonus (excluding exotics).

Avoid High Sentinel Activity areas

The Sentinels are Mechanical Lifeforms; self-replicating, non-organic machines that are similar to the Korvax, another Mechanical Lifeform in No Man’s Sky’s Universe. Their origins are unknown but they are seemingly deployed on every known planet to balance the efforts and actions of the player within the procedurally generated ecosystem. Sentinels act as the workhorse machines of The Atlas and as universal police, policing the actions of those who reside within the universe.

Each planet has one of three types of Sentinel behavior that determines where Sentinels can be encountered and how they will react to the player. This activity level can be determined by a scan from the player’s Starship while in space. On a planet with Low or High Sentinel Activity, Sentinels only react to players when witnessing them violate a universal law (as listed below under Sentinel Alerts). On planets with Aggressive Sentinels, Sentinels will attack as soon as they recognize the player.

Buy a lot of Trade Frigates for your Fleet

One huge part of No Man’s Sky is the way you can easily earn money in the game. One huge part of it is the way you can command a 30 Frigate Fleet. It takes a lot of money to get it started, but in the end, it is definitely worth it. When you enter a new Galaxy, you will see a lot of NPC Fleets all over the place. If you get closer, you will see some of the smaller ships have a green money symbol by it. If you get closer, you can see how much you can pay that ship to join your Fleet. You can only do this if you have a Frigate of your own.

There are five different Frigates you can get, but the most important will be the Trade Vessels. The max Fleet limit is 30, so I would buy around 15 Trade Vessels to get you some decent cash. When you have these special ships in your Fleet, you can land on them and get credits, which you then can go and sell to Trade Terminals for a lot of money. The most I ever got in one selling trip is over 20,000,000 Units in one sell. These ships are very profitable. I did not even have to worry about money once my Fleet was finished.

Send your Frigates on Expeditions

Up to five expeditions per day are offered on the freighter bridge for up to 5 frigates each. Their main goal is to gather units, artifacts, and rare items for their admiral. They can be accessed by talking to the Navigator standing next to the star map and existing expeditions can be managed by visiting the Fleet Command Room assigned to that fleet.

Each Fleet Command Room build allows an additional concurrent expedition. Each expedition itself can take anywhere from 1 to 28 hours in real-time, and progress even while the game is not running. Critical events that can lead to the loss of frigates also happen in real-time. If the player is not there, they can not intervene in time.

Frigate expeditions are rated in difficulty between 1 and 5 stars. While the frigates have lights shown on the fleet management menu, those are not their star rating, but the number of positive traits. The actual point values matter here! It is recommended that the total star rating of the frigate team after the calculation is at least 1 star higher than the difficulty of the expedition.

If the team rating is equal to the expedition difficulty there is a chance that the frigates will be damaged, and if the team rating is lower than the expedition, frigate damage is very likely and a loss could occur. Also, note that lower-class frigates are more likely to be damaged than higher class ones. If a damaged frigate continues its mission and gets damaged again, it will be destroyed and cannot be recovered.

Getting a ‘Capital’ Freighter

A Capital Freighter is the best type of Freighter you can get and they are also the biggest. There are 3 types that you can find and it is entirely up to chance which one you might get. These have 24-34 slots and can cost from 26M Units to 178M Units. S-Class is obviously the best, but it will cost you if you want it. The best way to get one of these is to already have a basic Freighter. Once you have your first basic one and you have a lot of cash to spend, take everything off your Freighter that you might want.

Go to the nearest Space Station with your Starship and take a Warp Cell with you. Fly into the Station and then jump out to save. Get back into your Ship and then fly out. To have this work, you must already own a Freighter and have at least 3 hours of game time. Fly out and warp to another galaxy. You should spawn in on a huge Freighter fighting off pirates. You will know if it is a basic or Capital because of its size. Take out the enemy ships and then go see the Admiral. Check the rarity and if it is not the rarity you want, reload the last manual save and Warp to the same system. Take out the pirates and keep doing that until you get what you want.

Follow the main missions

This is pretty self-explanatory but play through the main missions. As you progress, you will unlock new blueprints and all sorts of new things to build. From upgrades to your base to rovers you can use, the main missions help you progress. It’s not like it is invisible because it tells you exactly what you need to do. Also, the Side Quests get you some good stuff too like Nanite CLusters and Quicksilver. Make sure you take advantage of that.

Go to every Space Station that you can

Visiting a space station provides the opportunity to buy a new starship, purchase or sell resources and buy blueprints, talk to or hire NPC characters, and obtain missions. One of the many things you can do in space stations is trade with the NPC characters inside. You can trade items for units or buy items, ships, etc. from them. These transactions can be carried out in person, or electronically using a trading terminal.

Although you can find resources and items on planets, sometimes you will only be able to buy them on a space station using units. Space stations with smaller runways will have more traders than ones with longer runways. Blueprints may be purchased from the vendor on the right side of the station, in exchange for Nanite Clusters. The types of blueprints offered to depend on the species that control the system. Also, everyone you visit lets you teleport to each one using the main teleporter on the left side. This is very useful for finding the ships you want.

Fleet

The frigate fleet is controlled by the Fleet Command Room, located on the freighter that commands the fleet. Building more than one Command Room allows the player to have multiple active missions with different frigates at once. In order to hire a frigate, the player must travel close to the frigate’s position and, once the frigate captain is open for communication, use their intercom to talk to the captain and choose the option to hire their services. Not all frigates that spawn are available for purchase. The fleet can have a maximum of 30 frigates. You can dismiss unwanted frigates using the middle mouse button.

Here are all the different Frigates that you can get:

Combat Specialist – Higher Combat capabilities through the basic trait and potential unique traits. Can assist the player during space combat by warping nearby and sending out friendly sentinel ships.

Exploration Specialist – Higher Exploration capabilities through the basic trait and potential unique traits. It can activate its Artifact Scanner to find the location of an Ancient Ruin in the current system.

Industrial Specialist – Higher Industrial capabilities through the basic trait and potential unique traits. Gives player Magnetised Ferrite when boarded.

Trade Specialist – Higher Trade capabilities through basic traits and potential unique traits. Gives player Special Units when boarded.

Support Specialist – A unique frigate that specializes in fuel supply instead of abilities. Each fleet should have one to conserve fuel which can further be improved by later traits. Gives player Condensed Carbon when boarded.

Starship

Players are not the only entities that use starships. NPC-controlled starships, including pirates and Sentinel Interceptors, populate the skies on planets as well as the interplanetary space within star systems. In addition to acting as a primary source of new starships, NPC starships carry valuable resources and products for sale, and they can be followed to locate certain inhabited points of interest.

Due to the static nature of the seed in No Man’s Sky, a well-documented ship will always be able to be found again. A system that spawns a rare design – for example an exotic – in its first armada landing on a space station or trade port will always do so on revisit or reload. The same goes for the wait timers on stations or ports until a ship type shows up. If a particular ship has piqued your interest, finding a station or port it lands on as part of the first group is the best grinding spot.

Here are all the different Starship Archetypes in the game:

Shuttle – Ships of this type have balanced stats, with no significant class bonus compared to the other archetypes. These ships look typically blocky with a rectangular canopy, but some ships in this class have a tubular fuselage. Shuttles do not have a large inventory tier, but are great for starter travelers due to their cheap cost and increased low-tier inventory space.

Fighter – Ships of this type feature a damage potential class bonus. These ships are the mascot ships of No Man’s Sky and are also the primary starships of pirates across the galaxy.

Hauler – Ships of this type feature a shield absorb class bonus, and they also boast the highest possible inventory spaces. These ships are the largest out of all the other starships, and may or may not have wing features on them.

Explorer – Ships of this type feature a hyperdrive range class bonus. These ships usually feature abstract shapes connected together with many thin, slender pieces with a smooth surface, giving it insectoid or arthropods look.

Exotic – Exotic is a special ship type. Ships of this type stand out for their unusual features, high-class bonuses and high prices for a small-sized ship. All exotic ships are also S-class.

Living Ship – Ships of this type feature a large number of technology slots with emphasis on damage output and hyperdrive range. They are categorized by their “Organic” looking architecture, with many parts moving during flight.

Exocraft

Five Exocraft are available and can be used to explore any planet once they have been summoned by building their respective Geobays. In order to build any of the Exocraft bays, a base must be built first to unlock its blueprint by building an Exocraft Terminal. You unlock the Exocraft Terminal by completing the mission Expanding the Base. Note that Exocraft Terminals can only be built on planets.

Here are all the different Exocraft in the game:

Nomad – The smallest and lightest Exocraft is the Nomad. What it may lack in cargo space, this hovercraft makes up for it in speed, agility, and ability to glide over the water.

Roamer – The mid-range Exocraft is the Roamer, a great all-rounder with 28 slots that are capable of quickly crossing rugged terrain and adapting to most situations including underwater operations.

Colossus – The Colossus is the largest Exocraft. This lumbering behemoth offers an enormous cargo hold (42 slots in total), perfect for those looking to harvest resources.

Pilgrim – The Pilgrim, a vehicle with 16 slots that comes with an Exocraft Acceleration Module pre-installed, is the only two-wheeled member of the Exocraft family. With full upgrades in place, it is the fastest of any Exocraft.

Nautilon – The Nautilon is a submersible vehicle that allows underwater navigation, combat, and mining. It can be summoned to any ocean on the planet, as well as docked at underwater buildings.

Exosuit

The Exosuit is the outfit that a player’s avatar wears in No Man’s Sky. It provides storage for items that an avatar carries; offers protection from planetary hazards, hazardous flora, hostile fauna, and aggressive sentinels; and comes equipped with a jetpack. It has expandable inventory capabilities and its technology can be upgraded. Whatever creature exists within an Exosuit is never seen, so the Exosuit essentially doubles as a player’s avatar. Avatars can be customized at Appearance Modifiers on Space stations.

Here are the inventory sections you can upgrade on the Exosuit:

General Inventory – New players begin the game with 24 General slots and three of those are occupied by the core Life Support, Hazard Protection, and Jetpack units. An additional 24 slots can be added to General inventory, for a total of 48.

Technology Inventory – New players begin the game with 4 Technology slots. Legacy players may add an additional 8 slots to Technology inventory, for a total of 12. 

Cargo Inventory – New players begin the game without any Cargo slots. Legacy players can add a total of 25 slots to Cargo inventory. All other players can add up to 48 slots of Cargo inventory.

Multi-tool

Multi-tool is the most important tool that you will ever use in the game. It is the way you harvest materials to build literally everything in the game. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, some materials can’t be purchased so you must get them from a planet or asteroid. Obviously you start with a basic one, but every single Space Station has one for you to purchase. The higher the class the better so keep that in mind when looking for a new one.

Conclusion

In conclusion, No Man’s Sky is a massive game that you can play by yourself or with up to four friends. What makes it soo fun is the unlimited possibilities that it has. Yes, it did have a bad rep in the beginning, but it is better now and if you have a friend that has not played it, tell him to get it so you can work together. I know I could not go through everything the game has to offer, but I hope the information shared is what you were looking for. Have fun and enjoy your time in space.