No Man's Sky: Explorers Guide Part 2

Welcome back for a few more tips and advanced tricks for No Man's Sky.

Warping

Read up on my Greek letters hint? Good. It happens that rarer, more exotic planets show up around the coloured stars on the galaxy map but you can only get to specific colours with a specific warp drive upgrade. Sigma for red stars, Tau for green stars and Theta for blue stars. I have seen an Omega level weapon upgrade so maybe one day that will make an appearance as a warp drive, but it's not there yet, so don't look for it!

Atlas Path (SPOILERS)

As you track Atlas across the cosmos you’ll run into its different form inside special space stations known as Atlas Interfaces. Inside these you’ll see orb-like lights on the floor, run over these and some will teach you new alien words, walk along the path and you usually get a new tech too. Walk up and talk to the Atlas itself and it will grant you an Atlas stone, these sell for a pretty penny but (SPOILER) you might want to hold on to them ( 10 by the time you reach the center of the galaxy should do it). I sold about 3 of mine early on and I’m still on track to have plenty left. One last thing before you leave the atlas, there’s a chance two little statues will be up near Atlas’ altar, they’re easy to miss, examine them for a free warp cell!

Upgrading and Scrapping

You’ll have chances to swap to a new ship or multitool, but there’s a few things to consider. Firstly you’ll usually only be offered a ship/tool with one more slot than you currently have, buying a ship is one way to speed this up but that will likely cost you millions. When swapping to a ship you must remember to transfer your ship inventory to the new vessel first! It also takes some planning but as you cant take your upgrades with you, scrap everything you can! If you have enough inventory space in your ship (or your suit if you’re preparing ahead of time) then you’ll probably have enough materials to repair the crucial parts of your ship, (you can limp by with a launch booster and pulse engine, although the shields down alarm can grate) just enough to let you hunt down the rest of the resources you need on that planet. You can take a similar approach with your multitool, scrap your upgrades, pocket the resources and then switch to the new model. As a bonus if you are having to pay for the new tool the price can actually go down, I've tried this a few times and it might reroll the upgrades on the new tool, but if you're short of cash and just need the slots it's still worth a shot.

Evading Pirates/Sentinels

On planet, you can just run (see the jetpack tip), hiding in buildings or your ship also works. In space, if you find you’re outgunned you better hope you are close to a planet or station, landing on either will lost the pirates but your sentinel “wanted level” will remain on planets. If you’re not within range of either you might need to make a stand and fight a hold full of titanium to recharge shields can buy you extra time and flying through asteroids might give you some cover but mostly just looks cool.

Titanium for Days

I wouldn’t call this a spoiler but it did feel cool to figure this out myself. When stuck on an extreme planet you’ll need an oxide to top up your hazard protection. Zinc plants are hard to find, deposits of titanium even more so. But if you alert the sentinels on the planet you’ll find a steady source of titanium comes straight for you. If you can keep it on the first two levels of alert then they shouldn’t be too hard to fend off, be sure to check the canisters they drop for bonus tech or valuables. [Update: sentinels no longer drop Titanium... back to the drawing board on this one]

You Have a Torch

I think I saw one in-game hint about this and forgot about it, you can activate a torch by pressing up on the D-pad, it’s not much use at nigh but can be helpful in caves.

Slotting Upgrades

Another hint I haven’t seen mentioned in-game, the only clue I’ve seen is that sometimes upgrades have coloured boxes linking them… Turns out this means that if you place similar systems next to each other they can give you a percentage bonus to their base effect. So once you think you have maxed out your ship and multitool, maybe go looking for one that lets you arrange all your systems in the most efficient pattern?

Galaxy Map

The galactic map is a little hard to use, and you might be more comfortable with following the preset routes to the centre or following Atlas. Selecting the next stop one of these results involves holding the right stick in that direction until the line fills and the view switches. You can move the camera to make it a little easier to line up your right stick. Hiting L1 or R1 on this screen cycles between Atlas, the Centre and a free exploration mode, you can also add waypoints and cycle through to them too. Just a note: once you have an upgraded hyperdrive you’ll be able to travel to the coloured stars, but these wont appear on any of the preprogrammed routes, you’ll have to fly through the map in free mode and select it or tag it with a waypoint.

Hunting for Species

Last alien evading you? Think you’ve looked everywhere? Make sure to check any oceans, look up to the skies and check out a few caves, it can also be worth checking at night time. It’s easy to assume you’ve found all aerial species after finding one, but with a relatively populous planet there’s a good chance of a second.

 I’d also like to add that there are butterflies! And I thought birds were hard to catch! I spent the first hour assuming it was a glitch! If you find creatures won’t stay still you can actually scan dead ones, you may need the homing shot for your weapon but you can finally feel superior to those more evasive creatures.