No Man’s Sky is a game in which you explore the universe and try to gain an edge, and that’s it. There are no levels, no backstory, and not even a set of alien races that pop up from time to time and try to kill you. Created by a small team of coders in the U.K., the game has captured the interest of lots of gamers from all over the world because of one single fact. There are 18 quintillion worlds to explore in the game’s universe.
The sheer size of the game has many potential players asking why, and the only answer I can think of is why not? To be honest, if the idea of flying around the universe in your own ship and doing whatever you want whenever you want does not excite you, then maybe No Man’s Sky is not the game for you. However, if that single point has captured your interest, here are some tips to help you get started.
No Man’s Sky Tips: resources to collect from the start
Most of your early introduction to No Man’s Sky will come in the form of inventory management, and early on, the game does not provide much information about this. So without the ability to upgrade so that you can carry more, it is worth knowing from the beginning which elements are the most important to collect in the first couple of hours of gameplay.
Carbon: This is the most important element in the game. If you don’t have it, you will not be able to recharge your equipment and life support. The quickest way to get some is to shoot all the plants and trees; this way you will always have a supply.
Plutonium and Thamium9: Both of these elements are important. Plutonium will recharge your spaceship’s thrusters, and thamium9 recharges its pulse engine. Neither are as common as carbon, but you can find plutonium on almost every planet by looking for red crystals and thanium9 by shooting asteroids in space.
Iron, Titanium, and Zinc: Iron is useful on the first planet in No Man’s Sky, but that quickly diminishes once you leave it. Titanium and zinc are much rarer oxides and are used to recharge hazard protection systems; it is recommended that you always keep a little zinc with you.
Heridium and other silicates: If you want to travel the universe, you need a working hyperdrive, and this is where heridium comes in as it is used when preparing this particular engine.
Tips: tools and things to do
Search your crash site: You may feel the urge to move away from your crash site at the start of the game. However, you should stick around for a while and take a closer look at containers and nearby rocks as there are lots of goodies lying around just waiting for you to pick them up.
Use your jetpack: With the jetpack you can climb almost anything. So if you hold down its power button for a few seconds and then let go, and then hold it again, you will get the maximum height/distance possible and as such be able to navigate treacherous terrain more efficiently.
Beware of the Sentinels: In the opening paragraph of this article, I mentioned that there are no enemies (evil aliens wanting your destruction), and that is correct. However, there are Sentinels. Basically, they are the police of No Man’s Sky, so be careful not to shoot anything, destroy property or do too much mining when they’re around as they can be aggressive and will call in support to deal with you.
Scan the nearby area regularly: As this is set in the future, you have the ability to scan your vicinity with the press of a button, and No Man’s Sky will inform you what valuable resources or points of interest are nearby. This can be an extremely useful tool to have, especially if you’re searching for a certain element/material.
Learn the periodic icons: When you are new to No Man’s Sky, you will not be able to pick out specific resources from a distance just by looking at them, so the best thing to do is familiarize yourself with the icons the game uses for the elements you are likely to use.
Quick tip: the lightning icon means that you’ve found an isotope, which can be used for fuel, life support, hyperdrive, and more.
24 hours after the game’s launch
No Man’s Sky is probably the most expansive game ever created for PC and console, and it tasks players with exploring what is a procedurally-generated universe so huge that if may never be possible for two players ever to meet!
As for the game’s performance, just 24 hours after its release, Hello Games founder Sean Murray has said: “Too many of you are playing right now. More than we could have predicted.”
This suggests that not all of the game’s online features are ready. In what seems like the impossible just after 24 hours of gaming time, over 10 million alien species have been discovered by players, which is 1.3 million more than the 8.7 million the developers placed on Earth in the game.
Final thoughts
No Man’s Sky is certainly an impressive-looking game and one that could have many players hooked for hours at a time. However, with no levels to navigate and no missions to complete, can it hold the attention of enough gamers long enough to make the idea of aimlessly flying through space enticing enough to keep it a hit?
