How to find an AtlasPass in 'No Man's Sky' and use it to get cool stuff
If you've spent any amount of time playing No Man's Sky then you've probably been greeted with this message at some point: "AtlasPass v1 required."
Usually it's because you're trying to get through a locked door, though occasionally you'll also come across locked supply crates that say the same thing. Either way, the result is the same: you leave, dejected and wondering what an AtlasPass is and how to get one.
Help has arrived. We know a few things about the AtlasPass. The first one is easy to get, though the latter two -- v2 and v3 -- are much more reliant on the whims of the fickle random number generator in No Man's Sky.
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Baby's first AtlasPass
As with most things in No Man's Sky, simply playing the game in an active way -- exploring, warping around, mining, etc. -- is the first step toward getting your AtlasPass v1 recipe. You don't necessarily need to be working your way toward a goal, but you do need to keep moving.
You also need to be unlocking Milestones. Specifically, you need to meet up with aliens -- on space stations and at the various facilities dotting each planet -- so you can communicate with the being that give you your AtlasPass.
Finally, you need to progress far enough in the early story -- the process that gets you your hyperdrive and warp cell recipes -- to have a path open to your first Atlas Interface. You don't actually need to visit the Interface, but you do need to know where one is.
Once you've ticked off all those boxes, keep on playing until a Space Anomaly appears in whichever system you're exploring. It's a space-based point of interest that looks similar to the standard space stations, but it's marked with a purple icon.
Here it is:
Once you find it, board the station and head into the main chamber, where you'll meet Nada and Polo. These two are tied up with the story in ways we won't spoil, but if you talk to them both you'll receive a recipe for an AtlasPass v1.
It's easy to craft, requiring only 10 Iron and 25 Heridium. Once you've made one, keep it in your Exosuit inventory at all times.
Finding AtlasPass v2 and v3
Unfortunately, the path to unlocking the other two AtlasPass recipes is very dependent on luck. Both are known to drop from Colonial Outpost puzzles.
There are two types of Colonial Outposts: Manufacturing Facility and Operations Center. You can fly around until you find one -- no easy task, since they're easily mistaken from the air for other facilities -- or you can use Bypass Chips on planetside scanners (they emit an orange beam of light) to find specific locations.
A note about those scanners: you can use the same one multiple times and it will pinpoint different locations. Craft a bunch of Bypass Chips and search out multiple Colonial Outposts, then visit the lot of them, one after the other.
Getting into each Manufacturing Facility or Operations Center requires you to destroy its front door, so you'll need the Boltcaster or (preferably) Plasma Grenades upgrade for your Multi-Tool.
Once inside, you'll have to interact with whatever central station you find in the main room and solve a puzzle. Knowing alien languages helps, as each puzzle is accompanied by an alien phrase that points to which option is the correct one.
Solving these Colonial Outpost puzzles usually gets you important crafting material recipes and upgrade schematics. AtlasPass v2 and v3 are among those possible rewards.
What to do with your AtlasPass
Each AtlasPass opens a different type of door, though v1 also unlocks those sealed supply crates. The crates are tall, red and cylindrical, and they often contain a key ingredient on the warp cell crafting tree: Suspension Fluid and Electron Vapor most frequently, though Antimatter and Warp Cells can drop as well.
AtlasPass v1 also opens a particular space station door. Each space station's hangar features two doors: one (on the left, if you're looking out of the hangar) leading to a Galactic Market terminal and another (on the right) leading to a suit upgrade station.
The suit upgrade door is always locked, but all you need to get in is an AtlasPass v1. Once you have it, make a habit of visiting every new space station and nabbing yourself a suit upgrade. Those extra slots are a huge help.
There are other space station doors as well that require an AtlasPass v3. When you do eventually get to unlock them, you can typically find storage rooms with valuable supply crates hidden away.
The same goes for planetside facilities, many of which feature AtlasPass v2 doors. Once you can unlock those, you'll find a lot more goodies -- plus occasional suit upgrade station or weapon benches -- in these locations.
Topics Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
