11 'No Man's Sky' tricks you might not know about
Like most survival games, No Man's Sky doesn't do much to explain itself. That's the point, really. You're supposed to feel a little lost and adrift, with only yourself to rely on.
We're not going to clear up any of the game's big mysteries for you here, but there are a few helpful items in your survival toolbox that are never really explained. That's where we've got you covered.
Read on to learn how to turn on the lights, give your ship systems a little extra juice and more.
You May Also Like
1. You have a flashlight
It seems to only work at night, so save your spelunking for the evening hours. But pressing up on the D-Pad activates your Exosuit's flashlight, which can be very helpful for navigating the darker underground and underwater spaces in No Man's Sky.
2. Your HUD is a button-press away
Pressing left on the D-Pad brings up your Exosuit's heads-up display. It pops up on its own automatically as your Life Support and Hazard Protection meters deplete, but being able to summon the HUD with a button press means you don't have to open up your inventory menu to see if you need a recharge. A great time-saver.
3. Rearrange anything in your inventory
It's very easy to transfer things between your Exosuit inventory and ship inventory, but did you know you can rearrange the placement of individual inventory tiles? Just hover over whatever you want to reposition and (on a PlayStation 4 controller) press the X button. Note that this only works with items in your inventory -- ship systems and Exosuit upgrades are locked to wherever you craft them.
4. Your ship can hold more than your suit
Also in the realm of inventory management: single resource tiles in your ship inventory have a much greater total capacity than tiles in your Exosuit inventory. A single Exosuit tile can hold up to 250 of a specific resource, whereas ship tiles can store 500. If you're feeling overburdened during a walkabout, drop stuff off at your ship.
5. Gear and ship upgrades stack
Your ship, Exosuit and Multi-Tool are all governed by core systems that, over time, you can equip with crafted upgrades. There are different upgrade tiers for each system, so you might have two different Warp Drive upgrades, with one providing a +1 bonus and the other providing a +2.
Improved upgrades shouldn't necessarily replace older ones. They can, and you might want to if inventory space is a concern. But the effects of upgrades stack on top of each other, which means crafting both Warp Drive upgrades from the above example gives you a greater benefit than just crafting the better one.
6. Link all related upgrades for bonuses
Placement also matters when it comes to upgrades. Each upgrade you craft takes up one inventory tile and you can place those upgrades anywhere. However, placing like upgrades next to one another -- horizontally or vertically -- gives you an extra stat boost on top of what you're already getting.
You can tell upgrades are linked when there's a colored outline around each of their inventory tiles. Just remember: once an upgrade is placed, it can't be moved unless you dismantle it and craft it again.
7. Crashed ships are good for salvage
Crash sites are a frequent occurrence in No Man's Sky. And while each comes with its own scenario that often rewards you with a blueprint, the crashed ship itself is almost as valuable.
On rare occasions a crashed ship might be worth fixing up, but usually these wrecks have so many broken systems that they're not worth the trouble.
However, if you switch your ownership over to the wreck, you can dismantle all of the upgrades in that wreck and keep the resources they produce for yourself. Some dismantled upgrades cough up valuable stuff, like Gold or Nickel.
8. Use your scanner to see if alien life is dangerous
Your Multi-Tool's Scanner allows you to earn money by observing and identifying the flora/fauna on each planet. With animals specifically, keeping one in your Scanner's sights brings up a read-out of that creatures eating habits and general nature.
This is extremely helpful for figuring out at a distance if an alien dog-bull-dinosaur-thing is going to attack you if you get too close.
9. Feed alien animals and they might poop something useful
You can approach chill animals like herbivores -- or basically anything that doesn't want to eat your face -- without fear, though they may run away.
Get close enough and you'll see a pop-up that gives you the option of feeding said animal some resource or another. Why do this? For one, you get a little smiley icon to let you know the animal is your friend now. Also, perhaps more helpfully, the freshly fed alien might poop out something useful -- like more valuable minerals.
10. Visit your Discoveries page frequently
The Discoveries page is located in the pause menu (not your inventory menu; press Options on your PS4 controller to pause). Here, you'll find a list of all the systems and planets you've discovered, plus all of the flora, fauna and checkpoints that you've identified on each planet.
Next to each listing you'll see a little colored mark, either red or green. If you've never been here before, they'll all be red.
From this menu, you can rename anything you find and -- more importantly -- upload your contributions to the master No Man's Sky database. Each upload gets you a decent chunk of currency, and those numbers add up quickly.
11. Don't overlook containers
Most planetside points of interest include one or more containers of varying sizes that you can rifle through for resources. The little red ones that look like ammo boxes, for example, always contain Plutonium.
Look out for the larger ones, specifically. Flat green containers and cylindrical red ones in particular often spit out useful crafting materials like Antimatter or rare valuables.
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.
