No Man’s Sky is now upon us on consoles! and with a review on Gameluster coming shortly; To celebrate the release, here are some tips for beginner players about to embark on their odyssey of adventure and discovery.
No Man’s Sky doesn’t hold your hand. Players will automatically start off on a previously undiscovered planet, with a crashed ship and a semi-functional multi-tool; giving players the objective to repair their ship and get star-side as soon as possible. The most important thing in the dawning of your adventure is to gather as many valuable resources as possible with your multi-tool’s ‘Mining Beam’ functionality. Every action within the game will cost the player fuel in numerous forms. Your ship uses ‘Isotopes’ for its ‘Hyper Drive’ and its ‘Launch Thrusters’. These are common materials for most planets within the game, so it is important for the player to have enough of these resources (Plutonium, Thamium9 being the most common forms of Starship fuel) once their ship is repaired. As well as keeping your ship fuelled, you will need to fuel your Exosuit. The Exosuit is the player-controlled character’s suit, which protects your character from the harsh environments of some of the galaxy’s more inhospitable planets. Thermal protection, Toxic protection and Life Support all need to to fuelled with natural elements such as Carbon. This is particularly important as you’re going to be on the surface of planets in order to find valuable resources. The ‘Multi-tool’ which is both your weapon and your mining tool throughout the game, is also charged with natural materials such as Carbon and Iron. So get mining!
My next tip is to consistently use your scanning device when on the surface of a planet. Most lifeforms on the surface of planets are completely unique to that particular planet; and scanning both Fauna and Flora will add them to your list of discoveries. What isn’t clearly told to the player is that you can do even more with your documented discoveries. By clicking the Options button on your PS4 controller; you will access the ‘Galactic Network’ page. This lets you upload your discoveries for the whole player-base to see. By uploading discoveries, you are rewarded ‘Units’; the game’s currency. It is important to maximise the amount of Units as early as you can, so make sure you check the Galactic Network and upload your discoveries as often as you can; you’ll be surprised at just how fast you will earn Units through doing this.
My final tip for beginning players is to plan your ventures on to certain planets ahead of time. Making sure you have Thamium9 for your ship, Carbon for your Exosuit and Plutonium for your tools and Launch Thrusters. You may well land on a planet with no Plutonium, and maybe no Carbon. If you land on one of these planets, and you run out of materials on said planet; you have no choice but to kill yourself and revert to your last saved point.
Follow these simple tips and you might just have the small advantage you need right out of the gate!
