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No Man’s Sky: How to play the new planetary exploration game

No Man’s Sky is now available on PS4 — and soon, PC — so we’ve decided to prepare you before you embark on a great journey of exploration.

Playing for a couple hours now, here’s our best tips to get you started.

You can run and fly

It took me far too long to realise I could run with the R3 button. It acts as a toggle between a run and a walk, but be mindful that running is dependant on a stamina metre; you can’t keep it up in definitely.

The same is true for your jetpack. Pressing X will boost you into the air, but the jetpack has its own gauge too. Don’t go too high, or a plunge might mean a loss of shields and health.

Fix, then use, your scanner

When you first playing, you’ll awake on a newly discovered planet with some broken gear. The R2 button will bring up your mining lazer — use that on rocks and other objects to start grabbing Carbon, Iron, Plutonium and more. Once you’ve grabbed some materials, hit the Touchpad and use L1 and R1 to cycle between your Exosuit, Starship and Multi-tool.

The scanner is included in your Multi-tool; hovering over it will show you what it needs. Finally, pressing X will begin repairs when you have all required items.

Coincidentally, you’re going to need to find a lot of items to fix a lot of things, especially before you can take off in your Starship.

Minerals are identified by various icons, but things like green question marks and red shelter icons are areas you should also try to explore.

mining

Always be mining — but be mindful of your inventory

Mining is key, at least initially, in No Man’s Sky. You’ll need resources to fix items. You’ll need resources to continually bolster your Exosuit’s Life Support and Hazard Protection modules. You’ll also need to be mindful of inventory slots available in each of those three categories — be prepared to hit Triangle to store items, or R3 to break things down. Try to leave at least one inventory slot open to be able to craft items like Bypass Chips when needed.

Once your scanner is fixed, it’s easy to find materials — a press of the L3 button will do a short-range scan and show you the objects of interest around you. Some objects require a press of the Square button to mine, while others will need a hit with the mining beam (which also needs materials to keep running). Once materials have been scanned, they’ll be marked on your screen; if you position your cursor on them, you’ll be given an estimate of the amount of time it will take to reach that item.

Enjoy that mining grind — it makes up a big part of No Man’s Sky.

Zinc and Plutonium are your best friends

While other minerals are helpful to your Life Support and Hazard Systems, we’ve found that Plutonium and Zinc are the most abundant. Always have some on hand to bolster those two systems. If they fail, you die.

If you die, get back to your corpse

Yeah, we died in No Man’s Sky. Quite early at that. No biggie.

Starting from a save point as the next generation of explorer, you’ll see a marker on the map that’s identical to No Man’s Sky‘s logo. Go to it. Get your stuff back. It’s like Zombi, State of Decay or any number of games that employ the same mechanic. Free (old) loot is always good.

arrival

Beacons and Save Points are your friends

If you see a beacon, go to it. If you see a shelter, go to it. If you see anything that isn’t a normal mineral, go to it.

Everything is helpful in No Man’s Sky. Shelters and beacons usually have technological upgrades, which may not be handy right at that time, but will certainly be later. Certain objects teach you words in alien languages, surely to help out in conversations you’ll have when you encounter aliens in structures down the line.

Save Points are brilliant because they save your progress (duh), but also act as a discoverable waypoint. Beacons can be used to summon your ship if you’ve gone off on a hike.

Again, every single thing is helpful. Don’t squander those resources.

Upload your discoveries

You get in-game cash for discoveries in No Man’s Sky, and that currency can be used to buy new ships, weaponry and more. So start earning.

Each time you discover a new system, planet, or waypoints on a planet, you’re credited for it. Hitting the Options button on your controller will let you rename and upload, or simply upload your discoveries. Cash in systems, cash in planets, and remember to cash in waypoints on those planets too. Soon, you’ll be rolling in cash.

discoveries

That’s all we’ve got for now, but we’ll be sure to share more as we play for longer periods of time. In the meantime, what tips do you have for new players?


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About the author

Steve Wright

Steve's the owner of this very site and an active games journalist nearing twenty (TWENTY!?!) years. He's a Canadian-Australian gay gaming geek, ice hockey player and fan. Husband to Matt and cat dad to Wally and Quinn.