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No Man's Sky > General Discussion > Topic Details
Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:19pm
Do companions even DO anything?
Is there any reason to have one other than purely cosmetic? It's annoying to have to keep feeding and resummoning them all the time. I know you can ride them, but it rarely is more effective than just using the standard jetpack or vehicles.
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Originally posted by Johnny in the Clouds:
The companions are useful for a lot of things and especially in the harder modes where in some instances they provide a safe means of escape across difficult terrain.
There are all sorts of things you can get them to do. The following is by no means and exhaustive list. How you creatively use a companion is really up to the player.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2653753123
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2877515618
  • Without an exocar they are extremely useful to get around almost vertical terrain.
  • The fastest are really fast especially the robotic creatures.
  • Creatures can be modified using the egg sequencer to improve their abilities and traits. They might be more independent and so spend more time away from you. They can be more aggressive and can help defend you against attackers. Their endurance while running at speed can be extended if they are cared for.
  • Companions require some attention to keep them 'happy' and ready to use.
  • You can assign a key bind to call and dismiss your pet quickly and efficiently. The tool tip hints are shown on the Quick Menu display. You can also indirectly assign key binds to any controller, like a long button press to call your companion, using Legacy Mouse Keys Keys.
  • Careful choice of applying armour, torches or lasers, cargo packs, satellites and so on the creatures will provide useful assistance throughout their life span.
  • Remember creatures are not meant to be robots, they are designed to have characteristics and independent 'thoughts' in other words 'a mind of their own' which can be amusing and perhaps frustrating at times.
  • Changing their behaviour can either be achieved by using the egg sequencer or on the planet you found them simply abandon the pet and collect another with different traits. You can read the traits in the pet menu for any creature.
  • Creatures can be changed to act like predators for example using the egg sequencer. Their appearance too.
  • The armour will extend their life in a battle situation or especially in storms which can be life saving for your character in harder modes.
  • The creature will use the laser in some situations to defeat minor attackers, like predators or monstrosities.
  • The companions will discover valuable resources and fetch them bringing them back to your location, dumping them on the ground. The analysis scanner will highlight the deposits,
  • The companions can be useful to escape sentinels especially when combined with the cloaking device.
  • Flying creatures are especially useful for traversing across water or cliffs. The worm creatures are also particularly speedy.
  • The robotic friendly drone sentinel companion 'Laylaps' distracts sentinels from attacking you. Once dismissed alert levels rise.
  • Navigating heavily forested landscapes on a creature will attract less sentinel activity. Using an exocar would crash through trees and rocks alerting sentinels.
  • Early in the game and on extreme planets (equipped correctly) the creatures provide transport saving your life support expense.
  • The can be ridden in first person and while in first person you can continue scanning, This is great for missions that require searching for locations or hotspots quickly. The camera view available in the quick menu can also be assigned to a hot key.
  • Creature colours can be designed as you like using the egg sequencer.
  • Creatures can be directed to search in a location or called to your side if more independent. The more devoted creatures can be directed to wander off while you mine using commands. The commands can also be assigned to hot key binds,
  • Aquatic creatures, some Anomalous creatures and flying creatures can not be ridden (unless using mods)
  • You can have 18 companions and eggs. If you run out of room of creatures you can get them to birth and egg and then store them as an egg.
  • Eggs either modified genetically or not can be transferred to other players or friends.
  • Creatures are fun and can be amusing either tiny or enormous and a lot of fun racing them with friends in a chosen location.
  • The Echoes up date adds a new cosmetic item to display creatures in your base,

    Thread on Laylaps friendly sentinel drone companion
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Showing 1-15 of 34 comments
taniwhat Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:29pm 
Some will defend you. On the few planets with aggressive wildlife that can be useful.
Mine stuff or make kills and drop whatever at your feet where you won't notice it.

Not totally useless, just mostly.
#1
Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:29pm 
Originally posted by taniwhat:
Some will defend you. On the few planets with aggressive wildlife that can be useful.
Mine stuff or make kills and drop whatever at your feet where you won't notice it.

Not totally useless, just mostly.
They won't defend you against sentinels?
#2
Nuru ღ Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:38pm 
Certain types of flying companions are a great way to go long distances outside of your ship. Several are faster than a jetpack and don't hit the ground when they run out of juice. ;P Dragons are probably best in this regard but you'll either need mods or someone's egg since they aren't typically tamable. Butterflies are a decent substitute but aren't nearly as fast (they have an incredibly consistent flight pattern however).

Some species are seeded as predators, meaning they'll go hunting if they get hungry enough, and they will retaliate against creatures that attack you. This characteristic seems to be irrespective of personality type (Predator is just a binary tag in their data; they either have it or they don't).

I've had people tell me equipping them with mining lasers will get them to help you gather resources, but I've never seen it personally.

For the most part, companions will not engage Sentinels and the like, at least not deliberately. That being said, I've had the Fiend companion do it a few times, but the AI for that seems to be unique to itself.

So yeah, not entirely useless. They are mostly just collectables, but a few do have merits.
#3
Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:39pm 
Originally posted by Ninurukagala ღ:
Several are faster than a jetpack
My main save is endgame and I haven't seen any flying companion yet that is faster than a jetpack. And the extremely limited slots aren't helping matters.
#4
Nuru ღ Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:45pm 
Originally posted by Batabii • Pikmin 4:
Originally posted by Ninurukagala ღ:
Several are faster than a jetpack
My main save is endgame and I haven't seen any flying companion yet that is faster than a jetpack. And the extremely limited slots aren't helping matters.

https://youtu.be/DFu4_TnK8KU?si=hAEwKQk6LgQ3DV1_&t=32

They're no slouches. And again, there's no recharge stutter - they just go and go.
#5
Dragoncat Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:48pm 
The mechanical pets found on some anomalous plants are some of the fastest in the game and come with the unintended feature which allows them to clip through breakable objects and instantly scale large cliffs while riding them
#6
UATUU Aug 29, 2023 @ 8:30pm 
Check out some NMS pet tutorials on Youtube. Great stuff.
#7
Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD Aug 29, 2023 @ 8:51pm 
Originally posted by Dragoncat:
The mechanical pets found on some anomalous plants are some of the fastest in the game and come with the unintended feature which allows them to clip through breakable objects and instantly scale large cliffs while riding them
yeah I don't want to abuse glitches

Originally posted by Thanos:
Check out some NMS pet tutorials on Youtube. Great stuff.
most of them are way out of date or too long.

Originally posted by Ninurukagala ღ:
Originally posted by Batabii • Pikmin 4:
My main save is endgame and I haven't seen any flying companion yet that is faster than a jetpack. And the extremely limited slots aren't helping matters.

https://youtu.be/DFu4_TnK8KU?si=hAEwKQk6LgQ3DV1_&t=32

They're no slouches. And again, there's no recharge stutter - they just go and go.

uhhhhh

"It is not part of the official game so there is no way to get it through gameplay."
Last edited by Batabii • Suikoden I&II HD; Aug 29, 2023 @ 8:53pm
#8
Krash Megiddo Aug 29, 2023 @ 9:02pm 
Pets are most useful to me in the early game as a faster way to get around. Beyond that its just for fun.
#9
Asmosis Aug 29, 2023 @ 10:34pm 
That sky dragon looks like a normal bird. NMS fan's do get carried away bit when describing features :P
#10
Ash Aug 29, 2023 @ 10:41pm 
Double the Dragoncat's opinion on the mechanical pets. Even if you don't abuse their superspeed (just don't hold run button for too long), they're decent steeds and they don't break resources, so they are pretty useful on the planets with alert/aggressive Sentinels..

Also bug pets are great for scaling high cliffs, they have a lot more juice than even maxed out jetpack and don't flop on the ground. Almost any flying pet will do, but in my experience bugs are fastest.
#11
404 Aug 29, 2023 @ 10:41pm 
depends entirely on the one you capture.
I breed them to make purple attack dogs lmao
#12
UNBREAKABLE Aug 29, 2023 @ 11:03pm 
Originally posted by Ninurukagala ღ:
Originally posted by Batabii • Pikmin 4:
My main save is endgame and I haven't seen any flying companion yet that is faster than a jetpack. And the extremely limited slots aren't helping matters.

https://youtu.be/DFu4_TnK8KU?si=hAEwKQk6LgQ3DV1_&t=32

They're no slouches. And again, there's no recharge stutter - they just go and go.
Since the youtuber was so vague - people use the unlock companions[www.nexusmods.com] mod to be able to tame these bird fauna and then make eggs out of them that act as you expect for others. Normally you can only tame the flying creatures that land on the ground occsionally.
Last edited by UNBREAKABLE; Aug 29, 2023 @ 11:09pm
#13
Nuru ღ Aug 29, 2023 @ 11:36pm 
Originally posted by Asmosis:
That sky dragon looks like a normal bird. NMS fan's do get carried away bit when describing features :P

I think you're getting carried away describing NMS players, lol. It's just the most widely used terminology used for them. If you want to be technical, their ID is FlyingLizard.

Birds are just... Bird.

But they are defined as different entities in the game's files.
Last edited by Nuru ღ; Aug 29, 2023 @ 11:37pm
#14
Nuru ღ Aug 29, 2023 @ 11:42pm 
Originally posted by Batabii • Pikmin 4:
uhhhhh

"It is not part of the official game so there is no way to get it through gameplay."

They're part of the official game, they're just not tamable without mods or glitches or getting a donor egg from someone who's already done the former, like I stated in my first post.

And just to counterpoint you, that beetle in the end of the video is completely tamable in the base game and is not modded. Just a run of the mill beetle resequenced at the Anomaly to hit the size cap of 30.0. It's faster than the Dragon (or for you picky lot, the Flying_Lizard).
#15
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No Man's Sky > General Discussion > Topic Details
Date Posted: Aug 29, 2023 @ 7:19pm
Posts: 34

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