What should I be doing?

[Saint-Broseph]

So I have sunk a few hours into no mans sky but I am still unsure as to what my end goal should be right now or what things I should be doing as a MUST, any guidance please?

[Barmy Nimrod]

The thing about NMS is that it's a sandbox game with a multitude of things to do. However, non are required to be done, it's up to you to decide what interests you. You just need to learn what those things are. Here are a few that can keep you busy for a few hundred hours.

1) Complete the missions listed in the Log tab. You can add missions from the mission vendor in space stations.
2) Find all the discoveries in the Catalog and Guide Tab
3) Complete Quicksilver missions to buy all the items from the Quicksilver vendor on the Anomaly. Some can be monotonous, but pay attention where they take you, exploration of those systems can be fun. Especially visiting other players bases.
4) Find a good freighter and build a full fleet of frigates. Then run frigate missions to level up the frigates to S class. (To get an S class Freighter is a special grind, research how to find one. it's a arduous process).
5) Collect enough Nanites to buy all the blueprint upgrades from the anomaly vendors.
6) Collect enough buried tech modules to buy all the blueprints from the anomaly building kiosk.
7) Build bases to support your need for Units and wealth.
8) Find ships and multi tools you like and get them maxed to S class, unlock all the memory slots and max tech.

There is plenty more, but these can take quite a long time to do.

[Scaramouche]

9) fully explore the star system you emerged in
I think I spent like 6 months in the 2-3 star systems I discovered following the beginning steps.

[cogvos]

Very little here is a 'must', there are various paths through the game if you wish to play the quests, or you can ignore these completely (Ok the game will nag you on them) and do your own thing. It is very much like Minecraft in that respect, an open worlds sandbox where you can do, almost what you wish. I guess the only real 'must' is fix your multi-tool so you can gather materials. After that it really is up to you.

If, however you like more structure then Barmy Nimord's list is a good place to start, Alternatively start an expedition - these are more structured with defined goals and rewards. I think Omega has a few days left to run?

Anyway good luck and welcome.

[maestro]

Originally posted by ∙ℜ𝑜𝑔𝚞єĢأíƭc𝖍∙:

So I have sunk a few hours into no mans sky but I am still unsure as to what my end goal should be right now or what things I should be doing as a MUST, any guidance please?

You can do anything you want! However, there are a few Quality-of-Life things that should probably be pursued early to make everything else easier:

1). Get Movement System and Scanner Upgrades. THE first thing you should do in the game, hands-down, is to check every space station's Upgrade vendors for Movement System upgrades, and Scanner Upgrades. Get 3 of each. This will cost about 3,500 nanites or there-abouts, but if you scan all creatures on a couple planets and upload you'll have plenty. Movement when you first start the game is atrociously slow, your jetpack runs out very quickly and it's just a PITA to do anything. Scanner upgrades will make you absolute tons of money once you get 3 of them installed, especially if you can supercharge at least 1 of them.

2). Get a new tool. After those 3 scanner upgrades, you're gonna be running out of room on that Waveform Focuser. Use the scanner upgrades to grab about 3-4 million credits (which is insanely fast when you get 200k+ from scanning a single creature, and 50k+ from plants and rocks), and grab any tool you find that has more slots, even if it's a C-class rifle that you find anywhere. This'll do while you look for something more permanent. Remember: you can repackage all of your tech and transfer it to the new tool, so you don't lose anything other than the price of buying the new tool. Don't trade the tool in, buy it outright and recycle the old one at the anomaly instead for a chance at a free upgrade slot and some upgrade mods that you can sell for nanites.

3). Do the Artemis and Atlas Questlines early, they unlock a bunch of crap and have benefits later. The portal glyphs, a bunch of buildable stuff that you don't have to use salvaged data to learn, etc.

4). Get a basic freighter setup going. Most people will go on and on about S-Class Freighters and finding "The best" freighter, but the truth of the matter is, that is no easy feat to accomplish, and the longer you wait on getting a freighter, the more you miss out on its amazing QoL stuff. Now, maybe put off making a complicated base on that freighter until you get "The Keeper", the one you wanna keep, but you should at least get a basic one going. Simply build a hallway and put 2-3 storage rooms in it, the Exocraft Teleporter, and the Matter Teleporter room, and maybe a regular Teleporter too. Just the basics, for now. That way, you get absurd QoL like summoning exocrafts anywhere, and accessing 50 slots per storage room of inventory. You could also start leveling up frigates too if you want.

5). Get a better ship. Plenty of options. ANY Ship is better than the starter ship, because the starter ship, despite it looking like a fighter, does not actually have any bonuses at all. All ships except the starter ship have bonuses, even shuttles (they are cheaper to launch and usually have a launch recharger built in). So even that C-class shuttle you find crashed is better than the starter ship once you fix it up. Fixing a crashed ship up is actually a pretty good tutorial on where and how to find the various materials in the game, and I'd recommend a player to do that at least once, find a crashed ship and fix it up. I find it fun to do every once in awhile if I see one that looks decent. You'll find one on the Artemis Path questline, 1 in the Dreams of the Deep questline, 1 on the Rebels questline, or you can simply buy maps from the station to find them, or have a transmission tower reveal the location of one.

After all that? Just open your Log and pick off the things one by one, and learn what kind of activities you personally enjoy doing.

[Idaho]

The most important thing is to find the perfect planet. Don't settle for 'it's good enough', either. There's quadrillions of planets. be very, very selective.

[Know Won]

Find some good music or a podcast to turn on then just roam.

[Saint-Broseph]

Originally posted by Barmy Nimrod:

The thing about NMS is that it's a sandbox game with a multitude of things to do. However, non are required to be done, it's up to you to decide what interests you. You just need to learn what those things are. Here are a few that can keep you busy for a few hundred hours.

1) Complete the missions listed in the Log tab. You can add missions from the mission vendor in space stations.
2) Find all the discoveries in the Catalog and Guide Tab
3) Complete Quicksilver missions to buy all the items from the Quicksilver vendor on the Anomaly. Some can be monotonous, but pay attention where they take you, exploration of those systems can be fun. Especially visiting other players bases.
4) Find a good freighter and build a full fleet of frigates. Then run frigate missions to level up the frigates to S class. (To get an S class Freighter is a special grind, research how to find one. it's a arduous process).
5) Collect enough Nanites to buy all the blueprint upgrades from the anomaly vendors.
6) Collect enough buried tech modules to buy all the blueprints from the anomaly building kiosk.
7) Build bases to support your need for Units and wealth.
8) Find ships and multi tools you like and get them maxed to S class, unlock all the memory slots and max tech.

There is plenty more, but these can take quite a long time to do.

Thanks for the detailed info! Have some goals now thanks :)

[lordoftheapes79]

Originally posted by ∙ℜ𝑜𝑔𝚞єĢأíƭc𝖍∙:

Thanks for the detailed info! Have some goals now thanks :)

yeah, it's up to you to make your own goals.

[frazzled]

Originally posted by Idaho:

The most important thing is to find the perfect planet. Don't settle for 'it's good enough', either. There's quadrillions of planets. be very, very selective.

I disagree. Find a "good enough" planet early and get a functional base to work from.

Then, in the long run, look for that perfect world (whatever that is for you.) You can then use your starter base and its resources to help you develop your dream base.

All assuming that a "dream base" is what you even want. I've played saves where I do nothing but wander the starts.

You do your thing. That's NMS.

[maestro]

Originally posted by frazzled:

Originally posted by Idaho:

The most important thing is to find the perfect planet. Don't settle for 'it's good enough', either. There's quadrillions of planets. be very, very selective.

I disagree. Find a "good enough" planet early and get a functional base to work from.

Then, in the long run, look for that perfect world (whatever that is for you.) You can then use your starter base and its resources to help you develop your dream base.

All assuming that a "dream base" is what you even want. I've played saves where I do nothing but wander the starts.

You do your thing. That's NMS.

With the fact that we can build fully functional bases on freighters that have everything a base can normally have (without requiring power!), the only real reason to build a terrestrial base is for aesthetics, and/or a warp point to a specific planet or place on a planet for some specific reason.

Maybe you found a super huge S-Class Hauler that you like to claim and scrap every time it respawns and you've built a base next to it or something like that.

Otherwise, it's all aesthetics. Oh, and I suppose there's the mineral/gas collectors, but freighters can even do that too, in lesser amounts.

[Ograus]

i have serious doubts that mining bases and/or large scale agriculture bases can be replaced with a freighter base
two examples for agriculture bases:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044978617
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3063886627

about thigns one can do:
-build bases
-explore/farm freighter wrecks (preferably those drifting in space)
-expeditions if available
-find and max out that perfect s-class freighter of the style one wants
-"build" a fleet of frigates and get those to max lvl
-find those perfect ships in terms of stats and style one likes and max those
...

[BaneBlackGuard]

I still think the thing i like most about the game is space truckin and wandering around on planets. so my gameplay loop is usually buy up trade goods, look for a system i can sell them in, jump my freighter there, scan system, sell goods, go wander planets in system that looked interesting, sit at a trade depot for a while to see what ships are in the system, buy trade goods, look for system to sell them in, etc...

layered on top of this gameplay loop I randomly grab quests or look for other things the game has to offer, just to mix things up.

[Tatwi]

My personal favourite aspect of multi player is actually just the No Man's Sky Glyph Exchange website, where people submit pictures of cool ships and the portal addresses to find them. I've never submitted any, but I've thought a few times over the years that doing so could be a game in itself. Cataloguing your finding there could be genuinely useful to other people.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Just do what feels like fun to you. Nothing is actually required to be done. You could just sit in your wake up spot on the planet and wait to die if it feels fun to you. (Probably not)

Exploring is the primary game play loop. Getting a nice ride, building a base, upgrading stuff to make things easier are all options you can take part in to the extent you are having fun.

From the start back in 2016, the only stable "goal" has been to change galaxies.

There really is no end point. You just stop playing when you feel done...or at least done for now. A lot of us take breaks from the game only to return again.

[Anga Hakuna]

You might do well to follow the on-HUD prompts for actions that appear at the bottom right area. It amounts to a tutorial and game familiarization. This is a choose-your-own-adventure type game, but following the tutorial gets up "up to speed" vs. getting puzzled about "how to."