How much of the galaxy is explored?

[Dank Williams]

Is there a way to tell? I'm a new player looking to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life; new civilisations, boldly go where no one has gone before, etc etc

[ToxicDutch]

The galaxy is infinite. It kinda keeps regenerating into oblivion. But there are like 20 different galaxies and some of them are barely explored compared to Euclid (starting galaxy)

[UTMaster]

Originally posted by ToxicDutch:

The galaxy is infinite. It kinda keeps regenerating into oblivion. But there are like 20 different galaxies and some of them are barely explored compared to Euclid (starting galaxy)

There's actually more than 250 galaxies (I forgot the exact number), and galaxies are 80,000 - 100,000 LYs in diameter (Same I forgot the actual number, but it's somewhere in that range).

[ToxicDutch]

Originally posted by UTMaster:

Originally posted by ToxicDutch:

The galaxy is infinite. It kinda keeps regenerating into oblivion. But there are like 20 different galaxies and some of them are barely explored compared to Euclid (starting galaxy)

There's actually more than 250 galaxies (I forgot the exact number), and galaxies are 80,000 - 100,000 LYs in diameter (Same I forgot the actual number, but it's somewhere in that range).

256 indeed, pretty big. Bit more info from the Wiki.

The universe of No Man's Sky is comprised of 256 unique galaxies, numbered from 0 through 255 in hexadecimal (00-FF, from the max value of an 8 bit binary unsigned integer).

In turn, these are composed of:

~4.2 billion regions (the max value of a 32 bit unsigned integer, minus 1 layer of regions along each axis)
Each of which contains somewhere in the range of 205 to 605 star systems (Baadossm Anomaly, the largest documented region)
All star systems feature 2-6 planets and moons, and usually a single space station. There are about 18 quintillion possibilities (seeds) for planets (the max value of a 64 bit unsigned integer), however only a fraction of those are currently in use, an estimated 2 quadrillion planets accessible in the Vanilla game, and another 7-8 times as many accessible as Phantom stars.

Players start in galaxy 1, Euclid, and travel through galaxies in order by reaching the Galaxy Centre or jump several by finishing the New Beginnings primary mission. After the player leaves galaxy 255 (Iousongola), they return to the first galaxy again. There are several methods of moving to a different galaxy, and various hazards and damages will occur during the transfer.

[[FuFo] Mortucus]

sweet bugger all of the first galaxy is explored as i still warp to a 95% first to see system every time i jump.
And there are hundreds of galaxy's each with billions of stars

[Dank Williams]

Oh wow so I guess just pick a direction and start going? It doesn't sound like it will ever run out. Is there reason to continue with the story? I got to the big multiplayer station but it's not super clear what it wants me to do after talking to all the people there.

[[FuFo] Mortucus]

Originally posted by Dank Williams:

Oh wow so I guess just pick a direction and start going? It doesn't sound like it will ever run out. Is there reason to continue with the story? I got to the big multiplayer station but it's not super clear what it wants me to do after talking to all the people there.

my suggestion is to watch some you tube vids on topics of interest to you.
Im a ship hunter and spend my time searching for sentanil ships

[Zigamus Wizard]

Originally posted by Dank Williams:

Is there a way to tell? I'm a new player looking to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life; new civilisations, boldly go where no one has gone before, etc etc

Hmmm, let's see, that makes Gek = Forengi, Korvax = Vulcan, etc. ;o)

[AmberAnvil]

Originally posted by Dank Williams:

Oh wow so I guess just pick a direction and start going? It doesn't sound like it will ever run out. Is there reason to continue with the story? I got to the big multiplayer station but it's not super clear what it wants me to do after talking to all the people there.

Yes, continue the story. It's a tutorial. There are many more things to learn and valuable tools to gain. It isn't essential, but highly recommended the first time you play. There'll be plenty of time to head off in any direction later. : )

P.S. Even after eight years, only a small fraction of Euclid galaxy has been explored and there are 255 more galaxies after that!

[Mazurka]

just to toss in my two units - i played the game for almost fifteen hours when it launched and then didn't touch it for six years. Since my return i've put in an additional 598 hours and hardly ever come across an explored system.

the closer to the center is probably all explored. i'm usually hanging out above 700,000 LY, and rarely find a discovered system unless its at the edge of space. In that entire time i only ever encountered one person

[Tatwi]

Look toward the bright center of the galaxy, then aim either up or down to travel out into lesser explored territory. The story encourages us to travel towards the center, so we tend to do that in a straight line along the galactic plane, but the galaxies are very thick disks of stars so there is a lot of room to find a unique path.

[UNBREAKABLE]

Euclid alone is still mostly undiscovered unless you hang out at the distance from the core that most players start at, or go to the galaxy core itself.

Each galaxy has more stars than our own milky way. You're not going to run out of places to boldy go at least in this life time.

[Mandrake]

The crazy part is, the stars you see on the galaxy map, are only about 3/4 of the ones that exist. There are 'phantom' systems that just don't populate in the map. There are mods you can download to see them and access them as well. It's ridiculous huge.
6 years in, 4k hours played between 2 accounts, The majority of jumps I make in Euclid or any other galaxy to this day are 'First Contact' :)
ONE time I started a new save, and my starting planet had been discovered by someone else 3 years ago! It was actually pretty cool to see!

[UNBREAKABLE]

Originally posted by Mandrake:

The crazy part is, the stars you see on the galaxy map, are only about 3/4 of the ones that exist. There are 'phantom' systems that just don't populate in the map. There are mods you can download to see them and access them as well. It's ridiculous huge.
6 years in, 4k hours played between 2 accounts, The majority of jumps I make in Euclid or any other galaxy to this day are 'First Contact' :)
ONE time I started a new save, and my starting planet had been discovered by someone else 3 years ago! It was actually pretty cool to see!

I hope they use some of those phantom stars to add more variation to the game without breaking existing systems. The only people who could have their bases "broken" are modders like myself, but it is a worthy sacrifice.

[Mandrake]

Originally posted by UNBREAKABLE:

Originally posted by Mandrake:

The crazy part is, the stars you see on the galaxy map, are only about 3/4 of the ones that exist. There are 'phantom' systems that just don't populate in the map. There are mods you can download to see them and access them as well. It's ridiculous huge.
6 years in, 4k hours played between 2 accounts, The majority of jumps I make in Euclid or any other galaxy to this day are 'First Contact' :)
ONE time I started a new save, and my starting planet had been discovered by someone else 3 years ago! It was actually pretty cool to see!

I hope they use some of those phantom stars to add more variation to the game without breaking existing systems. The only people who could have their bases "broken" are modders like myself, but it is a worthy sacrifice.

I'm kinda hoping that as well... with the whole 'purple element' leak that looks like a new exotic element like idium, emeril, etc. Maybe some of the phantom systems will become purple stars. Void stars? Who knows? I'm looking forward to whatever the heck it is though! :)

[Brew]

Originally posted by UTMaster:

There's actually more than 250 galaxies (I forgot the exact number), and galaxies are 80,000 - 100,000 LYs in diameter (Same I forgot the actual number, but it's somewhere in that range).

Actually, you are over a million LY from the center at the farthest corner. I think the width/height is on the order of about 1.6M LY, and thickness is around 100K LY. It's a pizza box.