No Man’s Sky’s Cosmos Update Overhauls The Outer Space Experience

The Cosmos update for No Man’s Sky teased in Hello Games’ Tenth Year Anniversary video is here and it completely changes the outer space component of the game.

Despite being termed a “space game” by many of its players, comparatively little of No Man’s Sky’s gameplay actually takes place in space aside from the odd freighter or pirate battle. The vast expanses of systems and galaxies mostly served as transitions from one planet or space station or freighter to another. With Cosmos, that significantly changes as space now feels more “alive.”

Cosmos will be available as an automatic free update starting today with an optional expedition titled ‘Our Journey Continues.’ This expedition features milestones pertaining to each of the forty major updates since No Man’s Sky launched in 2016.

After warping to a system, initiating a scan will reveal a multitude of points of interest in space similar to what you typically experience when on a planet. Players who preferred the building and scavenging aspects of No Man’s Sky will be especially interested in the new features.

• Space Hulks are massive structures that can be stripped and salvaged using the Gravitino Coil, a gravity gun introduced in the Remnant update earlier this year. The chunks of metal pulled from hulks can be thrown to a new ship tractor beam, but stripping too much may cause the hulk to melt down and explode!
• Space outposts are new features similar to the random outposts encountered on planets where you can trade with other alien lifeforms, buy maps, and take on new missions. Some of the outposts can be infected with biological hazards and have to be cleaned out and reclaimed.
• Asteroid belts can provide resources beyond the standard gold, silver, and tritium and some are large enough to land and build a star base on.
• Orbital bases are new, free-floating modular bases that can be built anywhere in space.
• Space station ownership has been the most requested feature according to Hello Games. Now you can buy your own space station and decorate it inside and out.
• Alliances are community-formed networks of players and stations, with a separate leaderboard to compete for the largest, richest, or most prominent alliance.
• Finally, you can take on the task of reaching the star center of your own star system.

Speaking as someone with hundreds of hours in No Man’s Sky, this feels like the biggest overhaul of an update for the game since the two-part Worlds update. That said, Worlds was more exploration focused with a new system type, biomes, and fauna to discover.

Cosmos, by contrast, feels more hands-on with an emphasis on scavenging, building, and personalization. Spend any amount of time in a No Man’s Sky community and you are bound to see pictures of amazing freighter interiors, bases, and Corvette ships players have constructed over the years. Cosmos opens up space to that same creativity.

No Man’s Sky is available on Steam and PS VR2. The Cosmos update is free to all players.