Expedition Thirteen: Adrift

Hello Everyone!

A lot has changed in the years since No Man’s Sky released. There’s so much we love about the game now, but there was something unique at release in how alone you felt in the universe. Going further back I have great memories of early unreleased versions of No Man’s Sky where there were no NPCs, no shops, no help… just you the player as a tiny dot lost in the infinite.

For our next update we wanted to allow players to experience an alternative universe. We are calling it Adrift, and for the first time players can be truly alone in No Man’s Sky. We think it’s a special feeling.

Removing other lifeforms means no shops, no trading, no shortcuts and no help, providing a very different survival experience.

This alternative universe is more dangerous too, with sandworms now roaming free and fiend eggs spreading across planets.

Buildings are broken and rusted, the few remaining landmarks the graves of lost Travellers. In space, a new ghostly frigate beckons, allowing players to recruit a piece of this lonely universe.

To help provide safe haven is a new bulky Hauler starship, called the Iron Vulture. Since we added ship customisation in our last update, we’re also seeding the game with lots of new customisation options in Adrift.

Adrift was supposed to be our next expedition, which it is, but it’s ballooned out into an update filled with improvements, new unique gameplay content and rewards.

We’re already two huge updates into the year, with the release of OMEGA – where we invited everyone to try the game for free! – and ORBITAL, which overhauled space stations and introduced a long-requested feature: ship customisation. We are grateful to have such an incredible community; it has been exciting and fascinating to see you all hunting, salvaging and documenting the hundreds of starship components available to assemble your dream ships.

We have much, much more planned for 2024 – and today, we are launching the thirteenth No Man’s Sky community expedition: Adrift.

 
Adrift Expedition

Step into an empty universe, where you will find yourself surrounded by other Travellers… yet somehow still alone. The galaxy has been abandoned. There is no life to be seen anywhere – no aliens, no operational space stations, none of the usual network of shops and buildings.

Though everyone will awaken on the desolate, worm-infested planet Iapezuk, you will not be together in the usual sense. The boundaries between realities have thickened. Communication is consumed by static. Even the usually-bustling Space Anomaly is eerily silent.

In this forsaken universe, deprived of support from merchants and traders, self-reliance is more critical than ever. Survive a spread of repair, exploration, and combat challenges – and meditate upon the darkness of deep space.

Completing this lonely journey will award an exclusive range of collectibles, including the gnawing scuttler companion, a supply of starship stealth paint, a ghostly frigate, and the unique Iron Vulture starship.

Begin the Adrift expedition from the Expedition Terminus aboard the Space Anomaly – or from a fresh new save, which may later be converted to a Normal Mode save.

All the exclusive rewards earned from completing the expedition phases may be redeemed across all save games, courtesy of the Space Anomaly’s Quicksilver Synthesis Companion.

Adrift begins today, and will run for approximately seven weeks.

 
Adrift Expedition Rewards

Meditation, Alone in the Dark, and Isolation Posters

Contemplate your journey through Adrift with posters that recall the empty endless void of space and the scale of that infinite, black expanse…

Stealth Paint

An exclusive starship customisation option, creating a unique low-radar-signature look for your ship.

Starship Wreckage Base Parts

Create a scrapyard aesthetic in habitable bases with these shattered remains of a crashed starship.

Gnawing Scuttler Companion

A vile and nightmarish creature, extracted from the derelict shell of a once-glorious freighter. Despite its dark origins, this companion is trained to suppress violent urges towards its assigned master.

Ship of the Damned

The remains of a long-abandoned frigate. Despite its ruined condition, with no apparent crew, it sails on through the stars…

Iron Vulture

Transport vast quantities of cargo across the galaxy in this stylish high-capacity Hauler, featuring a unique silhouette and industrial metal finish.

The ironclad metal finish may be applied to any newly-constructed starships in the Fabricator. Additionally, the Iron Vulture can be scrapped, and its components utilised in the manufacture of a new hauler.

Community Research

Traveller efforts in completing multiplayer missions at the Space Anomaly Nexus have recently unlocked a new set of dazzling ice sculptures in the form of a majestic diplo, Atlas station, and the iconic Alpha Vector starship.

The Quicksilver Synthesis Companion is now creating blueprints for a new set of Pawprints, To the Stars and Awakenings decals. Contribute to the process by submitting data via Nexus missions!

Community Spotlight

Development Update

Today’s 4.70 update for No Man’s Sky includes the Adrift expedition, alongside a number of stability and gameplay fixes.

Our journey continues.

Sean

4.70 Patch Notes

• Expedition Thirteen, Adrift, will begin shortly and run for approximately seven weeks.
• During the expedition, every star system has become abandoned, removing all NPCs, all active starships, and destroying system economies.
• A number of other gameplay changes have been made to reflect the strange nature of this universe, including to gameplay events, to player communications, and to the distribution of various hostile entities.
• Rewards include new posters, decals and titles; a set of starship wreckage base building parts; a vile and gnawing companion; a unique cursed frigate; several new starship customisation options; and the exclusive Iron Vulture hauler.

 

• Introduced a number of significant memory usage optimisations.
• Fixed an issue that caused base parts to pop in after loading.
• Improved the speech audio of the Assembled Construct on the Space Anomaly..
• Improved the audio for planetary titan worms.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the Space Anomaly from playing its warp-in effects.
• Significantly improved the visual effects around the Space Anomaly’s Prime Terminal.
• Fixed an issue that caused distorted Travellers to pop in when interacting with Unknown Graves.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the crafting page to use incorrect text when attempting to build an object while lacking sufficient resources.
• Fixed an issue that allowed markers belonging to separate resources to be merged together when part of the same clump.
• Fixed a rare issue that could allow damaged technology to appear in the list of refinable items.
• Planets with synthetic or robotic creatures will now report this information in the “Fauna” category of their data readout.
• The purchase UI screen has been tweaked to improve clarity when the current item is unaffordable.
• Fixed a number of rare issues where incorrect rewards were listed in the UI or in the interaction prompt.

 

• Fixed an issue that prevented the Atlas Path from appearing in the Collected Knowledge section of the catalogue.
• Fixed some misleading mission instructions in the They Who Returned mission while in an uninhabitable star system.
• Fixed a number of rare mission blockers that could occur while reloading a save in the middle of space combat.
• Fixed a number of rare blockers in A Trace Metal related to Tethys’ interactions.
• Added a catalogue guidance mission for Atlantideum.
• Improved mission text clarity in the event that a player travels a significant distance away from their current mission target.
• Fixed a rare issue that could add an “ON PLANET” label to the Atlas Station’s marker.
• Fixed a number of minor text issues.