Worlds Part I: Introducing Update 5.0
Update 5.0, WORLDS, transforms the universe into a richer, wilder, more varied and immersive place. Featuring huge leaps in water and cloud visuals, increased planetary diversity, new gameplay features, and more.
Our journey continues.
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Big hunt expedition: The Liquidators
Engage in a galactic bug hunt in No Man’s Sky’s fourteenth community expedition. A vile brood is spreading corruption across the universe – join the Liquidator Vanguard to do your part and purge the rot from the stars!
Report for duty alongside other Travellers to liquidate biological horrors and hosts of giant insects in a high-paced combat expedition full of custom-balanced swarm combat.
An exclusive selection of rewards await those that do their part in the war on bugs, including mounted bug trophies, new posters, and a complete set of organic armour parts forged from the bodies of the brood themselves.
Discovery renaming
Discovered systems, planets, flora, fauna, and minerals can now be renamed at any time, even after upload.
Dramatic new worlds
Planets across the universe have been transformed in wild and radical ways.
Gravitational distortions have warped some lush and tropical worlds, shaking loose floating islands that now drift in the atmosphere above the planet’s surface. Hop from rock-to-rock with the jetpack or starship, build bases in the sky, or simply marvel at the dramatic waterfalls that cascade down from the sky.
New volumetric clouds
A total overhaul of the clouds brings vastly increased detail and definition. The cloud system has been rewritten from the ground up to improve performance, fix visual artefacts, and introduce fine details such as wispy cirrus clouds and dark, rain-laden nimbus clouds.
In addition, cloud coverage variety has been boosted, varying significantly from planet-to-planet, as well as over time and in response to local weather conditions.
Customise solar ships
The Starship Fabricator now supports the crafting of Solar-class starships. Select and combine a vast array of unique components for cockpits, fuselages, wings, and sails to design your dream Solar starship.
Detailed shadows
Shadows have new depth and realism. Planetary environments are now more richly lit, with natural features, structures, starships, and Travellers accurately self-shadowing and representing exposure to sunlight – especially noticeable on finely-detailed flora such as grass. Additionally, shadows cast by clouds are now calculated in relation to the sun position.
High definition water
An astounding range of sights await explorers on water planets, as seas, oceans, and lakes now ripple and sparkle with realistic wave formations and foam generation.
As well as these living, dynamic water conditions, a total overhaul of the water rendering technology also brings dramatic reflections and beautifully lit surface details.
Otherworldly life
Discover strange new creatures all across the universe. Bizarre floral hybrids stalk some planets, exploring their environments with stamen-like whiskers and petal-like faces.
Full wind simulation
The wind system has been reworked to bring planets to life with dynamic and consistent weather. Leaves and grass rustle in gentle wind while whole trees rock and sway during storms. Smoke effects, billowing dust clouds, rain, snow and other environmental effects all go through the same wind system, for an immersive and consistent exploration experience.
Dynamic water
Bodies of water respond to the weather – ranging from glassy lakes to turbulent oceans, depending on the stillness of the breeze and the depth of the water. Violent storms can generate dramatically choppy seas and huge ocean swells.
Liquidator combat mech
Carve through the toughest enemies in a new heavy duty mech suit. All those who do their part in the Liquidators expedition will unlock these new combat-focused components for the Minotaur.
As the community purge the vile brood from the universe, plans for these parts will become available at the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion for those unable to take part in the expedition.
Sub-zero worlds
Frozen worlds have been transformed with ice-laden trees and glittering glacial rocks. New planet surfaces as well as a significant number of new flora and mineral formations bring a new diversity to sub-zero planets.
Desert diversity
Biodiversity of sand-swept planets has been expanded, with large feather-fronded palms adorning the horizon of some worlds.
Sky colours
Step deeper into a 1970s science fiction palette with a range of new sky colours – including some especially rare hues for dedicated explorers to discover.
Insect armour set
Complete the Liquidators expedition to earn a full-body set of organic armour. Embrace the aesthetic of the vile brood – or flaunt the evidence of their undoing – with chitinous gauntlets, spurs, mandibles, and exoskeleton.
Engine enhancements
Many underlying systems have been reworked for improved visuals and increased performance.
Rendering of environmental objects such as trees, rocks, and grass has been moved to a GPU-based system, allowing for denser worlds with increased performance. Planetary flora, minerals and curiosities have improved levels of detail from further distances and a broader range of angles.
Terrain generation has been rewritten to incorporate dual marching cubes voxel meshing, increasing loading speed, improving framerate and saving memory.
New interaction labels
Labels for interactive and destructible objects in the universe have been restyled and made more responsive, providing critical information without obscuring the view.
Beetle diversity
A wide variety of new insect-like creatures can now be discovered scuttling across the universe. While some of these alien insects are hostile, many species are gentle, peaceful beings. Study their natural patterns, harvest their nourishing slime, or adopt them as companions.
Dramatic storms
Exploring a planet during a blizzard or thunderstorm is more exhilarating than ever. New ambient effects and atmospheric fog combine with wind-responsive particle effects to create dramatic storms that sweep across the planet’s surface.
Twitch Drops
Watch experienced Travellers stream No Man’s Sky on Twitch, and earn rewards! Even if you don’t own the game yet, you can earn rewards during the campaign, and claim them in-game at a later date.
To sign up, visit the Twitch Drops page. Then just sit back and tune into the campaign running from Thursday 18th to Monday 22nd July.
Walker battles
Walker battles are now framed by a detailed combat HUD, indicating the targetable vulnerabilities of these elite Sentinel units.
Chitin flight pack
A new jetpack is available to claim from the Liquidators expedition. A fusion of advanced technology and resinous organic secretions, the Chitin Flight Pack represents the apex of bio-organic engineering.
Water colour variety
Discover oceans in a huge range of vibrant colours – from iron-rich red seas to algae-dense pools of green. Committed explorers may find some especially unusual colours on rare planets…
Strange nutrients
Brew, bake, churn and fry more than 40 new Nutrient Processor recipes from the flesh and larvae of alien insects. Impress other Travellers – or Iteration Cronos – with expertly baked Mucal Doughnuts, Seeping Pies, Juicy Thoraxes and many more new dishes.
Living buildings
Very rarely, in sectors where the anomaly field is strongest, planetary buildings have evolved legs and transformed themselves into sentient constructs that roam across the landscape.
Aquatic landing jets
New technology allows starships to land directly on the surface of water, enabling Travellers to dive directly into the sea from the nose of their ships. Starships may also be summoned to the water for a quick escape from the middle of the ocean.
Skylight base parts
Bring the view of the stars into your base with new skylight roofing parts. These new pieces are available for the stone, timber, and alloy construction sets and can be purchased aboard the Space Anomaly.
Atmospheric variety
Planetary atmospheric effects are deeper, richer and more varied, with thick snowfall, flakes of ash and ember, heavy rain, whorls of dust, and storm crystals all visually enhanced.
Vile insect queens
A vile brood of insects has begun to infest planets across the universe. Find and destroy their grubs and then confront the heart of the hostile swarm: their huge, hideous, brood mothers. These colossal lumbering bugs are heavily armoured, and will challenge even the most experienced exterminators with devastating spit attacks.
Quality of life
A significant number of quality of life features have been improved throughout the game.
The docking tractor beam at Space Stations and Freighters is now smoother; reloading can be interrupted to quickly cycle weapon modes; refiners can now be quick-filled with an entire stack of items; core technology can be instantly repaired from the Quick Menu; the range of the Analysis Visor’s Target Sweep has been dramatically improved, and much more – see the full patch notes for more detail.
New gestures
Express yourself with 4 new animated gestures. Browse the Quick Menu to get poised for action, ponder the landscape, fold your arms in readiness, or burst into energetic dance.
Spectacular underwater bases
Build cosy aquatic hideouts – or lavish underwater lairs – and enjoy improved views of the waterline.
DLSS3
Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an NVIDIA technology, available to PC players with compatible RTX cards, which uses a deep learning neural network to boost frame rates and generate beautiful, sharp images.
The latest iteration, DLSS3, multiplies performance by up to 4X compared to traditional rendering, while retaining great image quality. Learn more on the NVIDIA site.
Vile brood nexus mission
The observers aboard the Space Anomaly regret the spread of the vile brood across the universe, their queens and grubs disturbing the delicate balance of local ecosystems. They request that Travellers band together to cull these invasive species and restore balance to nature. Group up with friends or strangers at the Nexus to sign up for this new mission.
Noxious worlds
Venture into totally unexplored toxic climates. These new worlds have horizons alive with alluring but poisonous flora, while the ground underneath your feet bubbles and oozes with living slime.
Colossal insect trophies
Decorate your living space with a set of bughunter trophies, earned by those who do their part in the Liquidator expedition.
Hungering tendril encounters
Test your skills against pumped-up hungering tendrils. Their Many Mouths crave the soft flesh of Travellers, and will now spit acidic projectiles when fighting at range. Your progress in these challenging fights is now tracked with a detailed combat HUD.
Irradiated landscapes
Delve into the twisted forests of new radioactive environments. Irradiated planets are more colourful and diverse than ever, but remain a deadly exploration challenge without the appropriate protective gear.
Insectoid headwear
Hunt and destroy insect queens to earn new player titles and harvest a variety of wearable insect headpieces. Strike terror into your foes with the Broodling Skull, assert your dominance with the Brood Mother’s Maw, or continue the hunt to earn even more…
Minotaur flamethrower
Incinerate enemies with a new flamethrower for the Liquidator armoured mech. This dedicated combat override deals extreme damage at close range.
Burnt worlds
Scorched landscapes have been transformed with a wealth of new and diverse fiery flora, superheated crystals, ash-dusted atmospheres and more.
Night sky variety
Nights are more varied than ever, with a greater range of sky and lighting colours, and darkness levels that vary from world-to-world, from velvety black skies to glowing nightscapes. Light levels will also now change over time as the night progresses.
Blossoming megaflora
New lush worlds have bloomed into life. Discover idyllic garden planets flourishing with exotic alien flowers, perfect for exploration, discovery, or the construction of a beautiful new base.
5.0 Patch notes
SKY AND CLOUD RENDERING
- The atmospheric and volumetric cloud rendering system has been completely rewritten for vastly increased detail and definition.
- Planets now exhibit a greater range of cloud coverage: over time; from planet-to-planet; and in response to weather conditions.
- Planets with rain will no longer use the ambient rain effect when cloud coverage is insufficient.
- Daytime sky colours are now significantly more varied.
- Night-time ambient lighting is no longer always blue, and can vary according to the planet’s natural environment.
- Night-time darkness levels now vary as the night progresses.
- Night-time darkness now varies from planet-to-planet, with some being significantly darker than others.
WATER RENDERING
- Water rendering has been completely overhauled, and now uses a mesh-based system that allows for true wave and foam generation.
- Water conditions vary over time in response to both local weather and the depth of the water at any particular location, producing effects from stormy seas and huge ocean swells to tranquil still ponds.
- Water now reflects the sun and features ambient planetary reflections for dramatically increased visual quality.
- Water colour variety has been significantly increased.
- Base parts with glass now accurately render the water conditions outside.
- Sealed underwater base parts will no longer “leak” water into the base.
- Ships now leave splashes and trails in the water when flying low.
- Underwater jetpack effects have been significantly improved.
- Swimming effects have been significantly improved.
- Starships can now be fitted with aquatic landing jets, allowing them to land or be summoned just above the surface of the ocean.
- A biological equivalent of this technology has been added for living ships.
GENERAL ENGINE IMPROVEMENTS
- The shadow-rendering system has been reworked to take advantage of screenspace shadowing techniques, resulting in more richly lit planets and more accurate and more detailed shadows.
- The rendering of planetary objects such as trees, rocks, and grass has been rewritten and moved to a more modern GPU-based system, allowing for more objects at a better performance.
- Distant planetary objects now look significantly more detailed and realistic.
- Terrain generation has been rewritten to incorporate dual marching cubes voxel meshing, which reduces vertex count, increases terrain generation speed, improves framerate and saves significant amounts of memory.
- The component system has been reworked for increased speed and improved memory usage.
- Networking systems have been improved for reduced bandwidth usage.
- Significant memory and performance optimisations have been made across the entire game, particularly in metadata usage, texture streaming, LOD generation and procedural mesh generation.
DLSS3
- Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an NVIDIA technology, available to
- PC players with compatible RTX cards, which uses a deep learning neural network to boost frame rates and generate beautiful, sharp images.
- Support for the latest iteration, DLSS3, has been added to No Man’s Sky.
- DLSS3 multiplies performance by up to 4X compared to traditional rendering, while retaining great image quality. Learn more on the NVIDIA site.
PLANETARY VARIETY
- Planetary variety and diversity has been increased all across the universe.
- New frozen, lush, desert, scorched, radioactive and toxic worlds await discovery and exploration.
- Underlying terrain shapes have not been reset and existing planetary bases will not be moved.
- The chance of a world having ancient bones or salvageable scrap has been increased.
- Worlds with salvageable scrap occasionally feature additional rusted remnants to collect.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
- The wind simulation has been reworked to bring planets to life and provide a consistent effect across each world, moving trees and leaves, smoke effects, rain, fog, and snow all in a unified system.
- Fogging and particle systems have been improved for increased fidelity and better performance.
- All ambient planetary environment effects have been totally reworked.
- Storm effects have been completely overhauled.
- Planets can now have a range of additional atmospheric effects that match their ambient weather and hazard conditions.
- The visual effects for the jetpack have been overhauled.
- The visual effects for storm crystals have been reworked and improved.
- Footstep effect colouring has been improved.
- Fixed an issue that caused starship contrails to display a low speed.
CREATURES
- A new type of procedurally-generated arthropod-style creature has been added and may appear on any world.
- New types of procedurally-generated plant/animal hybrids have been added and may appear on any world.
- New types of procedurally-generated synthetic constructs can now be found on selected worlds…
- A new type of hostile creature has been added – the Brood Mother.
- Some worlds have become infested with the Vile Brood. On such worlds, players can now find juicy grubs. Structurally harming these grubs will summon the Brood
- Mother to project their young…
- A new multiplayer mission has been added to the Nexus to find and destroy the vile brood.
- Players who defeat brood mothers in combat may earn a variety of new titles and insectoid-themed helmet customisation options.
- Over 40 new cooking recipes have been added, making use of products harvested from new creatures.
- Biological horrors now drop cookable meat when killed.
- When under AI pilot control, the Minotaur will now target and exterminate biological horrors.
- The camera shake generated by the footsteps of colossal creatures has been reduced.
- The “boss battle” style UI used when fighting capital ships is now also used when fighting Sentinel Walkers and the Vessel of Many Mouths, giving extra details about their health and status.
- The Vessel of Many Mouths has been given additional ranged attacks, increasing the challenge of their encounter.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the acquisition of worm-cult story documents from the titan worm’s vile spawn.
LIQUIDATORS EXPEDITION
- Expedition Fourteen, Liquidators, will begin shortly and run for approximately six weeks.
- This expedition invites players to join the force of the Liquidator Vanguard as they seek to purge the universe of biological horrors old and new, including the infestations of the vile brood…
- Rewards include new posters; custom bug-hunting trophies; a unique arthropod-themed jetpack and full set of matching armour.
- All those who do their part and contribute to the community-wide efforts to exterminate the vile brood will earn pieces of the new Liquidator Heavy Exomech Hybrid, a set of heavy-duty armour for the Minotaur.
- Among the enhancements available to the Liquidator Mech is a bespoke flamethrower unit, perfect for heavy damage at close range.
- As the community makes progress in the expedition, the Liquidator Mech will become available at the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion for those unable to take part.
TWITCH CAMPAIGN
- A new package of Twitch drops will begin shortly. Sign up and link your platform accounts on the Twitch Drops page, then tune in to Twitch to earn exotic base parts, high-tech starships, fireworks, appearance modifications, and more.
SOLAR SHIP CUSTOMISATION
- The space station’s Starship Fabricator has been expanded to include the ability to craft Solar-class starships.
BASE PARTS
- A set of slanted skylight-style roof parts have been added for the timber, alloy, and stone construction sets.
- Fixed an issue that could cause base parts to pop in just after loading or warping.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed an issue that caused the Blaze Javelin to always aim at the floor when shooting at Sentinel Quads.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion to chatter constantly whilst being interacted with.
- Fixed a rare issue that could cause player ships to fly extremely slowly while attempting to dock with the Space Anomaly.
- Fixed a number of visual issues with the origin point of the player torch that could cause the Multi-Tool or parts of the player to be lit up inappropriately.
- Fixed an issue that prevented the inventory page from correctly re-opening on your last selected inventory if that inventory was the freighter or any exocraft.
- Fixed a rare issue that could cause bad characters to be written into the user settings data, potentially leading to unexpected behaviour.
- Fixed an issue that caused the player to collide with harvested oxygen-rich plants.
- Fixed an issue that could cause volcanoes to block the ship or player start location when starting a new game on a volcanic world.
- Fixed an issue that could prevent NPCs from spawning on freighters.
- Fixed an issue that prevented New Beginnings entries from appearing in the Stories catalogue.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Gamma option to appear on PC or Mac while using an OS-level graphics configuration that prevented it from doing anything.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the Assembled Construct aboard the Space Anomaly to produce an inappropriate prop while idling.
- Fixed a number of visual issues with Korvax helmets.
- Fixed a number of issues that could cause procedural textures to appear too light.
- Fixed a memory leak that could occur when changing resolution on PC.
- Fixed a memory trample related to wind generation.
- Fixed a number of rare memory tramples.
- Fixed a number of rare crashes related to reading player stats.
- Fixed a number of issues related to synching freighters in multiplayer.
- Fixed a memory trample related to texture generation.
- Fixed a number of issues related to reloading the current save.
- Fixed a large number of issues related to invalid numbers being used in physics calculations.
- Fixed an issue that could cause some specific space-only markers to appear when not in space.
- Fixed an issue that could cause discoveries made during an expedition to fail to transfer correctly to (or to overwrite) the discoveries list in the main save.
- Fixed a rare issue that could cause expeditions to begin with incorrect data, blocking progress.
- Fixed an issue that could prevent fleet frigates from being repaired when damaged.
- Fixed a number of collision issues aboard combat frigates.
- Fixed an issue in the base Armourer mission that could prevent progress if space combat is disabled.
- Fixed a large number of input bugs when using touch screen interfaces such as the SteamDeck or Switch.
- Fixed a large number of issues that prevented various controls from being correctly remapped.
UI AND QUALITY OF LIFE
- Previously named / uploaded discoveries can now be renamed and reuploaded.
- Fixed a large number of camera and animation issues when getting in or out of starship cockpits in first person.
- Several new gestures have been added to the Quick Menu, including an additional dance.
- The hazardous flora that litter some worlds have been tweaked for better visibility, better damage messaging, more consistent labelling, and more appropriate amounts of camera shake.
- The camera shake menu setting will now correctly reduce the shake from damage impacts.
- The active Multi-Tool mode can now be cycled while reloading (which will cancel any active reload in progress).
- Fixed an issue with the Target Sweep system that, when searching for planetary objects, would fail to detect many viable options and instead display “Signal too weak for distance estimate”.
- Space station and freighter docking has been reworked for a more pleasant docking experience, with less unnecessary rotation and smoother movement.
- Refiner slots can now be quick-filled with an entire stack, as an alternative to using the drag and drop system that allows fine control over the amount placed.
- When core chargeable technology (such as hazard protection) has been damaged, it is now added as a Quick Repair option to the Quick Menu.
- Maintenance and repair interactions have had their UI improved for visual polish and improved visibility.
- The interaction labels have been reworked for visual polish and responsiveness.
- The text and font usage on the starship’s targeting reticle has been improved.
- Input when using touch screen interfaces such as the SteamDeck or Switch has been refined across the board.
- Missions that suggest summoning the Space Anomaly from the quick menu will now always use the correct icon.
- Multiplayer missions will now use their correct icon for the hand-in stage at the Nexus.
- Improved the text colouring in detailed mission messages.
- The text chat message sent automatically when in need of resources now correctly reflects if this need is for repairing an item.
- Fixed a number of text clipping issues.
- Fixed an issue that prevented Cream Fingers from being edible.
- Fixed an issue that caused biscuit recipes (and a number of additional niche items) to be absent from the catalogue.