After months of anticipation, No Man’s Sky latest update has dropped.
The major update brings VR support to the 2016 space survival game, as well as reworked multiplayer and a host of new features. Hello Games are calling it the games’s biggest update yet, while the press are crowning it ‘No Man’s Sky 2.0’. it’s official name however, is Beyond.
The patch notes were revealed earlier today, fully revealing the scale of this update. In this article we’ll go over the main changes.
VR Support
When Hello Games first announced Beyond the headlining feature was VR support, which is available on PSVR and PC VR headsets. The game was listed to be compatible with the Valve Index. Now, players can finally blast away space rocks with VR.
The patch notes state the game has “fully fledged multiplayer support” and even has exclusive looks to the HUD and menus. You will also have the ability to grab objects, open ship cockpits manually, control your ship using a virtual joystick and even channel your inner Steve and punch objects, including space trees.
Aforementioned, No Man’s Sky VR will be available on PSVR and PC Headsets, and can be enabled “seamlessly”. You will also be able to play with your friends who aren’t in VR, as well as with other people in multiplayer.
Multiplayer
The other headliner of Beyond is the reworked multiplayer functionality which remained shrouded in mystery up until the days before Beyond’s release. The update adds the Nexus: a social hub for players, previously used by Nada and Polo to guide players through the game. Now, the floating orb has been given a renovation, as well as a set of fresh faces. Players can dock inside the station and meet other players.
Multiplayer-specific missions can also be undertaken in which you’ll have to work with other players to complete tasks such as raiding depots and building bases.
Player capacity has been altered to accommodate the Nexus. On consoles, the amount of players in a session has been bumped from 4 to 8. On PC, it’s 4 to 32.
Other changes
Hello Games calls Beyond their biggest update yet, and for good reason. A whole host of features and quality of live improvements have been implemented. There’s too many to list, but we’ll go over the key changes.
Technology trees have been added for upgrades, meaning you’ll be able to clearly see what you’re changing for your character/ship/exocraft/base. The new layout helps makes things clearer, and it looks pretty slick.
The mining system has been radically overhauled, allowing for “longer stretches of uninterrupted mining”. Inventory limits have been reduced considerably, and new recipes have been added to “alleviate grinding”.
Perhaps the most exciting change for explorer players is the revamp of the discovery page, which now displays everything in an active way. Planets can be viewed from the page, as well as fauna, flora and minerals. The galaxy map has also enjoyed some changes, with galaxies now being shown in more detail.
A major feature added is the ability to ride creatures by baiting them and eventually taming them. This saves the hassle of conjuring materials for exocrafts. In addition to taming, you will now be able to milk animals and create Michelin-star worthy recipes.
Of course it wouldn’t be an update without changes to base building. In Beyond, power is now available, granting players the option to create electrical contraptions.
Oh, and NPCs walk around now.
I can’t stress enough how much more has been added; I recommend reading the patch notes here.
No Man’s Sky is out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.