No Man's Sky: Atlas Rising - How to Start The Story | Awakening Mission Guide

Update 1.3, the “Atlas Rising” update for No Man’s Sky includes tons of features that bring the beleaguered game one step closer to the original vision. Enhanced biomes, limited cooperative multiplayer, and fast-travel portals are all included — but here, we’re focusing on the new “Awakening” missions.

“Awakening” is the name of the new story. The developers of No Man’s Sky, Hello Games, say the new missions add 30+ hours of story content to the game. Even if you’ve finished the Base Missions, the Hyperdrive Missions, and all those other starter objectives, you can still access Awakening.

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How to Start The Story | Awakening Mission Guide

The new No Man’s Sky story, added in Update 1.3 “Atlas Rising”, plays out as you complete Awakening Missions. These are special story quests — and some players are having trouble getting these quests to pop-up in their quest queue.

To get the first Awakening mission…
- After building the Hyperdrive, jump to different Star Systems repeatedly.
- Eventually, as you enter a new Star System, you’ll be messaged while in your cockpit.
- The first Awakening mission will unlock.

That’s all it takes. A little bit of travel will earn the first mission. If you’ve already built your base and don’t want to wander too far, it’s easy to miss out on the new missions.

There are more tiny story beats to progress and discover in-game; you’ll find faction quests, and more story can be unlocked from abandoned structures. Abandoned structures are waypoints on your map that can be found through exploration, or using the Exocraft Signal Booster. There are hostile plants and strange growths located inside — if you’ve ever found one of these mysterious locations, Hello Games says they’re about to be a lot more important.