No Man's Sky NEXT: 8 New Features You Need To Know

No Man’s Sky NEXT changes almost every aspect of the original game, adding deeper systems and more content for eager space-explorers to find in the vast procedurally-generated universe. It can be overwhelming, whether you’re a new astronaut or a returning veteran. To help you get a grip on everything that’s new in the game, we’re breaking down the most important additions.

There’s a whole lot more to discover than this, but we don’t want to spoil everything. He’s just the most straightforward stuff — with plenty of details to help explain exactly how these features change the game in a significant way. Multiplayer is in, but there are drawbacks. The economy has been enhanced, but some of your old stuff might not work anymore. There are new alien threats, and you can earn rewards for fighting them. There’s a lot to unpack, so let’s get started with the biggest, most obvious change to the entire NMS ecosystem.

#1: Multiplayer Is In, But There Are Limitations

Yes, you can finally explore the galaxy with a friend or two. You’ll be able to visit the same planets and experience the wildlife, but this isn’t a truly cooperative experience. You can trade, but you need to be close to your trading partner — this is incredibly helpful if you’ve got well-stocked friends. If you’re running low on a particular resource, you can just hop into the inventory menu and transfer items to a pal. It’s very easy, but not everything works that way.

For example, objectives for missions are locked to each specific player. If you want to share a quest with a friend, they’ll need to follow you manually — you can also place markers that everyone can see. Tagging an object or location is a simple way to direct all other players in multiplayer to the same location. Other features are a little weird in multiplayer; weather conditions aren’t shared, friendly-fire is always active, and you won’t respawn near your friends if you die.

#2: Multiplayer Missions Give You (And Your Friends) Something To Do Together

Objectives are unique to each character for standard missions, but there is one type of mission every can enjoy together — multiplayer missions. These are unique, new additions to No Man’s Sky. They’re very simple quests, essentially asking you to complete a basic task a certain amount of times. Be it scans, harvesting, or destruction — they take a long time, so you’ll usually need a team just to accomplish these missions in a (relatively) reasonable amount of time.

Nicely, you don’t actually have to be online or in multiplayer to join these missions. You can complete them solo, all by yourself, if you’re looking for something to do — or if you need to clean up your quest list.