- Joined
- April 12, 2009
- Messages
- 23,459
IMO the best "storyline", each point goes in it's separate post and is linked so just click on it, please do not skip steps:
1. Lollygagging to get familiar with the game (it's this post)
2. Getting the second multi tool and shaking your money maker
3. Expanding inventory
4. Unlocking Stargates and preparing for getting a billion of $
5. Farming investment money and nanites for modules through missions
6. Getting S class multitool (with build)
7. Making 1 billion of $ and completing exosuit build
8. Getting S class hauler (with build) and S class frigate
9. Finalizing the anomaly (Polo and Nada) main quest
10. Additional notes
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Lollygagging to get familiar with the game
First things first, the forum search will dismiss "no man's sky" or "nms". So if someone needs this in the future, search for "tips" in thread titles.
God's beard dealt with, lemme talk about actual game stuff.
UI and controls
Because of stupid mushrooms centric game there are two menus. Of course, mushrooms bring atrocious designs with them so you'll use tab to deal with inventory and tech (exosuit/ship/mako/freighter) but to access journal, discoveries and useless guide you have to press esc and go to log. On the same esc menu there is game load, game exit and options. No, this is not a joke. Why is this a hint? Because we need to go to options for two next things.
- The update called "next" activated mmo idiocy by default. For what? For griefers. Screw them all and go to Options -> Network and Voice -> Network Play turn to OFF. Sure, once you get yourself a nice and shiny S class fleet fully equipped… I won't ever activate it (unless JDR needs me for something), but you can go bragg around and kill newbs over and over.
- While at options do yourself a favor and drop mouse sensitivity for flight at least by 10. Just for flight. Below that you'll see flight controls set to tethered. Trust me you want to ditch this design fail bullshit - switch that option to fixed.
- The game contains Sims/FO4 base building style. To start building something you need to press Z (or Y depending on keyboard setup).
However it happens you want to remove a "block", some wall for example (all ress return back in your inventory when you do that). The game doesn't tell you, but you need to hold CTRL while in build menu. WTF, right?
- Most of information about the world you're getting from your Analysis Visor applied on the multi-tool by holding F and that is okay. You want to check a planet info without looking into discoveries? Hold F while aiming at any nonscannable point of a planet. Need info on a space station? Hold F pointing at it's interior. Need info on a ship, by that I mean class, price and slots? Hold F pointing at a ship (won't work if a ship is currently descending/parking, but it's okay).
It however doesn't work while you're flying thus you can't "scan" a freighter for example. Is this supposed to be a joke?
Frigates got damaged? No, you can't know what needs to be repaired by any means nor fix it remotely, you need to fly to a frigate and fix several stuff 1 by 1.
These above are just examples. Dunno about console audience this game aims at, but I don't want to waste my time on mundanity!
- I'm saying whomever designed general user interface needs to be kicked out of games industry. The most irritating part of UI is not trading screen, no, believe me it's not (Q/E being worthless so stick with left mouse button hold while selling/buying).
It's the list of teleport portal star bases and your bases. So you're on some system's base and will go through a portal somewhere else, there is no info on the portal where exactly you currently are. No, you have either to go in discovery menu (P) or scan the base (hold F) to see the name of the star base (or system) where you currently are. Additionally, the teleport portal sorts systems by god knows what criteria so you're never sure what's where unless you wrote it in some notebook. The hint is - before starting NMS, prepare tons of paper and a pencil. You'll need it.
- Soon after you start building your base and receiving blueprints from base computer, you'll be able to build storage containers. Each can store 5 different item types, but you can build 10 of these.
These containters are linked to your freighter - normally you can send anything to frighter's inventory from anywhere, you can't take anything back unless you are on the very same freighter. However, you can, if standing close to storage containers, "transport" anything from freighter's inventory to these containers without being on the freighter. The story gets even more complicated - to access the list of all items in storage containers you need to press X on any empty slot in your exosuit inventory. Design crimes at it's best!
Is there a mod that fixes any of this UI bullshit? The answer is sadly - no.
Explore mindlessly or chase quests?
- This game ain't Skyrim. So don't explore aimlessly expecting to find something worth your time spent earlygame. Follow quests. Quests and missions reward you with new blueprints not available anywhere else. One thing though. If a quest says craft something, do it only if it's a part of a quest chain ("expand base" for example), if it's a standalone mission, ignore it.
Mild spoilers:
- Atlas main questline - don't just leave at the end but choose to make a certain thing. Only that way you'll get a certain blueprint.
- Anomaly questline - from Nada (who gives nada) pick Atlas help only once. All other times pick aid which will be a module you can "install" then destroy for some resources. From Polo doesn't even matter what you'll ask for, it's all junk, what matters are blueprints he gives each time you solve a milestone he tasks you with (you can't get these blueprints elsewhere!).
- Artemis questline - choose upload and not to kill. Upload will give you all 16 glyphs (wtf am I talking about, right?) for free, kill will punish you in a way you'll need waste weeks on glyphs search and additionally pay each with 100 nanintes! Also, at the end of this questline, refuse the offer so the community Stargate (not sure if SG1, Atlantis or Universe) coordinates work. WTF again, right? Well, just refuse. Okay?
- Expanding base (side)questline - should be main quest too so do it asap. Sometimes gets bugged and points on a random computer in your planet bases - to avoid it's reset to previous step just be at your homebase when you select it in the log.
- You can build one base on every planet. Once you unlock teleport travel (did I mention quests?) travelling in between teleport portals will make reaching anything easy peasy. Note that you will unlock teleport portal blueprint BEFORE you can travel through it. To gain ability to travel through it… Quests. Okay?
Bases and crafting
- Where is best to put a new base (if)? Always place it near any small settlement. Especially if there is a cave near it (to make sure you can always grind some cobalt earlygame)! At certain point you'll get a questline of building underwater bases, at that point just build one base near water (fast getting underwater animal photos for missions).
- So you got yourself a weapon master in your base (note that he'll be at any armor table in any base where you place it). His final quest is bugged. There is a workaround, but you need to have at least one more base - with a teleport portal. So even if you can't travel through portals yet, make sure you built a new base somewhere… Near a cave with cobalt and small settlement.
Anyway, the bugged quest sends sentinels on your arse and you need to kill 8 to finish it. But the counter gets stuck. So kill one, use portal to the second base, kill one there too, return through the portal, then kill again one… Once you kill 8 of them that way the quest will be solved.
- I mentioned cobalt, why would someone need that bull early? Yea… Also on planets you'll find something called drop pods. These can improve your exosuit if repaired and early game you can't have enough ress to improve it different ways (visiting numerous space stations). Often a NPC on any space station will point you towards one of such pods, and you may find more of those on any planet (portable signal sweeper and search for nearby buildings sometimes reveals another, but I'll cover how to be sure it does in another post).
- You did what a quest needs but it doesn't react? Remember, this is mushrooms centered consoley horrible designs trash. To make a quest reacting, you need either to select the quest in the log that for example needs you to gather 100 copper where you have 34785634789563978456 in inventory but it still doesn't budge unless you select it, or check the crafting guide part in the journal. Guide my arse.
- Well that moronic ingame so called guide will tell you details about discovered items blueprint. But you see, there is some stuff you need and don't have.
You'll have tons of ferrite dust earlygame, but for some stuff, for example base roof, you need magnetised ferrite. You will have a refiner and it will turn ferrite dust into pure ferrite, but then you'll ask how the hell to magnetize it? No need to think much, you'll refine pure ferrite ofc. But the bloody game has absolutely no info what refines into what and on top of that there is no ingame database that'll tell you what combinations refined together output some rare stuff.
Don't be me.
Don't waste time hours on experimenting, just say screw it and use the table from wiki:
https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Refiner
Another material everyone who just started the game should read IMO is this great guide on Steam: NEXT Basic Starting Guide
If you're already familiar with the game, breeze through it just to catch if there is something you might have missed.
1. Lollygagging to get familiar with the game (it's this post)
2. Getting the second multi tool and shaking your money maker
3. Expanding inventory
4. Unlocking Stargates and preparing for getting a billion of $
5. Farming investment money and nanites for modules through missions
6. Getting S class multitool (with build)
7. Making 1 billion of $ and completing exosuit build
8. Getting S class hauler (with build) and S class frigate
9. Finalizing the anomaly (Polo and Nada) main quest
10. Additional notes
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Lollygagging to get familiar with the game
First things first, the forum search will dismiss "no man's sky" or "nms". So if someone needs this in the future, search for "tips" in thread titles.
God's beard dealt with, lemme talk about actual game stuff.
UI and controls
Because of stupid mushrooms centric game there are two menus. Of course, mushrooms bring atrocious designs with them so you'll use tab to deal with inventory and tech (exosuit/ship/mako/freighter) but to access journal, discoveries and useless guide you have to press esc and go to log. On the same esc menu there is game load, game exit and options. No, this is not a joke. Why is this a hint? Because we need to go to options for two next things.
- The update called "next" activated mmo idiocy by default. For what? For griefers. Screw them all and go to Options -> Network and Voice -> Network Play turn to OFF. Sure, once you get yourself a nice and shiny S class fleet fully equipped… I won't ever activate it (unless JDR needs me for something), but you can go bragg around and kill newbs over and over.
- While at options do yourself a favor and drop mouse sensitivity for flight at least by 10. Just for flight. Below that you'll see flight controls set to tethered. Trust me you want to ditch this design fail bullshit - switch that option to fixed.
- The game contains Sims/FO4 base building style. To start building something you need to press Z (or Y depending on keyboard setup).
However it happens you want to remove a "block", some wall for example (all ress return back in your inventory when you do that). The game doesn't tell you, but you need to hold CTRL while in build menu. WTF, right?
- Most of information about the world you're getting from your Analysis Visor applied on the multi-tool by holding F and that is okay. You want to check a planet info without looking into discoveries? Hold F while aiming at any nonscannable point of a planet. Need info on a space station? Hold F pointing at it's interior. Need info on a ship, by that I mean class, price and slots? Hold F pointing at a ship (won't work if a ship is currently descending/parking, but it's okay).
It however doesn't work while you're flying thus you can't "scan" a freighter for example. Is this supposed to be a joke?
Frigates got damaged? No, you can't know what needs to be repaired by any means nor fix it remotely, you need to fly to a frigate and fix several stuff 1 by 1.
These above are just examples. Dunno about console audience this game aims at, but I don't want to waste my time on mundanity!
- I'm saying whomever designed general user interface needs to be kicked out of games industry. The most irritating part of UI is not trading screen, no, believe me it's not (Q/E being worthless so stick with left mouse button hold while selling/buying).
It's the list of teleport portal star bases and your bases. So you're on some system's base and will go through a portal somewhere else, there is no info on the portal where exactly you currently are. No, you have either to go in discovery menu (P) or scan the base (hold F) to see the name of the star base (or system) where you currently are. Additionally, the teleport portal sorts systems by god knows what criteria so you're never sure what's where unless you wrote it in some notebook. The hint is - before starting NMS, prepare tons of paper and a pencil. You'll need it.
- Soon after you start building your base and receiving blueprints from base computer, you'll be able to build storage containers. Each can store 5 different item types, but you can build 10 of these.
These containters are linked to your freighter - normally you can send anything to frighter's inventory from anywhere, you can't take anything back unless you are on the very same freighter. However, you can, if standing close to storage containers, "transport" anything from freighter's inventory to these containers without being on the freighter. The story gets even more complicated - to access the list of all items in storage containers you need to press X on any empty slot in your exosuit inventory. Design crimes at it's best!
Is there a mod that fixes any of this UI bullshit? The answer is sadly - no.
Explore mindlessly or chase quests?
- This game ain't Skyrim. So don't explore aimlessly expecting to find something worth your time spent earlygame. Follow quests. Quests and missions reward you with new blueprints not available anywhere else. One thing though. If a quest says craft something, do it only if it's a part of a quest chain ("expand base" for example), if it's a standalone mission, ignore it.
Mild spoilers:
- Atlas main questline - don't just leave at the end but choose to make a certain thing. Only that way you'll get a certain blueprint.
- Anomaly questline - from Nada (who gives nada) pick Atlas help only once. All other times pick aid which will be a module you can "install" then destroy for some resources. From Polo doesn't even matter what you'll ask for, it's all junk, what matters are blueprints he gives each time you solve a milestone he tasks you with (you can't get these blueprints elsewhere!).
- Artemis questline - choose upload and not to kill. Upload will give you all 16 glyphs (wtf am I talking about, right?) for free, kill will punish you in a way you'll need waste weeks on glyphs search and additionally pay each with 100 nanintes! Also, at the end of this questline, refuse the offer so the community Stargate (not sure if SG1, Atlantis or Universe) coordinates work. WTF again, right? Well, just refuse. Okay?
- Expanding base (side)questline - should be main quest too so do it asap. Sometimes gets bugged and points on a random computer in your planet bases - to avoid it's reset to previous step just be at your homebase when you select it in the log.
- You can build one base on every planet. Once you unlock teleport travel (did I mention quests?) travelling in between teleport portals will make reaching anything easy peasy. Note that you will unlock teleport portal blueprint BEFORE you can travel through it. To gain ability to travel through it… Quests. Okay?
Bases and crafting
- Where is best to put a new base (if)? Always place it near any small settlement. Especially if there is a cave near it (to make sure you can always grind some cobalt earlygame)! At certain point you'll get a questline of building underwater bases, at that point just build one base near water (fast getting underwater animal photos for missions).
- So you got yourself a weapon master in your base (note that he'll be at any armor table in any base where you place it). His final quest is bugged. There is a workaround, but you need to have at least one more base - with a teleport portal. So even if you can't travel through portals yet, make sure you built a new base somewhere… Near a cave with cobalt and small settlement.
Anyway, the bugged quest sends sentinels on your arse and you need to kill 8 to finish it. But the counter gets stuck. So kill one, use portal to the second base, kill one there too, return through the portal, then kill again one… Once you kill 8 of them that way the quest will be solved.
- I mentioned cobalt, why would someone need that bull early? Yea… Also on planets you'll find something called drop pods. These can improve your exosuit if repaired and early game you can't have enough ress to improve it different ways (visiting numerous space stations). Often a NPC on any space station will point you towards one of such pods, and you may find more of those on any planet (portable signal sweeper and search for nearby buildings sometimes reveals another, but I'll cover how to be sure it does in another post).
- You did what a quest needs but it doesn't react? Remember, this is mushrooms centered consoley horrible designs trash. To make a quest reacting, you need either to select the quest in the log that for example needs you to gather 100 copper where you have 34785634789563978456 in inventory but it still doesn't budge unless you select it, or check the crafting guide part in the journal. Guide my arse.
- Well that moronic ingame so called guide will tell you details about discovered items blueprint. But you see, there is some stuff you need and don't have.
You'll have tons of ferrite dust earlygame, but for some stuff, for example base roof, you need magnetised ferrite. You will have a refiner and it will turn ferrite dust into pure ferrite, but then you'll ask how the hell to magnetize it? No need to think much, you'll refine pure ferrite ofc. But the bloody game has absolutely no info what refines into what and on top of that there is no ingame database that'll tell you what combinations refined together output some rare stuff.
Don't be me.
Don't waste time hours on experimenting, just say screw it and use the table from wiki:
https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Refiner
Another material everyone who just started the game should read IMO is this great guide on Steam: NEXT Basic Starting Guide
If you're already familiar with the game, breeze through it just to catch if there is something you might have missed.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 23,459
