No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games has released a new free update — its 20th free update overall — called Endurance that overhauls freighters, adds new visual effects for things like black holes and nebulae, and introduces a new expedition. While there are a bunch of different odds and ends to the new update, the changes to freighters are perhaps the biggest.
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“Freighter bases have been completely reinvented, with a huge array of new parts and themed rooms allowing players to quickly assemble a visually varied and distinctive home in the stars,” the description of No Man’s Sky‘s Endurance update reads in part. “These pre-decorated rooms can be further customised, or players can use empty room variants and take total control over decoration.”
You can check out the full No Man’s Sky 3.94 patch notes, straight from the source, below:
CAPITAL SHIPS
Capital ship hangars have been visually updated, with additional details, features, NPCs and VFX.
The freighter bridge has been visually refreshed with new lighting, VFX and detailing.
A teleporter has been added for instant access between the freighter hangar and the bridge.
The mandatory corridor in freighter bases has been removed, allowing players to fully customise their freighter base layout.
Freighter exteriors have been updated with enhanced textures and detailing.
Your freighter is now displayed within the warp tunnel when making a jump between systems.
Lighting and shadow quality throughout freighter bases has been significantly improved.
Players may now warp directly from their fleet management terminal to any individual frigate. New terminals have been added to frigates to allow quick return to the freighter bridge.
Markers are now placed on Fleet Command Terminals in need of debriefing.
Players may now teleport to their freighter base from any other base or space station teleport terminus.
Capital ship engines can now be customised from the existing freighter recolouring UI, accessed on the bridge.
Capital ships can be now reset to their default colours.
The customisation camera for freighters has been improved with better lighting and a wider viewing angle for large ships.
Player-constructed freighter bases are now populated dynamically by specialised crew members, as well as hired squadron pilots and frigate captains.
Freighter crew can now move around the base.
Freighter crew periodically display thoughts related to their current task.
Non-player freighters now come with a variety of pre-existing bases.
Freighters now have a Cargo Hold inventory, allowing the storage of even more items.
A new technology, the Singularity Engine, has been added for freighters. This powerful warp augmentation is activated by speaking to the freighter’s captain, and will slingshot the freighter through a wormhole.
The visual quality of salvaged freighter technology icons has been significantly improved.
Players may now summon their freighter while the Pulse Engine is active.
Freighter landing and takeoff trajectories have been improved to prevent accidental docking.
Players are no longer blocked from summoning their freighter if another player has their freighter active.
Players can now dismiss their own freighter in order to visit the freighter base of another group member.
FREIGHTER BASE COMPONENTS
Freighter base building has been totally overhauled. Players now have access to a variety of pre-built room modules (which they can further customise).
Rooms come in a variety of pre-decorated themes, allowing players to quickly assemble a visually varied and distinctive base.
Empty room variants are available for players who wish to more manually customise their freighter base.
Existing freighter bases have been preserved, and legacy freighter parts are fully compatible with the new pieces.
New freighter rooms include:
- The Scanner Room, which pings all nearby planets and automatically discovers them.
- Single and Double Cultivation Chambers, which allow players to plant directly into the room itself. Cultivation Chambers come with the ability to mass-harvest nearby plants.
- A Nutrition Room, allowing players access to cooking facilities while on board.
- The Stellar Extractor, a specialist manufacturing unit that extracts a variety of resources from the interstellar medium.
Additional rooms have been added to replicate existing base functionality, but in room-sized modules:
- A dedicated Galactic Trade Terminal room, allowing quick access to trade facilities.
- A Teleport Room, allowing players to teleport from their freighter, as well as return via any other teleportation terminus.
- The Appearance Modifier Room, for player customisation.
- The Fleet Command Room, for managing frigate fleet expeditions.
- All the terminals for Base Specialists, such as the Overseer.
- The Orbital Exocraft Materialiser, which allows players to summon any of their Exocraft while their freighter is in the system.
- A specialist large industrial refiner room.
- Storage Rooms, with access to stowed materials.
Players can now place exterior windows in their freighter bases, allowing a view through into the stars.
Players can place internal windowed walls to divide up their base into aesthetically pleasing sections.
Players can now place doors in their freighter bases, both between rooms and out to the exterior of their freighter.
A variety of catwalks and exterior viewing platforms are now available to build within and around the freighter base.
Freighter corridors now come in both plain and glass versions.
Freighter corridors now come as one dedicated part that will automatically bend or add additional doors in order to connect to nearby rooms.
ORGANIC SHIPS AND FRIGATES
Players with a frigate fleet may now receive plans for a Dream Aerial from a successful fleet expedition.
Constructing the Dream Aerial will grant players access to a new mission to unite with an organic frigate. This living vessel will be customised according to the player’s choices while on this mission.
Players can continue to discover additional organic frigates to fill out their fleet.
Organic frigates come in a variety of procedurally generated colours and tentacle configurations.
Players can feed their organic frigates various cooked foodstuffs. Feeding the frigate will adjust its mood and may cause it to generate new abilities or traits.
Sending a living frigate on a fleet expedition has a chance of generating a special anomalous event result.
Anomalous fleet expedition results result in various organic implants for living starships.
Living ship upgrades have been adjusted. Procedurally generated weapon modules now do more damage, and the Grafted Eyes can now leech energy from enemy starships.
Living ships can now evolve Neural Shielding, granting them the ability to resist hostile cargo probes.
Living ships can now evolve a Chloroplast Membrane, which will automatically recharge its Neural Assembly using sunlight.
Living ships can now evolve a Wormhole Brain, which allows them sight into the economy and conflict levels of unvisited systems on the Galaxy Map.
Players may now acquire and use a Spawning Sac to add additional inventory slots to their living ships.
Fixed an issue that could cause living ship upgrades to choose a lower quality band than intended.
Fixed an issue that prevented procedurally generated living ship upgrades from automatically selecting the starship inventory page when deployed.
BASE BUILDING
Base parts which automatically switch between hidden variants (such as visually distinct parts for the top/middle/bottom of walls, or the freighter corridor that automatically bends and adds doorways to form connections) can now be placed manually. Relevant parts are marked within the base building menu and can be expanded to view all variants.
While in editing mode, pre-existing parts can be now swapped out for any other part that matches its placement conditions, allowing bases to be quickly altered without having to delete and replace parts.
Players may now quickly toggle between placement and selection mode even when no part was previously selected from the list of parts.
Quick cycling parts within placement mode now displays the name of the newly selected part.
A number of base building error messages have been edited for clarity.
Many decorative parts that were not previously available to build on a freighter are now accessible in the build menu.
ByteBeat modules can now be built on board freighters.
Short-Range Teleporters can now be built within a freighter base.
Lights now automatically receive power on board freighters.
Freighter base part deletion now more strictly checks player navigation, fixing a number of cases where players could find themselves accidentally falling into space when deleting parts.
The freighter base now has a walkable bottom level, allowing players who intentionally jetpack out of their base an opportunity to recover to safety.
Players may now toggle snapping and collision checks when placing decoration on their freighter base, allowing more freedom and flexibility in construction.
While on a freighter, the preview hologram is now visible behind other objects, allowing players to more easily preview the location of new rooms and corridors.
Fixed a number of visual glitches with the preview hologram.
Fixed a number of visual issues and glitches with wiring.
Objects that are moved or deleted now clean up their attached wires.
Storage Containers now display their custom name (if applicable) in the Build Menu.
Biofuel Generators now provide power for a significantly longer amount of time.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Ceiling Light part from being powered correctly.
The Archaic Habitation Heater now actually provides protection against extreme cold.
VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS & SPACE ATMOSPHERICS
The planetary decoration system has been significantly optimised and improved, allowing props, plantlife, rocks and other objects to be drawn at both far greater distances and at a higher quality.
Planetary objects such as trees and rocks are now visible from low orbit.
Players may now encounter storms and other space atmospherics while in asteroids fields, in open space, or when encountering derelict freighters in deep space.
Players may now encounter brightly coloured nebulae while exploring deep space.
Black hole visuals have been overhauled and significantly improved.
Derelict freighters VFXs have been significantly improved. Existing environmental and combat effects have been enhanced, and additional atmospheric details have been added.
Atmospheric effects have been added and enhanced within the space station.
Starship landing and takeoff effects have been improved.
ASTEROIDS
Asteroid draw distance has been significantly increased.
Asteroid field density has been significantly increased.
Individual steroid visual detail and variety has been greatly increased.
Asteroid destruction effects have been improved.
Players may now encounter systems with a large number of rare crystalline asteroids.
Players may now occasionally disturb the nest of strange space creatures when destroying asteroids.
Passing starships may now enter asteroids fields alongside players and begin mining nearby asteroids.
Asteroid density patterns have been adjusted so that there are larger areas of space with few to no asteroids.
Players can now use the starship’s scanner to locate nearby fuel-rich asteroids, in the event of an adverse fuel situation when outside of an asteroid field.
Fixed a number of issues that could cause asteroids to intersect with other objects, such as freighters.
The rewards for destroying rare asteroids have been improved.
MISSIONS
A new class of mission is available at the Nexus. Work together to raid a Sentinel Pillar and defend a planet from the constant threat of the Sentinels.
Players can now take on a new combat mission from the Nexus to visit an infested planet and purge it of its infection.
Players visiting infested planets may now occasionally stumble upon the hungering tentacles of the many-mouthed vessel…
Infested planets now have an increased chance of titan worm activity.
QUALITY OF LIFE
Players can now reposition items within storage container inventories.
Fixed a number of issues that prevented full access to certain inventories when using UI popups.
Players may now deploy upgrades to their fleet expedition from any inventory.
The freighter inventory screen has been adjusted to better fit the model of the player’s freighter.
A new starship technology, the Flight Assist Override, is now available from Iteration Hyperion aboard the Space Anomaly. This module reduces the effect of automatic trajectory correction while flying in space.
Procedurally generated upgrades for the Analysis Visor may now generate bonuses for mineral discovery rewards, matching the existing upgrades for flora and fauna.
Increased the number of stat bonuses available to illegal-grade procedural technology upgrades.
Reduced the spread between maximum and minimum stat values for Positron Ejector procedural upgrades.
Players can now adjust the sensitivity of cursor controls as well as look and flight sensitivities.
The “Combat” section of the guide has new, more in-style icons.
Combat frigates deployed from the fleet to assist the player in space combat now launch specialised ships with their own visual flair to help distinguish them while in flight.
Pirate raid frequency has been reduced.
Fixed an issue that could cause pirate and Sentinel attack timers to reset each other, resulting in too many hostile incidents in space.
The base speed and acceleration of the unupgraded Nautilon has been increased. Upgrades have been proportionally decreased as appropriate to keep overall upgrade effectiveness in the same range as before.
Procedurally generated technologies for the Nautilon now give more generous fuel usage reduction bonuses.
Fixed a number of issues that prevented Exocraft and Nautilon scanners from revealing nearby planetary objects as intended.
These scanners should now reveal not only standard scanner resources, but also other objects of interest usually identified via the Analysis Visor.
Increased the amount of time objects are marked by the Exocraft and Nautilon scanners.
The stack size of Creature Pellets has been increased.
Viewing player companions through the Analysis Visor now displays more specific information.
The Multi-Tool and starship reticles now display overheat and ammo warnings.
Early-game Sentinel waves have been adjusted to be slightly fewer in number.
When selling items to technology merchants, prices are now correctly listed in nanites.
The space station scrap merchant’s shop now displays your current Tainted Metal reserves.
Building Part item popups have been slimmed down to cut out unnecessary information.
TWITCH CAMPAIGN
Earn an exciting and varied set of in-game rewards by watching streams of No Man’s Sky on Twitch. Full details of how to sign up are available on the Twitch Drops page here.
POLESTAR EXPEDITION
Expedition Eight, Polestar, will begin soon.
The Polestar expedition will take players on a cruise across the galaxy in their capital ship, forsaking starship warping and planetary base building in favour of the life of a heavy shipping freighter captain.
The Polestar expedition offers the chance to earn an exclusive freighter engine customisation; new base parts (including a flaming barrel); a unique cape design; a mysterious jellyfish companion; and much more besides.
Players who have entirely completed an expedition may now end the expedition early and convert the save to normal mode.
BUG FIXES
Fixed a crash that could occur when dying while using PSVR on a PS4 Pro console.
Fixed a crash that could occur while warping inside another player’s freighter.
Fixed a starship-related crash that could occur while warping.
Fixed a number of crashes that could occur while using the trade UI.
Fixed a PC-only physics crash.
Fixed an issue that allowed invalid teleport destinations to be entered into the list of teleport destinations.
Fixed an issue that could cause Nexus missions to list an incorrect amount in their objectives preview on the mission board.
Fixed an issue that prevented missions from correctly counting items located within the Nutrient Processor’s ingredient storage inventory.
Fixed an issue that could cause items awarded or salvaged while using the freighter to be deposited in an incorrect inventory.
Fixed an issue that caused various base and technology parts to be clipped off the side of the screen while viewing upgrade trees.
Fixed a large number of miscellaneous text issues.
Fixed an issue that caused lanterns to display a blank interaction label.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from being correctly awarded bounties if NPC ships landed the killing blow on a pirate ship.
Fixed a memory-related issue that could prevent players from being awarded pirate bounties in specific circumstances.
Fixed an issue that could cause some hostile starships to become invulnerable after their energy shields were drained.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from accessing the Previous Base Item Cache and claiming its contents.
Fixed an issue that caused ambient player bases to take a long time to load in.
Fixed a base-related issue that could cause saving or loading to take a very long time.
Fixed an issue that could cause centre-screen warning messages to queue forever if the player entered their inventory while the message was on screen.
Fixed an issue that prevented ships from being correctly cleared in multiplayer after their owner salvaged them, potentially resulting in corrupt ship data for other players in the station.
Increased the braking power of the starship when summoning a freighter, reducing the chances of a collision.
Fixed an issue that could allow players to engage the pulse engine on an unsafe trajectory and intersect with a freighter, if the freighter was aligned with a distant planet.
Fixed an issue that could cause an overly large crosshair to appear when aiming at starships on the Space Station.
Fixed an issue that caused derelict freighter emergency heaters to protect against extreme heat.
Fixed an issue that could cause the space station to be visible during warping.
Fixed an issue that could cause player capes to begin to float away on Xbox 1 and PlayStation 4.
Fixed an issue that caused very small civilian freighters to have no engines.
Fixed an issue that could cause every single NPC ship in the freighter hangar to take off immediately after the player enters the hangar from the bridge.
Fixed an issue that prevented Living Pearls from displaying their compass and Analysis Visor icons if their protective clam was shut.
Fixed an issue that could cause compass and Analysis Visor icons to become invisible forever if they were tagged and then untagged.
Fixed a number of issues that caused Sentinel drones to be synched incorrectly between players.
Fixed an issue that could cause Sentinel Hardframe units to fail to target players correctly in multiplayer.
Fixed an issue that could cause Sentinel Hardframe units to become stuck beneath planetary terrain.
Introduced an optimization to the creature animation system.
Introduced an optimization to a specific scorched planet sub-biome.
Introduced an optimization to a specific toxic planet sub-biome.
Fixed an issue that could prevent progress in the Agricultural Research missions if the player had already built the plant in question before the mission began.
Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect mission progress if the player deleted their teleporter during the Powering the Base tutorial.
Fixed a number of mission issues that could occur when playing the base building tutorial missions in multiplayer.
Fixed an issue that could cause a blocker during the Ghosts in the Machine mission on the Artemis path, at the point where Apollo wishes players to expand their base.
Fixed a number of blocking mission issues that could occur when different missions both require conversations with the same character at the same time, such as the Space Anomaly and Trace of Metal missions both needing the player to speak Nada or Polo.
Fixed a number of mission progress issues that could occur when players need to visit a base computer but they have several bases across different galaxies.
Missions that require the player to visit a base computer can now be progressed at any base computer, rather than requiring a visit to a specific base.
Fixed an issue that could direct players to the wrong base when the mission required visiting a specialist worker terminal in a system in which the player has several bases.
Fixed an issue that caused a dramatic sound effect to play on loop forever after warping through the portal during the A Leap in the Dark mission.
Fixed a number of animation issues that could occur when interacting with inanimate objects such as distress beacons.
Fixed a number of mission blockers that could occur when two missions were attempting to spawn a space encounter at the same time.
As noted above, the new No Man’s Sky Endurance update is currently available, for free, across all available platforms. No Man’s Sky itself is currently available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. It is also set to release on Nintendo Switch on October 7th. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the space exploration video game right here.
What do you think of No Man’s Sky‘s latest update? Have you been playing lately or are you waiting for the Nintendo Switch version? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!
