I have been playing NMS since its release in 2016 and it’s procession from the game it was to what it is now has been tremendous, but I feel one are of the game has been completely overlooked. More than half of the planets in the game feature water, but there isn’t much to do there. Most ocean have the same life, regardless of what type of planet it is on and the variety of sea life is shockingly inadequate. To add to all of this, did you know there is a submersible and base pieces for underwater bases? Great, however there isn’t really much incentive to build here as most seas are very shallow and it isn’t much fun to take your submersible to a depth of 20′.

It would be great to really “dive” into the potential for the ocean, seas and lakes found all throughout the galaxies. Deeper ocean, carverns, cliffs and other underwater features could be cool to explore. If they made the oceans VERY deep (600m+), to the point that you count feasible explore without a submersible, that could be cool. A greater variety of sea life, some that could even be rideable underwater could be fun to experience. Lastly, there is great potential with the base parts designed for water areas.

I know exploring space and planet-side is the big draw to the game, but I wonder how much of this is driven simply based on the fact that water in this game is more of a hassle than an experience. What do you all think about the possibilities of a water-based update?

Having finished the expedition (and watched the questions in this forum) here’s a handy FAQ!

General tips

• Read all the tasks – they don’t have to be done in order. Some of them you can get out of the way early on. (scanning flora / fauna, learning words, pictures of different environments..)
• At every space station, especially in the rendevous systems, scroll through all the other bases. Some of them will have super helpful names like “Airless photo op” or “Sunken Freighter here” or a list of available resources.
• Most of the time it’s better to not be in multi-player mode – that will mean that resources others have gathered, beings in stations that have been talked to, ships that have been found – all these will still be available to you, where they probably won’t be in multi-player. However, whenever you visit the Anomaly it is nice to be in multi-player.
• You can craft ammo out of ferrite. Super helpful for those pesky sentinels. Speaking of Sentinels, you can tunnel underground or dive into the water to escape them. Usually.
• Once you go through the back hole, immediately go to the space station in that system and use the station teleporter to get back to your base or the previous system. Do NOT try to warp back to the 3rd rendevous, it will just make you frustrated.
• The very first system you spawned in on has a planet that will work for the hot planet pic.
• If you are reading this on Feb 19, Tier 5 community research isn’t done yet. If you want the rewards for that, don’t complete the expedition until that is done.

What do I take with me?

• If you are a new player, not to worry! you will be able to collect what you need. Also look for other bases that are offering things (see tips above) The rest of this guide is for folks who aren’t starting a new save for the expedition.
• If you have a main save, and want to bring stuff over – here are some things to consider.
  • Basic building blocks: 9999 stacks of carbon, ferrite, sodium, oxygen, chromatic metal, silver, tritium, di-hydrogen, ect
  • Special items: things to claim an interceptor (inverted mirror), things to make liquid explosive (acid, unstable gel), cadmium, salt
  • Things to make or save money: wiring looms, salvaged data, exosuit inventory modules, runaway mold or tainted metal to make nanites, high ticket items to sell (hot ice, floral samples, stasis pods, ect.)
  • Tech row: eh. not as helpful as you’d think, especially if you are bringing over things for nanites and selling. You could drop some S class stuff here for the exosuit? but especially if you plan to “buy” a copy of your multi-tool and ship, those should already be tricked out.
  • In general, the items and upgrades you really need to complete the tasks will be given to you or will be possible to obtain. For instance you start out with a portable refiner. Don’t buy the special star warp upgrades from the Anomaly – you’ll get them as a reward.

What can I take back?

• All the expedition rewards will be available from the quicksilver booth in the anomaly on any save.
• If you transferred from your main, you can use the same storage system to send stuff back (like companion eggs, other stuff you’ve collected that’s hard or expensive to get, resources if you want to)
• Here I found the tech slots much more useful, taking back upgrades for use on other starships/multitools.
• You will be able to buy back the ship you are in and the primary multi-tool you are carrying, so if you brought stuff over from your main, make sure you are back in them going back. You’ll be able to claim the reward ship and atlas staff at the quicksilver station.
• Yeah, for real, you can only take back one ship and one multi-tool. so be sure the ones you want are the ones equipped.

What about my money / nanites / bases?

Ok – disclaimer. I haven’t actually completed the expedition yet, I’m waiting for the Tier 5 community research to complete. So I don’t know FOR SURE about this, but here’s what I’ve read.

• Your bases will be available from your main.
• Some of the stuff you didn’t take back with you will be converted into units and nanites.
• Anything you buy with quicksilver on the expedition will also be available to claim on the main.
• if someone who has completed the expedition wants to chime in with what happened to their units/nanites/quicksilver, that would be much appreciated!

Anything else interlopers? Feel free to chime in with tips or ask questions in the comments!