It is finished. I can’t remember when I started, but Galaxy 128 was 6 months ago. I arrived in Galaxy 255 last night, dropping a base computer in each one behind me. Solo. Mission accomplished. I’ll make my way to Galaxy 256 after a break.

I’m sure it can be done faster but managing a job and a relationship has a pesky way of getting in the way of an endeavor like this.

99% of my bases are in 3 star economy, Yellow star systems. Either Paradise planets (no predators) or empty/dead planets. All my bases are next to Portals for easy access to any part of any Galaxy if ya got the Glyphs.

Props to my broken multi-tool, my Living Ship, and the Endurance update with the planetary scanner. Absolute gold. It really sped up the last 50 or so hops.

I’m settling down in Galaxy 250. Willing to transport anyone who has a specific Galaxy in mind.

Have fun interlopers.

There he is in Guilford, slouched in a gaming chair, summer sun is setting, glass of Guinness in one hand. Sean is tapping something on his phone. We’re looking for a new update or new expedition soon, right? So what emoji (or set of emoji) do you hope he will tweet?

Some Reddit Emoji… 🐫 💧 🏠 🌽 🌵🎵 🎨 🚚 🚀⭐☀️👽🍺 👿🔍💍📜 📐🌍 👩‍🚀🌴🏆🕗🏭🔫

How about… 👽🔫 or 💧🔍 or 🏠🏭 ?

I saw a recent comment from a newbie saying they didn’t know what an expedition was or why they’d want to play in one. I think we, as a community, may have started assuming too much context and should explain ourselves.

So TL;DR: An expedition is a game mode where you start a new save from scratch and participate in a series of challenges that lead to rewards you can share with all of your saves. Unlike the normal game, you do this in the same systems as everyone else playing the expedition!

The rest of this is not a guide to any particular expedition, but will give new players a sense of how you interact with one. Feel free to comment with non-PC control options or corrections.

You start an expedition when one is active by selecting “Play Game” and then “New Game” from the main menu. One of the options on the New Game screen is “Community Expedition.”

Once you start, you get the usual starting sequence and you follow the on-screen instructions until you get into the game itself.

Expeditions start on a specific planet. Everyone starts there and as usual your first mission is typically to find and repair your ship. But from there, you are led by a series of expedition challenges. There are some number of phases to the expedition and each phase has a set of milestones you must accomplish. Once you accomplish each of the milestones in a phase you get a reward that will be sharable with your other saves, even the non-expedition ones!

You find these milestones by pressing Escape and then going to the “Expedition” tab in the menu. You’ll see a jagged line through a number of phases, with each of the systems showing the milestone achievements you need to complete in order to finish the final step (don’t forget that there’s the final achievement for having done all of the previous ones in a particular system. This will give you the permanent rewards you can share with other saves (in gold text).

Here’s what an expedition looks like.

Each phase has a “rendezvous” associated with it which is another star system you have to get to and find a specific point of interest. This is very much like any mission you may have gotten in the normal game that involved a location. You will get an approximate location (make sure you have selected the milestone you want so it shows up) and when you get there, your scanner will help you narrow down the location.

Usually the rendezvous is in a place that helps you accomplish the milestones that are in the same phase. So if you need eggs from some creature, for example, they will be available either on the same planet as the rendezvous from the same phase or nearby.

Ultimately, when you finish the whole series of phases, you get a final phase that’s just a free “you did all the things” to complete the expedition and claim the final prizes.

Why should you do it?

Expeditions aren’t for everyone, but the rewards are pretty compelling. They’re often things like a ship or freighter or companion that is unique and may even make some of the regular game a bit easier.

You claim your prizes on other saves by going to the Quicksilver vendor in the Space Anomaly. If you don’t know what that is yet, keep going and you’ll get there. It’s pretty early in the main game. Once you get there, you will find a merchant close to where your ship lands who has a “claim expedition rewards” dialogue option.

Can I do it with friends?

Absolutely! Having shared goals on the same planets makes it really easy to share the experience with others.

Is this a PVP thing?

Players can attack other players if you have PVP turned on. Obviously with expeditions happening in the same systems, this is a big deal, but you can turn off PVP at any time. Just go to the settings in Options -> Network and turn off “Allow PVP with…” if that’s not your jam. Keep in mind that this is reset for each new save, so you will want to do this as the start of a new expedition.

When is the next one?

There are a series of shorter expeditions happening right now. Check out: https://www.nomanssky.com/2022/11/holiday-2022-expeditions/

No trailer yet, it released unannounced all at different times, no official patch notes even with the update being out now. It all just seems very off compared to how they have always dropped updates. Also 6 months for only an expedition is unheard of and I’ve been here since NEXT released for Xbox.

Since we don’t have official patch notes, I wonder if Sean is possibly hiding something either for tomorrow or whenever the Omega Expedition starts or ends.

I could just be getting my hopes up and this update really is just an Expedition and some other small stuff, but idk. It all just seems off to me.