For Experienced Players

A lot of new players are coming into the game and I'm noticing in a few help threads that many of us may have forgotten what the most recent new player experience is like. So as a reminder for us experienced folks, until they do the second step in Alone Amidst The Stars (which begins RIGHT after the tutorial, if they chose to do it) the anomaly is totally unavailable to them. Even if you skip the tutorial and you have your ship, multi tool, and warp cores ready to craft, the anomaly still requires you to complete the first two major steps of Alone Amidst The Stars before the anomaly becomes an option on the quick bar. Many players may not do this immediately, so consider this before answering questions for new players and try to help guide them keeping this into account.

For New Players

Welcome to NMS! If you hear anyone talk about the Anomaly, it's an extremely vital core game mechanic that is explained within 10 minutes of starting the main story quest, which is always visible at the top of your "log" when you pause the game. You are 100% free to play the game how you like, in any order, with no consequences, but with that said I highly recommend doing at least the first few steps. It will be called "Alone Amidst The Stars" once the tutorial is complete, and until then it will be called "Awakenings" which is the tutorial.

The main story is highly recommended, both for what you unlock by doing it, as well as the story which is shockingly good. Like, really quite good. That's my opinion anyway, but objectively unlocking the Anomaly is just straight up super important.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying the game. Please ask any questions you have on this subreddit, people here are great and there are a lot of solutions to problems based on how you like to play the game. Happy star hopping.