Having finished the latest expedition twice now (on PS5 and PC), I thought I would jot down some non-spoilery tips for people who have yet to take the plunge. None of these are essential, but they could save you time and frustration.

1. Spend some time on the starting planet collecting storm crystals for cash. Also pick up any ancient bones you come across; if you’re dedicated, you can knock out one of the later milestones. At the least though you can put a dent in it (and get some more starting cash).
2. The starting system is wealthy so it’s relatively easy to get an A-class (or even S-class) ship. A 19-slot S-class explorer will run you just under 2M, an A-class is even cheaper. With some S-class hyperdrive upgrades purchased from the ship tech vendor, either will allow you to warp to any rendezvous point (from the previous one) in one jump. Bonus: you won’t have to install the hyperdrive and will probably get launch thruster upgrades.
3. Also, the starting system’s space station multitool box has a nice B-class alien rifle if you don’t like your starting MT. Simply reload on the station with multiplayer OFF to get it to appear if you don’t see it (it’s around 2M units).
4. Save three hadal cores and four larval cores (from whispering eggs). You can safely sell/refine any extras.
5. Any of the various organic “prizes” you get from the milestones can be sold for cash. The fleshy ropes you get from wiping out worm dens can also be safely sold. Don’t let them clog up your inventory! Note: fleshy ropes tend to sell better on space stations than planetside. I leave it up to you if you want to sell the story items, they’re not used for anything but they are unique.
6. Make use of the generosity of your fellow travelers. Even with multiplayer off, you can still find and visit bases. Use the space station teleporter to find bases that help you gather larval cores or locate a planetary archive.
7. The starting system (again) has an easy to do derelict freighter. You’ll only need to cap a couple of security drones and can avoid the few turrets. No mucking about with alien egg sacks!
8. The third rendezvous station sells a wide variety of multitool upgrades.
9. The only hazard protection you’ll need on the rendezvous planets is extreme heat/fire. You can safely sell any others you find for nanites, although if you find a cold mod it will be useful on the derelict freighter.
10. Unless you really want to muck around with the Nautilon, you can safely sell the sub upgrades for nanites. However, if you plan on keeping the expedition save as a normal save once you’re done, hang on to them. They’ll make the Dreams of the Deep mission line so much easier.

So I decided I was going to go visit Eissentam finally, and starting in my home galaxy of Calypso, I figured hey, I’ll do the thing everyone suggests, go through center, find ancient ruin, find portal, input glyphs that warp near center, go through center, rinse and repeat.

Well, I figured I’d visit an Atlas station first, thinking that if I “recreate the galaxy” again, I could just select paradise systems and I’d find Eissentam. I visited an Atlas station right near the center of Calypso, however, despite having a new Heart of the Sun, it wouldn’t let me recreate a new universe — instead, the quest log just tells me to locate a black hole. Which I did, but obviously didn’t do much since I was already near the center, and actually just erased the Atlas Path quest from my log.

I tell you this because the process of going through a black hole triggers a bit of a glitch.

When I went through the center of the galaxy and dropped into the new one, I was about 3500 LY from the new galaxy’s core.

Turns out, this is an actual thing: it’s called a Core to Core jump. If you enter a black hole before entering the galactic center, you will enter the new galaxy about the same distance that you were when you went into that black hole. This stays active, you don’t need to visit new black holes — I’m jumping my way to Eissentam right now: go through center, fix and fuel ship’s hyperdrive, go through center. No locating ruins, no inputting portal coordinates.