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/

Below are a few popular questions that we’ve received from our past FAQ thread. As always we ask that everyone be respectful and we welcome everyone’s contribution so have fun!

Q- I’m keen to start a new passive money making pursuit. What are some good ideas or guides post-Waypoint?

A#1-Gold farm, then take that stack and sell it at a terminal (not traders) in systems that sell gold. Sell all your gold to the terminal and crash the economy. Then buy it all back at 80% off discount. You just got free money and keep all the gold. All this takes is an initial investment on a gold farm, then you carry all that gold with you and just sell/buy back when you get to another system that sells gold. With 50 stacks in my ship’s cargo hold, I can make somewhere around 150 million units in each system I do this in.

A#2-Start a Farm, Fusion Igniters or Statis Devices Farm which will increase your profits to 100- 200 mil fairly quickly and you can even send out multiple freighter missions which will help you get aronium, magno-gold, Enriched carbon and more which will increase the profits even more.

A#3-Quickest way I’ve found to make a TON of units: Harvesting Storm Crystals. Find a VERY hot planet that has frequent fire storms. DURING STORMS ONLY – you can see the bright white light from Storm Crystals if you fly around low enough. Fly to them, land, quickly harvest them, get back in your ship and fly to the next before you burn up.

Q-How do I get the Advanced Mining Laser? I don’t have the option to craft one, and the multi-tool upgrade vendor at the space station doesn’t have the blueprint for sale.

A-In order to get it, you have to look for the blueprints in crashed ships or abandoned facilities. You get it from the main story (awakenings) or you can buy it on the anomaly.

Q-What do I actually do in the game? I finished the tutorial, is there anything else beside gathering stuff, building a base and repeat?

A#1-It’s really whatever you want, there’s a base story, (assuming you haven’t completed it already), follow the quest log and you’ll figure it out, but things You’d want to do for end game? You can collect multiple multitools, ships, built a fleet for your freighter, etc.

Q-Is there a planet that is populated by many players, and they built their base close to each others like a city?

A- Yeah its the Galactic Hub Project, Its a place where many people have bases and each day the numbers grow. Please help yourself. There are many factions in NMS that do this, even NMS Pirates Hub.

Q-I’m still pretty early into the game, just making my way to the center of the galaxy, what should I be spending my credits on?

A-Go hang around a outlaw/pirate trading post. Cheapest S-class start at around 8-8.5 million without a trade-in. I recommend Vikeen pirate, as then you have two good and 1 remote chances at high-maneuverability S-class: fighter, solar, exotic.

Added “Guide” in title for those that search new player guides.

• Six biggest for me were:

  • Punch jumping – Sprint then melee then jetpack and you will got mostly forward with your jetpack.
  • You can buy a backpack slot on every station, but also on the anomaly in every system. So when you get to a new system go to that system’s station and buy a exosuit slot, then call in the anomaly in that system, go to the back where the people sell upgrades and blueprints and buy another exosuit slot on the anomaly.
  • When you start the game in survival or Permadeath the ship is directly in front of you. (in case you just keep dying in the beginning which happened to me a lot) so you can just sprint to the ship and jump in and not die from the planet’s hazards.
  • You can buy a recipe from the anomaly for starship that will “recharge” your lift booster with fuel while you are running around on the planet’s surface. In this way you don’t need to make starship fuel anymore and can “call in” your space ship to your location without worry that it ran out of fuel. For me I just scan, run to new thing, dig it up, etc. When I’m full call in ship, sort inventory etc.
  • Ion Battery / Life support Gel. Instead of making these, sell the cobalt you would have used to make Ion Batteries at a station and you can afford to buy these. These are a game changer in the sense that you no longer have to worry about finding sodium etc, when you explore you can just pop a battery. Combined with lift-jets thing above I can run around on the surface until I run out of inventory without worry.

• Medium refiner recipes that make more of a thing if you add oxygen :

  • 1 Oxygen + 1salt = 5 choline
  • 2Oxygen + 1condensed carbon = 6 condensed carbon.
  • 2Oxygen + 1chlorine = 6 chlorine
  • etc ; https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Oxygen

• You can put silica dust in a refiner and get “glass” you do not need frost wart to get it.

• You can make most plants in a medium refiner even if you did not find a planet that has that plant, e.g. Dioxite x2 + Oxygen x1 = 1 frost crystal. Just by the dioxite from a space station.

• The “space fight danger level” is often very wrong. E.g. pirate danger level “severe” or whatever. If you have 1 star ship shield battery or sodium or sodium nitrate you can win most 1v1 or 4v1 fights with just 1 shield recharge.