NMS: Survival Part 4 - Warpspeed and the Anomaly

 

Distress beacon: crashed ship

 

Before I left the barren moon, I spotted a distress beacon and a crashed ship. It was an A class shuttle with better stats than my starship, but it was ugly and quite damaged. I fixed up the pulse engine and launch thrusters then flew it to the space station (without guns or shields; so glad no pirates attacked!) to be salvaged. I made 770,000 units which was enough to buy the microprocessors I needed for my hyperdrive. I built the hyperdrive on my ship and then I received a message I needed to make a warp cell to power the hyperdrive. I received the co-ordinates for an abandoned base on the hexagon moon that had blueprints for antimatter, the key ingredient in a warp cell.

Warp cell made, hyperdrive operational. Time to travel faster than light!

Warping through space

I reach a new star system and soon receive a message. Nada has mistaken me for Artemis, a missing Traveller. They invite me to the Anomaly to meet. As soon as I agree, the Anomaly warps into the star system right in front of me. Pirates announce their imminent attack so I quickly fly to the Anomaly.

Nada and Polo at the Anomaly

Nada, Polo and friends have made a little enclave outside of normal time and space. They hide from the "Crimson Eye" (Atlas) and the Sentinels. They assist Travellers and sell many equipment upgrades and construction blueprints, and they like to buy information about planets, minerals, flora and fauna. They also offer missions and have a variety of unique decorations and rewards. Nada and Polo promise to help me find Artemis. I head back to space.

Now that I've unlocked the Anomaly the game really opens up - Polo can show me how to find black holes to get closer to the centre of the galaxy, or he could show me Atlas stations and I could complete the Atlas quest line and uncover the mysteries of the universe. I could do Quicksilver missions and unlock the Void Egg to get my own Living Ship, or I could just explore and build bases as I see fit.

The Nexus (source of Quicksilver Missions) at the Anomaly

I'd like to work on two things I haven't done before: reaching the centre of the galaxy, and getting a Living Ship. So, we'll start doing some Quicksilver missions ... next time.

NMS: Survival Part 3 - Exploring the first star system

Starter Base

I built a simple starter base looking out over the water. There is a portal powered manually by a biofuel reactor inside, the construction research computer and a portable refiner. No real furniture to speak of - I suppose we just throw a sleeping bag on the floor. I don't think I've ever seen a Traveller without their space suit - maybe they never take it off?

I fly to the space station to investigate the strange message received. There are quite a few aliens there and I can't understand any of them. Most of them ignore me when I ask for help. One of them though, it's like he's possessed and when he replies it's not him speaking but another voice, a voice I understand and yet it's so mysterious I don't understand. When the voice finishes, the alien stands there looking at me like nothing happened. I return to my base and access the base computer. It gives me a set of off-world coordinates to investigate.

Hexagon moon

I fly off to the moon to investigate a distress signal. It's a strange place, an anomaly, with hexagonal plants and minerals and strange jumping plates that seem to be some kind of animal. The distress beacon comes from a crashed freighter - I steer clear of the hazardous storage containers. The distress beacon contains a captain's log, but I think someone has overwritten it; it tells me to head for the stars and gives me a blueprint for building a hyperdrive for my starship.

The hyperdrive will take me to other star systems. I decide to explore this one a bit more before I leave.

Colourful bubble planet

I find a temperate rainy planet with yellow grass, red water and blue sky. And bubbles, lots of bubbles. Also, sentinels that shoot on sight. Pretty, but not a friendly place.

Frozen planet

I find a frozen planet, that looks nice at first, but then you notice the unusual square mountains and weird life-forms: plants that look like machines with thick cables hanging out of them, glowing soccer-ball like creatures that roll around, sky-eels and jumping blobs with a mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.

Desert moon

Finally, I visit the red planet's second moon. It is very barren, with a few cacti and lots of dry dusty rocks. There are a few T-rex-like creatures that attack the smaller grazing ... animals. How in the world do you describe a creature like this?

Strange grazing creatures

According to the encyclopedia of discoveries, G. equusanqus is about 2.2m tall, weighs 135kg and is nomadic, constantly searching for dihydrogen crystals to suck (it doesn't chew). It also doesn't like bright colours. No wonder they ran away when they saw me in my bright yellow space suit!

All in all, this star system had a good variety of planets and moons. I haven't found paradise yet, but with the hyperdrive up and running, there's hope yet.

NMS: Survival Part 2 - A new home

Sunrise on the red planet

I found the distress beacon and it described how a previous traveller was running low on hazard protection and hid underground. They recommended building a base to provide shelter and left some blueprints for building a base computer, as well as instructions for a terrain manipulator for mining resources, digging and filling holes, and flattening terrain. 

I need to find a place to build a base. I climb the nearby hill and watch the sunrise, then use my scanner to find out what resources are nearby. Quite a lot of copper, some salt and paraffinium. The land is mostly rolling hills and prairie with lots of red-purple grass and a few shrubs. As for animals, I've mostly seen birds. I find an unknown building on my scanner and decide to investigate.

The unknown "building"

A stranded Korvax alien

The unknown building turns out to be another distress beacon. An alien is sitting next to it, waiting to be rescued. He tries to talking to me, but I don't understand anything he says except the word "Korvax". He ignores me after that. I continue exploring.

A crashed freighter ship

I find a huge crashed freighter ship. The captain's log says there was a battle between Sentinels and they received a distress signal so they went to investigate. Apparently it didn't go so well. The crashed ship is pretty overgrown - it must have been there for awhile. I cut through some steel doors and find a storage container. I open it and find a bunch of money, but I'm suddenly hit with intense radiation. I have to get out of there! There might be some valuable loot to pillage, but the freighter seems like a death trap and I want to get far away from it. There is a still-functioning summoning station nearby and when I activate it, I hear my starship approach and land. I don't have a lot of launch fuel left, but I take off anyway.

My new base-to-be

I find the harbour and a nice flat plateau looking out over it and decide to call this my new home for now. I set up the base computer and it spits out some blueprints for building wooden walls and floors and roofing. I'm going to need carbon and there ain't a lot of wood around. We'll have to keep it simple, but it would be nice to have a roof over my head instead of a cockpit.

NMS: Starting a Survival Adventure

I've been playing No Man's Sky for about a month now and I love it! I love exploring new planets (especially exotic worlds), building bases, hunting for cool looking ships and multi-tools and trying to make money and unlock all the upgrades and blueprints. I've been mostly playing on Normal mode. I had a couple of Permadeath games that ended suddenly due to issues beyond my control, but I liked how they were more challenging. So I decided to try a new Survival Mode adventure - it has increased challenge, but if my Traveller dies due to going AFK on a toxic planet while providing first aid for a real life medical emergency or a bug that causes my starship to fly upside down through the earth causing catastrophic damage, at least it's not game over.

Part 1: Initialisation

Starting planet: Nagfortuynet Nobe

I find myself on a green planet with blue skies, lots of giant mushrooms, rain and something that looks a bit like a kangaroo hopping around. A red turtle-like creature shuffles past my feet. My first thought is: "this place looks great," then I see my hazard protection levels are dropping like a rock: "uh oh! This place is toxic!" An announcement from my exosuit warns me of extreme toxicity. Yeah, I noticed.

I need to stay alive. First, find some sodium plants. Done. Recharge the hazard protection. Done.  My exosuit AI starts telling me the scanner is broken: I'll need ferrite dust to fix it. I just want to get out of the toxicity. I don't see any buildings for shelter so I run towards the mountains, looking for a cave. I finally find a little cave and the welcome message about toxic protection stabilising. Phew! I look around the cave for any resources. I find some rocks with cobalt, some plants with carbon, some toxic plants that give sodium or oxygen and some humming sacs with albumen pearls. No ferrite dust. I make sure my hazard protection is full then leave the cave. 

I mine some rocks for ferrite dust and fix my scanner. Next, I receive a distress signal and when I follow the signal I find a crashed starship. Shelter! I hop in the cockpit and listen while they tell me the ship is broken. OK, so I'll fix it. The distress beacon contains a map to a building where I should be able to find a hermetic seal to fix the pulse engine. It's almost 1000 units away. I'll need to find more sodium and oxygen ASAP.

 

Distress beacon leads to a crashed ship

As I'm running through the valley, a toxic storm arrives. My hazard protection drops. I recharge and it recovers a little. It starts dropping immediately though. I soon run out of sodium and my life support starts taking damage so I recharge that with oxygen. I find a sodium plant. A few seconds respite. I keep running. I can't find the cave I used before. I find another sodium plant. Nearly there. As I come over a small hill, I see the building. My hazard protection runs out again. Life support is nearly down to 50% by the time I reach safety. I find the hermetic seal. Now I have to run back to the ship, and I already scavenged all the sodium and oxygen I could find on the journey here. Big breath. I can do this. I have to do this.

I'm about to head out into the toxic rain when my exosuit AI tells me to fix my Analysis Visor so I can find my starship. Getting lost out here would be deadly. I need carbon. Fortunately I found some in that cave earlier. I do my repairs inside then use the visor to locate the ship.

I start running back to the ship. I run out of sodium. I find another cave. I hide and wait for my hazard protection to slowly stabilise. I'm not even half-way yet. I use the jet-pack to get out of the cave and that depletes my life support so I have to recharge that. I'm afraid I'm not going to make it. I scan for sodium and oxygen ... nothing. I keep going, ignoring the warnings from my exosuit. Somehow, I make it to the ship. I get in the cockpit and let out the breath I had been holding since leaving the cave. I place the hermetic seal and fix the pulse engine. Hooray!

Now I have to fix the Launch Thruster. I need dihydrogen jelly (I can make that, I found some dihydrogen crystals on my journey). I also need to build a portable refiner so I can turn some ferrite dust into pure ferrite. Finally, everything is fixed and I can take off and leave this planet. I launch into space.

Hopefully more hospitable planets and moons

Once I get out of the atmosphere, I can see the other planets in this star system. I see a blue planet - my scanner says it is frozen. Then I see a red planet - apparently it is grassy and temperate. The red planet has two moons, both grey. One is an abandoned moon with cacti, while the other is a hexagon moon with rare metals. Finally, there is also a orange rainy planet. It is also temperate, but with aggressive sentinels. I head for the red planet, but first I am interrupted by a transmission telling me I am not alone, and a set of coordinates telling to me find out more ... on the red planet. OK, sure. I start towards the red planet again and get attacked by pirates. They move fast! I finally shoot them down and I gain some chromatic material from their ship wreckage. At last, I land on the red planet. What will that be like?