It’s no secret that No Man’s Sky has had one of the worst debuts in recent video game history. But the developer is seeking to redeem it with the latest Foundation Update. The game has seen a steep drop in users and price after only three months. And to top it off its developer, Hello Games, have even been investigated by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority for misleading consumers. The ASA found Hello Games not guilty, btw.

Now, Hello Games is redeeming its No Man’s Sky promises patch by patch. With the first coming in version 1.1 or the Foundation Update. It’s called a patch but the Foundation Update feels more like a proper overhaul of the game. And while it still isn’t exactly what was promised it introduces many new features that we’ve been waiting for. It’s definitely a step in the right direction and for those of you that have the game or are thinking of giving it a second chance, here’s everything new that you can do.

 

New Game Modes

No Man’s Sky launched with only one game mode and no tutorial. You pretty much had to figure out everything from the get go, which was great for some players but not so good for others. Now we have three different game modes to choose from, accomodating to different styles of play. Still waiting on that tutorial though.

• Normal Mode or the OG vanilla version. Nothing much has changed from the previous game. But don’t worry you’ll still get to enjoy all the features introduced in the Foundation Update.
• Survival Mode a self-explanatory mode for our more hardcore gamers looking for more of a challenge. The difficulty in this mode is cranked up meaning that the creatures become more aggressive, essential elements for survival are rarer. You’ll also have to make your way to your ship instead of just starting directly beside it. Also, it’s in need of repairs. Survive!
• Creative Mode removes the survival element of the game, leaving you plenty of time to explore and build your base.

 

Home Planet

Prior to the Foundation update, you began your No Man’s Sky journey crashed out on a random planet. Your objective was to make your way to the centre of the galaxy as a nomadic adventurer. This suited some people but for some of us, we need a little place to call home and now we can. If you find a particular planet that you’ve fallen in love with you can claim it as your home planet and return to it whenever you like. No more searching through the billions of planets on that waypoint system to find it again.

 

Base Building

Now that we have a home planet it only makes sense that we can build a base on it. The much-awaited base building mechanic is introduced in the Foundation update and it’s awesome. In your base, you’ll be able to save points, waypoints, communication terminals and more wherever you like. All you need to do is find an abandoned base on any planet and build it up however you like. Decorate, fill it with useful tech and best of all storage containers for all those precious resources you’ve been hoarding.

 

Terminus Teleporters

You might have spotted some portals around your journey in No Man’s Sky but found that it did nothing. But with the Foundation update, you can use these teleporters at the space stations to teleport you to and from your base. Once you set up a base remember to travel to a nearby space station to connect the teleporter first in order to have it work. After the first initial teleport, your Terminus Teleporter will be able to send you and your ship home from any space station, sans warp cells.

 

Inventory Management

One of the main issues in No Man’s Sky was is its lack of storage space. Nothing kills the vibe of a journey worse than having to open and close your inventory for organisation and dumping purposes. Goodbye, valuable resources I’ll try and come back! It really takes away from the gameplay but with the Foundation update, you now have more options. As I mentioned earlier you can store resources at your base but now you can take the extra flex and also buy a freighter transport to follow you around. The giant interstellar 18-wheeler has a ton of storage space as well as a place to grow crops, best of all you can teleport your resources to your freighter straight from the surface of the planet. Think of it as a mobile base or the proverbial space cargo donkey.

With your freighter stockpiled with resources from all the systems, you’ve essentially got a flying gold mine with you. Travel between systems and sell resources in places where they’re more valued. What’s a ship without a crew? Who says you need to do this on your own, you can now hire crew members, like engineers, farmers and science specialists to help man the ship.

 

Items Can Be Stacked

You can probably see a bit of a pattern here, obviously, inventory management was a pretty big complaint in the previous version. Well now in addition to your base and flying warehouse, inventory stacks. Before, only scavenged resources from wrecked ships could be stacked. Now, items that you craft or gather from crates can be stacked in units of five. Making it easier for you to gather resources and it won’t be such a pain in the ass carrying everything around.

 

Grow Your Own Resources

I mentioned earlier that on your Freighter you’d be able to grow your own crops. Well, this is an additional mechanic introduced in the Foundation update that lets you farm your own resources. Crops can be grown to harvest rare resources so you won’t need to travel such distances to find that one plant you’ve suddenly run out of.

 

Material Mining Is Automated

It’s now easier than ever to mind with the automated harvester. Place the machine on any mineral deposit in a mine and that baby will keep mining until Kingdom comes! Or you know until it’s full. It’s super useful and totally worth the extra legwork that you have to do to get the blueprint.

 

Does this article make you feel like giving No Man’s Sky another go? Check out the official update on their website here.