I hope you find something useful or amusing in this retrospective.

This guide is my attempt to “pay forward” some of the help I received from other Guides, Wiki Pages, You Tube Videos, and Discussion posts.

I play No Man’s Sky on a Windows PC, and I am writing this in May of 2019.

You are cautioned that No Man’s Sky may have changed by the time you read this guide.

When I fired up No Man’s Sky for the first time it took a long time for it to download, install, configure, and start. After watching a screen with the letter E in a circle for quite awhile I took a break for lunch to let the program finish loading.
Don't laugh too hard: I finally pressed E on my keyboard to start playing after lunch.

I died. I hit rocks. I repaired things. I mined raw resources. I worried about sentinels. I eventually got off that first toxic planet.

There are many beginner guides, so I won’t attempt to duplicate their work. I especially like:

Beginner's guide - No Man's Sky Wiki[nomanssky.gamepedia.com]

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1451250092

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=743702648

For a long time I waited for sentinels to wander away before mining resources. Eventually I figured out I could mine a tree for most of its carbon while a sentinel was present if I just kept the tree (or a big rock, or a hill) between me and the sentinel.

In desperation I also found that I could sprint away from angry sentinels. Running into a building or space station is best. On a planet just sprinting out of sight also works. Though do not run from a planet into space, that makes things worse.

I basically never try to kill sentinels. After 200+ hours I have only killed 10 sentinels, almost all were accidents. In most cases if a story line quest requires you to kill sentinels you can instead simply buy Pugneum.

For more details on sentinels I recommend:

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=862017369

Especially during the early game on a pleasant planet, walking around collecting buried technology is a great idea. Remember to bring your Blueprint Analyser[nomanssky.gamepedia.com]. When you get bored summon your starship.

Never warp if you can teleport. Your current starship will also automatically teleport to somewhere near your destination.

You only need a Base Computer[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] to teleport to your base.

However, you also need a Base Teleport Module[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] to teleport from your base.

Note: If you rename a base or a space station, the teleport menu may not show the new name until you have teleported to that destination once using the old name.

Once you have the blueprints for both a Base Computer and a Base Teleport Module, consider those two items your minimal base. If possible, always carry enough material in your exosuit to build both of those items. For a more luxurious minimal base create a Cylindrical Room[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] with a Door[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] and your Base Teleport Module inside.

As soon as you can build a Medium or Large Refiner in a base or on a freighter do so. I postponed for weeks not realizing that as soon as I built a stationary refiner I could stop gathering wood to fuel my portable refiner. Eventually you will probably want at least four refiners in the same room so that you can stand in the middle and switch from refiner to refiner instead of just stand there waiting for your single refiner to finish.

The multiple input refiners also let you play some games: Sometimes you can even make resources from nothing. For example 50 Carbon + 50 Condensed Carbon yields 1 Carbon Crystal. 1 Carbon Crystal yields 150 Condensed Carbon. 100 Condensed Carbon yields 200 Carbon. Net gain 150 Carbon. So if you want to grind you can create Carbon from nothing with a stationary refiner. See Refiner[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] for more options.

Another use for bases is mining materials like Cadmium, Indium, and Emeril which you might unexpectedly need, but which you can not purchase at a trading terminal. For that approach instead of using your multi-tool to deplete a deposit, install one or more Autonomous Mining Units[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] on the intact deposit, and put your base computer and teleport module nearby. You may also want to rename your base to something like “Emeril Mine on Low Air Planet.”

If you don't have the blueprint for the Autonomous Mining Unit yet, simply setup your base next to the desired resource deposit. However, DO NOT manually mine that deposit. Instead walk or fly to more distant deposits until you acquire the Autonomous Mining Unit blueprint.

Normal sentinels are not bothered by Autonomous Mining Units. However, the units do need fuel to operate.

I like to keep my starship Launch Thrusters and Pulse Engine topped off. So I prefer to fuel with frequent small amounts of Uranium and Pyrite (I save Tritium for Frigate Fuel) instead of using big gulps of Launch Fuel. Keeping them topped off means I can summon the starship if needed. It also means I notice when I’m low on fuel before it becomes a crisis.

The fastest way to get around long distances on a planet without teleporting is to fly straight up till you leave atmosphere, then select your target and use your Pulse Engine (like traveling between planets) to get there fast.

While you are on the compare screen trading starships you can transfer goods from your old starship to the new starship. You cannot transfer upgrades. Though if you plan ahead you can disassemble upgrades before trading. Remember that you lose money every time you trade. So do trade ships, but don’t do it very often.

A plain hyperdrive will take you to most stars. Find a yellow system and you will find Copper which can be refined into the Chromatic Metal needed to make a Cadmium Drive. With a Cadmium Drive you can warp to a Red system and collect Cadmium. Cadmium will let you craft an Indium Drive which will take you to Blue systems where you can collect Indium. Indium will let you craft an Emeril Drive which will take you to Green systems where you can collect Emeril. You only need to keep the Emeril drive to reach all star systems, you don’t need to keep all three. You do not need a fancy drive if you have a freighter. You can jump a freighter directly to a Blue system to collect Indium with its stock hyperdrive. See System colors[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] for more on different stars.

You can run from pirates in your starship. Just pick a direction, go as fast as possible, and count to 50. The pirates will give up the chase. You can also hide in a space station or on a planet.

I have killed lots of pirates. Key things to know.

• Expect to recharge your Deflector Shield[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] repeatedly during combat, at least until you have a bunch of shield upgrades.
  
• I always carry a supply of Sodium Nitrate, Sodium, or Pyrite to recharge my shield. Though sometimes flying through the drop canisters that dying pirates drop will also recharge your shield.
  
• Aim at the little target circle, not at the pirate themselves. Depending on what direction the pirate is going the target circle may be right on them, or far to the side.
  
• You can turn faster if you are not moving. So I often let the pirates come to me.

Personally I prefer to fully upgrade my Photon Cannon and to fire it with repeated fast key clicks to avoid overheating instead of trying to switch between weapons during a fight. The Photon Cannon is one of the longer range weapons available, never needs recharging, and you can easily practice with it during the early game when you mine asteroids.

You will definitely want to get a freighter, the more slots the better. One of the good early reasons to fight pirates is to get a free freighter. This guide has some useful information, even if like me you decide against using the reload auto save approach to upgrade which freighter you acquire.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1477307060

If you trade freighters, while you can transfer resources on the compare screen just like you could with starships, any upgrades you installed on your freighter will be gone after the transfer. Though if you plan ahead, you can disassemble most freighter upgrades and recapture many of the raw materials. Just like trading starships and multi-tools, you will trade in at wholesale, but buy at retail. So buy and hold is the frugal choice unless the upgrade benefits are substantial.

In my second freighter I did not use the big existing freighter storage room at all because it is such a long walk from the bridge. Instead I put a trade terminal on the wall just outside the bridge. Then stairs going up across the hall from the trade terminal. Off the first level up I put a hallway of Fleet Command Rooms[nomanssky.gamepedia.com]. I also extended the stairs up another level where I created a huge room. That room has most of my specialist terminals, my storage units, my refineries, and a bunch of Large Hydroponic Trays[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] Though once you can make glass from your own Frost Crystal I think using Bio-Domes[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] is much easier to manage than Hydroponic Trays. So now I just leave the existing hydroponic trays with their plants idle in the freighter as a backup source so I won’t have to find them in the wild again.

If you have the resources you should probably create all ten storage units on your freighter, unless you intend to upgrade the freighter soon. If you create the same ten storage units at a planetary base you will discover that both the freighter and the base unit share the same storage. I’m sure you can delete one of the pair of storage units without losing your stored contents. I’m not sure if I ever tried deleting both storage units in the pair.

Strangely if you are on a freighter you can use the X shortcut to transfer items to and from your exosuit to storage units installed on the freighter. However you cannot use the X shortcut to transfer items between your freighter’s storage page and your storage units. Nor can you use the X shortcut even from your exosuit when you are in the landing pad area.

I had a trade terminal in the hall just outside the bridge for a long time before I eventually noticed that just as you can cycle between exosuit and starship on space station trade terminals. You can cycle between exosuit, starship, and freighter if the trade terminal is inside the freighter.

If you acquire more than one starship, after you exit and reenter the game all your starships will be parked on your freighter.

The main reason to want a freighter is so you can acquire 30 frigates[nomanssky.gamepedia.com].

I purchased almost entirely clean class C frigates with low fuel usage. They have now all been upgraded to class S. See this guide for more details.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1505175794

I did warp my freighter to collect the Indium needed to craft my first Emeril Drive. However, normally I only move my freighter when I summon it to my starship because I’ve found a better place to park. Eventually I found a space station which sold both Di-hydrogen Jelly[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] and Tritium[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] for crafting Frigate Fuel[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] in a peaceful star system. I parked my freighter just outside the space station entrance. I literally launched my starship from the station, immediately let off the acceleration, and then summoned my freighter.

The argument against parking a freighter is that starships use more warp fuel to travel than a freighter. However, I simply don’t warp enough to care.

My normal daily game routine is once a day, ideally shortly after midnight GMT when new expeditions become available, I teleport to the station where my freighter is parked. I check my freighter’s supply of frigate fuel, purchasing more Di-hydrogen Jelly and Tritium if needed before taking the brief trip across to my freighter. There I debrief my frigate commanders, craft more frigate fuel, and launch new expeditions.

When I only owned one frigate, my frigate routinely came home broken. Fixing broken frigates is mostly just an annoyance. Though I did die once when I accidentally triggered my jet pack and jumped into vacuum during a repair mission. (Repeatedly restocking my life support with oxygen would have extended my life, and perhaps I could have summoned my starship or used my jet pack to return to the frigate.) Eventually I acquired enough frigates that I could always launch fleets rated with two more stars than the expedition required. I’ve never had an expedition with two extra stars suffer broken frigates. As your frigates level up to S class you will need fewer frigates to attain two extra stars. However, if plentiful fuel is available it is still useful to send full complements of five frigates so that your frigates continue to level up. Now I can sometimes send out a fleet of nothing but S class support frigates on a short expedition and literally pay 0 fuel cost.

I know that my frigates have continued to improve since becoming S class. I do not know where the limit lies.

Once I had multiple frigates I always left at least one Combat Frigate with my freighter. Perhaps that was just superstitious, but my freighter was never attacked. Though I also normally parked the freighter in tranquil star systems.

When I warp to a new system, I almost always first visit the space station assuming the system has a space station.

Initially you will need to use the stairs on each side at the end of the landing zone to reach the upper levels. One side is merchants, the other side has the teleport and trade terminal. Once you have upgraded your Exosuit’s jetpack capabilities you can just jump up and down between the landing zone and the upper levels.

While walking around keep your eyes out for Encrypted Navigation Data[nomanssky.gamepedia.com]. Put your cursor on it, hold E and get your reward. Then remember where it is. It will eventually reset and you can harvest it again.

Go to the merchants side and check the multi-tool exchange machine. It is expensive to trade multi-tools so you should only do it if a significant upgrade is available. However, eventually you probably want an S class Rifle with lots of slots.

Note: I’ve always regretted exchanging multi-tools with Vy’keen. So I suggest you always decline such offers and only use exchange machines.

Then go to the other end and walk past the merchant to the suit upgrade terminal. Don't laugh too hard: I didn’t realize I could do that for weeks. I kept interacting with the exosuit merchants and never found slots for sale! Check the prices for a new General, Storage, or Technology slot. Usually you want to buy whichever is cheapest at the space station. Use Drop Pods for whichever is most expensive.

Note: Drop Pods[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] are useless until you can craft anti-mater. However they always cost the same amount, so eventually they become the cheaper option. Though they can be a bit of a pain to find. Asking for directions at space stations will often point them out for free. You can also acquire drop pod coordinates.

Eventually you will probably purchase all the blueprints offered on merchants row. Some blueprints are for one-off items. Some are for C class upgrades. B class upgrades are better than C class. A class components are almost as good as S class. S class components are the best. Unfortunately, you cannot purchase blueprints for S class upgrades, you must purchase them as components. You must also have high standing with the merchant’s race for them to sell you S class upgrades.

When installing upgrades take into account the adjacency bonus:
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1467989498

Some technology you can install and forget about, while other technology requires regular recharge. I have found it is slightly inconvenient to install technologies requiring recharge in a technology slot. I prefer to have all the technologies requiring recharge in the general area where I routinely see them all at once.

There are multiple flavors of rechargeable exosuit hazard protection. Protection against heat, against cold, against toxic environments, against radiation, etc. Work on getting one of each and dedicate a slot for the recharge resource before you work on getting your second or third of one kind. However, plan on someday having up to three of each flavor.

On the other side of the space station from Merchant’s Row is the teleport which I use frequently.

That is also where I often talk with the NCPs.

You can also visit the mission board and accept missions. I tend to accept missions that reward me for doing something I would do anyway such as scan plants or minerals. You can often accept the same mission from each of the three races and get paid three times for fulfilling the mission once.

While prices are often higher on space stations than at minor settlements or trading posts, quantities available and in some cases what items are available usually favors the space stations.

Note: Trade Terminal quantities, Merchant Stock quantities, and Encrypted Navigation Data all refresh over time. So if you previously purchased all the Ammonia or the S class Photon Cannon upgrade at some station, it probably has them in stock again a day or two later.

Trade Terminal prices and quantities available vary, but which items they sell is usually a fixed list. So keep track of which Trading Terminals offer which resources. Then when you suddenly need something like Paraffinium for a mission you will know where to teleport.

To make the seed money to purchase your 30 frigates you will probably want to create some trading routes. The general idea of finding trading posts and trading routes is pretty well described at these links.

Economy[nomanssky.gamepedia.com]

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1481434006

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1593699342

and this 27 minute video I found worth watching
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1527833443

My twist that I haven’t seen elsewhere is I create minimal bases. Because I’ll be reusing my bases I am very strict about only using the rare High Wealth Types (Advanced, Affluent, Booming, Flourishing, High Supply, Opulent, Prosperous, Wealthy). I initially find the trading post conventionally. However, once there I jump off the lower landing platform and create a base computer. I then rename the base starting each base’s name with a three of four letter prefix specifying which type of system. I usually also indicate Gek, Korvax, Vy’Keen and the star system’s name.

For the Green, Purple, Dark Blue trading route I use the prefixes:

• Gpb for Green Trading systems
  
• gPb for Purple Advanced Materials systems
  
• gpB for Dark Blue Scientific systems

For the Red, Orange, Yellow, Cyan (light blue) trading route I use the prefixes:

• Royc for Red Power Generation systems
  
• rOyc for Orange Mining Systems
  
• roYc for Yellow Manufacturing Systems
  
• royC for Cyan (Light Blue) Technology Systems

The teleport menu generally lists the least recently visited base last. So I go to the end of the menu and see something like this Green Trading system inhabited by the Vy'keen in the ZisExample system
I teleport there, jet pack up to the trading post landing area. That is easy with movement upgrades. Even with the initial jet pack you can get up or down in two steps using a lower level non-ship trading post platform as an intermediate stop. I purchase what my exosuit will hold. Then return to my teleport. Now I look for the last entry with the prefix gPb and repeat the whole procedure. Repeat again looking for gpB. Repeat again looking for a different Gpb, and so on until I would have to revisit a system. Then pick the oldest Royc system and complete its routes.

A slight weakness is while your starship teleports with you, the trade terminal will not let you buy and sell directly from your starship’s inventory unless the starship is on a trading post landing pad. I found it simplest to move most of my exosuit supplies to my starship and just trade using my exosuit.

I played with adding landing pads at my bases and flying a hauler up the short distance to land on the trading post landing pad. However, then my storage capacity was so high that I was buying third and fourth choice goods. It didn’t seem worth the hassle to make the short hop, so I went back to just trading with my exosuit. Of course I had greatly expanded my exosuit’s storage by the time I adopted this approach.

I also tried putting the base computer and telport inside the trading post lobby. That worked once, but usually had some weird results. For example multiple times I would teleport in and both I and my ship would appear on the ground, unable to see the trading post. However, when I took off in my starship the trading post would appear. Sometimes after my starship hit it.
Mr_PeaCH reports in the comments section: I found the sweet spot to be building them on the walkway from the central 3-ship platform.

Once you stop buying frigates, you stop needing as much money. So you may find yourself rarely using your trading routes for trade once you have the maximum 30 frigates.

However, all those trading route bases make great starting points for raiding manufacturing facilities for blueprints. Feed navigation data into a signal booster and search secure frequencies. When you get there break down the door and run inside until the sentinels finish searching. Having some S class shield and weapon upgrades will help. Turning off the game sound and listening to music instead also makes the process more pleasant.

Note you must raid Gek, Korvax and Vy’keen facilities to get all the blueprints. You can not stick with one race, or one planet. It is much better to have high standing with the race who’s facility you are raiding. If you have low standing you are generally regarded as a thief, if you have high standing you are often regarded as helping. It is also helpful to know many words in the race’ language when solving puzzles.

Once my signal booster starts giving me useless destinations, or the sentinels start getting especially annoyed, or I just get bored I head to another planet usually in another system.

If you haven’t already, once you have 30 frigates you should finish purchasing all the blueprints for sale at the space stations. You should have plenty of units. So if you are low on Nanites simply purchase Platinum or Pugneum and refine it into Nanite Clusters. You can also refine Iridesite your frigates bring home into Platinum.

This can also be a nice time to walk around a pleasant planet, or at least one where you have good upgrades and a nice stack of the appropriate recharge element, collecting buried technology to feed your Blueprint Analyser[nomanssky.gamepedia.com]. The Blueprint Analyser technology list does not seem to overlap the manufacturing facilities list. I usually combine these walks with something like a scanning mission.

My frigates routinely return with Gek Relics, GekNip, Vy’keen Daggers, Vy’keen Effigies, Korvax Casings, and Korvax Convergence Cubes. I have used a few on monoliths or for story line quests.

However, I give most of them away to a member of their race. Thankfully I eventually realized that once I found for example a Gek accepting Gek Relics I could repeatedly gift them with Gek Relics until I was out of Relics. Then I could “Leave.” Then immediately engage them again and now they would be accepting GekNip until I ran out of GekNip. My status page already shows me with the highest possible status with all the races. I don’t know if a hidden counter goes higher, but at least it doesn’t seem to hurt. Now that I’m rich I also ask every NCP that I meet to help me with language.

This is a nice guide you should probably read.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1590979206

Shortly before writing this I reset the simulation in The Purge[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] and I am now in Eissentam.

I was not surprised to lose access to all my previous teleport destinations.

I was mostly expecting to keep and did keep all my credit units, nanites, and blueprints. Plus all technology in the technology sections of my exosuit and starship were intact.

I was surprised to still be able to summon my freighter with all its content including my other starships and all my frigates. In retrospect I did not need to use a bunch of starship storage space on different plants, since my frieghter’s hydroponic trays were fully stocked. I could also have left my freighter and storage units full instead of selling everything off before the final jump.

I was also suprised to discover that once I built an Exocraft Summoning Station[nomanssky.gamepedia.com] I was able to summon my Exocraft including their inventories from Euclid.

If I had planned better I would also have examined the yield of disassembling every bit of technology installed in my multi-tool, exosuit general section, and starship general section. While I packed most of what I needed. I should have packed a lot more technology modules and a few other more esoteric resources to repair everything after the portal jump. It might also have been wiser to go through the portal with a different default starship instead of my fully tricked out hauler. As I write this, I still need to look for a few more resources to finish repairing some of my hauler’s technology.

During dialogs such as the Trade Terminal boot sequence, the Debrief of a frigate, or the Welcome at the Mission Board, you can click your mouse multiple times to skip the slow reading.

My favorite daily ride is a tricked out Explorer with lots of slots. It is especially good for landing on new planets, and moving around a planet looking for manufacturing facilities. I also have an Exotic with minimal upgrades which I use when diving into black holes. I still have the Hauler I mostly used for trade routes which replaced a much cheaper shuttle I initially used for trade routes. Finally I have a Fighter that I occasionally use for combat missions. Only the Exotic is a small S class, my other current starships are all A class units with lots of slots.

If your multi-tool has a Geology Cannon, remap the fire key to something besides your second mouse button. Most of my deaths were caused by accidentally firing my Geology Cannon at things like Trade Terminals before I remapped the fire key. When you first get a Geology Cannon aim for the horizon on open ground to get a feel for a weapon that reminds me of a mortar. Once you get the hang of it, they are great for knocking open the doors at manufacturing facilities and accidentally killing sentinels.

Enjoy your travels.