No Man's Sky Survival Mode For Beginners

Started by GribbleGrunger, Apr 24, 2017, 02:11 PM

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GribbleGrunger

Apr 24, 2017, 02:11 PM Last Edit: Apr 24, 2017, 03:22 PM by GribbleGrunger
Survival Mode For Beginners (The First Planet Of Death)


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1/ The first thing you will want to do is familiarise yourself with the menu system. Spend some time inside the shelter provided and check out all the options for crafting you have at your disposal. This will save your life. Don't wait until you're out there in the cruel world to try and find out what you need to do. YOU WILL DIE!

2/ Speaking of 'death', remember, on dying, everything in your suit will be lost if you die on a planet and everything in your space craft will be lost if you die in space, so IF push comes to shove, transfer accordingly. Make sure you at least benefit a little from your first forays into the wilderness. And always have a soft, large cushion to throw your joypad at.

2a/ Before you follow what I've suggested below, just check what sort of building you're next to.If it's sizeable building and not just a simple shelter, you might have been lucky enough to spawn near a 'landing node' which is red and silver. Just have a quick look around the building to see if you have indeed been that lucky, because if you have, it will save you 'The Walk'. In conjunction with a 'Bypass chip', this will allow you to call your ship from a distance. All you'll have to do is fix the thrusters and use the Bypass chip! HELLO SPACECRAFT.

3/ From the comfort of said shelter, pop out and gather a stack of iron and a stack of carbon. Fix your visor and your scanner with these and then replenish those stacks. These will aid you greatly in finding the resources you'll need once you venture out.

4/ Don't use your mining tool to find out what resources are, just point it at the desired resource instead. Filling slots with unnecessary things will hinder and confuse you. Only Zinc, Thamium, Heridium, Platinum and Plutonium are needed to begin with. Carbon and Iron are plentiful so don't worry too much about those. Don't bother with opening the rectangular, green boxes just yet. Keep your slots available for necessary things.

5/ Caves and shelters are your friends. You will need a lot of iron to fuel the pulse drive, fill your ship's shield and build carite sheets. While inside a cave, mine for iron and build from there, either in your ship or in your suit (and then send them to your ship were they stack up to 5). Mining in caves is the best way of getting the iron required BUT remember, some caves don't have much carbon, if any, so ALWAYS keep your stack of carbon high for such occasions. Meleeing iron and carbon isn't fun ... Oh, and don't move while mining, let the mining tool do the work because you're depleting your life support without the need.

5a/ Speaking of caves, I feel I need to add one more piece of advice here in order to save you from yourself. You're in a cave, your hazard protection isn't going down and you feel oh so cosy. This is wonderful! It's lit up like Santa's Grotto, with maybe just a few annoying crabs but compared to the surface it's relatively safe. You have all the iron you need, perhaps plenty of carbon too and if you search a little, there's also Plutonium. RESULT! At this point you decide to scan for resources and little tempting icons appear everywhere. An idea pops into your beginners brain: 'If I continue through this cave I could probably make it a good way to my ship without the need to suffer the hazards on the surface'. Douse that voice, as you would a raving lunatic, with an ice cold bucket of reality, because as you dive deeper into the warren of convoluted, winding tunnels, you may start noticing the skeletons of dozens of unfortunate adventurers who had exactly the same idea. Once you're down there, you could be down there FOREVER. Save exploration for much later when you have the photon cannon, a useful item that will allow you to blow a tunnel to freedom, or even make yourself a makeshift mini cave in times of need. Put that little gem out of your head though. Save it for later.

6/ Assess what is available and play accordingly. If there is lots of Thamium then running is no problem and filling your life support isn't either, but if it's scarce, WALK. You will notice little white arrows to the right of your life support. This indicates how fast you're losing it. Walking reduces it by one, running reduces it by two and jetpacking reduces it by three. This can vary slightly on planets with high gravity but don't worry about that just yet.

6a/ Zink replenishes your hazard protection but it's also a resource you'll need for fixing your ship. I would advise only ever using it for your life support if you REALLY, DESPERATELY need to. This is were your familiarity with the menu system and what you can craft comes in handy. Platinum + iron will craft you a plate (for hazard protection) while Plutonium + carbon will craft you a gel (for life support). Remember though, Thamium is your better option for life support if Plutonium is rare because Plutonium is required to fill your thrusters in order to take off. Zink can also be obtained from killing Sentinels but that's something best left alone unless you are struggling to find Zink in the wilds.

6b/ If you can, try to get just a little extra Plutonium. It's the one resource you'll burn through quickly in Survival and it's the one resource the lack of will leave you stranded for certain. If you're lucky enough to have two stacks during 'The Walk' send one to your ship and keep one handy on your suit just in case you need to make gel. In general, always try to make sure you have a full stack of everything. Never just mine what you think you need only to find later you didn't mine enough. This is a common mistake a lot of people make when mining Heridium too. Check those menus!

7/ At some point a little blue/purple icon will appear. It's shaped like a bottle. This is Heridium and a resource you'll need to finally lift off. This is where the game plays tricks with you. It's not happy just throwing Sentinals, aggressive creatures and bad whether your way, it will deliberately lead you astray. IGNORE that icon. You will find Heridium on the way to your ship or nearby your ship. It's a fat tower of blue/purple with a rounded top. You cannot miss it. And remember, you can make caves out of such materials and so have a little cave in which to farm away from the whether. Sentinels will let you mine this to your hearts content so don't worry about them when mining these types of materials, unless you're unfortunate enough to spawn on a planet with aggressive Sentinels.

8/ So, you've reached your ship, by running or ducking from cave to cave, have accepted the Atlas Path (advised) and searched the debris for everything available. Your ship should be more or less ready to go but for maybe a couple of things you couldn't quite fulfil on the way there. Take your time ... don't rush ... finish up, and take off. DON'T LEAVE THE PLANET YET.

9/ Scout the planet for a while and look for outposts or any other building with a 'free' landing area. These come in the form of a landing pad or a little red and silver nodule sticking out of the ground by the desired building (photo mode will help you find this little helper so don't neglect it). They're not always there though, so unless Plutonium is easily available, don't land there. These also come in handy for calling your ship, and because you spent some time earlier with familiarising yourself with the menu system and what you can craft, you will understand you'll need to make a Bypass chip from iron.

10/ You've taken your first steps, survived the hardest part of Survival so congratulations. But don't relax just yet. If you find a trading post then spend some time making a little early cash because now you CAN afford to open everything, to sell it (for now). Each race requires specific things to up your relationship with them and how good your relationship is with them decides how good the upgrades they sell you are. And also take your time to get your first 'milestone': Every creature found on the planet. Milestones are important, as you'll find out later but I don't want to spoil things here.

Hope that helps.

Addenda: Always jump in and out of your ship before moving on. This will create an auto save. Crashes are still a thing occasionally and you can lose a lot of progress.
Survival Mode For Beginners Part 2 (Leaving The Planet Of Death)


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1/ So, you've followed what I said in the first part, more or less to the letter. ... You've got your first Milestone, sold a bunch of stuff, grabbed as much Nanite as you can muster and want to discover another one or two of the 18 quintillion planets. There are a few things to consider before rocketing skyward into the blackness or pinkness or blueness or redness or ... well you get the idea. One thing you must do immediately is put out of your mind anything you've already seen on streams because nothing will frustrate you more than seeing a goal that is far out of your reach to begin with. Baby steps are the order of the day and as long as you embrace that idea, frustration won't rear it's ugly head.

2/ There are pirates out there, they 'aint' friendly and your ship is essentially a bucket with a pea-shooter. Don't even consider taking these scoundrels on, but just in case you have no option and have to attempt the impossible, make sure you have at least two full stacks of iron in you ships inventory. These are for your shields. Get used to the quick access menu by pushing down on the D-pad, although I'm sure you're familiar with it by now. You can mine for iron whilst in space (amongst other materials) but in the heat of battle it will be of no help whatsoever. 'Be prepared'.

2a/ 'Generally speaking' (I say that deliberately because this isn't always the case), the number of pirates that attack you correlates with the worth of the cargo you are carrying, so it's a good idea to sell what you can on the planet and not try dragging those 5 stacks of gold to the space station. Remember, wealth doesn't determine how often you are attacked but rather by how many. And trust me, taking on one or two pirates and not five or six is a lot easier ...

3/ So how do you avoid these pirates? They're random and you're sometimes a long way from salvation, be it a space station, planet or Anomaly (keep your eye out for this). Good things come to those who complete the milestones. Take a close look at the dashboard of your space bucket. To the left of centre you'll see a panel with a circular indicator. Get into the habit of flicking your eyes to that regularly because this is going to save you a LOT of heartache. 20 seconds before the pirates scan you, this begins to fill up, and then once it's filled and you've been scanned you have 10 seconds to take evasive action. This 30 seconds is sometimes all you'll need to prevent disaster.

4/ It's tempting isn't it? There's the space station floating in nothingness and it's so serene, quiet and inviting out there. The instructions have just told you to hold R1/L1 and suddenly you're shooting towards your destination, the thrill of speed intoxicating, wiping any sense of danger from your virginal space-travellers brain. You don't even hear the metallic female voice intone 'Threat Detected' and just carry on with a grin on your soon to be dead face. This isn't fun, space cadet, this is serious business for serious people ... seriously. Fight that urge to just 'go for it'.

5/ Don't go straight to your desired destination unless it's close enough. The order of the day here is a spot of planet or moon hopping, which is simply aiming towards a heavenly body a shorter distance from your destination but on the way there. It may seem a little counter-productive to veer off at a tangent but not as counter-productive as death and the loss of all the baubles you've gathered, if you're not quick enough to transfer them over to your suit, which you've got plenty of room for because you didn't just pick everything up and fill your suit with unnecessary things ... right?

6/ Here you are, happily hopping from potential safety to potential safety, comfortable in the knowledge you can take evasive actions, but what the heck IS this evasive action? What does it even mean? Back to the circular indicator on your ship's panel. Remember once that fills up, you will be immediately scanned and then you have 10 seconds to 'get outa there.' Providing you're planet hopping, have been keeping an eye on that circular indicator and don't panic when you're scanned for the first time, you should be within reach of a planets atmosphere (or space station if you're going to a planet). Entering that atmosphere will trigger a 'scan failed' and you can safely zoom back up into space and continue your journey, and now you have a decent amount of time before you're scanned again. Don't take it for granted though, remember you've just started the game and you're in a bucket with a pea-shooter.

7/ Taking what I've said in 6 into consideration, there's a little trick you can do to give yourself extra time. It takes some patience but it's worth it if you want to feel extra safe. You've seen the 20 second warning and know you're only 5 - 10 seconds from the spacestation or planet. You've got plenty of time! No need to worry, were done here. But let's say the planet you want to get to is on its lonesome with no planet hopping opportunities. What do you do then? Throw caution to the wind and blast off? You could do that ... OR, you could hang around a planets atmosphere or space station mining iron while you wait for that circular indicator to appear, watch it count down and then on being scanned enter the space station or planets atmosphere. Now you have as much time as the game can allow for you to aim for that distant planet.

8/ None of the above came into play, I did everything suggested and still got attacked by pirates 100 times more powerful than me. Help! This is it, your worse nightmare. You're not used to controlling the ship, your pea-shooter is doing very little damage, while one shot from these pirates is nearly wiping out your full shield. Remember those two stacks of iron? Remember that quick menu? Are you a quitter, cadet? Are you going to do what lots of people do and just resign yourself to death? No, cadet, you're not! You're going to shoot a few blasts, D-pad down, refill, shoot a few blasts, D-pad down, refill. You're not going to wait until the shield is empty, you're going to assume it is and fill, fill, fill while at the same time beating these blighters one small chip at a time. I'd also recommend using your phase beam for this. It has an auto lock on which helps with stress levels.

So good luck, and enjoy the music when entering the space station for the first time. ;) It's awesome.
Survival Mode For Beginners Part 3 (Progression)


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Before I start, I feel I need to mention these mini guides are for complete beginnings and the aim is to make the game as painless and as straightforward as possible. There are going to be many views on progression and no one can say that any are completely wrong. Remember though, NMS is 'BIG', oh so very 'BIG' and even if you're not lost, it's easy to feel lost. This is for the beginner who couldn't find a sock in a sock drawer (rather like me). https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7059/6913544122_994f2e7734_b.jpg

1/ What do I mean by progression? There are four main threads of progression, not including self imposed targets and goals, like upgrading your suit, ship or buying a freighter. You have the Atlas Path, triggered when you engage with the pulsing, red ball next to your crashed ship. You have claiming a home planet, employing staff and building your base. There is (I got bored starting the sentence with 'You have') The Anomaly, a strange dark sphere that appears in space randomly, piloted by a Gek called Polo and a Corvax called Nada. And finally you have the tutorial. I mention that last because that's where we begin and I want it to be emphasised. At all costs, GET THIS DONE. Don't be distracted by all the exciting things you've seen on Youtube.

2/ The tutorial: Read what is on your screen. ... No, seriously, read it! The problem with NMS is it will constantly flick up 'helpful' hints to the bottom right of your screen. It wants to help you but, because it sometimes ends up helping you with things you have already done (bug) or things you haven't been focusing on, it's easy for it to become invisible to a NMS player. I have become apoplectic sometimes, while shouting into my laptop at a less than focused streamer who constantly asks the questions 'what do I do? Where is that? How do I get that?' when all along it's there, on his/her screen. 'Read the God dang screen', I'd scream, thinking for some insane reason that they'll eventually hear me. But enough about my mental stability. ... This is why I say 'GET IT DONE'. For emphasis, I'm going to repeat that again: 'GET. IT. DONE'. Don't be distracted. Don't be sidelined. Just get it out of the way so you can relax into the general flow of the game.

2a/ The tutorial consists of a few simple steps to ease you into navigating the solar system, grafting necessary things and finally exploring the galaxy. It will also ease you into accomplishing three warps, something you'll need to finally unlock the 'Portals', which are located on the left side of the spacestations or in your home base (but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here). At ALL stages, these helpful hints will tell you what to do. One might tell you to scan the solar system, in which case your next destination will be marked on a planet or in the space station. These will give you ingredients or blue-prints for fashioning your own warp cells. Do them in order, scan the new solar systems regularly and you'll breeze through the tutorial without question. Don't panic at any point. The game will lead you to what you want or haven't got. You haven't missed it, don't need to return to a previous solar system and don't need to rush to Reddit to ask 'Where do I find the Antimatter?' And don't neglect your 'log', found in the options, just in case you're worrying you may have overlooked a useful hint.

3/ Establishing a Home planet: You've done the tutorial, have all the ingredients required to warp all by your lonesome and now it's time to kick up your feet and relax a little. It's highly unlikely that you'll find your dream planet to begin with. Oh, you'll think you have ... until you explore another planet that's just a tad better, and then another and another. So, I advise just using your first home planet for beginning the base building and employee quests. These give you useful things such as the Haz-mat Gloves (for picking specific flowers), the Advanced Laser (for mining specific materials) and of course, the Exocrafts (the reason you're most excited, right?). Moving forward will be less painful and frustrating if you can get as many of these done as possible. However, once you have the Haz-mat Gloves and the Advanced Mining Laser, you can more or less go anywhere and gather anything you need. Hold off though. There are a few things you need to set up before you think you're done there 'for now'.

3a/ You will find the employees on spacestations. The first employee you will need is the 'Builder', a nice chap who smells quite sweet. Doing his quests will reward you with enabling the building of workstations for the Science employee (Korvax), the Weapons employee (Vy'Keen) and the Agriculture employee (Gek). You can also build the Engineer workstation (Vy-Keen) but you won't be able to do much until you've progressed the other quests first. So get on it! Place your Builder in the room where the portal is and get started. Again, progression is marked in your log and as long as you do what it tells you to do, you'll be panic free. You'll get everything you'll need to progress each quest line from those employees, so if something like a 'Votaic cell' suddenly appears, don't worry, you'll get it eventually some where down the line ...

3b/ Where to build your first makeshift base? You have toxic planets, acid planets, hot planets, cold planet, planets with storms, aggressive sentinels, aggressive animals ... 'I just want to relax for goodness sake!' After building dozens of bases, travelling through six galaxies and earning hundreds of millions of units, I can safely say 'Spadonium' planets are your best bet for reasonable comfort, providing they're void of aggressive sentinels. Move on if it has them. They'll annoy the hell out of you. Spadonium planets are often quite well stocked with resources, have a good period of time when the whether isn't killing you, and but for the occasional heat storm and cold night, are pleasant to navigate. It's up to you of course, but that's my advice.

3c/ How to design your makeshift base (optional ... 'I hear you, all right?!). Because this is highly unlikely to be anything but a tutorial finishing home planet, expending time and effort collecting all the materials to turn it into R2-D2, McDonald's or a wonderful palace of glass is a bit 'OTT, in my opinion. I usually just make a square of round rooms joined by corridors which loop back to the first room (with the portal) where I've placed my builder. Less materials, less effort, jobs a good'n. All I need now is a room for my engineer and a basic square room for growing my first MILLIONS! Don't be afraid to put crops in all the rooms just to get that money coming in, the square rooms will soon be available but you might as well start making some cash. You'll need it. While you're on your home planet, explore a little. Press down on your D-pad and build a signal booster. Here you will find options for finding a few things, one of which is the drop-pod, something that will expand your inventory slots on your suit and so allow you to carry even more stuff to the spacestation to sell, or back to your base to store. I would recommend using most of the money you earn early on upgrading to at least an extra 10 slots.

3d/ About that portal. While you're at the spacestation in your home planet's solar system, browsing through everything available and hiring staff for the workstations you've built, take the time to check out the door on the left. Here you will find the mirror of the portal on your base and here you can finally activate it and zoom to your planet and back again at will. You will also find the Nanite salesman, who will offer you suit upgrades (Corvax), gun/weapon upgrades (Vy'keen) and ship upgrades (Gek). Check out the prices, pick what you need and take the time to search your comfortable Spadonium planet for the necessary nanites. Also talk to the aliens at the spacestations more than once. You'll start to notice they want 'trinkets' for various things, all of which raise your standing with them, and standing improves what you can buy from the nanite salesman. This is very important for making your travels safer.

4/ The Anomaly could be anywhere in this list because the Anomaly can pop up at any time, hence why it's called the Anomaly! Here it is at '4'. I didn't plan it that way, it just appeared! Simply do this when you see it, if you can, but always check anyway just in case you've accidentally fulfilled one of the milestones required. If you haven't and what Polo is asking you to do can be done, do it now and return. I would also recommend taking things to help you on your journey from Nada. One option simply puts you back on the Atlas Path, something you'll likely to be doing anyway, and the other (shortcut to centre) places a black on the galactic map, which you really don't want to be using this early on. You'll also find out why it's of little consequence when you've completed the Atlas path

There's not much more to it than that but if you want the best equipment or Atlas passes, then never overlook it. At this point take a close look at the milestones because those are what Polo gives you upgrades for. Do them and do them regularly. Some take care of themselves, such as surviving extreme planets, walking certain distances, warping a certain number of times or meeting a number of aliens, but some such as find all animals, kill a number of sentinels or shoot down a number of pirates, require you to go out of your way to get them done, because let's face it, you're going to try an avoid the last two at all costs. You don't have to be mindful of the Anomaly quest, it will remind YOU.

5/ The Atlas Path: This is a great 'backbone' for accomplishing all the above. It gives you focus and a goal. I'm saying very little about this because I don't want to spoil it, but it does lead to something that will help you greatly in exploring the galaxy. Make sure you have storage at your base (or room in your ship) and DO NOT sell anything related to The Atlas Path. Oh, and stamp on those little lights in the Atlas, you'll find them useful.

To summarise:
1/ Do the tutorial until it's finished.
2/ Find a Spadonium planet to build a base on and complete what quests you can there.
3/ Continue the Atlas path to completion, returning to you home planet occasionally to further the quests there.
4/ Visit the Anomaly when it appears having made sure you're chipping away at the milestones.