Eight Years On And No Man’s Sky Has Just Received Another Massive Update

Developer Hello Games has announced and released update 5.0 for No Man’s Sky, which is live now across all platforms.

Since its disastrous launch in 2016, No Man’s Sky has received countless free updates, taking what was a barren sandbox and turning it into the engaging and interesting space exploration/survival/base-building monster that it is today. With Hello Games recently announcing its newest title, Light No Fire, it would be completely reasonable to assume that No Man’s Sky would be left to its own devices. Nope, not even slightly.

Given the name Worlds Part I, this latest update is arguably the game’s biggest to date. It reworks and refines so many systems and elements that it almost looks like a different experience altogether. The full list of patch notes is insane, but here are some of the more outwardly noticeable inclusions:

• Water, including seas and oceans, have been reworked. Bodies of water will now feature waves and currents, dynamically changing with the weather.
• Planets have been refreshed to look more distinct and unique. Gravitational anomalies will allow for floating islands that you can land on, explore and build upon.
• A new range of creatures have been added, fuzing flora and fauna together to create strange new plant animals (plantimals?)
• Wind and weather patterns have been vastly improved, with the objects on-world reacting to gusts dynamically.
• A brand new expedition (The Liquidator Vanguard) has you going full Starship Troopers, hunting a new insect species throughout the universe
• Rewards from the expedition are also new, including mountable trophies and a set of bug armour
• New volumetrics help create more varied and interesting cloud patterns that will change and evolve with each planet’s weather
• The depth and detail of shadows has been improved and will now change with the position of the solar system’s sun
• The Minotaur. No mincing my words, this is a mech, a usable mech. Linked to the Liquidator expedition, players will be able to fabricate and pilot this combat mech.

Honestly, the list just keeps going, so I’d be here all day. Those looking to get a good sense of the update without spending their whole day flicking through patch notes can watch a handy little deep-dive from Hello Games’ Manager Director Sean Murray.

Well, it looks like I’ll be downloading No Man’s Sky again. The craziest part about this whole update is that it’s called Worlds Part I, a fact that Sean doubles down on in the above video, stating that there’s plenty more in store for this rags-to-riches space exploration game.

Are you getting back on the No Man’s Sky bandwagon like me? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.