No Man's Sky Beyond - Back to the Salt Mines

Our Score

Four years ago, we wrote of one of the most anticipated games ever to be released. Indie studio Hello Games and Irish automaton, Sean Murray promised us a for-all-intents-and-purposes infinite galaxy to explore and quest through. No Man’s Sky had been incubated since 2013 and was finally ready for the multi-console and PC collective space.

Well, much like a ship with depleted retro rockets, the release crashed and burned. Fans exploited a glitch to finish the game much earlier than was intended – players found glitches – they found the promised multiplayer functionality to be non-existent.

The frustration was encapsulated by a 2016 AngryJoeShow review:

“We found the game to be as wide as an ocean, and as deep as a puddle.”

And though we wrote two reviews, and followed the progress closely, we used the better part of caution and didn’t get the ($60) game right at release. The top commenter on Joe’s video agreed:

Jaffas 2 years ago

this is why I wait abour 20+ years before I buy a game. Got my copy of Super Mario World last night.

Well, it didn’t take 20. Four years later, and several major updates later (including Abyss, Atlas Rises, Foundations and Visions), No Man’s Sky released Beyond on August 14th.

Patch Notes

Enabled mouse and keyboard rebinding on PC. Gamepad and other device rebinding can be performed via Steam.
Fixed an issue that caused starships to spin endlessly while attempting to dock in the Space Anomaly.
Fixed a situation where network connectivity issues could prevent players from speaking to NPCs aboard the Space Anomaly.
Fixed an issue that could cause players in ambient network games to lose ownership of their base or freighter.
Fixed an issue where buying technology upgrades with nanites could also remove quicksilver or units.
Fixed an issue that could cause players to fall out of the Space Station when approaching technology merchants.
Fixed an issue where players were charged too much when trading in their existing ship or Multi-Tool.
Fixed an issue where ships that were being added to a player’s fleet would be instead be traded in if purchased while the player’s current ship still had cargo aboard.
Fixed an issue that caused the Upgrade Modules popup to display too aggressively, and to experienced players who did not need to see it.
Improved handling of the camera in tight spaces.
Fixed an issue that caused tips about the Crystal Fragments to appear for players who had no Crystal Fragments.
Adjusted the speed of the scrolling text to make it more readable.
Fixed an issue that prevented rewards from being seen when handing in Mission Board missions, and instead held the game on a screen with no UI.
Fixed a number of issues that prevented hydroponic trays from working with base power.
Fixed an issue where pressure switches were not available in Creative Mode.
Fixed Health, Power and Shield stations not receiving power aboard freighters.
Fixed an issue that caused Batteries and Solar Panels not to attach correctly to building roofs.
Fixed an issue that caused animals not to drop mordite when killed.
Fixed an issue that prevent mordite being placed in the Nutrient Processor.
Made player-buildable sofas sittable.
Fixed an issue that caused dismissing notification boxes to also perform in-game actions like firing grenades.
Fixed an issue that caused overly dramatic camera shake in the Space Anomaly.
Fixed a number of issues with Steam VR in Linux.
Fixed a blocker in the Exocraft Technician quest chain, where the Technician could not be found aboard Space Stations.
Fixed an issue where storage containers could not be accessed aboard the freighter.
Fixed an issue that allowed VR players to punch other players aboard the Space Anomaly.
Fixed an issue that could cause player hands to become invisible.
Fixed an issue that could prevent players in multiplayer from speaking to NPCs on the Space Station.
Fixed an issue where players were asked to collect nanites from an unusable terminal during the Ghost in the Machine mission.
Fixed an issue in Creative Mode that would prevent the Overseer mission chain from starting.
Fixed an issue where some players were unable to summon the Space Anomaly after upgrading from NEXT.
Fixed an issue that could cause dismantling the Signal Booster to remove other building parts.
Fixed an issue that could cause black squares to appear when damage numbers were turned off.

Fixed a number of issues causing some players to experience low framerate after visiting the Space Anomaly.
Fixed a networking issue that could cause bad data to be synced between ambient players.
Fixed a rare issue where joining a full lobby causes an incorrect player ID.
Fixed an issue where players joining a group can be taken to the wrong system.
Fixed an issue that caused some network games not to appear in the Join game screen.
Fixed an issue that caused the loading progress value to appear in the wrong font in certain languages.
Fixed a number of very specific mission and dialog flow problems in multiplayer.
Adjusted the VR UI for the Fleet Terminal.
Updated the icon for the Noise Box.
Tweaked the UI for the Agricultural Robot.
Fixed an issue causing text clipping in notification boxes.
Fixed a number of LODding issues on specific plants.
Fixed a number of collision issues on the Space Anomaly.
Fixed an issue that could cause exotic ships to hide their wings when retracting landing gear.
Fixed an issue that caused ship cameras to intersect with the freighter hanger.
Fixed an issue that caused trade terminals on freighters to intersect the floor (fix will apply to new terminals, old terminals will need to be repositioned manually).
Fixed a number of graphical issues aboard the freighter.
Made a series of small geometry optimisations to the interior of the Space Anomaly.
Fixed a softlock in a specific interaction in planetary factories.

Added improved warnings for Vulkan driver support.
Added improved warnings for GPU issues.
Fix for incorrect fullscreen or max size on 4k/scaled displays.
Reduced render memory usage to improve stability in high watermark situations.
Fix cockpit screens and render targets from not rendering after precise Alt-Tab issue.
Increased rendering safety around alt-tab and windowing.
Automatically reduced texture quality if the current selection is causing an out of memory error.
Revert to the non-device-local heap in low memory situations.
Fixed a compatibility issue with a specific revision of nVidia drivers.
Fixed a Vulkan compatibility problem with a specific range of AMD drivers.
Adjusted GFX memory budgets to improve stability.
Adjusted base part data to improve performance in large bases.

Fixed a number of crashes occurring in the Space Anomaly.
Fixed several crashes in the rendering pipeline.
Fixed several memory-related crashes.
Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when manipulating inventory in close proximity to a high number of players.
Fixed a crash affecting VR with supersampling enabled.
Fixed a crash affecting unsupported VR hardware.
Fix for crash that could occur when spawning an incorrect number of freighters.
Fix for crash when disconnecting from Multiplayer in UI.
Fix for crash on controller remapping screen.
Fixes for performance issues within the Space Anomaly and Trading Posts.
Dynamically limit base building limits to allow some very large bases to load in more situations.
Fix crash for older chipsets without SSE support.
Fixed a crash that could occur during some factory interactions.
Fixed a number of crashes related to freighters and multiplayer.
Fixed a crash that could occur when freighters were part of an invalid ship squad.
Fixed a crash when the game is shutting down on certain GFX cards.
Fixed a crash that occurred when failing to initialising graphics card on specific mix of card and driver.
Fixed a multithreading crash in the matchmaking system.
Fixed a crash caused by an invalid base index.
Fixed a crash caused by invalid customisation data.
Fixed a rare crash when summoning the Space Anomaly.
Fixed a rare crash when viewing parts in a networked base.
Fix for crash when ship pilot being interacted is removed unexpectedly.
Fixed a crash when displaying markers for other players.
Fixed a rare crash in base wiring.
Fixed a crash that could occur if an NPC tried to walk to an invalid location.
Fixed a crash in Sentinel Quad navigation.

I guess it takes a lot of elbow grease to fix an infinite universe. I was more than happy to omit the four years of frustration and message board haranguing, and started the game post-Beyond (the 50% Steam discount didn’t hurt).

What I found was the space-Skyrim/Minecraft hybrid I’d been hoping for. No Man’s Sky Beyond seems more economically mature than Minecraft in that you can trade goods and resources for two different kinds of currency (Nanite Clusters and Credits). It’s less sophisticated than Skyrim from a quest perspective, as there are a bunch of replicable baseline quests that can either gain you standing with one of the alien factions or be turned in for a monetary reward. However, there isn’t nearly the political intrigue and permanent consequences of choosing Empire vs Stormcloaks in the civil war, for instance.

And yes, like the early days, there is a lot of repetition. As you’ll go through infinite iron pick axes in Minecraft, you’ll recharge your mining beam a hundred thousand times in No Man’s Sky. And while you’re still advancing through the beginning parts of the game, there’s a lot of accumulating you need to do. Breaking into space ATMs for their Nanite Clusters; blasting Sentinels for their delicious Pugneum; mining salt; mining more salt; filling up your space suit with salt; dumping your gold and tritium cache to store salt.

Salt.

Why is salt more valuable in No Man’s Sky than gold or platinum? Beats me. Perhaps feline liver and cave marrow are totally unpalatable without it. Perhaps it’s refined into Spice. Perhaps the universe is not without a sense of humor. But in the early stages of a No Man’s Sky campaign, there is nothing more worthwhile to look for.

Yes, I’ve also read the subreddit scuttlebutt about the actually most valuable and rare alloys in the game, including activated indium:

Card

So, go ahead and craft your multi-billion credit fully automated indium extractors. You will find me on the Salt Mines of planet Brine Prime.

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No Man’s Sky Beyond – Back to the Salt Mines

Patch Notes

Enabled mouse and keyboard rebinding on PC. Gamepad and other device rebinding can be performed via Steam.

Fixed an issue that caused starships to spin endlessly while attempting to dock in the Space Anomaly.

Fixed a situation where network connectivity issues could prevent players from speaking to NPCs aboard the Space Anomaly.

Fixed an issue that could cause players in ambient network games to lose ownership of their base or freighter.

Fixed an issue where buying technology upgrades with nanites could also remove quicksilver or units.

Fixed an issue that could cause players to fall out of the Space Station when approaching technology merchants.

Fixed an issue where players were charged too much when trading in their existing ship or Multi-Tool.

Fixed an issue where ships that were being added to a player’s fleet would be instead be traded in if purchased while the player’s current ship still had cargo aboard.

Fixed an issue that caused the Upgrade Modules popup to display too aggressively, and to experienced players who did not need to see it.

Improved handling of the camera in tight spaces.

Fixed an issue that caused tips about the Crystal Fragments to appear for players who had no Crystal Fragments.

Adjusted the speed of the scrolling text to make it more readable.

Fixed an issue that prevented rewards from being seen when handing in Mission Board missions, and instead held the game on a screen with no UI.

Fixed a number of issues that prevented hydroponic trays from working with base power.

Fixed an issue where pressure switches were not available in Creative Mode.

Fixed Health, Power and Shield stations not receiving power aboard freighters.

Fixed an issue that caused Batteries and Solar Panels not to attach correctly to building roofs.

Fixed an issue that caused animals not to drop mordite when killed.

Fixed an issue that prevent mordite being placed in the Nutrient Processor.

Made player-buildable sofas sittable.

Fixed an issue that caused dismissing notification boxes to also perform in-game actions like firing grenades.

Fixed an issue that caused overly dramatic camera shake in the Space Anomaly.

Fixed a number of issues with Steam VR in Linux.

Fixed a blocker in the Exocraft Technician quest chain, where the Technician could not be found aboard Space Stations.

Fixed an issue where storage containers could not be accessed aboard the freighter.

Fixed an issue that allowed VR players to punch other players aboard the Space Anomaly.

Fixed an issue that could cause player hands to become invisible.

Fixed an issue that could prevent players in multiplayer from speaking to NPCs on the Space Station.

Fixed an issue where players were asked to collect nanites from an unusable terminal during the Ghost in the Machine mission.

Fixed an issue in Creative Mode that would prevent the Overseer mission chain from starting.

Fixed an issue where some players were unable to summon the Space Anomaly after upgrading from NEXT.

Fixed an issue that could cause dismantling the Signal Booster to remove other building parts.

Fixed an issue that could cause black squares to appear when damage numbers were turned off.

Fixed a number of issues causing some players to experience low framerate after visiting the Space Anomaly.

Fixed a networking issue that could cause bad data to be synced between ambient players.

Fixed a rare issue where joining a full lobby causes an incorrect player ID.

Fixed an issue where players joining a group can be taken to the wrong system.

Fixed an issue that caused some network games not to appear in the Join game screen.

Fixed an issue that caused the loading progress value to appear in the wrong font in certain languages.

Fixed a number of very specific mission and dialog flow problems in multiplayer.

Adjusted the VR UI for the Fleet Terminal.

Updated the icon for the Noise Box.

Tweaked the UI for the Agricultural Robot.

Fixed an issue causing text clipping in notification boxes.

Fixed a number of LODding issues on specific plants.

Fixed a number of collision issues on the Space Anomaly.

Fixed an issue that could cause exotic ships to hide their wings when retracting landing gear.

Fixed an issue that caused ship cameras to intersect with the freighter hanger.

Fixed an issue that caused trade terminals on freighters to intersect the floor (fix will apply to new terminals, old terminals will need to be repositioned manually).

Fixed a number of graphical issues aboard the freighter.

Made a series of small geometry optimisations to the interior of the Space Anomaly.

Fixed a softlock in a specific interaction in planetary factories.

Added improved warnings for Vulkan driver support.

Added improved warnings for GPU issues.

Fix for incorrect fullscreen or max size on 4k/scaled displays.

Reduced render memory usage to improve stability in high watermark situations.

Fix cockpit screens and render targets from not rendering after precise Alt-Tab issue.

Increased rendering safety around alt-tab and windowing.

Automatically reduced texture quality if the current selection is causing an out of memory error.

Revert to the non-device-local heap in low memory situations.

Fixed a compatibility issue with a specific revision of nVidia drivers.

Fixed a Vulkan compatibility problem with a specific range of AMD drivers.

Adjusted GFX memory budgets to improve stability.

Adjusted base part data to improve performance in large bases.

Fixed a number of crashes occurring in the Space Anomaly.

Fixed several crashes in the rendering pipeline.

Fixed several memory-related crashes.

Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when manipulating inventory in close proximity to a high number of players.

Fixed a crash affecting VR with supersampling enabled.

Fixed a crash affecting unsupported VR hardware.

Fix for crash that could occur when spawning an incorrect number of freighters.

Fix for crash when disconnecting from Multiplayer in UI.

Fix for crash on controller remapping screen.

Fixes for performance issues within the Space Anomaly and Trading Posts.

Dynamically limit base building limits to allow some very large bases to load in more situations.

Fix crash for older chipsets without SSE support.

Fixed a crash that could occur during some factory interactions.

Fixed a number of crashes related to freighters and multiplayer.