Part of the handbook:

No Man's Sky Beginner's Guide Hub: You are here — start with this overview, then follow the child guides below.

Early Game Checklist: What to Do First: A step-by-step task list for your first few hours.

12 Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid: Skip the frustration others went through.

Quick Answer

You wake up alone on a hazardous planet with a broken ship. Your first job is to gather resources and repair it so you can leave.
Caves protect you from environmental hazards; ducking inside resets your hazard protection drain.
Sodium (yellow plants) recharges hazard protection; Oxygen (red plants) recharges life support.
Follow the Artemis Path main questline. It teaches every core system through natural play.
Scan every creature, plant, and mineral you see using the Analysis Visor for free Units income.
Your first freighter is free: warp into an inhabited system, respond to the distress call, and defeat the pirates to earn the captain's offer.
Normal or Relaxed mode is the right starting point; avoid Survival and Permadeath until you have solid experience with all core systems.

Overview

No Man's Sky is a procedurally generated sci-fi sandbox in which you explore an 18-quintillion-planet universe, build bases, trade, fight, and unravel the mysteries of the Atlas. Released in 2016, the game has received years of free major updates, including the Waypoint and Worlds updates, that have added Custom difficulty settings, vastly improved graphics, and quality-of-life systems that make 2026 the best time to start playing.

The opening hour drops you into the deep end without much hand-holding. That design is intentional, but it can feel overwhelming. This hub breaks the experience into manageable stages and links to in-depth guides for every system you will encounter. Bookmark it, work through it in order, and you will hit your stride far faster than players who stumbled through it alone.

Step 1 — Pick the Right Game Mode

Before anything else, you choose a save mode. The choice shapes every session you play. Full details are in the game modes and difficulty settings guide, but here is the short version:

Mode	Who it's for
Relaxed	First-time players or anyone who wants to focus on building and exploration without danger
Normal	The balanced experience; survival pressure exists but is forgiving
Survival	Experienced players who want meaningful consequences for death
Custom	Mix and match settings across categories (survival, crafting, combat, ease-of-use)
Permadeath	One life, no saves — a Custom preset for veterans only

Our recommendation: Start on Normal (or Relaxed if you dislike resource pressure). Both modes give access to all achievements. You can adjust difficulty via Custom settings mid-playthrough, so there is no permanent wrong choice.

Step 2 — Survive the First Planet

You spawn far from your crashed ship on a planet with an active environmental hazard: heat, cold, toxicity, or radiation. Your suit protects you, but that protection drains over time. Here is what to do immediately:

Manage hazard protection and life support

Sodium (glowing yellow plants) recharges your Hazard Protection.
Oxygen (small red plants) recharges your Life Support.
Caves are your safe harbor. Environmental drain pauses when you are underground.

Collect both resources on your way to the ship. If the planet is extremely hostile, prioritize getting underground rather than fighting the atmosphere. A full breakdown of these systems lives in the survival guide covering life support, hazard protection, Oxygen, and Sodium.

Repair your ship

Your ship's Launch Thrusters need Pure Ferrite and Di-Hydrogen Jelly to function. The process:

Mine Ferrite Dust from rocks using your mining beam, and collect Di-Hydrogen (blue crystals on the ground).
Build a Portable Refiner using Metal Plating and Oxygen. The recipe appears in your build menu.
Place Carbon in the fuel slot and Ferrite Dust in the input slot to produce Pure Ferrite.
Use Pure Ferrite to repair the Launch Thruster, then craft Di-Hydrogen Jelly from your collected Di-Hydrogen to repair the Pulse Engine.

The full step-by-step walkthrough, including every component needed, is in the ship repair and leaving the first planet guide.

Step 3 — Follow the Artemis Path

Once you are off the ground, the Artemis Path questline begins with a mission called Awakenings. This is No Man's Sky's main story, and it is also your best teacher. Rather than presenting a tutorial pop-up wall, the questline sends you to do things (visit crash sites, craft technology, find alien lifeforms) and each objective introduces a new mechanic organically.

Do not skip or ignore the quest log. The Artemis Path will guide you through:

Building your first base
Installing a Hyperdrive and making your first warp
Meeting the Space Anomaly and unlocking the construction research terminal
Earning your first freighter (free, from a pirate rescue event triggered by warping into an inhabited system)

Resist the urge to wander aimlessly in the first few hours. The questline is a scaffold. Once it has taught you the systems, freeform exploration becomes genuinely rewarding.

Step 4 — Earn Your First Units

Units are the primary currency. The easiest early source is your Analysis Visor. Equip it (bound to a button-hold by default), aim at any creature, plant, or mineral, and hold the scan button to register a discovery. Each species you fully document and upload earns a Units reward. Fauna scans pay the most; with Scanner Upgrade modules installed, those rewards scale significantly, but that is an upgrade for later.

A dedicated breakdown of scanning income is in the how to scan for Units with the Analysis Visor guide.

Other early income options:

Sell minerals you refine from raw deposits.
Trade goods between space stations: buy low at one station, sell high at the next.
Complete missions from the Mission Board inside every space station.

For a full ranking of money-making methods, see the best money-making methods ranked by game stage.

Step 5 — Grow Your Inventory

Your starting Exosuit has a small number of slots, which fill up fast. Expanding inventory is one of the highest-leverage things you can do early. There are three main ways to add Exosuit slots:

Find Drop Pods on planets: locate them using Exosuit Upgrade Charts purchased from space station Cartographers, then repair the module inside to gain one slot.
Upgrade at space station technology merchants.
Spend Salvaged Data at the Space Anomaly research terminal.

Ships and multi-tools also have expandable inventories. See the how to get more inventory slots guide for the full picture, and the Exosuit upgrade guide for suit-specific options.

Step 6 — Build a Base

You can claim and build a base anywhere on any planet. Bases serve as fast-travel waypoints, crafting hubs, and eventually automated resource farms. Your first base does not need to be elaborate: a Save Point, a Portable Refiner, a Teleporter, and a roof over your crafting bench is enough to start.

Understand the basics of crafting and refining, including Portable Refiner recipes, before you start placing parts. Knowing how to convert raw materials unlocks a huge portion of the game's economy. When you are ready to expand further, the base building guide for beginners covers everything from power to layout.

What to Prioritize in Your First 10 Hours

Priority	Why
Repair ship and leave starting planet	Unlocks travel and the main questline
Follow Artemis Path	Teaches every core system; provides gear
Upgrade scanner with multi-tool modules	Best early return per Nanite spent
Expand Exosuit slots	More carrying capacity = faster progression
Build a base with Teleporter	Enables fast travel across your explored systems
Claim first free freighter	Adds mobile storage and fleet management
Learn to save manually	Avoids losing progress to unexpected deaths

Saving deserves special mention. See how to save your game, including autosaves, save points, and beacons so you never lose a long session to a careless death.

Child Guides in This Series

Work through these in roughly the order listed:

Game Modes & Difficulty Settings Explained — choose the right experience before you start
How to Repair Your Ship & Leave the First Planet — step-by-step ship fix walkthrough
Survival Guide: Life Support, Hazard Protection, Oxygen & Sodium — stay alive in hostile environments
Early Game Checklist: What to Do First — a ranked task list for hours one through ten
How to Save Your Game — manual saves, autosaves, and beacons explained
Crafting & Refining Basics: Portable Refiner Recipes — convert raw materials into useful goods
How to Upgrade Your Exosuit — expand slots and add technology
How to Get More Inventory Slots — across Exosuit, ship, and multi-tool
How to Scan for Units with the Analysis Visor — turn exploration into income
Sentinels Guide: How to Fight & Escape Them — deal with the game's police force
12 Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid — skip the pitfalls
Atlas Pass Guide: v1, v2 & v3 — open every sealed door you keep walking past
How Long Is No Man's Sky? — playtime and whether it suits you

Related Handbook Hubs

Once you have the basics down, expand into specialized systems:

No Man's Sky Tips & Tricks — multiplayer, cross-save, settings, and hidden questlines
No Man's Sky Creatures & Companions Guide — pets, mounts, breeding, and discovery
No Man's Sky Settlements Guide — become an Overseer and run a planetary town
No Man's Sky Resources & Crafting Guide — where to find materials and how to refine them
No Man's Sky Technology & Upgrades Guide — modules, supercharged slots, and adjacency
No Man's Sky Combat Guide — Sentinels, dogfights, and Corrupted worlds
No Man's Sky Freighters Guide — free capital ships, fleets, and derelict raids
No Man's Sky Expeditions Guide — seasonal events and exclusive rewards

Sealed Doors & Locked Containers

Those locked doors in space stations and outposts need an Atlas Pass. The Atlas Pass guide covers all three tiers and how to get the blueprints.

FAQ

Do I need to follow the story, or can I just explore freely?

You can ignore the story entirely. No Man's Sky imposes no obligation. But for new players, the Artemis Path questline is the single best teacher the game has. It introduces the Hyperdrive, base building, the Space Anomaly, and the freighter system in a structured sequence. Most players who skip it spend hours confused about systems the questline would have explained in minutes.

What is the difference between Normal and Survival mode?

In Normal mode, death causes a grave marker to appear at your location containing your lost inventory. You respawn at your last save point and can return to retrieve everything, but if you die a second time before recovering your items, the original grave marker is gone permanently. In Survival mode, death is harsher: you lose your suit inventory with no grave to return to, and resources must be replaced from scratch. Survival is intended for players who are already comfortable with all of No Man's Sky's systems.

How do I get Nanites as a beginner?

Nanites are the upgrade currency used to purchase technology modules. Early sources include: scrapping unwanted technology in your inventory, completing missions from the space station Mission Board, selling knowledge stones or charts to cartographers, and uploading creature discoveries. Do not spend Nanites on low-tier (C or B-class) technology upgrades: save them for A-class or S-class modules, which are dramatically more powerful. The how to get Nanites fast guide covers every reliable method in detail.

My first planet is extremely hostile. Should I stay and gather more resources, or leave immediately?

Leave as fast as you can. A brutal starting planet is not a puzzle to solve with early gear. It is a prompt to repair your ship and get off the ground. You have access to the entire galaxy once you are airborne. Collect only what you need to fix the ship, take shelter in caves when your hazard protection is low, and escape. You can always return later when your suit upgrades can handle the environment.

What are Sentinels, and should I avoid them?

Sentinels are the game's robotic enforcement units. They patrol planets and space and respond to rule violations, mainly illegal mining or attacking wildlife and traders. Low-wanted-level encounters start small but escalate quickly. As a beginner, it is easiest to simply stop whatever triggered them and wait for the heat to drop. If you want to fight back, the Sentinels combat guide covers all wanted levels and escape strategies.

Can I play No Man's Sky in co-op with a friend?

Yes. No Man's Sky supports online multiplayer, and you can invite friends directly from the main menu or meet them in the Space Anomaly, which acts as a shared social hub. You can explore the same planets, share resources, and complete missions together. Your saves remain separate. One player's progress does not overwrite another's.

Key Takeaways

Pick Normal or Relaxed mode to start; switch to Custom later if you want to tune the challenge.
Survive the first planet by staying in caves, gathering Sodium and Oxygen, and repairing your ship as a priority.
The Portable Refiner is built from Metal Plating and Oxygen. Use it to turn Ferrite Dust into Pure Ferrite for your Launch Thruster repair.
The Artemis Path questline is the most efficient way to learn every core system.
Scan everything with your Analysis Visor. It is the easiest passive income in the early game.
Expand your Exosuit inventory as early and often as possible; use Exosuit Upgrade Charts from Cartographers to locate Drop Pods.
Save Nanites for A-class and S-class upgrade modules; do not waste them on low-tier gear.
Your first freighter is free: warp into inhabited systems until a pirate rescue event triggers, then defeat the attackers and claim the ship.
Use the child guides in this series to go deep on any system that is giving you trouble.

No Man's Sky Beginner's Guide (2026): Your First Steps in the Universe