With the release of No Man’s Sky Beyond, Hello Games have finally released the full patch notes for there a most anticipated update to date. We know there’s VR, online multiplayer, and several other updates, but the patch notes really go Beyond all of our expectations! Dubbed update 2.0, No Man’s Sky is entering a new era, perfect timing, considering it’s just after their three year anniversary. It’s the largest update so far and you can definitely tell from the length of these patch notes. So, here are the key details;
No Man’s Sky Beyond VR
Despite being the oldest known addition to Beyond, some interesting new details have popped up regarding the VR experience. Many interactions have been given special VR-options only, like;
- Grabbing Plants and other collectibles with your pair on in-game hands.
- Physically opening the cockpits of your ships and exo-craft (and controlling them with joysticks within the vehicle).
- You can even punch objects to cause damage.
- There are also special VR Menu’s, embedded in your Multitool and a personal wrist-mounted display.
- You can also see wings and the nose of your ship from the cockpit. Somehow your character can also do a full 360-degree turn so you can check out all of the details of your starship.
No Man’s Sky Online
Sadly, there is a slight disappointment in terms of the server size for console online multiplayer, which has been downgraded from 16 to eight. PC luckily can still get up to 32 players in a lobby. Though, the ‘space anomaly’ has been somewhat revamped into the new multiplayer social space. Nada and Polo have 10 new companions that can give you and your party a section of multiplayer or single-player missions, adding a bit more variety to the social area.
The space anomaly also is home to a ‘powerful teleporter’. That means you can visit any one’s basin in your lobby if you so desire. The best bases will be highlighted with ‘exceptional bases’. Like your freighter, you can summon the social space wherever you are in the universe.
The Third Pillar
There is a huge amount of changes in this portion of the update that has now been fully confirmed and finally all released. With so many, this chunk of the update seems more impressive than No Man’s Sky Beyond VR and multiplayer combined. Obviously, we have creature riding, but what else?
- There are improved graphics, with improved loading times, optimizations to asteroid and planet generation and better cloud and terrain shader.
- Technology trees have been added, where the Blueprint Analyser has now been transformed into Construction Research Units. This allows you to choose whatever research path you’d like, and therefore visualize your progress.
- NPCs now walk around environments and can interact with it, and can even respond to player gestures (NPCs can also sit down, alongside this new option for the player).
- Probably most amazingly, other players can now see each other’s characters and ‘ship customizations’.
- Cooking is now part of the game, with more flora to harvest, as well as milk, eggs and ‘edible clusters’, which can lead to more than ‘300 delicious recipes. You can use your cooking and recipes in the game’s new hunger like system, to feed yourself, in order to boost your exosuit, or present them to an NPC on the Nexus, who’ll give you rewards for your new cooking discoveries.
- There is improved base building, with more than one multiplayer group able to produce base’s together, as well a ‘base power system’, and a ‘new range of base parts’.
- For those who are into linguistics, you can now discover 700 new alien words! If your not, then there’s a new auto translator tech, helping you deconstruct a few foreign words.
- They’ll also be a new discovery page, the new way to chart planets and a refreshingly new galactic map.
It Goes Beyond This…
These are just of the main changes coming to the Beyond update. For a full list of the patch notes, you can find them on the official No Man’s Sky  Beyond page. With release imminent, here are a few ways to prepare for the update. For more on No Man’s Sky Beyond, stay tuned to TheNerdStash.