No Man’s Sky is so vast that some important info slips through the cracks. Want answers to the stuff No Man’s Sky explains badly (or doesn’t explain at all)? Here are 20 things No Man’s Sky doesn’t tell you.

Looking for more help? Also see our list of Things To Do First in No Man’s Sky. 

EditExpand Suit Inventory

To any explorer worth their salt, Drop Pods are the most wonderful thing in the universe. You can find them by using your Signal Booster, and also by asking aliens for help – as they may put a location to one on your compass.

These generally contain Exosuit Upgrade slots, which in turn allow you to carry and harvest more materials, earn more money, and craft more useful devices.

However, as of the NEXT Update, Exosuit Containers are now often damaged, and require extensive repairs using various materials to be able to upgrade your inventory space. If you do manage to fix all the components, you can get it without having to pay units.

Otherwise, you can now find Exosuit Upgrades at Space Stations in most star systems – just look for a merchant selling armor blueprints and walk past him to the exosuit hologram to buy a single slot.

Even if you just love exploring what the universe has to offer – it’s worth following the tutorial missions just for the items you can get. Things like a Hyperdrive and Antimatter Blueprints can’t be gained otherwise, and this can hamper your ability to traverse the stars unless you get these first.

While not particularly useful in combat, should you find yourself out of isotopes to charge your laser with, you can press R1 (PS4) / Q (PC) to melee strike objects.

A more useful way to use your melee attack is while walking/running. If you melee attack and then quickly jump you will find yourself flying forward at a much faster pace than you could ever run. Just remember that you jump with your jet pack which means you’re going up. Make sure you land softly.

There are several other hidden controls that you’ll find absent from the tutorial as well.

If you press the melee button while moving, you’ll perform a dash in that direction. This is especially useful when being attacked by local wildlife.

When sprinting forward, press the melee button immediately followed by the jump button. The thrusters will propel you upwards and forwards much faster than if you were just sprinting or using the jetpack alone.

At first glance, trying to save your game can be a bit confusing – the Options Menu lists restore points for auto saves and manual saves, but you can’t manually save here.

Instead, you have to either create a Manual Save Point using a Base Computer, or find one of the region scanner towers that are often located next to building or in open spaces – these allow you to “Save and Scan” a region you’re in, and creates a manual save.

Yes, Sentinels are a pain, spoiling your fun and thwarting your lucrative mining. But destroyed Sentinels are key sources of some very valuable resources. Killing Sentinels allows you to harvest gear useful for some of the useful Upgrades in No Man’s Sky.

So even if you’re mostly a peaceful explorer of space trader, you may find it beneficial to stir up a little Wanted Level every now and then.

EditSuits and Ships Are Both Used for Storage

It’s easy to forget important gear when you land on a Planet. You’ll need enough basic Elements to power your Life Support, Multi Tool, and other defenses, and you should dump any ancillary gear in your Ship so you have more room to store salvage as you wander.

You probably know that you can name and identify new life forms and planets as you encounter them, but did you know you get paid for it, too? In the Options menu, report discoveries to the Galactic Knowledge Base for hundreds, sometimes thousands of bonus Units.

Those asteroids in orbit exist for more reasons than just to get in your way. Asteroids also serve as dense Element deposits. Blast them with your onboard weapons to harvest valuable metals and isotopes.

While your starter ship is a capable little vessel, you’re going to eventually want something with more range and storage. There are two main methods for getting new ships: you can purchase new ones or salvage a wreck and restore it yourself.

You’ll need a lot of spare materials to get it off the ground, but until you repair your Warp Systems, you’re stuck in the planetary system you’re in.

If you decide to buy, you’ll need at least a few hundred thousand spacebucks on hand. Then hang around the Space Station hangar or settlement landing pad until the right ship stops by and make your offer.

As of the 1.5 Update, you can now own multiple ships – and as long as you restore the salvages ships to working order, you can summon them to your position at any time – as long as that ship has fuel in its launch thrusters. However, crashed ships have damaged inventory slots that will take a lot of materials to fix them and make them usable again.

Your puny mining laser isn’t much good on tough Steel surfaces, but Grenades do a handy job of reducing the Steel Doors outside Manufacturing Facilities to rubble. Dart inside once the door goes down to avoid Sentinels.

You can even try strafing the building in your spaceship and fire at it from the air – the Sentinels can’t attack you from this position, but trying to angle your cannons can be a bit tricky.

The truly massive Monoliths serve two purposes: they increase your standing with a Faction, and they provide you with free stuff… should you answer their inquiries properly. When in doubt, choose the bolder, more “heroic” course when questioned. Monolith gifts are often valuable.

See a distant waypoint on the horizon? Parabolic flights into space save HUGE time when traveling to a far-off location on the same planet you start your trip from.

Hop into space, Pulse Jump to the marker hovering above the planet until you’re right above the location, then dive straight down and land.

If you expire or give up, a grave is generated at your point of death. Return there to reclaim your lost gear. If you die on your way there, then the gear from your first death will vanish and be replaced with a new grave location that contains what ever you had on you from your most recent death.

Be warned that some of your suit or multi-tool tech can get damaged after resurrecting, and you may need to repair things like your Scanner to use them again.

Watch out! Most of the local life is docile, but the creatures that aren’t tend to come right at you. Always scan bigger animals when you first encounter them and take a peek at their behavior.

You can tag animals and plants for rewards, but you can also tag structures to set your own waypoints. Use your Analysis Visor and focus to create a temporary waypoint back to places like a Crash Site or other structure if you require supplies for repair.

Some treasures are hidden beneath the surface. Your scanner may detect ore lodes running deep into the ground. Your mining beam can usually handle these, but if you need to do a little custom terrain deformation, Grenades blow big holes in the ground quite nicely.

Tapping R1 activates a melee attack, which can also be used for mining when your beam runs dry.

EditLaunch Fuel Efficiency: Making Use of Safe Landing Spots

There are certain landing spots where you can safely launch from without consuming launch fuel.  These are landing pads and flat areas of land that are specifically adjacent to small, cylindrical, ship-call beacons.  To land at these sites, approach slowly and as low as possible, and wait for a circle of white beams to turn green.

Planning on raising your milestone level (and earn trophies) in the Extreme Survival branch of milestones?  Find a planet with extremely hazardous weather and/or extremely aggressive sentinel presence and DO NOT LEAVE THE PLANET until you get those milestones.  These milestones must be earned with consecutive time spent on the same planet, without ever leaving the planet’s atmosphere, and they do not stack among subsequent planets.