No Man’s Sky – Biggest Changes in the Day One Launch Patch

Find out how No Man’s Sky has changed before most people even got a chance to play!

The day one launch patch for No Man’s Sky brings a lot of changes to the game that offer a great deal of enhancement. For most, they won’t notice a difference because they haven’t been playing the game. However, for members of the press, or anyone lucky enough to snag an early copy of No Man’s Sky, there have been some considerable changes made to improve the game on all fronts. Let’s take a closer look at what’s changed and how players should handle the day one launch patch.

Recommended Videos

If you’ve already been playing No Man’s Sky before the official release of the game, it’s important that you erase your game save before applying the day one patch (which went live today). While your previous game save will still work, you won’t get any of the added benefits of the new patch. To make the most of your experience in No Man’s Sky, it’s best to cut your losses and delete you save file. Don’t worry, the servers were reset yesterday and again today, so you’re not really losing all that much.

No Man’s Sky has been marketed as not really having a story. There isn’t much of a set path to follow beyond just trying to reach the center of the universe. That all changes with the addition of three unique paths players can take through the game. The choices and decisions you make early in the game will have a significant impact on the path you take.

Planets are no more varied than they were before. While we’ve already talked about how planets will vary depending on their proximity to the closest star, there are no dead moons, planets with low atmosphere and even hazardous planets.

We discussed how you’ll be upgrading your ship in No Man’s Sky, but with the day one patch there’s even more diversity in the available ships. You’ll find a wider variety of ships per star system, as well as additional upgrades to help differentiate the ships.

Quite possibly the biggest change from a player’s perspective is the fact that ship inventories are not five times larger than before. This makes a huge difference if you’ve found a great trade route or want to hold on to some cargo to see if you can get better prices for it in the next star system.

These are some of the biggest changes, but if you’re interested in the complete list, you can find all of the big day one patch changes below. Stay tuned to our No Man’s Sky walkthrough and guide as we’ll have more over the coming weeks.

Complete Day One Patch Notes:

  • The Three Paths – there are now new, unique “paths” you can follow throughout the game. You must start the game on a fresh save, with the patch, as early choices have significant impact on what you see later in the game, and the overall experience.
  • The Universe – we changed the rules of the universe generation algorithm. Planets have moved. Environments have changed biomes. Galaxies have altered shape. All to create greater variety earlier. Galaxies are now up to 10x larger.
  • Diversity – Creatures are now more diverse in terms of ecology and densities on planets.
  • Planets – we’ve added dead moons, low atmosphere and extreme hazardous planets. Extreme hazards include blizzards and dust storms.
  • Atmosphere – space, night time and day skies are now 4x more varied due to new atmospheric system, which refracts light more accurately to allow for more intense sunsets.
  • Planet rotation – play testing has made it obvious people are struggling to adjust to this during play so it’s effects have been reduced further…
  • Terrain generation – caves up to 128m tall are now possible. Geometric anomalies have been added. Underwater erosion now leads to more interesting sea beds.
  • Ship diversity – a wider variety of ships appear per star system, and are available to purchase. Cargo and installed technology now vary more, and ships have more unique attributes.
  • Inventory – ship inventories now store 5 times more resources per slot. Suit inventories now store 2.5 times more per slot. This encourages exploration and gives freedom from the beginning. We’re probably going to increase this even further in the next update, for people in the latter game phases, and will allow greater trading potential.
  • Trading – trading is deeper. Star systems and planets each have their own wants and needs, based off a galactic economy. Observing these is the key to successful trading. We still working on adjusting this based on how everyone plays, but all trading values have been rebalanced across the galaxy, giving a greater depth. A bunch of trade exploits were uncovered and have been removed
  • Feeding – creatures now have their own diet, based on planet and climate. Feeding them correctly will yield different results per species, such as mining for you, protecting the player, becoming pets, alerting you to rare loot or pooping valuable resources.
  • Survival – recharging hazard protection requires rare resources, making shielding shards useful again. Storms can be deadly. Hazard protection and suit upgrades have been added. Liquids are often more dangerous
  • Graphical effects – Lighting and texture resolution have been improved. Shadow quality has doubled. Temporal AA didn’t make it in time, but it’s so close
  • Balancing – several hundred upgrades have had stat changes (mainly exo-suit and ship, but also weapon), new upgrades have been added.
  • Combat – Auto Aim and weapon aim has been completely rewritten to feel more gentle in general, but stickier when you need it. Sentinels now alert each other, if they haven’t been dealt with quickly. Quad and Walker AI is now much more challenging, even I struggle with them without a powered up weapon.
  • Space Combat – advanced techniques have been introduced, like brake drifting and critical hits. Bounty missions and larger battles now occur. Pirate frequency has been increased, as well as difficulty depending on your cargo.
  • Exploits – infinite warp cell exploit and rare goods trading exploit among other removed. People using these cheats were ruining the game for themselves, but people are weird and can’t stop themselves.
  • Stability – foundations for buildings on super large planets. Resolved several low repro crashes, in particular when player warped further than 256 light years in one session (was only possible due to warp cell exploit above).
  • Space Stations – interiors are now more varied, bars, trade rooms and hydroponic labs have been added
  • Networking – Ability to scan star systems other players have discovered on the Galactic Map, increasing the chance of collision. Star systems discovered by other players appear during Galactic Map flight
  • Ship scanning – scanning for points of interest from your ship is now possible. Buildings generate earlier and show up in ship scans
  • Flying over terrain – pop-in and shadow artefacts have been reduced. Generation speed has been increased two fold (planets with large bodies of water will be targeted in next update)
  • Writing – The Atlas path has been rewritten by James Swallow (writer on Deus Ex) and me. I think it speaks to the over-arching theme of player freedom more clearly now. Early mission text has been rewritten to allow for multiple endings.

Prima Games is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article What the Heck is Going on With the Fortnite Item Shop Lately?
Screenshot of a skin in Fortnite.
Read Article Lightyear Frontier Early Access Impressions | Titanfarm
Lightyear Frontier Co-op Group
Read Article Share Your Dragon’s Dogma 2 Adventures with Prima Games’ Pawns (Just Don’t Give Us Dragonsplague)
Related Content
Read Article What the Heck is Going on With the Fortnite Item Shop Lately?
Screenshot of a skin in Fortnite.
Read Article Lightyear Frontier Early Access Impressions | Titanfarm
Lightyear Frontier Co-op Group
Read Article Share Your Dragon’s Dogma 2 Adventures with Prima Games’ Pawns (Just Don’t Give Us Dragonsplague)
Author
Bryan Dawson
Bryan Dawson has an extensive background in the gaming industry, having worked as a journalist for various publications for nearly 20 years and participating in a multitude of competitive fighting game events. He has authored over a dozen strategy guides for Prima Games, worked as a consultant on numerous gaming-related TV and web shows and was the Operations Manager for the fighting game division of the IGN Pro League.