No Man’s Sky Outlaws update now live, lets you be a space pirate
If the constantly expanding universe of No Man’s Sky felt just a little bit too squeaky clean for your tastes, you’re in luck. With today’s launch of the Outlaws update, developer Hello Games is adding some space pirate grit to its space exploration game.
Like most No Man’s Sky updates, Outlaws is a substantial overhaul of several different areas of the game. To start with, though, you can expect a more fully fleshed-out experience role-playing as a space pirate. There are now dedicated settlements taken over by outlaws, with their own set of missions and merchants.
You’ll now get better rewards attacking and looting trading ships and freighters, and you can now smuggle contraband goods between settlements. The flip side to this is an increased space-police presence—Sentinels will come after you if you attack planetary trade routes, and local authorities may scan your ship for the presence of any illegal cargo. The good news is, if you find yourself on the wrong side of the law, you can get your reputation back by presenting a forged passport at a regulated space station, so you don’t need to live the outlaw life forever.
And even if you don’t turn heel, you can still get in on the outlaw fun. Space pirates will now attack your settlements, flying down to the planet and strafing from above, forcing you to defend against them.
Beyond the core theme of the update, there are also a number of improvements to space combat, with weapon rebalancing, better explosion and projectile effects, in-atmosphere dogfights, energy shields on NPC vessels, and an optional auto-tracking feature that lets you lock onto targets. You can also recruit NPC wingmen to fight alongside you during space combat, with a full upgrade system for the pilots in your fleet.
Other big additions include expanded cargo holds, cloth physics, the expansion of your starship fleet from six to nine ships, and a new class of spacecraft, Solar Ships, which, as you might have guessed, fly using solar sails.
If you’d like an even deeper look at what this update brings, there’s a lot more detail in the full patch notes over on the official site.
The Outlaws update launches today on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. No Man’s Sky is also launching on Nintendo Switch sometime this summer and will include all current updates at that time.
