No Man’s Sky adds a seasonal Expeditions mode

Set off for new stars

No Man’s Sky just keeps growing, with no sign of stopping. Developer Hello Games announced a new update today called the Expeditions update, which brings a set of challenges in a seasonal format to the space exploration sim.

Update 3.3 brings Expeditions to No Man’s Sky, which are a new way to start out a journey in a different mode from a regular save file. Every Expedition starts players on a fixed point in the universe, to complete a series of Milestones and goals to win rewards. It also seems like Expeditions are intended to be fairly social events, with players starting on similar planets and specific “Rendezvous Planets” established along the route to create hubs of activity.

Milestones are open-ended and, according to Hello Games, intended to give players a chance to explore different aspects of No Man’s Sky. Several Milestones make up each Phase on the Expedition map, with each Phase finished offering a prize, and finishing an entire Expedition yields an additional reward.

These Expeditions are limited-time only, and Hello Games plans on adding new Expeditions regularly. At the end of the Expedition, rewards will no longer be earned and the save will convert to a Normal mode save. Any rewards earned in this mode can be redeemed for free on other saves in any game mode though, so that sick golden spaceship can carry over to your main game.

There are also several more quality-of-life updates including a new HUD, updated bases and improved cross-platform play, rebalanced recipe costs, and a new mission board. Really, the breadth of the updates that are still coming to this game is staggering—the Companions update was just last month, and last year Hello Games launched the massive Origins update. No Man’s Sky is going a bit above and beyond a redemption story, and at this point, I’m wondering where the limit is for future additions.