So Game Informer has a No Man’s Sky cover story coming out this month, and some of the details have been floating around (via both Reddit and NeoGAF) online. We’re here to give you a solid rundown on what’s out there.

The game will start you off, as we know, on a random planet. This starting location will be different for every player, and can have all kinds of dangers and hidden treasures around. Dangerous creatures may inhabit the planet, or rare items may be cached in a hidden corner somewhere…Or it may be an empty, desolate wasteland.

You’ll have access to a mini-map that will help you find your way to your ship. If you were to open the full map of the galaxy, you are given a few fun things to do with it. You can zoom in and out to see the whole known star map, or in close enough to see specific stars. Colors will be used to indicate what kind of resources you can find on any given planet, and the map will also allow you to scan locales to find anything of interest. And, if you’ve explored a planet before, the map will show you exactly what’s on that planet.

You are given a ship from the get-go, but you’ll need to grab a new hyperdrive and some more fuel before you’ll be able to actually get anywhere. And all of this requires money. Luckily, everything you do will earn you some, so there’s no shortage of ways to get it. Harvesting materials, salvaging other ships, exploring, etc…it will all deposit currency for you to use.

Each and every solar system will have a trading post or space station that will act as a sort of hub for the area. Ships will come and go through it. You can trade in resources for money. You can buy new ships or upgrade ones you have. Every planet will have a trading post on it somewhere that will make it possible to trade and such from the planet’s surface. However, space stations, located in space (duh!) will have better options for purchase.

Other gameplay options so far sound pretty varied. You’ll be able to attack and ransack other ships to steal their cargo – but there’s risk of alerting the cops. If you manage to get away, there’ll be a bounty on your head which will end in being attacked if you come by the space station.

A little bit of combat was detailed, mentioning that there will be various enemy ships. Picking and choosing which to focus on first could be the decision that lets you make through combat alive, or die trying. There will be smaller ships that will obviously be easier to take out, or larger more powerful ones with shields. Unfortunately for you, the larger ships will sometimes shield the smaller ones, and depending on your upgrades, you may not be able to hurt them at all!

The death mechanics were also detailed a bit. If you get killed up in space, you’ll lose your ship and be sent to the nearest planet in an escape pod. Anything that was on your ship will be lost, but you’ll still have your personal upgrades and your cash. You’ll need to scrounge up money to grab another ship. However, if you die before then, you’ll lose everything you gathered since leaving the escape pod, and respawn by it.

Every planet is also inhabited by robots. They have been the source behind keeping nature in balance since before anyone can remember. Game Informer has some pictures of various bot types, which have both bipedal and quadrupedal variations. They aren’t procedurally generated like everything else in the game, so you’ll be able to develop strategies for fighting them as you encounter new varieties of the bots. Their possibility of attacking you is tied directly to how much you disturb the planet you’re on. More mining and killing means you had better run.

The game’s ultimate goal has also been talked about now – and it’s to reach the center of the entire galaxy. Of course, going there isn’t necessary, but if you try to make it there it can take anywhere from 40 to 100 hours depending on your focus. Some planets will even have warp gates for you to try and utilize, though where you’ll pop out on the other end is something you’ll only learn by hopping through one.

And with all of this fun waiting for you, of course you’ll want to explore with your friends, right? Well, voice chat isn’t supported in game unfortunately, so you’ll have to figure out another way to chat if you want to. However, some sort of in-game messaging has been teased. Thankfully, though, you will be at least able to see your friends’ locations on that map of yours. That ridiculously huge map of yours.

Good luck finding ’em.

No Man’s Sky is planned to be released on PS4, with a new teaser video shown at The Game Awards on Friday, as well as an entire dedicated event at the PlayStation Experience this weekend.

This article is set to run in the January 2015 issue of Game Informer, by the way; and a big thanks to NeoGAF and Reddit for all this info.

No Man’s Sky is getting a new premiere at this year’s Playstation Experience, which is going down this weekend.