Hello Games announced and released the No Man’s Sky “Waypoint” update 4.0, yet another ambitious update for the sci-fi action sim.

The new Waypoint update overhauls fundamental gameplay mechanics including core game modes, as well as tweaks inventory sizes and usability, overall game milestones, your journey catalog, and more.

The previous update for No Man’s Sky expanded your capital ship base building with lots of new features and content, as well as adding lots of new quality of life enhancements to asteroids, outer space, fleets and frigates, and more – read more about that here.

Here’s a new trailer for the update, and a trailer for the Switch port:

Here’s a rundown on the update:

WAYPOINT: INTRODUCING NO MAN’S SKY UPDATE 4.0

Access the universe of No Man’s Sky from anywhere in update 4.0, WAYPOINT! Launching for the first time on Nintendo Switch™, and overhauling fundamental elements of gameplay including game modes, inventory size and usability, milestones, journey cataloguing and much more!

CUSTOM GAME MODES

Tailor every aspect of the game to your unique playstyle with custom game modes. Launch into the action quickly with an existing difficulty preset, or tinker with everything from economy to combat challenge to survival difficulty to perfect your experience.

SEAMLESS AUTO-SAVES

A new continual auto-saving system allows you to fully immerse yourself in the journey without ever needing to think about saving your progress. Manual saves remain, giving you full control when needed.

TRADE ROCKET

Load and launch a personal trade rocket to automatically sell items on the Galactic Trade Network. Summon the device from anywhere on a planetary surface, then fire it off to the local Space Station for profit!

INVENTORY VISUALS

The inventory has been visually overhauled, with new slot designs, backgrounds, icons, and more.

Item management has been streamlined, with technology and cargo slots now accessible from a single view.

NINTENDO SWITCH

Begin your journey from anywhere on Nintendo Switch! Play while on the go in handheld mode, or dock the system to play in TV mode. The portable experience is further enhanced with responsive touch controls, and all modes support Joy‑Con and Pro controllers.

AMD FIDELITYFX 2.0

AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 2 (FSR 2) is a cutting edge open source temporal upscaling solution, providing high image quality and improved framerates. Learn more on the AMD site.

All PC players, including those running integrated graphics, can enjoy the increased performance from this new technology regardless of their graphics card.

RELAXED GAME MODE

The new relaxed preset provides an accessible, laid-back experience of No Man’s Sky. Perfect for players who want to experience all facets of gameplay, from story to survival to combat, with reduced danger and minimal grind.

UNIQUE SWITCH REWARDS

Early adopters on Nintendo Switch can claim a set of exclusive rewards from the Space Anomaly. Connect to the No Man’s Sky servers on Switch before 7th November 2022 to be eligible to collect the Horizon Vector NX starship and Infinite Neon Mark XXII Multi-Tool.

SPACE ANOMALY ATMOSPHERICS

The bustling Space Anomaly feels deeper and more atmospheric, with a total overhaul of visual effects throughout the Anomaly.

DYNAMIC DIFFICULTY

Nearly all difficulty settings can be tweaked and adjusted at any time, so you can continue to refine your play experience during the journey. Players with existing saves can adjust their settings to take advantage of new survival challenges or the simplicity of relaxed mode, and continue to change back and forth as they wish.

DROP PODS

Interacting with damaged Drop Pods on planetary surfaces will now generate a marker and guide mission to assist the repair process, allowing players to find their way back if they need to gather materials.

Drop Pods can now be found directly with Exosuit Upgrade Charts, rather than having to feed data into the signal booster.

TWITCH CAMPAIGN

Collect exotic in-game rewards by watching No Man’s Sky on Twitch! Sign up and link your platform accounts on the Twitch Drops page, then enjoy video streams of the Waypoint update to earn special ships, rare base parts, cosmetic customisations, and more!

Items can be collected from the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion aboard the Space Anomaly.

INVENTORY REDESIGN

Inventory specialisation has been clarified. Upgrades are now confined to technology slots, allowing more space for items and creating more interesting decisions about which upgrades to use.

To accompany this, inventory capacity has been dramatically expanded, with storage increased across all inventories from Exosuits to Freighters.

PLANETARY VISUAL EFFECTS

Ancient alien structures and beacons have been visually enhanced, with brand new effects materialising upon activation.

STORY RECORDS

Piece together ancient stories and record a log of your journey with the new Collected Knowledge section of the Catalogue & Guide.

Historical fragments, alien lore, crucial story choices and more will be automatically collated and recorded as you uncover the many secrets hidden throughout the universe.

INVENTORY FILTERS

Categories of inventory items can now be highlighted and quickly located using a set of filters, making it easier to organise your belongings.

CRAFTING TREES

The detailed steps for crafting complex products can now be visualised as a tree, allowing explorers to collect and prepare sub-components in advance.

RARE ASTEROIDS

Asteroid fields now contain a range of new rare and exotic variants.

MILESTONE GUIDANCE

Journey Milestones may now be pinned from the Catalogue & Guide, providing helpful hints and tips to the Mission Log.

EASE OF USE

• A huge number of features have been added or enhanced to improve ease of use across the game.
• First-person head bob may now be disabled.
• The maximum number of Communication Station icons displayed at once has been reduced.
• Cursor control for players using a gamepad has been improved.
• Reticle targeting for interactions and wiring is now more forgiving and less fiddly.
• SURVIVAL CHALLENGES

Hardcore explorers can test their mettle in a new ramped-up Survival Mode, featuring a greater breadth and depth of challenges to overcome.

In addition to quantitative balance settings such as fuel consumption and hazard intensity, explorers must take care to repair their technology from damage, and rely on their own harvesting capabilities, rather than shops, to acquire key survival resources.

SPACE VISUAL EFFECTS

Holograms, teleporters, and space station tractor beams have all been given a fresh breath of life with new visual effects.

REFRESHED CATALOGUE & GUIDE

The Catalogue, Guide and Milestone pages have been completely reorganised for clarity and ease of use, decluttering the navigational tabs at the top of the pause menu, and with all information now accessible from a centralised hub.

MEDALS

The celebratory rank medals for progression through Faction and Journey Milestones have been made clearer and more visually diverse.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Scanning with the Analysis Visor has been accelerated, making discovery, especially of fast-moving creatures, more efficient.
• Movement upgrades for the jetpack have been made more powerful.
• Procedurally-generated technology modules now stack in the inventory.
• Waypoints are now highlighted with an icon in the Analysis Visor.
• Traveller graves will now manifest memory fragments, offering important technology upgrades to aid living Travellers on their journeys.

REFINER AND COOKING RECIPES

Recipes discovered through experimentation with the Refiner and Nutrient Processor are now recorded for future reference.

NEW FACTION MILESTONES

The alien race and guild factions have issued a new set of challenges to explorers, encouraging a broader and deeper play experience.

TECHNOLOGY PACKAGING

Installed technologies may now be disassembled into convenient, transferable packages. Stash them away in your inventory to install in a freshly-acquired Starship or Multi-Tool, or trade with friends to collect your dream loadout.

DRAMATIC ATLAS INTERFACES

Encounters with the Atlas are now even more awe-inspiring, with new visual effects.

SAVE RENAMING

Save data can now be more easily differentiated with an automatic record of the save’s location, and the option to give the save a custom name.