Hello Games has announced and released No Man’s Sky update 5.6, adding a big new paleontology-themed chunk of content and more, entirely free.
Here’s a rundown on the new update, plus a new trailer
Relics: Introducing Update 5.6
Turn your hand to palaeontology in update 5.6, RELICS! Unearth hundreds of unique bones, assemble skeletons to design fossil exhibits, join the community on an expedition to recreate lost creatures, battle against gargantuan stone guardians, and more!
Design Creature Skeletons – Design and assemble complete skeletons from your collection of ancient bones. Imagine how ancient alien creatures might have looked, and re-assemble their bodies from their fossilised remains – with millions of possibilities for unique species.
Reanimated Guardians – Hulking stone lifeforms slumber by planetary fossil beds, defending these ancient burial grounds from Travellers who would seek to disturb them…
Collect a Huge Variety of Bones – Exhume a vast array of ancient bones, from ribcages plated to spiked, limbs dangling and grasping, skulls from warhounds, bogsnappers and titan worms, and an assortment of tails and tailbones – there are hundreds of unique fossilised parts to unearth.
Relics Expedition – Sign up with the Galactic Palaeology Society and join the community on a journey to recreate ancient lifeforms and uncover secrets left undisturbed for millennia.
Fossil Trading – Visit Fossil Collectors aboard Space Stations to sell your created fossil exhibits – or trade some of your bones for any of their broad selection of fossils. Haggle and experiment to find the best deal!
Improved Abandoned Mode – Playing in an abandoned universe has been streamlined and enhanced. Derelict space stations now contain functional upgrade stations for the Exosuit, starship, and Multi-Tool, as well as salvage boxes containing valuable upgrades. Travellers can scavenge further technologies from planetary buried caches, and purple systems are automatically visible on the Galaxy map.
Otherwordly Bone Creatures – On planets where ancient bones can be found, or within purple star systems, skeletal fauna have risen from their fossil beds to roam their planetary homes once more.
Share Fossil Creations – Package assembled fossils into fused exhibits, conveniently stored in the Inventory. Reorganise your museum layout with ease, or gift your displays to other Travellers.
Living Stone Hardpack – Participants in the Relics expedition can earn this unusual flight device, sculpted from the remains of sentient rock.
Bone Cuisine – Prepare new bone-based recipes in the Nutrient Processor, to ingest for health and protective benefits, or to present to Iteration: Cronus for critique, judgement, and potential remuneration.
Planetary Digsites – Visit roaming fossil collectors and harvest large bone caches at Palaeontological Digs, established upon many worlds across the galaxies.
Living Stone Customisation – Complete the Relics expedition to unlock a complete living stone appearance override. A powerful magnetic field runs through this ancient stone, turning lumpen rock into something almost alive.
Skeletal Companion – The Relics expedition unlocks the exclusive living fossil companion: a loyal, fleshless creature of animated bone.
Living Stone Sentries – Floating stone guardians protect fossil sites, hurling masses of rock and crystal at any who would seek to exhume their beds of ancient bones. Crafty and challenging opponents, these guardians will sometimes even resort to self-destruction to defend their territory.
Colossal Stone Effigies – The crumbling ruins of relic worlds are watched over by monumental stone figures, vestiges of long-dead alien civilisations. These mysterious effigies appear dormant, their purpose lost to time.
Titanic Boneworms – Rare skeletal sandworms thunder through the dunes and darken the skies of some worlds, bringing even stranger variety to these titanic lifeforms.
Precious Stone Relics – Bold explorers can steal the vigilant stones left by slumbering guardians. These rare relics are highly lucrative – but may provoke vengeance from the eye’s original owner…
Decorate Freely with Bones – Enjoy complete decorative freedom with precision placement of individual bones. Design even more outlandish, biology-defying skeletons, or simply furnish habitable bases with skeletal decor.
Basilisk Crown Staff – Travellers completing the Relics expedition will be rewarded with the exclusive Basilisk Crown staff, a fused pillar of bone and circuitry. Beware its gaze…
Interplanetary Navigation – Pin celestial bodies to your starship’s navigational systems from the Discoveries screen, to help locate undiscovered planets within the solar system, or narrow down your search for rare planetary features such as ancient bones or dissonant worlds.
No Man’s Sky has been available for Windows PC (via Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
