After a less-than-stellar launch almost six years ago, many fans deemed No Man's Sky a lost cause. Although some critics praised the game for its innovative mechanics, others criticized its repetitive and lacking gameplay. The fact that several previously advertised features were excluded at launch did not improve the game's overall standing, but Hello Games made a spectacular comeback in the following years.
Thus far, No Man's Sky has received 18 updates, delivering on all of its initial promises and more. While the gameplay has improved dramatically, fans who were keen to push the limits and take advantage of the game's engine have also created a number of mods that further enhance the overall experience. Although many are programmed to tweak in-game visuals and introduce additional gameplay adjustments, players looking to explore the expansive universe of No Man's Sky with more ease and fewer constrictions should consider installing the following five mods.
Better Planet Generation
The game's key selling point is its procedurally-generated universe, which draws the players in and comes with a promise of hundreds of hours of exploration. While its versatility and randomization represent a great technical achievement, not all planets benefit from them.
The Better Planet Generation mod overhauls the existing mechanics without imposing on the game's original structure. It adds hundreds of new distinct environments, which seamlessly interact with one another and feature five different life levels, diverse layouts, density and placement scales. The mod also introduces a whole new biome, as well as an improved and unique variety of planets for the players to explore. By and large, Better Planet Generation makes the most of modified, repurposed and restored game assets to ensure that no two planets looks exactly the same.
Ship Flight for Frontiers, Turbo
Many players will survey the surface of a newly discovered planet from the safety of their ship first. However, the ship controls are restricting and do not provide the freedom to personalize the player's interactions with the environment. An updated flight mods, Dazaster's Ship Flight for Frontiers, Turbo allows players to maneuver their ship with greater mobility. It provides tighter turns, increases the speed for both combat and pulse drive, and enables faster flight overall with an added turbo boost. Furthermore, the mod removes metric lines at warp and allows the ship to hover, and it adds visible engine trails when the boost is activated.
Reduced Launch Cost 2.0
Although it is convenient to traverse the universe and gradually discover new planets, even when utilizing some of the ship flight mods, that it comes at a cost. With a plethora of immersive environments to explore, it is easy to forget about the fuel needed to launch and land the ship. The Reduced Launch Cost 2.0 mod lowers the amount of fuel needed to launch the ship. It helps the players travel between the planets seamlessly without carrying additional launch fuel or worrying about being stranded. In the latest update, the players can choose to spend 5% or 10% of the total energy per launch or none at all instead of the designated 25%.
Fast Actions 4.0
Most games feature short animations that can be triggered when interacting with an object in the open world or accessing something from the inventory. While No Man's Sky tries to keep the animations to a minimum, they can add up, especially when performing consecutive tasks.
Fast Actions 4.0 shortens the time it takes to conduct certain actions. It offers quicker input for creating or dismantling technology, entering the ship, gathering small plants, menu selection and more. The mod also comes with two modes. Instant Actions mode features almost zero delays, whereas Fast Actions mode provides a balance between the original and instant actions.
All Substances 999,999 and More Products +
Games that promote open-world exploration and base building often allow the players to freely collect whatever they come across during their travels. However, some (like No Man's Sky) also impose restrictions on the number of units that can be stacked in the inventory.
With a lengthy and perhaps misleading name of All Substances 999,999 and More Products Plus 48 Suit Tech Slots, the mod increases the suit tech slots to 48 while allowing larger than normal product stack sizes and expanding maximum size of stacks to 999,999. It is backward compatible and works with Normal, Survival, Creative and Permadeath game modes. If players wish to revert to default stack sizes at any point, they can do so by simply removing the mod, as it does not make permanent changes to the game state.