No Man's Sky Goes Free to Play This Weekend to Celebrate Omega Expedition Launch

No Man's Sky is going free to play this coming weekend to celebrate the launch of the Omega Expedition, which comes in an update alongside myriad other changes today, February 15.


The Omega Expedition is free from February 15 at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK on February 15 until 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK on February 19, with Hello Games promising "no microtransactions, no free-to-play mechanics, just a huge universe to explore for free with your friends."

Expeditions, which are timed events that set players on a specific path and mission, have also been revamped into the main game instead of only being available through a different mode.


The Omega Expedition was built as a perfect introduction for new players, Hello Games said, but still comes with "the best rewards in any expedition to date", such as a new starship. This expedition will be available for four weeks in total, though No Man's Sky can only be downloaded for free during the first weekend.

"In the almost eight years since launch, through over 25 free updates, the No Man’s Sky universe has become at times overwhelming in breadth and depth," Hello Games said. "Through a series of quick missions and milestones, the Omega expeditions will guide you through the fundamentals of base-building, trading, space combat, lore and much, much more. Any progress you make will be retained in case you choose to purchase the game and continue your journey."

Hello Games has also revamped the Atlas Path quest line with the Omega Update, letting players commune with the Atlas and "honour it with a new Atlas staff, jetpack, and helmet". A "huge array" of procedurally generated quests have also been added to planets. The full patch notes can be seen below.


The other updates mentioned by Hello Games have included the robot uprising-themed Singularity update, the race-creating Echoes update, and the corrupted world-creating Interceptor update.

The developer has released several updates for No Man's Sky already, with Omega being the 28th major free expansion since the game launched. Another recent update, Waypoint, was said to be the game's "biggest generational jump so far", Leviathan added time loops and space whales, and the Outlaws update let players live out their own Han Solo-esque adventure.

No Man's Sky Omega / Update 4.5 Patch Notes

FREE TRIAL

• From February 15 to 19 the entire Omega Expedition will be open to everyone, even those who don’t own the game.
• Find links to play for free within the No Man’s Sky page of all major platform stores.

OMEGA EXPEDITION

• Expedition Twelve, Omega, will begin shortly and run for approximately four weeks.
• Rewards include new posters; a unique Atlas-themed jetpack, the exclusive Atlas Sceptre Multi-Tool; the Atlas Headshield helmet and the one-of-a-kind high-performance Starborn Runner starship.
• This expedition invites players old and new to take part in a journey across the galaxy, exploring as they go and probing the memories of the Atlas itself.
• For players without an existing save, this expedition also includes a tutorial to guide you as you explore, making this the perfect time to start your journey.
• PvP will default to off during this expedition.

EXPEDITION STRUCTURE

• Expeditions can now be started from an existing save, as well continuing to be accessible by starting a new game.
• Major expedition rewards will continue to be available on all saves.
• Players can choose to begin an expedition from a new terminal aboard the Space Anomaly.
• Before starting the expedition, players are able to load this terminal with a choice of items and packaged equipment.
• The expedition will then begin as normal. Upon reaching the Space Anomaly, players will be able to retrieve these stored items to aid them with their progress.
• With an expedition in progress, players can use this terminal (or an option within the main menu) to freely switch between continuing the expedition or pausing it.
• Pausing the expedition allows players to switch back to their “primary” save for that slot and dip in and out of the expedition as they wish.
• At the end of an expedition, players will be able to return technology and items to their primary save via the same terminal used to start the expedition. Alternatively, unwanted items will be sold automatically and converted to units or nanites as appropriate.
• All earned units, nanites and quicksilver will be automatically returned to your primary save on completion of the expedition.
• All discoveries will be automatically shared with the primary save.
• Bases will be shared to the primary save on completion of the expedition.
• At the end of the expedition, additional unit or nanite rewards will be awarded based on other measures of progress, such as Sentinels killed, words learned or base parts constructed.
• At any time with an expedition in progress, players can create a copy of their primary Multi-Tool or starship, allowing them to bring their own equipment to the expedition or return exciting finds back to their primary save. This process is begun at the same terminal used to start an expedition.
• Your historical progress on expeditions is now logged within the Catalogue page.

PIRATE DREADNOUGHT

• Players can now force the mighty pirate dreadnought capital ships to surrender by destroying all of their defences or taking them to the brink of destruction.
• Take no mercy and destroy the pirates anyway to claim the usual bounty, or dock with the dreadnought to speak with its captain.
• Demand tribute from the pirate captain, or seize their vessel as your own capital ship.
• The dreadnought has a unique hangar and bridge, distinct from regular civilian freighters.

TWITCH CAMPAIGN

• A new package of Twitch drops will begin shortly. Sign up and link your platform accounts on the Twitch Drops page, then tune in to Twitch to earn exotic base parts, high-tech starships, fireworks, appearance modifications, and more.

NEW MISSIONS

• Planetary NPCs will now occasionally offer procedurally generated missions, tailored to the planet they find themselves on.
• The Atlas Path missions have been reworked for clarity and robustness, fixing a number of text and other issues.
• Players who have completed the Atlas Path now have access to a repeating mission with which they can earn nanites and additional words in the Atlas language.
• Players who decline the Atlas at the end of the Atlas Path are now awarded their own counterpart title and technology to those awarded for accepting its request.
• Once begun, the Atlas Path is now always available on the Galaxy Map without having to specifically request coordinates from Specialist Polo.
• The visual effects in the final Atlas Station have been significantly improved.
• Black Holes are now always available on the Galaxy Map without having to specifically request coordinates from Specialist Polo.
• The visibility of the various Galaxy Map paths has been improved, particularly when in free-look mode.
• Players can now save while aboard Atlas Stations.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause some mission agents aboard outlaw stations to run out of available missions.
• Living Pearls are now occasionally requested as the target item for some missions at the Nexus.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Teleporters have been added to the Space Anomaly, allowing quick access to the Multi-Tool Salvage Station on the upper balcony.
• Terrain manipulation around buried objects or buildings has been made easier, allowing edits to be made even when not directly aimed at the terrain itself.
• Planetary charts leading to archeological dig sites are now available from the Space Station Cartographer.
• Portal glyph addresses are now listed for all categories of wonder, not just for planets.
• The galaxy where the discovery was found is now listed for all categories of wonder.
• Storage Containers can be now snapped directly to large base rooms, allowing them to be accessed from inside.
• Fixed an issue that affected a number of Timber, Fibreglass and Stone base parts, preventing them from being swapped using the “Swap Part” option in the build menu.
• Autophage NPCs now have a chance to equip their own unique procedurally generated staff.
• A large number of new biscuit-based cooking recipes have been added.
• Fixed an issue that prevented some Voyager expedition reward parts from being constructed in freighter bases.
• Hostile planetary flora now show a marker for a short time after damaging the player.
• Technology modules are now filtered out from the list when selecting items to process in a refiner, as these can never be refined.
• After dying on a planet, players are now respawned with a minimum level of hazard protection, preventing a loop of repeated death.
• The autosave timer is now reset when players make a manual save, preventing the autosave and restore point from being too similar.
• Previously visited Expedition Rendezvous locations are now listed in every space station teleporter.
• The terrain deposit label will now suggest cycling to the Terrain Manipulator if applicable.
• The Analysis Visor UI now contextually switches between the Custom Marker and Scanning tip as appropriate.
• The grid view in the Catalogue can now be scrolled with the mousewheel.
• The build menu will now automatically close after deploying an Exocraft Geobay, consistent with other planetary deployables.
• The construction cost of chairs has been reduced, removing the need for Star Silk.
• The Nutrient Processor icon is now shown on the compass, making it easier to find after deploying on a planet.
• A cockpit readout message has been added for launch thruster status, showing progress towards ignition (or any applicable fuel or damage errors).
• Camera shake effects are now dampened if the player does not have full control over their character, eg while using the UI or an interactable object.
• When using world-relative smooth stick movement in VR, the sticks now also control movement while jetpacking.
• An option has been added for VR players to remove the highlight effect on interactable objects.
• A number of improvements have been made to interacting with objects that have a cost associated with interaction, making the process more clear and consistent with other similar parts of the UI.
• Expedition Milestones that award starship or Multi-Tool inventory slots now award those slots directly, similar to Exosuit slots, and no longer require a trip to the Space Station to claim.
• A number of text clarity improvements have been made to the text on the Install New Inventory Slot screen.

MISSION UI

• A number of improvements have been made to the way in which missions display hints in the bottom-right notification area.
• When multiple missions or situations are attempting to display a hint, players can now manually cycle through all the available hints, preventing clashes from hiding information. Your currently selected mission will now always be available.
• Players can now cycle through the available hints and leave no hint on display, temporarily hiding them.
• Fixed a number of consistency issues that could cause mission notifications that were attempting to direct players to specific pages within the UI to fail to open the correct page.
• A number of system and specific improvements have been made to the pacing and display of general, non-mission-related hint messages. This should result in fewer messages over extended periods of play, and fewer tutorial-related hints for experienced players.
• Fixed a number of issues that could cause the selected mission to be changed after warping or reloading.
• Fixed a number of issues that could cause the active mission to be changed or an unexpected mission to be re-selected after completing a secondary activity that used the mission system.
• Fixed an issue where pinning a recipe or repair could fail to correctly select that as the active mission.
• Fixed an issue that would prevent the player’s manually selected inventory page from always being forgotten and reset to the Exosuit when inside the starship or Exocraft.
• If a mission hint is currently suggesting use of an item, and that item is accessible, then opening the inventory will default to the appropriate page for that item.
• Fixed a rare issue affecting some older save games that prevented mission hints from displaying as expected.
• The starship summoning hint is no longer displayed if the ship is unable to take off.
• Fixed a number of issues affecting the display of the hint to recover items from your grave.
• Fixed a number of issues affecting the display of the various hints about extreme planetary conditions.
• A hint is now shown when trying to recruit an organic frigate while your fleet is at max capacity.
• Missions that are directing players towards their freighter base will now display their icon appropriately in the teleporter UI.
• Expedition Milestones are now prioritised in the pool of secondary missions in the log, making your current milestone easier to find.
• Mission hints are now visible while the trading UI is open.
• The icons for various hints on the Space Anomaly (e.g. about excess nanites or unredeemed rewards) have been improved.
• Fixed an issue that allowed hints about outlaw systems and stations to display while aboard the Space Anomaly.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the display of the low shield warning during the mission to save a freighter from pirates.
• Fixed an issue that caused non-target items to be displayed during a Target Sweep if they happened to share an icon with the actual target.
• Off-screen indicators displayed during a successful Target Sweep are now displayed closer to the centre of the screen, making it easier to detect exactly where the object in question is, particularly if it’s at a vertical offset from the player.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent some mission-critical markers from displaying their off-screen indicator.
• Fixed an issue that could cause duplicate or unnecessary mission markers to display on the Galaxy Map.
• When a mission is requesting a substance found in planetary terrain deposits, the visibility in the Analysis Visor of the relevant deposit has been increased.
• When a mission is requesting that a specific item be crafted, that item is now placed correctly and highlighted within the crafting popup.
• A number of text and clarity improvements have been made to the pinned crafting guidance for crafted recipes and technology, particularly when looking for substances that can be harvested from planetary objects.
• Pinned crafting guidance now more explicitly points players towards the refiner when looking for materials that are more easily refined than crafted or purchased.
• If a mission is requesting an item be refined, that item is now highlighted in the refiner input popup.
• When missions display a hint about a particular entry in the guide, that entry is now highlighted within the Catalogue.

MISSION FIXES

• Fixed a number of rare blockers and flow issues across various missions when speaking to Nada, Polo or other Space Anomaly inhabitants.
• Fixed a number of rare cases where missions could be blocked, or advance incorrectly, in the event that a planetary building failed to load.
• Fixed a rare blocker in the Trace of Metal mission if players lose their drone shell before talking to Iteration Tethys.
• Fixed a rare blocker in the Trace of Metal mission where players could not advance the various dialogue options.
• Fixed a number of rare blockers that could occur if players delete their own base while in the middle of the base-building tutorial.
• Fixed a rare blocker that could occur during the 16/16 mission when attempting to travel via the Portal network.
• Fixed an issue that could cause flickering UI or overly active hint messages when deleting planetary charts from your inventory.
• Fixed an issue that caused missions to give incorrect instructions while players are aboard the Space Anomaly and their mission target is in a different system.
• Fixed a number of text issues in missions taken from a space station listing agent.
• Fixed a number of text issues in the The Settlers mission.
• Fixed a number of text issues in the inventory expansion tutorial mission.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Autophage corrupted sentinels mission to display incorrect objective numbers.
• Fixed an issue that caused some text to incorrectly reference pinning or hint at pinning in inappropriate situations.
• Fixed a significant number of text and clarity issues around the transition from the Space Anomaly to the Artemis missions if the player skipped the tutorial, either via the options menu, by playing Creative Mode, or by converting their expedition save to a normal mode one.
• Fixed a number of rare issues that could occur when learning words to calibrate Artemis’ translator.
• Fixed a mission-related issue that could cause occasional stuttering.
• Fixed a number of issues that could affect the Under a Rebel Star mission if players fled the outlaw station mid-mission.
• Fixed a text issue that could cause some missions to display a NEW MISSION rather than NEW OBJECTIVE notification when their objective changes.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause some mission steps that require use or repair of a technology in the player’s inventory to fail to use the correct icon.
• Fixed an issue in the various artefact excavation missions from the space station listings agent that caused the mission to skip the instructions for locating the dig site.
• The icon clarity when a mission hint requests that players dig for ancient keys has been improved.
• Fixed a number of rare blockers in the base Overseer and Agricultural Research missions.
• Fixed a number of issues during the base Scientific Research mission while trying to find a suitable Korvax scientist to hire.
• Fixed a number of issues during the base Weapons Research mission while trying to find a suitable Vy’keen armourer to hire.
• Fixed a number of issues during the base Agricultural Research mission while trying to find a suitable Gek farmer to hire.
• Fixed a number of issues during the base Exocraft Technician mission that could occur when trying to undertake the mission in the Nautilon or the Minotaur.
• Fixed an issue that could affect the Exocraft Technician missions when being asked to collect gold to install Exocraft technology.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a memory leak related to audio systems.
• Introduced a significant memory-related optimisation.
• Fixed a crash related to freighter targeting systems.
• Fixed an Xbox-specific crash.
• Fixed a crash related to input.
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when using hold-type interactions.
• Fixed a rare crash related to rendering discoveries and wonders.
• Fixed an issue that could cause texture-streaming problems on PlayStation platforms.
• Fixed a rare crash caused by memory trampling.
• Fixed a rare crash related to navigation.
• Fixed a softlock that could occur when interacting with NPCs.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause unclaimed living ships to turn into conventional abandoned ships.
• Fixed an issue that could cause some hostile starships or freighter components to become invulnerable.
• Fixed an issue that caused player companions to move overly fast when in indoor environments such as the Space Anomaly.
• Fixed an issue that caused camera glitches when answering the starship communicator when using the third-person camera.
• Fixed an issue that caused Exocraft to have incorrect collision.
• Fixed an issue that could allow large rooms to snap to doors that were already snapped to corridors.
• Fixed an issue with camera angles for some interactable base objects that could cause the camera to embed itself in walls or the terrain.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent icons from being correctly applied to tritium-rich asteroids when scanning for fuel in space.
• Fixed a significant visual issue that affected the rendering of some weather effects, particularly tornadoes.
• Fixed an issue which could cause animation jitter for some two-legged flying creatures.
• Fixed a visual glitch that could cause popping during the loading starfield.
• Fixed a visual issue that could prevent the cloaking device effect from applying to some Multi-Tools.
• Fixed a number of issues with the cloaking device effect in multiplayer.
• Fixed a number of visual issues when replicating starships in multiplayer.
• Fixed a number of visual issues with Multi-Tool muzzle effects in multiplayer.
• Fixed a number of visual issues with the lighting effects on player jetpacks.
• Fixed a number of visual issues with capes in multiplayer.
• Fixed a visual issue with the glow on some exploration-class starships.
• Fixed a rare issue affecting sky rendering.
• Fixed a number of issues with the purchase flow for Atlantid-class Multi-Tools.
• Fixed an issue that caused some oxygen-rich plants to have overly large collision volumes.
• Fixed an issue with the Report Base UI that prevented text from being translated into other languages than English.
• Fixed an issue that caused some A-class Sentinel Multi-Tools to outdamage the S-class version.
• Fixed a number of AI navigation issues.
• Fixed a number of issues related to saving the state of various interactive objects such as refiners and resource extractors.
• Fixed a number of issues with Sentinel Hardframe units that could cause them to fall beneath the terrain.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent activated versions of substances such as copper or indium from being correctly listed when viewing planets on the discovery page.
• Fixed an animation glitch that could occur when running up-hill with a one-handed Multi-Tool.
• Fixed an issue that could allow complex crafting trees to exceed the bounds of the screen.
• Fixed an issue that allowed some mouse-only movement modes to be selected while using the pad.
• Fixed an issue that could allow the starship HUD to render the planetary readout when not in space.
• Fixed a number of text issues in the Catalogue when browsing refiner and cooking recipes.
• Fixed an issue in the catalogue that caused all the entries on the page to re-animate despite the page not being changed.
• Fixed an audio issue that could cause footstep sounds on the space station to turn into a high-pitched whine.
• Fixed an issue that could leave a lingering warning about the launch thrusters being out of fuel after they have been refuelled.
• Fixed an issue that could cause some smuggler NPCs to offer NipNip buds for an absurd number of nanites.
• Fixed a number of collision issues around frigate cargo bays.
• Fixed an issue that prevented some decals from applying correctly to companion customisation options.
• Fixed an issue that incorrectly hid some NPCs on space stations.
• Fixed an issue that caused smuggled goods to have their contraband pricing inverted, making their sell value incorrectly low in non-pirate systems.
• Fixed an issue that could allow the starship to fire when clicking quickly through text after answering the communicator, causing a potentially hostile response from anyone inadvertently hit.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent space jellyfish from spawning.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

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