Fancy feeling old? As of last month, No Man’s Sky is, somehow, already ten years old. Hello Games’ space exploration survival title has come a long way in the last decade, fueled by a series of impressive and, most importantly, free updates that have delivered on many of the promises the studio made back in 2016.
The latest content update for No Man’s Sky, titled Cosmos, dropped on September 9, and it’s arguably Hello Games’ most ambitious addition to the game yet. The patch notes for this one are wild, but I particularly love the section simply titled “The Sun.” I’m not sure if the player base specifically requested this, but yes, you can now fly into the sun and burn yourself alive.
The main feature that’s getting players excited is actually twofold, as No Man’s Sky now allows you to claim space stations and, by extension, build in open space.
If you’re curious as to what that means, then look no further than the clip above. Before the Cosmos update, players could only build on planets. Now, theoretically, you can build anywhere. An asteroid, a stolen space station, the endless void of space–if you’ve got the money, it’s yours.
Speaking of costs, however, this isn’t cheap. Apparently it’ll set you back a solid billion units, and you’ll have to get your reputation level up to 40 before you can even earn the right to slap down a space base.
It’s definitely a flex, but it comes with some huge upsides. For instance, you can place your base at a useful warp-point and use it as a sort of operations center for expeditions. Alternatively, you can place it somewhere super popular and flex even harder by forcing random travellers to appreciate your wealth.
Just make sure that you’ve collected all of the resources you need to claim a station before getting too attached to it, as players are reporting on the r/NoMansSkyTheGame subreddit that others online have been tracking down popular locations and snagging them early.