No Man’s Sky: Cosmos update is out now for free on PS5

What we know

The Cosmos update for No Man’s Sky is live now on PS5 as a free download for existing PlayStation players. Hello Games describes it as the game’s biggest overhaul of space in its 10-year history.

Cosmos broadens space exploration with asteroid belts, massive space hulks, outposts, missions, and anomalies. It also adds a solar-system map: after warping into a system, players can scan it to uncover points of interest that open up fresh missions and exploration paths.

The new space hulks can be dismantled for salvage. A gravity gun can pull metal sections from the wrecks and throw them toward a tractor beam installed on the player’s ship. Removing too much, however, can send a hulk into meltdown and cause it to explode, making an initial scan for the most valuable rewards a safer approach.

Space outposts offer places to trade with alien lifeforms, purchase maps, learn about the local area, and pick up missions. Some facilities have been overtaken by biological hazards and will need to be carefully cleared and reclaimed.

Bases, stations, and alliances

Asteroid belts contain crystal resources, while some rare asteroids are large enough to land on and use as the site of a star base. Cosmos also allows players to construct free-floating modular bases anywhere in space.

The update further lets players purchase a system’s space station. Stations can be built and decorated internally and externally, and can serve as social spaces for visiting friends.

Station owners can found an alliance and invite other players to join. Alliances can work together on a connected network of stations and take part in new leaderboards based on the size, wealth, or prominence of their group.

Cosmos also opens up a perilous journey to the center of a player’s own star system.

To mark the game’s 10th anniversary, No Man’s Sky is also getting an expedition whose milestones each focus on an update released across the past decade. Every stage will revisit gameplay features associated with one of the more than 40 updates released for the game, alongside development logs about those additions.