The patch notes for No Man’s Sky update 2.2, Synthesis, feature almost 300 lines of updates, tweaks, and fixes.
The team at Hello Games are too good to us. No Man’s Sky has gotten bigger and better than any of us expected, and the strides taken since its initial release are pretty much unimaginable.
(And yes, we will stop with this narrative eventually. But it’s just remarkable that Hello Games even continued to develop and improve No Man’s Sky after the outrage, never mind deliver the game it has turned out to be. It’s certainly not the game, nor the response, that certain rabid segments of the audience deserved.)
The updates continue, over three years on from that fateful, initial release. They’ll have to stop eventually, we presume, but while they continue? Let’s just keep enjoying No Man’s Sky for the remarkable creative endeavour it is.
The latest update, version 2.2 – titled Synthesis – is a big one. Not a big one in the feature stakes. It’s certainly not bringing the impact of updates like Beyond or Next. But big in the sense that it is very big; there are almost 300 lines on the patch notes, including around 150 bug fixes.
We’re not going to list them all here. You can find the full Synthesis patch notes over on the No Man’s Sky website. But the items with top billing are as follows:
No Man’s Sky Synthesis patch notes
Ship salvage
- Introduced a new ship salvaging mechanic. Visit the ship salvage module at a space station to perform a number of ship operations, including salvaging a ship for scrap.
- Scrap includes valuable products, new technologies and an inventory augmentation, allowing the expansion of another starship’s inventory.
- Starship inventories can also be upgraded for a significant amount of units.
- The starship outfitting station also has the ability to upgrade the class of starships that are not yet S-Class. This upgrade requires a significant amount of nanites.
Terrain editing
- Significantly optimised the Terrain Manipulator for smoother planetary editing.
- Improved the visual effects when editing terrain with the Terrain Manipulator.
- Added a flattening mode to the Terrain Manipulator to allow quick and easy flattening of a large area.
- Added a ‘Restore’ mode to the Terrain Manipulator, allowing edits to be undone and the terrain restored to its previous state.
- Edits made using the Terrain Manipulator within the bounds of a base are now protected in the same way as edits made by base parts, preventing them from being removed by further editing outside the base.
Multi-tools
- Added the ability for players to own more than one Multi-Tool. When purchasing a new Multi-Tool, there are now options to trade in or to outright purchase the tool.
- Purchased Multi-Tools will be added to the Quick Menu for easy swapping.
VR/non-VR parity
- Photo Mode is now available in VR.
- Creatures may now be ridden in VR.
- First-person cameras for the Exocraft are now available in non-VR.
Personal refiner
- Added a new technology, the Personal Refiner. This technology allows for elements to be refined directly within the Exosuit, without having to place a portable refiner on a planetary surface.
Customiser
- Added the ability to save a range of custom outfits in the Customiser, allowing for quick changes between a range of appearances.
Space map
- Improved the Space Map to bring greater clarity as to the position of other ships and planets.
- Improved the compass while piloting in space, so it no longer displays objects in the centre of the compass if they are behind the starship.
Base building
- Significantly optimised freighter base building to increase the complexity limit, allowing more parts to be placed.
- Optimised a number of standard base building parts, allowing more objects to be placed within the complexity limit.
- Improved the accuracy of suggested snap points when placing base parts.
- Improved the clarity and contrast of the base building part preview holograms.
- Faded out the holograms of suggested snapping locations when placing base parts.
- Added a range of new triangular basic building parts, opening a wide range of building possibilities.
- Added an automatic harvester interaction to the Bio-Dome, allowing all plants to be collected at once.
See you in the stars, adventurers.
