Getting Started — What to Do in Your First Few Hours
No Man’s Sky drops you in the middle of a hostile planet and explains almost nothing. The first couple of hours genuinely are tight. The good news is that the order of operations is fixed, and knowing it removes most of the flailing.
This page covers the flow of the first story mission, Awakenings. Staying alive is covered in Hazard Protection and Life Support, and where to find materials in Early Resources.
The one warning that matters most
Before anything else: do not accept materials or items from other players during Awakenings.
Being handed what you need skips tutorial steps, and the blueprints those steps grant are gone for good. Specifically the Base Computer module and the Hermetic Seal — neither can be obtained anywhere else in the game.
Turning down help feels rude. Do it anyway, just for this mission.
Step 1 — the scanner, not the ship
Most people go looking for the crashed ship first. That’s backwards.
Mine 75 Ferrite Dust immediately and repair your Multi-Tool scanner first, for two reasons:
- The scanner is what makes the ship’s location findable.
- You spawn with low hazard protection, and finding Sodium without a working scanner is genuinely difficult.
Ferrite Dust comes from rocks. Point the mining beam at any of them.
Step 2 — three repairs on the ship
Once you reach the ship, three systems get fixed in order.
| Repair | Cost |
|---|---|
| Pulse Engine | Metal Plating (50 Ferrite Dust) + a Hermetic Seal |
| Analysis Visor | Carbon Nanotubes (50 Carbon) |
| Launch Thrusters | 50 Pure Ferrite + Di-hydrogen Jelly (40 Di-hydrogen) |
Where the Hermetic Seal blocks you
You can’t craft the seal at first — you don’t have the blueprint. The game hands you a Planetary Chart and sends you to find it inside a marked Shelter building.
A storm is guaranteed during that trip. It’s scripted, so it can’t be avoided. Stock up on Sodium before setting out and keep an eye out for caves or structures on the way.
There’s a second scripted storm too, right after you receive the wood-part blueprints — it fires even on planets that would never normally have storms.
Refining shows up here
- Pure Ferrite = Ferrite Dust refined at 1:1
- The Portable Refiner blueprint is granted at this stage
Step 3 — after you leave the planet
Once airborne you run flight tests (thrust, boost, pulse engine), and then the chain continues:
- Build a Terrain Manipulator → mine Copper → refine Chromatic Metal (Copper at 2:1)
- Build a Base Computer → expand the base → Teleport Module
- Power the base — a Biofuel Reactor plus electrical wiring
- Visit the space station — and buy 5 Microprocessors while you’re there. You’ll need them shortly
- Find the crashed freighter for the Hyperdrive blueprint
- Build the Hyperdrive — 125 Chromatic Metal + 5 Microprocessors
- Craft a Warp Cell → warp to another system
That’s Awakenings. Finishing it opens Alone Amongst the Stars and the Atlas Path.
Things worth knowing early
Use the Biofuel Reactor this once and never again. It continuously eats resources. Unlock Solar Panels, Batteries, and Electromagnetic Generators instead.
Dig up Salvaged Data at every opportunity. Buried Technology sites yield Salvaged Data, and unlocking blueprints later consumes an enormous amount of it. Collecting from the start makes the mid-game far smoother.
Don’t break the eggs. They drop valuable Larval Cores, but they also spawn Biological Horrors — which early gear cannot handle.
Visit the station and the Space Anomaly in every system. Each location sells one exosuit slot per system. Buying one as you pass through is what makes it add up.
Learn words from Knowledge Stones and NPCs. Better translation means you stop guessing at dialogue options that cost you.
Sentinels only start from the second planet. You won’t see them on your starting planet. Once you arrive on planet two, Sentinel Drones begin appearing on every planet’s surface.
Fly, don’t walk. Once you have the ship, travelling by ship is dramatically faster than crossing the surface on foot. In space, use the Pulse Drive so you don’t linger long enough for pirates to target you.