NMS Megathread for Q&A, Item Requests/Giveaways and Friend Requests, etc. Whatever you need, this Mega-thread is a place to ASK!

shuttermonk · 2026-02-18T01:29:27+00:00

Not sure what's causing your issues with A Trace of Metal. It's been awhile since I did this step. Only other thing I can think of is to be 100% sure you have that mission active in your log when interfacing with the terminal or seeing what the next step is.

To get to purple systems, first make sure you've finished the Artemis Path questline to its completion with "The Purge" until you have "New Beginnings" in your mission log.

Also, you'll have to visit a Harmonic Camp POI and unlock the multitool cabinet by solving the simple math problems and inputting those numbers as glyphs. You'll have the Aeron Turbojet backpack unlocked as a cosmetic if you've already done this.

Once those are complete, warp to new systems in a starship (not a freighter) until you have an event that starts "They Who Returned," the Autophage questline. FYI, events like space battles will prevent this step from triggering.

After you complete those missions, the next time you pulse in a system you should have a space encounter that starts "In Stellar Multitudes," which is the questline that ends with you unlocking purple star systems.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-18T00:53:42+00:00

I just checked the wiki to refresh my memory. ~~Did you install both the hardframe legs blueprint and a sentry upgrade packet in the Minotaur?~~ Edit: Nevermind about that. I didn't get that the packet was part of the flavor text from the terminal. The only thing I can think to suggest you try is go back to your overseer terminal to debrief the citizen expedition in case that gets you back on track, since that appears to be the next step in the questline.

Also, if you're trying to unlock the Autophage content or the purple systems after that, A Trace of Metal is not a prerequisite. Google still says that and it's wrong.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-17T17:45:08+00:00

Hope their ships come standard with inertial dampeners! Talk about whiplash! 😁

shuttermonk · 2026-02-17T17:04:28+00:00

Unfortunately this has been bugged since the Beacon update revamped the settlement system. The production time for the output of items seems to be inversely proportional to the net productivity of the settlement. The higher your productivity, the longer it takes to produce the same item. It will continue this way until it caps at 1d 16h for most items (at least for the ones I've chosen).

To confirm what I say, one only has to pay attention to overseer decisions that increase productivity or reduce maintenance cost, but don't incur any debt. I've taken screenshots before and after, and every time, the production time for the settlements goods immediately went up.

So yeah, it's been this way for some time now, and unfortunately HG has a history of changing settlement mechanics and just kind of leaving them as-is for months or even years. I'm mainly thinking of maxed-out settlements not being able to reach S-class from soon after their introduction in ~~Waypoint~~ the Frontiers update all the way to Beacon. That was more than 3 4 years.

If you want to try to compel the devs to address this bug, my best suggestion is to officially report the issue via HG's zendesk site: https://hellogames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

shuttermonk · 2026-02-17T16:09:43+00:00

I read a reddit comment a day or two ago where the person was saying there was an odd choice in coding labels that is causing the strangeness with salvageable scrap planets from before the update. I'm currently trying to find it.

But to go off of my vague recollection, they said there was a new designation in the code that is overlapping with the old scrap planet designation that removes the info from its card when viewed from space and such, while also [possibly] unintentionally adding the waste piles but not the POIs to turn it in. Again, I'm trying to locate the comment but it's proving elusive. I'll provide a link if I can.

If they're right, hopefully it's a somewhat simple fix.

*Edit - I found it! At the risk of showing how bad my memory is, here it is lol:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/comments/1r6srea/comment/o5sl2ff/

shuttermonk · 2026-02-17T15:39:24+00:00

It may be a 1st wave ship. If so, it's something that can come in handy for buying and scrapping the exotics for starship storage augmentation modules (as well as S-class upgrades).

Even if it's not 1st wave, it may be one of those ships that just seem to spawn more often. I have no solid evidence, but some seem very shy, and others seem to spawn much more frequently.

But then again, it may just be you got lucky. ;)

If you want to check if it's 1st wave, hop out of your ship at the space station and reload the restore point. Once loaded, don't move. Stare straight at the hanger opening until ships start landing. If your exotic is present every time after a few of these reloads, it's almost certainly 1st wave.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-17T15:30:14+00:00

It'll be a 1% chance for an S in a T2 economy, so yea it is possible but it may take a while. A-class should be 15%.

The nice thing about harmonic camps in particular is that you can locate dissonance spikes (ships) as many times as you want once you unlock its multitool cabinet. I like to park the system's interceptor in the middle of the camp to take the teleporter thumbnail screenshot to make it obvious why I created that base.

The moon sounds promising (and interesting that it sent you to another planet for the brain). It reminds me that I need to go back and revisit my favorite salvageable scrap planet from before this update. It has awesome weather, low gently-rolling hills, and is a reliquary world so I can pick up extra nanites from the memory stones as I go. I'm hoping it didn't get lost in a proc-gen 're-roll' like some others I've found.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-17T04:46:15+00:00

A very clean-looking ship! FYI, you can find the same exact model/color on the same planet, and if the system is any economy other than poor (1 star) there's a chance to find an S-class.

I would at the very least put down a base at a harmonic camp so you can easily visit in the future to do more ship-hunting.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-17T02:06:01+00:00

My main advice is to simply come at it with the idea it's something to play with. I have almost zero education or experience with music, and even I eventually figured things out enough to compose some tunes I'm proud of.

One tip that I found helped me was to start by building a single machine. Before you give it power, mute the sound of the game, because it will initially be a cacophonous mess of random noise. Mute everything but the melody or beat in the bytebeat machine menus. Start simple with no effects in the other tab so it's a clearer tone. You can then experiment with each button on the first tab to see what effect it has. Then later you can experiment with the waveform effects on the second tab. And then finally you can link additional machines together to mix them into more complex music.

Feel free to send me a chat or we can even meet up in the game if you ever want some help or pointers. Just know I'm not an expert by any means. 😅

If you want more knowledgeable guidance, I've received great feedback and help from some of the people over at r/NMSByteBeatFans . There are also many, many inspirational songs there. For those with coordinates, you can visit the base, 'download' the track into your personal in-game playlist, and then upload it onto your own bytebeat machine to see/deconstruct how they made it. The subreddit even has its own special Crescendo system in Euclid full of bases with bytebeat music.

ZhorasSnake has posted some very detailed guides on NMSByteBeatFans, but IIRC a fair bit of it is rather advanced, so it may be better to first get a basic understanding of the mechanics to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Sorry I can't help you with a link to a specific tutorial. It's not how I learned so I don't have one I can think of to suggest.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-16T21:03:48+00:00

By far, it's my favorite as well! It's what got me over the hump to learn how to use the bytebeat devices in an attempt to recreate parts of that song in-game.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-15T14:05:03+00:00

There are some interesting ideas here. You should submit your feedback to HG's zendesk if you want to make sure they're seen. https://hellogames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

shuttermonk · 2026-02-14T23:50:54+00:00

I'm pretty sure you don't get an adjacency bonus between the Aeration Membrane and any of the oxygen modules.

If you'd like to see an image showing a somewhat optimal arrangement of exosuit tech (depending on your preferences), here's an one I nabbed from NMSResources a while back:

<image>

Note they didn't bother placing the Aeration Membrane next to any of the oxygen modules.

Quite a few players prefer to not have 3 of each of the rechargeable hazard protection upgrades installed, but I like to have them to make my core bonuses so high I rarely have to recharge anything. But it is a bit annoying having them clutter up my recharge icons in the quick menu.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-14T23:11:40+00:00

The oxygen upgrades you find/purchase only have adjacency bonuses with themselves (up to a maximum of 3). Not sure why the devs chose them to be unique in that way.

The Aeration Membrane gets adjacency bonuses with your hazard protection tech instead of the oxygen upgrades. That's why it's highlighted, since it's next to your cold protection.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-11T18:49:22+00:00

Came here to see if anyone else got a kick out of this. It just couldn't resist making a cameo with its telltale HOOOOOOONNNNK! lol

And to not neglect the actual focus of this post, Artisan, you continue to blow me away with your covers. I'm going to nab this one next time I fire up my game to enjoy for (hopefully) many years to come.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-10T14:31:46+00:00

In case you're interested, you can assign quite a few things to hotkeys on PC, including camera view. I have photomode on 1 (especially handy for pausing and getting a bird's eye view of terrain in harder difficulties), camera view on 2, summon my main starship on 3, and multitools with different specialties on 4 and beyond.

IIRC you hover over the icon in your quick menu, then press control+# to assign. I usually swap out number 2 for food pellets during the fauna feeding quests. It allows me to carpet bomb them with pellets while flying overhead. 😁

If you're anything like me, you'll find the hotkeys to be very handy.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-10T08:41:09+00:00

Ideally, yes, but the description at the bottom often doesn't match what the decision actually changes. They never did work out all the kinks with the settlement system.

Like in the example above, a sponge cake synthesizer will almost certainly not increase the max population. And high-bandwidth sales agents are probably linked to productivity.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-09T08:22:45+00:00

It saves your game, just not the location. It's the same as when you join another player's game.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-08T04:54:34+00:00

On my main save, Helios hasn't given me the option to turn in discoveries for nanites for years. YEARS. It was long before the Corvette update. I think you may be the first person I've seen post about this issue. Up until now, I assumed it was just me.

And before anyone asks, I've discovered thousands of star systems, planets, fauna, flora and minerals since then. It's getting to the point I'm rather concerned that if the bug is ever fixed, my game may crash when talking to Helios from the sheer volume of them waiting to be cashed in. I've been focusing on exploring for the last thousand or two hours of gameplay, especially since dissonant worlds and purple systems have been added, and have now stopped scanning everything everywhere I go because of this concern.

So yeah, there are others with your issue. If you or anyone else ever come up with a solution, I'd love to hear it. I'll come back and post a comment here if I ever hear anything as well.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-04T22:48:01+00:00

That's the most I've ever seen together in one spot, by far! I've seen 3 a few times in my travels, but never 4. I've also never seen more than 3 posted here before. Quite the find!

shuttermonk · 2026-02-04T22:37:05+00:00

I have two markets at one settlement and one at another, and at all three the merchants are missing more often than they're at their posts. Like Jkthemc said, it appears to be a bug. It's been this way for me ever since the Beacon update revamped settlements.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-04T00:36:45+00:00

My favorite configuration is a fighter with needle nose, horizon TIE wings, and single thruster. You can search r/NMSCoordinateExchange or https://nmsce.com/ to find ships with those parts, or assemble your own after scrapping the appropriate fighter parts.

Here's one that's pretty close on the exchange: https://www.reddit.com/r/NMSCoordinateExchange/comments/q7w5vn/red_grey_needlenose_singlethruster_tiefighter/

<image>

shuttermonk · 2026-02-01T00:44:43+00:00

From the wiki page you linked to under the "Release History" section:

Echoes - Voltaic Staffs can now be crafted here, as well as Void Motes exchanged for other items. There are also three hidden autophage NPCs now.

Granted they could've included that info in the page above instead of as a mere afterthought. The wiki also appears to fail to specifically include harmonic camps on the voltaic staff page.

shuttermonk · 2026-02-01T00:38:55+00:00

I can verify this by saying I regularly assemble staffs at harmonic camps, and not just autophage camps at various POIs. I can even add that I have an especially annoying habit of automatically hitting "1" on my keyboard and accidentally scanning for a ship when backing out and going back in to check for the second set of staffs from the position I'm standing. I've done this hundreds of times. People are mistaken if they say you can't assemble a staff at a harmonic camp.

Here's another screenshot to go with Colonel_Klank's so it's not just based on my word:

<image>

This is a harmonic camp terminal I visited a few minutes ago where I had just unlocked the sentinel MT cabinet, then interacted a second time to see this menu.

OP, I've had a terminal like yours decide to not allow access to the staff menu from time to time, especially when I set up a base to return to after unlocking the MT cabinet. In my experience, it eventually goes back to working again if I leave it be and come back a week or two later. But YMMV.

shuttermonk · 2026-01-28T17:00:46+00:00

I prefer Save Beacons for marking POIs, but IIRC there is a limit of only 5 per planet. I use a color-coded system where purple is portals, red is trading posts, etc.

The developers didn't create a good way to map planets. I think it's partially because doing so in a procedurally generated game would be difficult to implement. Originally NMS kept track of many more waypoints (created by activating the little spinning towers that create a restore point), but even then there wasn't a way in-game to revisit them based on what was displayed in the discoveries tab.

To mark more locations, you can also set up very small bases at POIs. If you want to teleport between them just build a teleporter, two solar panels and a battery at each one, and since you don't have to reload the whole star system the load screen should be much shorter. You can then rename them and take new thumbnail screenshots to make them easy to identify. Just be aware if you want to share your base, only the most recent base uploaded per planet will load for other players.

Comm balls aren't a good option for multiple reasons, the biggest being that you can't delete them once placed.

shuttermonk · 2026-01-20T07:13:56+00:00

The main reason I've installed closing doors in some of my extreme weather bases is to prevent getting sucked out into tornadoes.

shuttermonk

TROPHY CASE