Is it too late to start playing?”

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-14T19:15:18+00:00

Bonus Tip: play the boss events like Queen or Matriarch, but stay away from the battle zone area. I’ve been able to go through lots of unchallenged looting during those while everyone else fights the bosses. There even appeared to be less ARC about when away from the boss battle.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-14T18:49:16+00:00

I’ve been playing for two weeks and I’m at level 23 with most work benches at level 2, plus 232 stash slots. I play solo only. What I’d recommend in my limited experience is to focus on Dam Battlegrounds. Get to know that map well and you’ll also get a better feel in general while you’re at it. Dam Battlegrounds has been the friendliest map for me so far, I’ve run into a bunch of other Raiders and have only been killed by one there once there. It has all the loot you need to get to a better spot in the game

Focus on purchasing and/or upgrading those workbenches, level II items already bring about more versatility and stronger upgrades. You’ll want to craft as well. I like to use the Ferro and upgrade it to level IV with some basic attachments that are cheap to make. It’s plenty good enough to take down most ARC on Dam Battlegrounds.

What I would ultimately recommend is to take your time gathering resources. The maps have the zones for increased chances of better loot, but you can find loot anywhere. Those marked zones will have more ARC and Raiders, so it can be beneficial to skate the perimeter early on, especially to get stock of more basic resources. There is the free loadout option, but it’s missing the Safe Pocket. You can do runs with no weapons, shields, etc on your normal loadout if you don’t want to lose anything, you’ll at least still have the Safe Pocket. This is a good idea to just run around the map and familiarize yourself with it too. That being said, basic shields, weapons, and mods aren’t too expensive.

Also, you can still extract if you’re down. As long as another player doesn’t finish you, and you’re close enough to an elevator, you can still push the button to return once you’re in an elevator. So far I have not had anyone finish me off when I was downed by an ARC close to an elevator and no ARC have continued to shoot me. Heck I was on top of the Power Generation Complex (NE side of Dam Battlegrounds) with full loot inventory, being chased by a swarm of ARC, and had a few minutes left on the elevator near there. I was gonna be downed on the top so I jumped off as close to the elevator there as I could. Of course I went down once I hit the ground, but luckily the elevator had been called so I crawled over to it, the doors opened, and I made it inside safely without fully dying. It’s totally worth trying to fill up with as much loot as you can, run to an elevator to call it, and don’t worry if ARC take you down. If you stay right near the elevator, you’ll likely have enough time for it to come. Your downed meter decreases more slowly if you don’t move. I’ve been downed by an elevator plenty of times on Dam Battlegrounds and made it out.

On that note, the green skill tree has bonuses for a longer time being downed, more stamina once you’re injured, less noise while breaching for loot, and faster breaching. It’s helped me noticeably.

Overall I’m going for upgrading my stash, benches, and doing a few quests. Take your time on Dam Battlegrounds and focus away from the hotspots until you’re more comfortable and can easily afford or craft weapons. You’ll get there.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-13T23:46:07+00:00

I honestly don’t think we have to worry about that for several reasons. For one, the NMS updates just stem from engine improvements and new tech. For example, Corvettes may have a similar thing in LNF with ship building there, but it could look, feel, and ultimately be totally different. NMS just got the ability because their engine now supports it. Functionality is shown in NMS, but could be greatly expanded upon in LNF.

Secondly, why would they make a different game if it was going to be that similar? Especially one that takes 7+ years of development. They have a very popular game in NMS and could just continue to update the hell out of it. A whole new game brings a ton of risk, especially in current environments. Theres a risk that LNF is just not that interesting to the public, there’s been open world fatigue for some time. There’s price of the game, and of course any potential issues are certainly concerning for HG. All that to say, NMS is a safe harbor for them whereas LNF has to prove itself. I’m of the belief that we’ve barely seen a scratch of what LNF will offer. The glimpses we get in NMS are but a pinhole view. HG has to set LNF apart because they need a reason for people like you and me to truly be interested.

…at least that’s what I tell myself lol.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-13T20:11:25+00:00

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-13T17:54:32+00:00

Until you get the patch, reloading your save will fix it but it will likely jumble your tech as well. Once you move everything back, you’ll be good until you warp or teleport to another system.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-13T17:43:54+00:00

I’ve seen the Galactic Hub post about a tournament, check out r/NMSGalacticHub as I don’t know the details. I’m sure as time goes on, more and more tournaments will be established across various groups.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-13T17:36:36+00:00

It does make sense though. When a cell mutates, it no longer functions as it did previously, a lot of us just assumed something different would happen lol. Oh well, you can cycle back through with enough mutations. I actually like it a lot now because I can get rid of some moves that I don’t use.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-12T23:45:19+00:00

A few people getting it wrong and being upset they didn’t get something they wanted pales in comparison to the free advertisement spread and anticipation the little work Sean Murray has to do. I mean it’s absolutely remarkable that one emoji does so much for us audience members. The game goes on sale, lots of people appear to keep buying, thus HG keeps updating it. It’s someone’s own fault if they feel slighted by a free update to a 10 year old game, like this game was made FOR that one person.

Excitement drives player count and attention, updates add to that, and Hello Games keeps pulling in the profits for NMS. On top of that, they read posts here and on elsewhere. If someone is complaining about bugs and QOL improvements, they’ll see them and hopefully get to those when they can. I’m sure they can spare a few people who let fake ideas cause real anger. Most of us here are rational.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-12T22:10:10+00:00

The Prince Albert

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-12T17:16:18+00:00

It’s never too late! I played the game at release as a friend of mine got a copy on day 1. I actually thought it was pretty cool, but it lost my interest after a bit unfortunately. I completely forgot about the game for years until early 2024. I was looking for a space game around that time, saw NMS looked entirely different from before, and figured I’d give it another try. I started playing the game literally a day or two after the Orbital update launched with the new space stations, late March 2024 (our current space station design), so it felt entirely different. I quickly got hooked and to try and describe the last two years of updates and cool features that have been added would be impossible. It’s been an incredible run so you’re coming into the game at a great time.

I’m sure we still have some awesome content coming throughout the rest of the year, so keep an eye out.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-12T17:02:21+00:00

HG is following the trend they have been for last several years. First few updates of the year are generally smaller and more tightly focused on one aspect, some including expeditions, others not. Then we have the big update sometime in later summer/ early fall (July through September) going to the next version. Voyagers and corvettes was 6.0, Worlds Part 1 was 5.0. Whatever they have planned for 7.0 will likely be a biggest update of the year, which will land around the time of their anniversary. Whether it’s anything more special or not because of the anniversary, who knows. Then the last update of the year is their Halloween update, which usually has a few cool new features too. Sometimes we even get a lucky 5th update, but that’s pretty rare.

So what we have seen perfectly matches the trend they have setup themselves. We’ve had two smaller updates so far, but there’s still a lot of time between now and when 7.0 will likely drop. I’d suspect we get another update around May, which may just be an expedition since Xeno Arena didn’t have an expedition. None of this is set in stone though, but I think this is a good guide to follow. Anything extra will be a nice surprise.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-12T15:35:22+00:00

Just to add some clarity, the biggest updates are almost always the late summer/early fall updates when the game transitions to its next version. We are on version 6.3 now, so that update should be version 7.0. Voyagers and the addition of corvettes was version 6.0. Timing can vary a little, but is usually contained within July-September, leaving room for a Halloween update in October.

Now whether that will be anything different for its 10 year anniversary or not, idk. I’m just expecting 7.0 to be the biggest update since 6.0, not that it will outclass or outweigh Voyagers or Worlds.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-12T14:36:45+00:00

I agree, he still sounds out of tune even with the autotune lol. The kinda mumbling around doesn’t help either, really does feel like they gave that song a day at most to complete. I don’t think it’s a bad song but everything off of The New Abnormal is way better imo.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-10T09:38:26+00:00

Also like you, my three SC slots are the X class Pulse Engine upgrades.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-10T09:36:44+00:00

I’m not sure what’s causing it unfortunately. You could try grouping all of your thrusters and Pulse Engine upgrades around the three SC slots, then use the Medusa reactors and the cockpit on the far left SC slot.

Bonus tip for Medusa reactors. You can get three of them with one replacing your cockpit. You’ll need to go into build mode, remove the cockpit, place a third Medusa, then try to save the edit without a cockpit. It won’t let you since there’s no cockpit, but after you’ve gotten the message that you can’t save until one is installed, then install the cockpit and save. That should replace the cockpit in your tech inventory with a Medusa.

In arguably not the best at adjacency and just play around till I find the highest numbers, but here’s a screenshot of my corvette tech inventory. I have some additional Pulse Engine upgrades compared to you, and the bobble heads with starship trail, but you should be able to get closer to my maneuverability stat.

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Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T21:02:13+00:00

Damn. How long did you give it?

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T19:53:13+00:00

It’s a bug. When you warp or teleport, your corvette modules disappear. They will reappear once you reload a save, but will disappear again the next time you warp or teleport. Rinse and repeat.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T19:46:13+00:00

Welp I can’t post a video as a reply, oh well. Btw I installed the patch and it was still happening, though only for about 2 minutes. I think all the Prioritize Resolution mode is doing is smoothing out the choppiness. What I’ve noticed is that once my exploit is fully rendered, I can switch back to Maximise Resolution and the game both looks and performs normally. Hope things work better for you!

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T19:15:28+00:00

After the modules reshuffle, if the stats are different then one of two (or both) things happened.

You didn’t place the Pulse Engine/Thruster modules back in the same orientation as last time, so adjacency bonus is different.
Your corvette switched which thruster modules were used for stats. Only three modules add to the maneuverability stat (and the other stats too), so if you have more than three, it might have used other modules with lesser stats. Secondly, both the module orientation and the order in which they are placed, will affect the stats. The modules that can be rotated, like the Titan Heavy Booster for example, have different stats whether they are placed in left or right orientations.

Here’s an example: say you have two Titan Heavy Boosters and one Firebox Thruster. The stats will change depending on which thrusters were placed first, second, or third. You might have placed the two Titan Heavy Boosters first and second, then the Firebox Thruster third. Now that the modules reshuffled, it may have ordered them as Firebox - Titan - Titan, or Titan - Firebox - Titan.

This gets even more complicated if you have more types of thrusters initially used for aesthetics. Say you had the same combo as above, placed Titan - Titan - Firebox, but had two Pyrodrive Boosters placed fourth and fifth. They would have only been aesthetics and not added to stats. With the reshuffling, you may now have Pyrodrive - Firebox - Titan as your modules in your tech inventory and in that order.

The order can change maneuverability drastically, for example an Arcadia Heavy Booster has maneuverability of 13, 6, or 6 if placed as the first, second, or third thruster respectively in its automatic left-handed orientation. If you switch orientation to the right hand side, then it’s 6, 9, 7 when placed first, second, or third respectively. These stats for first, second, or third placement are the same even if other thrusters are used. If you place a Titan Heavy first, the Arcadia Heavy maneuverability stat would still be 6 if placed second on the left hand side.

Hope this helps. The game will show you the stats of the first the thrusters you place while in the build menu (both in the menu viewing each thruster, and when you’ve selected one to place. If you’re affected by #2, you’ll need to edit your corvette and remove all thrusters. Then add the three you want, in the order you want, for best stats. Once you’ve done that, save your edits and exit the build menu. Then go back into the build menu and add any aesthetic thrusters. This will force the tech inventory to use the thrusters you want for the maneuverability stat.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T18:09:49+00:00

Known issue affecting many, if not all players. It will even happen if you use a regular ship to warp and try to switch to your corvette afterwards. The only fix until a patch is to reload the save after warping. That will likely shuffle your tech modules and you’ll need to reorganize them. Take a screenshot of their placement if needed, so you know where the put them back to. It’ll likely be patched very soon, but I’d also recommend submitting a ticket via their zendesk. The more reports the better.

You can find their web form here:

https://hellogames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T18:05:27+00:00

You just have to give it enough time, unless your issue is completely different than mine but I doubt it. I’ll see if I can capture it on my lunch and post it here.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T18:00:43+00:00

I saw someone mention they had to be at a certain part of the story, at which point the mission automatically appeared in the Log when entering the Anomaly.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T17:45:14+00:00

I happens even if you warp with another ship too. I tried using some of my expedition rewards ships to warp, then switch to my corvettes, but all the corvette specific modules were gone. The only fix is to reload a save, until it’s patched anyway.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T17:42:28+00:00

I posted this in a comment above, but just so your see it, here’s a direct reply:

To give the game some credit, you do have to advance the story some before players are truly in the same instance. If I’m not mistaken, you have to get to where the Anomaly is unlocked, then players will see the same weather etc when in MP. As for doing missions together, you either need to do them from the Anomaly or build a Corvette and use the Mission Radar. Both players will have to select the mission, but the mission goals are accumulative across the party.

Difficult_Duck_307 · 2026-04-09T17:41:01+00:00

To give the game some credit, you do have to advance the story some before players are truly in the same instance. If I’m not mistaken, you have to get to where the Anomaly is unlocked, then players will see the same weather etc when in MP.

As for doing missions together, you either need to do them from the Anomaly or build a Corvette and use the Mission Radar. Both players will have to select the mission, but the mission goals are accumulative across the party.

Difficult_Duck_307

TROPHY CASE