There is a simple version of this and a complete version, and both are below in that order.

Short answer

The direct answer is above the fold; the reasoning underneath is there for when the direct answer does not fit your situation.

  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.
  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.

No Man's Sky has been rewritten by updates so many times that old guides describe a different game. Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of No Man's Sky.

Why it works this way

The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

When the usual advice fails

The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Region and platform change more than people expect, so confirm both.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.

What to do instead

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later.

The practical answer

If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Everything below is framed around the current state of No Man's Sky rather than a launch-week impression.

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

Worth knowing alongside this

Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

Where people go wrong

  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.

No Man's Sky FAQ

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Does this change between platforms?

The behaviour does not. Where menu paths or prompts differ, that is noted above.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

What is the short answer?

It is the paragraph near the top. Everything after it exists for the cases where that paragraph does not quite fit.

Work through it in the order above and how to get nanites stops being a question you have to look up again.