This comes up often enough in No Man's Sky that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

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

  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.

No Man's Sky has been rewritten by updates so many times that old guides describe a different game. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have.

Why it works this way

There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. No Man's Sky is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

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. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

The practical answer

It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. Everything below is framed around the current state of No Man's Sky rather than a launch-week impression. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • Stop and reassess after two failed attempts rather than repeating the third.
  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.

When the usual advice fails

Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. 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.

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

What to do instead

None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

Worth knowing alongside this

Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

Where people go wrong

  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.
  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.
  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.

No Man's Sky FAQ

Is this still accurate after the latest No Man's Sky update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

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.

Is there a faster method?

Sometimes, at the cost of reliability. Where that trade exists it is described rather than recommended blindly.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

That is the whole of it — if something here stops matching No Man's Sky, the game changed, not the method.