This sits outside the game itself, which is exactly why it is hard to find a straight answer about it.
Short answer
The short version: it is canon where the developers say it is, and enjoyable regardless.
- Play first if you mind spoilers — adaptations rarely respect them.
- Buy from the publisher's own store where one exists.
- Give a method one honest attempt before deciding it does not work.
No Man's Sky has been rewritten by updates so many times that old guides describe a different game. Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them. Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself.
What is fan-made
Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.
Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.
Whether it is worth your time
Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately. Everything below is framed around the current state of No Man's Sky rather than a launch-week impression. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.
- Check whether something is official before treating it as canon.
- Look for an official assets page before downloading anything.
- Prefer the in-game option over an external tool when both exist.
- Expect licensed music to be missing from re-releases.
Where it fits with the game
Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. No Man's Sky is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.
Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.
What exists officially
The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.
A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.
Where to find it legitimately
What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.
Where people go wrong
- Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
- Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
- Ignoring the platform-specific note and then wondering why the steps do not line up.
- Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
No Man's Sky FAQ
Where can I get it legally?
Publisher stores and licensed platforms carry all of it. Anything circulating as a free file is a rip.
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.
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.
Why do other guides describe this differently?
Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.
Come back to the caveats list if it does not work first time — the answer is almost always in there.