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

Do the simple thing first. It is correct more often than the complicated thing people recommend instead.

  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.
  • If a menu path does not exist for you, your build is older or newer than the one described.

No Man's Sky has been rewritten by updates so many times that old guides describe a different game. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one.

Why it works this way

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of No Man's Sky. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

The practical answer

The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.
  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.
  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.

When the usual advice fails

If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. Everything below is framed around the current state of No Man's Sky rather than a launch-week impression. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

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. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

Worth knowing alongside this

Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. No Man's Sky is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

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. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

What to do instead

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

Where people go wrong

  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.

No Man's Sky FAQ

Why do people disagree about this?

Mostly because they are describing different versions. Version drift explains the majority of contradictory advice about No Man's Sky.

Is there a faster method?

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

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.

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.

If you only take one thing from this: the answer near the top is the part that matters, the rest is context.