On April 5, Hello Games unwrapped its latest update for the ever-expanding No Man’s Sky deep space sim and folks, if you’ve been holding out on diving back into this epic-scale universe, I dunno how you’re gonna resist this siren’s song. A corruption is spreading through the galaxy, and it’s time to jump into a new ship featuring some slick Sentinel technology to harvest what you can, taking on wild new threats along the way.
Released to lukewarm reception all the way back in 2016, No Man’s Sky has received regular updates that have dramatically expanded the game beyond its initial premise of “fly around and see cool shit.” It has ascended to become one of the finest examples of how a game can grow over time. Previous updates have added all sorts of new building mechanics, vehicles, and lush graphical improvements. A new NMS update is always cause for excitement and today’s “Interceptor” update is no exception. Featuring a theme of corruption and fancy new technology for you to pilot, this looks like a must-play experience if ever there was one.
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Ever the joker, Hello Games founder Sean Murray started teasing the upcoming update on April 3 with a single emoji:
Travellers throughout Twitter, Reddit, and various Discord servers began trying to piece together what this could possibly mean, but now it’s a mystery no longer. Purple-themed crystals and evil sentinels are the stars of this new update, but that ain’t all.
The Corruption has arrived
I mean, c’mon, this looks too cool. As you can see, purple crystals are sprouting throughout various planets. Simply referred to as “corruption,” it has, um, corrupted sentinels, causing them to behave in new and dangerous ways...and damn it, Hello Games gave them flame throwers. Some even have invisibility cloaks now too. This gives me huge Horizon Zero Dawn vibes, and I’m totally here for it.
The patch notes state that planets that “previously generated extreme sentinels” are where you’re likely to find this corruption.
New ways to fly around the galaxy
The new update will also deliver some fancy new ways of getting around. A new jetpack, the Aeron Turbojet, features wings and purple-themed boosters. The Sentinel ships also feature tech that looks straight out of Cyberpunk 2077, with a sci-fi-magic-powered cockpit that animates in a way that’ll never get old.
And if you’re exploring the cosmos in VR, Interceptor also brings some new, customizable, wrist-mounted interfaces for you to use. Basically you can adjust where on your wrist the various multi-tool options and inventory access will spawn.
There are also some neat crash sites for you to explore, with a new mission to acquire a Sentinel Interceptor ship of your very own. But that’s not all: There’s a new Nexus mission that tasks you with destroying the virus-shaped machines spreading the corruption.
You can read about all of the many new additions to this epic new update in the full 4.2 patch notes right here.