Greetings From the Forgotten System – A No Man’s Sky Story

I arrive on “The Nothing” and am met by no one

I’ve been playing No Man’s Sky since day one. I’ve explored, gotten bored, and then revitalized with each new patch. I’ve never made it to the center or owned a freighter because all the time I’ve spent in the game have been making my own path and that never included the rat race. I’ve wanted to find the unexplored, the bizarre, or the challenge and make the game the experience I wanted to have. Never have I had such an amazing, and somewhat disturbing, experience like I’ve had today.

I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home from a business trip. I boot up No Man’s Sky to get some of the base building quests done and make progress before the boarding starts. I need to find a Vy’keen weapon’s handler. I can’t find any Vy’keen at the space station so I figure I need to go to a Vy’keen system. I pop into the galaxy map and free explore the systems near my home. While browsing I come across a new system, undiscovered, that shows no race there. There is nothing listed for this system. It stands out among the others in the area and draws my attention. The thought of my new weapon’s handler lost; I need to go see what the hell this is.

How does it feel to be in the shadow of elimination?

I engage my hyper drive and fly across space at ludicrous speed. As soon as I enter the system I look for that familiar yellow polygon space station icon and find nothing. I figure I must be missing it and spin in all directions finding nothing. “Ok, this is a first,” I think and run a scan on the large planet in front of me. The scan comes back with Erased Planet. Whoa, hold on a second, Erased? What the hell does that mean? I fly down to find broken shapes shattered with dull slightly glowing orange at the cracks. Everything on the planet when mined gives only dust. Except for a single wandering sentinel there is nothing but dust on this planet, nothing. No buried tech, no broken machinery, not a single building. It’s pretty disturbing to be this alone and surrounded by virtual abandonment.

You can just make me out standing in the shadow of the monolith

I fly away a little shaken and scan the planet with one moon. Tropical planet, now this is where I will find something worth coming to this system for. I fly down and skim the ground in my ship scanning for structures and nothing comes back. Sometimes this happens when you first arrive on a planet but usually I can find something in the first few minutes. I circle this planet, a little concerned to land, for 10 minutes finding nothing on my scans. Curiosity gets the better of me and I put my ship down in a small field of yellowing grass surrounded by tall red capped trees. There is life here but things move slowly. I scan some of the local wildlife and get back disturbing facts about them. They do not fear death and they eat rotten meat, or I find that they’re unpredictable and eat removed hearts. Ok, this is not a paradise planet this is a trap. I look around for anything I can grab and again nothing. No knowledge stones, no tech, nothing but plants, minerals, and animals.

Leaving the Paradise 4 the Dammed I see a blip on the radar. Behind the erased planet is an orb that is hard to see unless you check your radar on your ship (this is the reason I always fly in first person). I have to fly past another planet to scan it but it comes up Crimson Planet. Ok, red planet or something; maybe it’s hell? I fly for over 2 minutes on pulse engines to get there and find another planet with no scan-able structures. If alien life were ever in this system they left it long ago. I land surrounded by towering purple and grey glowing jacks and piles of gravitino balls. My suit tells me I’ve landed on an Extreme Sentinel planet, oh goodie! I use my multi tool to look around and not surprisingly find zero tech or alien life evidence at all. Because I can’t resist, and I love the challenge, I grab some loot, get three stars immediately, and run for my life.

Nothing but jacks and balls

If the sentinels weren’t so annoying I may want to stay

The last planet in the system is now calling to me. I have to see how this story ends. This planet, which I named Shadow World, scans as an Empty World. From space it looks like a giant blue ball and upon entering the atmosphere you can see why. The planet is covered in water with small patches of land peeking out here and there. At first, in the upper atmosphere the water appears blue but as I descend things start to gain a muddy brown hue and the color drops out of my gauges. As I did with all the other planets I scan to find nothing and then land on a small patch of land with tall bulbous trees sporadically placed throughout the muck.

On approach the color fades away from everything

Getting out I noticed I too have lost most of my color. I approach a tree and try to scan it but nothing comes back. I think because it is too big to scan (see the picture for scale. I could not reach the top of the tree in photo mode as I hit the ceiling of allowed height). This empty planet had more on it than the erased planet did but not by much. The tree’s scale and the pure bizarre color pallet being forced upon me rub me wrong again, as with all the planets in this system.

The red tries it’s best to come through but fails in the oppressive atmosphere

I am the little white spec and the base of the trees

Well at least oxygen is easy to find

Good bye Shadow World

As I am naming these discoveries I realize I have forgotten the moon that orbits the Paradise 4 the Dammed so I head that way last to see if maybe something is hidden there on this tiny moon that would give anyone hope.

Here I come tiny moon

The planet scans as a low atmosphere moon and it looks very similar to the planet below in color pallet but exiting my ship I am warned in red that this planet has unclouded skies. Without my SPF 1000 I decide to scan some creatures, look for tech, and leave. Animals here do not fear death,  are unafraid, or are old and nervous. I’m nervous too. I have found nothing but weirdness and empty planets in this system and I crave the familiar squawk of the Gek or grunt of the Vy’keen.

I name the moon We Fear Nothing and log my remaining discoveries with the galactic network. I think “My God this update is amazing,” and pack up my laptop to board my flight home.

If you want to find OddNext1 you find with the others in… The Twilight Zone