The best No Man's Sky mods: pretty it up, smooth it out and make it stop shouting at you
The best No Man's Sky mods: pretty it up, smooth it out and make it stop shouting at you
No Man's Sky has been available on PC for less than a week and official modding support has not even been confirmed - but that hasn't stopped modders rising up to offer tools, tweaks and trainers for the enormous space sandbox.
The scene is only just taking off, but already there's a small collection of mods worth checking out if you're playing on PC, whether you're looking to customise your experience, smooth out some of the bumps, or cheat your head off.
These are the best one we've come across, from a variety of sources - not including all the ones that turn things into Nyan Cat or Doctor Who.
Speed up No Man's Sky's exasperating confirm button
Possibly the most important modding work done since the true ending of Str Wars: Knight of the Old Republic 2 was unearthed, this mod speeds up the painful hold-to-confirm cursor thing No Man's Sky is overly fond off.
Fast Actions comes to us courtesy of one Shadwar, whose own rapid action in correcting Hello Games' bizarre design decisions deserves some applause.
Seriously, there are times when hold to confirm makes sense, as when dismantling stuff. But powering up essential gear and changing pages in a menu? No. No, no, no, no, no.
Impose your own aesthetic on No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky has a very distinct style, and not everybody likes it. Why not tinker until it looks the way you want?
Instagram Filter Removed by Drogean takes that old film look off everything. The creator also recommends their E3fx Reshade Graphics mod, and the Chromatic Aberration + Vignetting + Scan Lines Removal suite by Wretched Heathen.
You might also consider No Rim Lighting by Apst, Refresh Icons Menu by Ciprriano, Reshade Preset - HDR _ LummaSharpen _ new SMAA by zyd232 and UI Font Change by SkyKode.
Using any and all of these may make Hello Games cry. On your own head be it.
Upgrade your Hyperdrive for faster fast travel
Play No Man's Sky for long enough and you'll realise you've run out of new mechanisms and materials: it's just a matter of rinse and repeat on your way to the Galactic Centre. At that point, you'd be forgiven for wanting to speed things up a bit so you can see the ending.
Enter Super Hyperdrive by atomicinf. This upgrades all hyperdrive values by 1,000, which is probably a bit of overkill, but does actually enable you to explore the Galaxy at your pleasure, which is probably why you started playing in the first place.
The creator describes this a proof of concept rather than something players are desperately in need of, but your opinion may not line up on that topic.
Remove No Man's Sky's HUD for tasty screenshots
NoHUD - Toggle HUD on and off with F5 does exactly what it says on the tin, and comes to use from the no-nonsense Ant2888.
It's kind of amazing that a game like No Man's Sky, which trades so heavily on a sense of wonder at unique discoveries, shouldn't have had a one button photo mode built right in. Maybe it's out there among the 15 quintillion planets, awaiting discovery...?
Run faster, mine longer
This falls into the realm of cheating - but seriously No Man's Sky: your incredibly strict sprint stamina and mining beam overheat limits are just annoying. They do nothing but break up your flow and slow down activities everyone's gonna do anyway.
Enter No Man's Script - Infinite walk plus no overheating by Crystrex. We assume there's a language barrier at play here confusing sprint and walk, as No Man's Sky already has an infinite amount of walk.
If you like, you can use this mod to adjust No Man's Sky's parameters rather than just remove them altogether, which is nice for those of you who feel guilty about cheats.
Disable No Man's Sky's constant notifications
You know how whenever you're wandering around on a planet's surface in No Man's Sky, your suit's AI alerts you that your life support and hazard protection are "low" - even when they're at 75%? In all but the most toxic and barren environments, where you wouldn't hang about anyway, the notifications serve no useful purpose other than to drive you to distraction and ruin peaceful moments?
ShutUp by Jackalopalen makes your suit shut the f**k up. Extremely good.
No Man's Sky Trainer (aka No Man's Sky cheats)
We don't normally like to advertise this sort of thing, but the No Man's Sky mod that is far and away the most popular is No Man's Sky Trainer, a flexible suite of tools mostly used to cheat, cheat, cheat.
The options available include typical god mode offerings like infinite stamina, jet pack, and player and ship health as well as specific choices like "easy Atlas Pass" and no resource crafting.
You can find this No Man's Sky hosted in many places, but creator Mrantifun advertises this download source, which is probably the best idea.
More No Man's Sky mods: sources
Not enough for you? Want more No Man's Sky mods, and want them now? We'll be updating this article, but it's easy enough to find your own in the meantime.
Although the scene is only just getting started, you can't go past No Man's Sky NexusMods, the latest offshoot of one of the Internet's most popular modding communities. VGMods has also opened a dedicated sub site for Hello Games' adventure, which you can find at NoMansSkyMods.com.
We expect many more No Man's Sky mods to pop up over the next few months, especially if Hello Games releases official No Man's Sky mod tools, as Sean Murray has suggested might happen. Stay tuned.