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No Man's Sky has over 18 quintillion planets to discover, but sometimes you just want to shape the ground on a particular planet and make it your own - whether it be to improve your base of operations or to dig through the surface.
Luckily, the Terrain Manipulator is a tool you can acquire very early on in the game and is pretty hard to miss if you tackle the beginning missions in your log. Follow this guide to obtain the handy-dandy Terrain Manipulator for your Mulit-Tool in No Man's Sky.
Updated April 15, 2023, by Sean Murray: The Terrain Manipulator remains one of the most important tools for any Traveler, so we've updated this guide with a few formatting tweaks to make it easier on the 'ol visor.
What Is The Terrain Manipulator?
The Terrain Manipulator is an upgrade for the Multi-Tool that will allow you to shape the terrain around you. More specifically, you can:
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Create |
Add and build varying textures of terrain |
|---|---|
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Mine |
Destroy terrain and minerals |
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Flatten |
Level an area so that the ground is even |
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Restore |
Undo terrain changes you have made |
It will also allow you to mine metal deposits on various planets, such as Copper and Gold. When you switch to your Terrain Manipulator, you will default to the add terrain option.
You can aim a sphere in front of you to indicate where you would like to build or destroy, and adjust the size of the sphere to make larger or smaller changes.
Where To Get The Blueprint
Shortly after repairing your ship and leaving the planet at the start of the game, you will receive a transmission whilst in space. Answering this will direct you to a signal on a nearby planet.
Travel there and land in the indicated area. Once on foot, you will need to use the analysis visor to locate the precise location of the signal.
Once you find the source of the signal, interact with it to receive the next transmission. This will provide you with the blueprints to build both the Base Computer and the Terrain Manipulator.
The Terrain Manipulator is required to mine metals, which you will need in order to build the Base computer and continue your quest.
How To Build The Terrain Manipulator
To craft the tool, navigate to the inventory menu for your Multi-Tool. Hover over an empty slot, and you'll see the available upgrades to install. Select the Terrain Manipulator.
Now you'll need to provide each material: 1 Di-Hydrogen Jelly, and 2 Carbon Nanotubes.
Di-Hydrogen can be gathered from blue crystals around the environment, and you will likely have a fair amount of this already. This can then be used to craft Di-Hydrogen Jelly in your inventory.
Carbon Nanotubes can also be crafted from the inventory, using Carbon gathered from flora such as trees.
With both of these required materials, you can go ahead and complete the upgrade on your Multi-Tool.
Now your Multi-Tool will be complete with a Terrain Manipulator. The top-right of your screen will contain the HUD information for the Multi-Tool, including the button you need to press to switch between modes. Pressing this will swap your Multi-Tool into Terrain Manipulation, allowing you to then create, mine, and flatten to your heart's extent.