After long days exploring the wild planets in No Man's Sky, there's nothing quite like returning to a home base. Fans have been building incredible projects in No Man's Sky since the function was introduced a few years ago. Methods of base-building have come a long way with some of the more complicated processes being streamlined and made easier.
That being said, building a base in No Man's Sky still involves a lot of moving parts and menu navigation. For players who are base-building connoisseurs, or those just getting started, these tips will help eager builders create a base of truly epic proportions.
Updated on September 7, 2021, by Sam Hallahan: No Man's Sky has not slowed down in its development as the years go by, and as such, neither have the fans. There are some incredible creations from players all over, and with the Frontiers update bringing an overhaul to the base building system - along with over 250 new base parts and decorations - it's only adding fuel to the fire, and what a glorious fire it is. Here are some tips for creating the best base you can.
13 Picking A Planet To Call Home
Getting started on a base is a pretty involved process, so you want to make sure you've picked a planet you (and your companions) are happy with. Of course, the universe of No Man's Sky is teeming with planets of all types and sizes, so which planets are the best to build a base on? Ultimately, this is up to your own preference. With your Exosuit, you can survive on any planet, so you don't need to worry about toxic rain or blizzards - they are but a mere feature of the environment.
A lot of players tend to choose beautiful planets, such as Paradise planets, to build a base on. Others might go for something more unique, such as an underground base on a planet with a toxic atmosphere. There is total freedom when it comes to No Man's Sky base-building, and the limits are nigh on negligible. With the Frontiers update, you now have the ability to use free placement, meaning you can build whatever you like, pretty much wherever. If you want to build a floating base above the clouds, you can.
12 Choose A Planet That Might Not Be Hospitable
There are quite a few types of planets in No Man's Sky and some of them have things like boiling puddles or walls of flame. Sure, that doesn't sound all that alluring, but it's these same terrifyingly difficult planets that can have the most valuable resources and worthwhile investments. Building a hub on one of these planets may also be an easy way to have resource farms, by using atmosphere harvesters or automated mining facilities.
What's more: it may have more unique fauna to use for companion breeding. You can set up entire livestock systems in No Man's Sky, complete with auto-feeders. With the Companions update, you can also breed the creatures and create some truly unique life. Want to run a farm that houses large, radioactive dinosaurs? Then gamma intensive planets might just be for you.
11 Building A Resource Outpost
One method to get a lot of utility out of your base is to select a planet rich in resources - particularly precious resources like cadmium. This means that you can set up an area that provides room for your automatic farms, mining operations, and storage for nearby uranium or other rare resources. A radioactive planet is a top choice since Uranium and Copper are good materials for farming and machine-building.
Other choices include a planet with extreme weather conditions, so you might be able to easily harvest Storm Crystals. Many consider Storm Crystal harvesting a good way to make money at the start of the game, so this spot is ideal for an early base. You can also make camp near one of the mysteriously abandoned outposts that are crawling with biological horrors and their lucrative Whispering Eggs. Of course, resources in No Man's Sky are spread out from planet to planet, so choose a spot for your base that fits the functionality you want it to have - and you can set up multiple of these bases on different planets.
10 Choose A System With Multiple Planets
The more planets in the Star System, the more likely you are to have a wide range of resources to choose from without having to warp to other systems. You should always fully investigate a system before choosing to build your base. Remember, there is a build limit of 16,000 parts on PC and 20,000 parts on console, with a limit of 3,000 per base. You can have multiple bases, but you might hit the parts limit eventually.
Keeping all your resources in one system is also good for transportation and completing some of the NPC quests. It will also make earning money much easier. Resources will despawn if a player travels via the Teleporter to another system, so multiple planets with a range of resources are generally more efficient, and reduces the risk of you losing anything valuable.
9 Building Underground
This has been a point of contention in the No Man's Sky community for a long time. Building underground is not easy, not guaranteed, and can lead to some frustrating results. Because of the way bases are saved by the server, changes to the surrounding terrain are not always factored in. Play it safe and choose another method of building. Instead of building underground, if you want to follow a similar aesthetic, you could opt for a planet that features massive caves.
Updates have since made terrain edits more reliable and permanent within the radius of a base, but it's still a tricky task. The best option is to dig a small hole into the ground where you want the entrance to be, and then clear out a larger area under the ground. Then just add your basement parts in, and you should have plenty of room to work with. If there are no easy or suitable cave systems already accessible, it's a solid workaround - just be prepared for some potentially finicky terrain tools.
8 The Materials You Need For Optimal Base Building
There's nothing more frustrating than starting a project and then realizing you're missing some crucial materials. Rather than the journey to and from your chosen site, you should make sure you have a few stacks of crucial materials. The first and easiest material to gather is Silicate Powder - this will be used for the stone and concrete base parts, and can also be refined into glass to build parts with windows. Use your Terrain Manipulator and just tear up the ground - keep digging and you'll have plenty in no time, just maybe pick a random planet to do this on.
There are more materials you will need though. This includes Pure Ferrite - the staple of base-building - as it allows the construction of cuboid rooms, foundations, doors, and so on. You'll also need plenty of Carbon for stairs and wooden items, and lots of Chromatic Metal (which you can craft or harvest) to construct the NPC terminals. It's also a good idea to come with a pack full of Sodium, Ferrite Dust, Magnetised Ferrite, Frost Crystals, and Ionised Cobalt.
7 Powering Your Base
As a result of various No Man's Sky updates, your entire base will require power to work. That includes every light (except some from the Frontiers update), every facility, automatic doors, and every machine. You could just build your base next to a power field, sure, but there's one issue: what if your perfect base spot has no power field nearby? Thankfully, there is a myriad of ways to link your Base Computer with a power source.
The best method for creating a sustainable power system is by using Solar Panels. Dot them around the base where you find they fit, or create a separate area for them, and wire them up to some batteries. You can have an area for the batteries, one in each building, or create a shed to house them - again, whatever fits your base. Setting this up will allow you to enjoy a constant supply of power, with daylight recharging the base every day. There will be a lot of wires involved but that can be amended.
6 Hide All Of The Wires In Your Base
The electric wire appears as a huge glowing blue line, through walls and terrain, linking up to everything that requires power. When the wires and power were first added to No Man's Sky, hiding electric wires was a complicated process of underground tunnels and service hatches, attempting to make the whole thing look natural. However, as with most things in the game, an update made it better - thanks to a new blueprint, you won't have to worry about wires any longer.
All you need is an Electrical Cloaking Unit. This can be crafted with 1 Metal Plating, 30 Gold, and 40 Chromatic Metal. Once installed, this item will hide all electrical wires across the entire base, rendering them invisible so that they'll still power your base. Cloaking will tidy up your base and leave it looking much cleaner, and saves you having to wire things up meticulously. You can still use the tunnel method if you so wish, but this is a colossal time saver.
5 Include A Geobay Or Two For Exocraft
Exocraft can be total game-changers when it comes to exploring planets or setting up resource farms. They obviously require the appropriate blueprint and materials to make, but having them handy just makes sense for most bases out there. You can create a garage for a car or truck, making for easy access to head out and explore or gather materials. If you have an underwater base, you can create a Nautilon Chamber - a submarine that can traverse the depths of the oceans.
In total, there are six types of Exocraft, including light and speedy hover cars, heavy-weight land vehicles, underwater vehicles, and The Minotaur - a large mech that is especially useful for mining and combat. Whether you want them all in one place, or certain ones on different bases you own, you can easily place down these Geobays and create a dedicated area for traveling by Exocraft.
4 An Epic Sky Base, Or Not
Before you spend several hours building a framework for a floating base in No Man's Sky, you should know that there is a build height limit of around 1,000 units above your Base Computer. There are methods to work around this - including some file tampering - but it can be complicated, and not really recommended. If you do try and go beyond this limit and push the boundaries of the game, you may be risking all of your work and your base with each update or server save.
However, with the Frontiers update allowing free placement of base parts and a still-generous build height limit, you have more than enough potential to create a floating base. Just place down a base computer on the ground, either loosely or in some sort of facility, and then take to the sky. Start by placing a piece of floor as high as you want it - bearing in mind the limit - and start building out from there. It may not be quite in orbit, but it will be a significant floating base that you can feel safe in.
3 Adjust The Colors Of The Parts
Regardless of your intent to protect or exterminate fauna or Sentinels, there's no excuse for a boring base. No Man's Sky gives players quite a few color options to choose from, and you should make the most of this in every way possible. The colors of almost every base building part can be customized to suit your aesthetic and design purposes. For instance, the Dalek recreation from Reddit user monarchofthepark makes full use of the red color options on some simple base parts to stunning effect.
If you're about to start building a home, then pick the color before you do. Grab the base parts you want to use, whether it be wood, stone, concrete, etc., and enter the colors menu to see what it looks like. Once you have picked the theme you like, start building with those parts and each one you play will be using that color. Don't worry if you change your mind, however, as you are able to enter the color menu at any time while hovering over a base part in the building menu - this just means you'll have to click on each part to change the theme of it.
2 Get Creative With The Lighting
A simple shelter from the storm outside doesn't necessarily need lighting, but the bases that have significant features will benefit greatly from it. Luckily, the game offers a few different lighting options, including wall lights, hanging bulbs, rustic lampposts, and even light cubes so you can make a dance floor and some funky scenes - it's your base.
Don't just put little wall lights everywhere - get creative and experiment with different combinations. This includes light from things like rows of plants and teleport terminals, or even hiding some light sources just out of sight to create a dim scene. You can also resize most decorative parts you place, so creating either large or minuscule light sources is easier than ever.
1 Don't Forget To Decorate
While the overall aesthetic of your base is reliant on structures and cable management, decor plays a role, too. This goes beyond things you can harvest like exotic glitch items, and expands into the massive catalog of furnishing that you can acquire using Salvaged Technology Data and Quicksilver. Both of these terminals will be present on the Space Anomaly, and it's worth browsing through each page before you start building your base, as you can get a feel for what's in the game and which style you prefer.
Farming quicksilver is easier to do now thanks to daily and weekly missions available at the Anomaly. With it, you can purchase unique decorations from the Quicksilver merchant for various amounts of currency. While you're at it, pick up a ship figurine or a new helmet - if you're going to spend a while building a perfect base, might as well do it in style.