No Man's Sky Worlds Part 1 Update 5.0 Patch Notes - No Man's Sky Guide - IGN (2024)

The 5.0 Update for No Man's Sky, titled Worlds Part 1, has arrived in-game and brings dozens and dozens of overhauls, new gameplay features, and more!

This page acts as a comprehensive breakdown of the 5.0 Update for No Man's Sky, including a link to the full Patch Notes.

The Liquidators Expedition

This new Big Hunt Expedition will see you engage in a galactic bug hunt, joining the Liquidator Vanguard to purge a spreading plague that threatens the universe. Exclusive rewards including mounted bug trophies, organic armor parts, and new posters are available for wiping out the giant insects across the galaxy in this fast-paced combat expedition.

Additionally, a new Liquidator Combat Mech has been added, and these combat components will be unlocked as you partake in the Liquidators expedition. Anyone unable to partake in the expedition will subsequently be able to unlock the parts via the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion.

World Overhauls

Many planets across the universe have seen dramatic overhauls, with new floating islands and their waterfalls. Alongside this, clouds have been overhauled to have greater definition and detail. Cloud coverage variety has been increased, so the skies above (or below) you will differ greatly from planet to planet. Shadows have also be improved for more realism and depth. This includes shadows cast by clouds, and any flora, fauna, or structures.

Wind simulation has been added, creating far more dynamic weather. This also incorporates dust clouds, smoke effects, snow, rain, and other weather conditions that are simulated far more realistically. The weather conditions on a planet also affect the newly dynamic water systems.

Water in particular has received a number of updates, allowing for bodies of water to have realistic wave formations and foam generations. This also brings improved reflections and surface details on the water in-game.

New fauna can also be found across the universe, including floral hybrids that blur the lines of flora and fauna. Additionally, sub-zero worlds now have frozen trees and rocks to reflect the conditions, along with entirely new flora and mineral formations. Desert planets have been similarly refined with their flora.

Solar Ship Customization

The Starship Fabricator now supports the crafting of Solar-class starships.

Discovery Renaming

Any discovery you've made can now be renamed at any time, even after being uploaded.

Engine Enhancements

Systems have been reworked for better visuals and performance across the board, with rendering being moved to a GPU-based system. Improved LOD's at further distances and angles further improve immersion

Patch Notes

Sky and Cloud Rendering

• The atmospheric and volumetric cloud rendering system has been completely rewritten for vastly increased detail and definition.
• Planets now exhibit a greater range of cloud coverage: over time; from planet-to-planet; and in response to weather conditions.
• Planets with rain will no longer use the ambient rain effect when cloud coverage is insufficient.
• Daytime sky colours are now significantly more varied.
• Night-time ambient lighting is no longer always blue, and can vary according to the planet’s natural environment.
• Night-time darkness levels now vary as the night progresses.
• Night-time darkness now varies from planet-to-planet, with some being significantly darker than others

Water Rendering

• Water rendering has been completely overhauled, and now uses a mesh-based system that allows for true wave and foam generation.
• Water conditions vary over time in response to both local weather and the depth of the water at any particular location, producing effects from stormy seas and huge ocean swells to tranquil still ponds.
• Water now reflects the sun and features ambient planetary reflections for dramatically increased visual quality.
• Water colour variety has been significantly increased.
• Base parts with glass now accurately render the water conditions outside.
• Sealed underwater base parts will no longer “leak” water into the base.
• Ships now leave splashes and trails in the water when flying low.
• Underwater jetpack effects have been significantly improved.
• Swimming effects have been significantly improved.
• Starships can now be fitted with aquatic landing jets, allowing them to land or be summoned just above the surface of the ocean.
• A biological equivalent of this technology has been added for living ships

General Engine Improvements

• The shadow-rendering system has been reworked to take advantage of screenspace shadowing techniques, resulting in more richly lit planets and more accurate and more detailed shadows.
• The rendering of planetary objects such as trees, rocks, and grass has been rewritten and moved to a more modern GPU-based system, allowing for more objects at a better performance.
• Distant planetary objects now look significantly more detailed and realistic.
• Terrain generation has been rewritten to incorporate dual marching cubes voxel meshing, which reduces vertex count, increases terrain generation speed, improves framerate and saves significant amounts of memory.
• The component system has been reworked for increased speed and improved memory usage.
• Networking systems have been improved for reduced bandwidth usage.
• Significant memory and performance optimisations have been made across the entire game, particularly in metadata usage, texture streaming, LOD generation and procedural mesh generation

DLSS3

• Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an NVIDIA technology, available to

PC players with compatible RTX cards, which uses a deep learning neural network to boost frame rates and generate beautiful, sharp images.

• Support for the latest iteration, DLSS3, has been added to No Man’s Sky.
• DLSS3 multiplies performance by up to 4X compared to traditional rendering, while retaining great image quality. Learn more on the NVIDIA site

Planetary Variety

• Planetary variety and diversity has been increased all across the universe.
• New frozen, lush, desert, scorched, radioactive and toxic worlds await discovery and exploration.
• Underlying terrain shapes have not been reset and existing planetary bases will not be moved.
• The chance of a world having ancient bones or salvageable scrap has been increased.
• Worlds with salvageable scrap occasionally feature additional rusted remnants to collect

Environmental Effects

• The wind simulation has been reworked to bring planets to life and provide a consistent effect across each world, moving trees and leaves, smoke effects, rain, fog, and snow all in a unified system.
• Fogging and particle systems have been improved for increased fidelity and better performance.
• All ambient planetary environment effects have been totally reworked.
• Storm effects have been completely overhauled.
• Planets can now have a range of additional atmospheric effects that match their ambient weather and hazard conditions.
• The visual effects for the jetpack have been overhauled.
• The visual effects for storm crystals have been reworked and improved.
• Footstep effect colouring has been improved.
• Fixed an issue that caused starship contrails to display a low speed

Creatures

• A new type of procedurally-generated arthropod-style creature has been added and may appear on any world.
• New types of procedurally-generated plant/animal hybrids have been added and may appear on any world.
• New types of procedurally-generated synthetic constructs can now be found on selected worlds…
• A new type of hostile creature has been added – the Brood Mother.
• Some worlds have become infested with the Vile Brood. On such worlds, players can now find juicy grubs. Structurally harming these grubs will summon the Brood

Mother to project their young…

• A new multiplayer mission has been added to the Nexus to find and destroy the vile brood.
• Players who defeat brood mothers in combat may earn a variety of new titles and insectoid-themed helmet customisation options.
• Over 40 new cooking recipes have been added, making use of products harvested from new creatures.
• Biological horrors now drop cookable meat when killed.
• When under AI pilot control, the Minotaur will now target and exterminate biological horrors.
• The camera shake generated by the footsteps of colossal creatures has been reduced.
• The “boss battle” style UI used when fighting capital ships is now also used when fighting Sentinel Walkers and the Vessel of Many Mouths, giving extra details about their health and status.
• The Vessel of Many Mouths has been given additional ranged attacks, increasing the challenge of their encounter.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the acquisition of worm-cult story documents from the titan worm’s vile spawn

Liquidators Expedition

• Expedition Fourteen, Liquidators, will begin shortly and run for approximately six weeks.
• This expedition invites players to join the force of the Liquidator Vanguard as they seek to purge the universe of biological horrors old and new, including the infestations of the vile brood…
• Rewards include new posters; custom bug-hunting trophies; a unique arthropod-themed jetpack and full set of matching armour.
• All those who do their part and contribute to the community-wide efforts to exterminate the vile brood will earn pieces of the new Liquidator Heavy Exomech Hybrid, a set of heavy-duty armour for the Minotaur.
• Among the enhancements available to the Liquidator Mech is a bespoke flamethrower unit, perfect for heavy damage at close range.
• As the community makes progress in the expedition, the Liquidator Mech will become available at the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion for those unable to take part

Full Patch Notes

If you wish to read the Patch Notes in full, you can do so via the official No Man's Sky websites Update 5.0 Patch Notes blog post.