The short version: pick Relaxed or Normal, follow the Awakenings mission until your first hyperdrive jump, let the game send you to the Space Anomaly, and leave Hulks alone until you own a Corvette. That order matters more since Cosmos 7.0 (September 9, 2026), because the new in-system Star Map shows nothing until your save has reached the Space Anomaly, and the Hulk salvage that headlines the update needs a Corvette-mounted Tractor Beam to haul anything home. Neither is a day-one tool.
Everything here is checked against Hello Games’ own patch notes up to Cosmos 7.06 (October 5, 2026), the newest at the time of writing. I haven’t timed a fresh save for this guide, so the “hour” labels below are planning checkpoints, not a stopwatch. What is sourced is the order in which things unlock, and that order is the useful part. Where sources disagree, I say which one I used.
Quick start: your first five hours in 8 steps
- Choose Relaxed or Normal on the mode screen. NMS Guide recommends one of those two for a first save, and Permadeath’s death-consequence option can delete the save.
- Leave Tutorial Missions switched on. The same guide lists it as one of four settings you can’t change once the save exists (more on that below).
- Repair only what Awakenings asks for: the Pulse Engine first, then the Launch Thrusters.
- Build the Base Computer when the mission asks, then the Hyperdrive and one Warp Cell.
- Make your first hyperdrive jump. The Space Anomaly is scripted to appear after it.
- Answer the call to the Anomaly. This is the gate for the Cosmos Star Map.
- Open the Quick Menu and look at the Star Map, and take the short Signals tutorial the update added.
- Then pick one money goal: a Corvette is the big purchase that opens Hulk salvage.
Playing on PC and seeing stutter on the way down to a planet? That is often a settings problem, not a bad machine: see our No Man’s Sky best settings guide, or the Steam Deck settings version.
What did Cosmos actually change for a new save?
Cosmos is a free update that rebuilt deep space: an in-system Star Map, salvageable space Hulks, a buyable space station, free-floating bases and a ten-year-anniversary expedition. Hello Games dates the Cosmos announcement to September 9, 2026 and ties the expedition to the “40 major updates” since the 2016 launch.
For a new player the useful question is not what Cosmos added but when each piece becomes usable. The table below answers that, using the official Cosmos patch notes wherever they state a requirement.
| Cosmos feature | What it needs | When a new save gets it |
|---|---|---|
| Star Map (Quick Menu) | A save that has reached the Space Anomaly once | After your first jump and Anomaly visit |
| Signals tutorial | Nothing stated; it introduces the map | With the Star Map |
| Deep-space outposts and salvage contracts | Map points of interest, so the Anomaly first | Soon after the map works |
| Space Hulks | Gravitino Coil plus a Corvette Tractor Beam | After you build a Corvette |
| Own the space station, build orbital bases | No price or gate stated in the announcement | Treat as late game |
| Expedition 23 “Our Journey Continues” | Start it from the Expedition Terminus on the Anomaly | Optional, time-limited |
The biggest takeaway: only the Star Map and its tutorial are early-game tools. Everything in the Hulk and station rows sits behind purchases the patch notes don’t price, so a beginner who goes looking for them in hour two will be disappointed.
A source disagreement worth knowing about. GameRant gives the release as September 10, while Hello Games’ own announcement is dated September 9, so I use September 9. One third-party beginner guide I read goes further and dates Cosmos to August 9 and credits it with free interstellar flight and star landings. Neither claim appears in Hello Games’ announcement or patch notes, so I haven’t repeated them. If a guide’s Cosmos details don’t match the official notes, trust the notes.
Which difficulty settings are worth touching before you start?
Very few, and most can wait. Hello Games’ own Waypoint update notes list five presets (Normal, Creative, Survival, Permadeath and the newer Relaxed) plus a Custom mode with 31 adjustable options, and say that “the vast majority of difficulty settings can be tweaked at any time, in any mode.” Start gentle and tighten later, because loosening a setting you regret is easy and restarting a save is not.
The exception is a short list that, according to NMS Guide, locks when the save is created: Survival Elements, Recipes and Blueprints, Tutorial Missions and Starting Slots. That list comes from a third-party guide, not from Hello Games, so check the menu on your own platform. The settings screen is the authority: the Hello Games notes I’m quoting come from the 4.0 Waypoint update, years before Cosmos, so labels may have moved.
| Setting | Options | My call for a first save |
|---|---|---|
| Tutorial Missions (locked) | Enabled / Disabled | Enabled. It is the cheapest way to learn the systems. |
| Starting Slots (locked) | Maximum / Standard | Maximum if inventory pressure would put you off. |
| Survival Difficulty | Relaxed / Standard / Challenging | Relaxed if hazards keep sending you back to the ship. |
| Natural Resources | Abundant / Standard / Scarce | Abundant only if mining slows hour one to a crawl. |
| Fuel Usage | Free / Discounted / Standard / Expensive | Discounted if launch fuel stalls you early. |
| Death Consequences | No Item Loss / Standard / Items Destroyed / Save Deleted | Standard or No Item Loss. Never Save Deleted on a first save. |
The pattern behind my picks: the two locked settings are the ones to decide on purpose today, and every other slider is a pressure valve you can open the first time a session stops being fun. I’m not claiming exact multipliers for any of these, because the sources I could fetch list option names but not the numbers behind them.
What should you do in the first five hours, in order?
Follow the unlock chain: Awakenings repairs, first base, hyperdrive, first jump, Space Anomaly, Star Map. Each step is the gate for the next, which is why the order matters more than the clock.
Hour one: repair the ship, nothing else
Awakenings is the game’s extended tutorial, and the Pulse Engine comes first. According to Gamer Guides’ Awakenings walkthrough (last updated January 2023), the Pulse Engine needs one Metal Plating (crafted from 50 Ferrite Dust) and one Hermetic Seal, and the Launch Thrusters need 50 Pure Ferrite plus one Di-hydrogen Jelly (crafted from 40 Di-hydrogen). Treat those quantities as a shopping list, not gospel: the in-game mission shows the current amounts, and Hello Games has kept patching this tutorial since Cosmos (7.03 fixed refiner-tutorial mission bugs).
The mistake to avoid is gathering for the whole ship. Awakenings asks for two repairs, so stop at two.
Hours one to two: the first base and the hyperdrive
Build a small base because the mission wants one, and because it is where the hyperdrive gets crafted. The same walkthrough puts the Base Computer at 40 Chromatic Metal, the Hyperdrive at 125 Chromatic Metal plus 5 Microprocessors, and a Warp Cell at one Antimatter plus one Antimatter Housing (30 Oxygen and 50 Ferrite Dust). Chromatic Metal is the item to stock up on, since it appears in two of those three recipes.
A first-base checklist: the Base Computer and a shelter for the mission’s storm event come from the walkthrough, and I’d add a refiner and a storage container or two so Ferrite Dust isn’t clogging your suit. Those last two are my suggestion, not a mission requirement.
Hours two to three: first jump, Space Anomaly, Star Map
Your first hyperdrive jump triggers the Space Anomaly. Push Square’s Space Anomaly guide says the first Anomaly appearance “is scripted to appear after you make your first hyperdrive jump,” followed by a message from Nada summoning you. Once you’ve been, you can summon the Anomaly from the Quick Menu.
That visit is also what switches the Cosmos Star Map on, so the first jump quietly unlocks the update’s headline feature. Open the Quick Menu afterwards and play the Signals tutorial. The map lists local bodies, the space station and deep-space points of interest, and Hello Games says that when you warp into a system, “your first action will often be a quick scan of the new star map.”
Hours three to five: money, a freighter and a Corvette
From here the game stops handing you a route, and the honest advice is to pick one goal. The patch notes I read give no income rate, and the sources I could fetch put a Corvette at only “a few million” units (TheGamer, September 2025). So plan the Corvette as your first big purchase rather than something that falls out of the story.
The free freighter is the other early milestone, and here the sources disagree. UploadVR’s 2019 guide says the rescue offer is based on how many times you’ve warped, not on time played, that you can decline the first offer and wait for a second one that yields a capital freighter, and that buying a freighter early is a bad idea because you can only own one. Other guides give a warp count anywhere from three to five, and I couldn’t confirm a number from a source I could open. Treat it as “after a handful of warps” and check in game.
How do you use the Star Map once it works?
Open it after every warp. Hello Games says that when you arrive in a system, “your first action will often be a quick scan of the new star map,” and the map lists the local bodies, the space station and any deep-space points of interest. Treat it the way you’d treat a minimap you check on arrival, not a menu you visit once.
Outposts are the first points of interest I’d visit. The official notes say each is run by an alien quartermaster who trades in maps and salvaged materials, and that a salvage and delivery terminal offers deep-space contracts. The notes state no ship requirement for visiting one, but I haven’t confirmed that every contract is doable without a Corvette, so read a contract’s demands before you accept it. The community wiki adds that you can mark a destination on the map for assisted travel, which I’d call a convenience rather than a documented feature.
Playing in a group? Hello Games improved the group member icons on the system map in 7.03, so the map is meant to be shared. That makes it the easy place to agree on where to go next before anyone leaves the Anomaly.
Space Hulks: why they can wait, and what to have ready
Hulks can wait because the hauling tool is a Corvette part. Hello Games describes hulks as huge derelicts that “often house lucrative items” but are “volatile,” and says they “are likely to melt down and explode if their structural integrity is disrupted.” The Gravitino Coil pulls pieces off the wreck, and the Tractor Beam, which the patch notes add as “a new Corvette utility part,” gathers the cargo into the hold.
The official notes say the Tractor Beam is a Corvette part and that the Coil can now be equipped in space stations. They don’t spell out whether any other ship can salvage a hulk, so I treat a Corvette as the requirement until someone shows otherwise. GameRant lists comet dust, gelatinous fibres and contaminated metal as what hulks yield, and the official notes name the same three materials for deep-space points of interest in general.
| If this is true | Then do this |
|---|---|
| No Corvette yet | Treat hulks as scenery. Spend your units on the Corvette, not on chasing the wreck. |
| Corvette built, no Tractor Beam | Fit the Tractor Beam at the Corvette Workshop first. Without it the cargo has nowhere to go. |
| Corvette and Tractor Beam ready | Strip a little, then check the wreck. Over-harvesting is what triggers the meltdown. |
| Hulk enters meltdown | Leave. Hello Games says hulks can melt down and explode if their structure is disrupted. |
Hello Games is still patching this: 7.03 fixed level-of-detail issues with space hulks and 7.06 fixed Gravitino Coil targeting when collecting from hulks, so expect small oddities when you try it.
Should a brand-new save do the anniversary expedition?
Only if you want the rewards. Expedition 23, “Our Journey Continues,” runs about six weeks according to GameRant and the community wiki, and you start it from the Expedition Terminus on the Anomaly, so you can’t reach it before your first jump. Hello Games’ announcement says it celebrates the 40 major updates since 2016. I haven’t confirmed an end date, so check the terminus for the exact deadline, and don’t rush your first five hours to make it.
What do six patches in four weeks mean for a new save?
Expect rough edges and keep your expedition and main saves apart. Hello Games’ news page lists Cosmos 7.01 on September 10, 7.02 on September 15, 7.03 on September 16 (plus a 7.03.1 hotfix the same day), 7.04 on September 21, 7.05 on September 30 and 7.06 on October 5. The three patches I read in full show what was still being fixed.
| Patch | What it fixed | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| 7.03 (Sep 16) | Hulk level-of-detail issues, group icons on the system map, refiner-tutorial mission bugs | The early tutorial was still being patched two weeks in |
| 7.05 (Sep 30) | Derelict-freighter completion flags, outpost tutorial messaging, a Corvette hatch button | Outposts and Corvettes were both still being polished |
| 7.06 (Oct 5) | Gravitino Coil targeting on hulks, spacewalk camera roll, a Corvette duplication bug, PC crashes on Nvidia GPUs | Hulk collection had a targeting bug until October 5 |
The pattern is that the newest Cosmos features, hulks and Corvettes, are also the ones getting the most fixes. The 7.06 notes mention a duplication issue for players who transferred Corvettes from expedition saves and redeemed expedition rewards, which is why I’d keep the two saves separate until you’ve read the notes for your platform. That is my advice, not a Hello Games recommendation. Update the game before you start, and if a hulk behaves oddly, check the latest patch notes before assuming you did something wrong.
What should each type of player prioritise?
| Player type | Do first | Skip for now |
|---|---|---|
| New player | Relaxed mode, Awakenings, first jump, Signals tutorial | Hulks, station ownership, orbital bases |
| Casual player | One money goal, then the free freighter | Custom sliders you’ll never revisit |
| Hardcore player | Custom mode: lock Starting Slots and Recipes on purpose | The tutorial, if you already know the systems |
| Completionist | Anomaly, Star Map points of interest, then the Corvette | Rushing the expedition before the base exists |
The two groups that benefit most from a different order are new players and hardcore players, because they sit at opposite ends of the same locked-settings decision.
Common mistakes in the first five hours
| Mistake | Why it hurts | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Looking for Hulks in hour two | Hauling needs a Corvette Tractor Beam | Buy the Corvette first |
| Expecting a full Star Map straight away | Points of interest appear after the Space Anomaly | Make the first jump |
| Buying a freighter early | You can only own one, and a free rescue offer exists | Wait for the rescue offer |
| Picking Save Deleted on a first save | One death ends the file | Standard or No Item Loss |
| Trusting a guide with the wrong Cosmos date | Feature claims may be wrong too | Check Hello Games’ notes |
Frequently asked questions
Which game mode should a first-time No Man’s Sky player pick?
Relaxed or Normal. NMS Guide recommends those two for a first save, and Relaxed is the better choice if hazard management would put you off, since Normal keeps more pressure. Permadeath is a bad first choice because its death-consequence option can delete the save, which turns a learning mistake into a restart.
Can I use the Cosmos Star Map right away?
No. The official patch notes say points of interest appear once a save has reached the Space Anomaly for the first time, and that happens after your first hyperdrive jump. Until then the map exists in the Quick Menu but has little to show, which is why the early game order puts the jump ahead of everything else.
Do I need a Corvette to enjoy Cosmos?
No, but you need one for Hulk salvage. The official notes state no Corvette requirement for the Star Map, the Signals tutorial, outposts or the expedition. Hulk hauling does, because the Tractor Beam is a Corvette part, so skipping the Corvette just means skipping that one feature for now.
Is No Man’s Sky good to play with friends?
It works well enough that we list it as a 1 to 4 player pick in our best co-op survival games guide. If its pace isn’t for you, 10 best survival games of 2026 ranks alternatives by player type. Space-sim fans on PC may also be playing Starfield, and our Starfield best PC settings guide covers that side.
This guide stays on the first five hours. Base design, Corvette building and Hulk salvage in depth are separate topics, and nothing here replaces the in-game mission text for exact recipe amounts.
Sources
- Hello Games. No Man’s Sky: Cosmos (official announcement, September 9, 2026). nomanssky.com/2026/09/no-mans-sky-cosmos — linked in the text above.
- Hello Games. Cosmos Update patch notes. nomanssky.com/cosmos-update — linked in the text above.
- Hello Games. Cosmos 7.03 patch notes (September 16, 2026). Hello Games
- Hello Games. Cosmos 7.05 patch notes (September 30, 2026). nomanssky.com/2026/09/cosmos-7-05 — linked in the text above.
- Hello Games. Cosmos 7.06 patch notes (October 5, 2026). nomanssky.com/2026/10/cosmos-7-06 — linked in the text above.
- Hello Games. No Man’s Sky news page: Cosmos patch dates. nomanssky.com/news — linked in the text above.
- Hello Games. Waypoint update: game modes and custom difficulty. Hello Games
- NMS Guide. Game Modes and Difficulty Settings Explained (2026). nmsguide.com — linked in the text above.
- GameRant. No Man’s Sky Cosmos update patch notes. GameRant
- No Man’s Sky Game Wiki. Cosmos 7.0 update. nomansskygame.wiki
- Push Square. How to find the Space Anomaly (and Nada and Polo). pushsquare.com — linked in the text above.
- Gamer Guides. Awakenings mission walkthrough (updated January 2023). gamerguides.com — linked in the text above.
- TheGamer. How to unlock and use Corvette ships (September 16, 2025). thegamer.com — linked in the text above.
- UploadVR. No Man’s Sky VR: how to get your first freighter free (September 4, 2019). uploadvr.com — linked in the text above.
Illustrations and diagrams in this guide were created for editorial purposes and are not in-game screenshots. No Man’s Sky is the property of Hello Games.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.