No Man’s Sky Companions Update Adds Pets

Hello Games’s latest update for No Man’s Sky space explorers will tame, train and breed strange life forms as pets. They can even talk to those pets as part of the game’s new update.

No Man’s Sky‘s new alien companions each have their own personality and characteristics. Players can breed their pets as they transmit genetic and physical traits. Players can also swap pets with other players. Up to six pets can be stored by default, but players can secure more storage space by spending nanites.

The update effectively adds a procedure-generated Pokémon layer to Hello Games’ space simulation. The best part? You can put your alien companions to work; they will exploit resources, hunt other creatures, point out dangers and more. Players will need to take care of their pets, which requires food and attention. Giant pets can also be ridden.

Image: Hello Games

Pets will also lay eggs that players can incubate, genetically adapt and trade with others.

For a full breakdown of No Man’s Sky‘s companion update (version 3.2), see the full notes of Hello Games below.

ANIMAL OPPORTUNITIES

• It can now be fed with creatures that gain access to options for milking, driving and adoption.
• Players can adopt up to six creatures simultaneously. There are new slots available for nanites.
• Your companions can be renamed and then customized with a new range of accessories and stickers.
• Some accessories, such as the torch or mine lasers, will be used by your companion as they explore the planet.
• Each companion has their own personality that will influence how they act and think. Some species are more likely to have certain characteristics than others, but each animal is unique.
• The creature has a neural link to the Exosuit, allowing a simple translation of your new companion’s thoughts and wishes.
• Companions will help their owners during planetary exploration, but have their own needs. They often need food or attention if they want to thrive.
• Companions will need to be cared for over a long period of time to gain their trust.
• Companions will help their owners in a number of ways, including: searching for resources and buildings; excavation of minerals and special items; hunting other creatures; a branded product.
• In addition to acting on their own initiative, companions can receive specific instructions via gestures from the quick menu.
• VR players can direct to send their companion to a destination.

COMPANY EGGS

• Bees that are well cared for will lay eggs.
• After a short time, creature eggs will hatch into a brand new creature, related to but different from the parent creature.
• Baby creatures have different proportions from adult creatures and will grow to adulthood over time.
• Players may exchange eggs of their esteemed companions with other players.
• Essential eggs can be taken to the Egg Sequencer aboard the Space Anomaly.
• With the Egg Sequencer, players can mix the genetic material of their growing eggs to produce unique, never-before-seen creatures.
• The overdose of eggs in the Sequencer can cause dramatic creature configurations …

IMPROVEMENTS OF CREATION

• New titles with creatures and companions have been added to the Appearance Modifier.
• The construction cost of Creature Pellets has been increased.
• The stack size of Creature Pellets has been increased.
• Creatures no longer need advanced bait to unlock the harvesting functions – any animal that has been fed can now be milked.
• Giant creatures can now be ridden.
• Creature movement animations have been improved.
• The particle effects arising from mist have been improved.
• Discovered creatures now have a different form in the Analysis Vision to better distinguish them from undiscovered creatures.
• Essential icons in the Analysis view were set off to improve their appearance.

UI IMPROVEMENTS

• Players using a mouse and keyboard can now use the keyboard shortcuts to directly select options in dialog menus and interactions.
• Players using a gamepad can now use the analog sticks rather than the cursor to move between options in dialog menus and interactions.

OPTIMIZATIONS

• Distortion and loading times on PS4 have been significantly improved.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed issue that caused cargo planes to hide ‘wings’.
• Fixed an issue that could cause an invalid system / base to appear in the teleport destination list.
• Fixed an issue that caused the gloves to be out of focus in the Appearance Modifier.
• An issue has been resolved that could cause players using Windows 10 to incorrectly report a network connection.
• Autowalk is now automatically canceled when the player manually moves forward or backward.
• The essence that feeds the Nexus mission has been rebalanced to take into account the changes to the tempering process.
• Concrete base parts now require silicate powder rather than carbon.
• Fixed an issue in the Galaxy Map that caused the Distance To Core text to be cut vertically, resulting in a comma that looked like a period.
• Fixed issue that could cause players to upload / download an excessive number of creative discoveries.
• Fixed an issue that caused Cronus’ food to have an extremely bright glow.
• Fixed issue that caused the Orbital Exocraft Materialiser to have an overly bright glow.
• Fixed an issue that caused base specialist terminals to snap incorrectly in specific large rooms.
• Fixed an issue that could lead to an increase in loading times while downloading base data from other players.
• Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect text to appear when eating nutrients from unusual creatures.
• Fixed a VR issue that caused the Exosuit backpack to be invisible in stock when the player’s body was turned off.
• Fixed an animation issue with the player weapons in VR.
• Fixed issue that could cause incorrect UI scale in VR.
• Fixed an VR issue that could cause UI screens to move while the UI closes.
• Fixed a rare hang that can occur when taking a screenshot in Photo mode on a computer.
• Fixed a network crash on Xbox platforms.
• Fixed issue that could cause very large storage files to crash while loading on PS4.
• A collision corrected that could occur when the leader of a herd dies.
• Fixed a number of memory related crashes on PS5.
• A sound-related crash on PS5 fixed.
• A version crash on PS5 fixed.
• Fixed a collision related to the preview of called objects (e.g. star clusters).