When I first booted up No Man's Sky back in its early days, I assumed it was a strictly solo experience: just me, my starship, and 18 quintillion planets to explore alone. That changed a few years ago when a friend messaged me asking to join his base build, and I spent an hour fumbling through menus trying to get our sessions connected. If you’ve ever hopped into your starship and wondered how does No Man's Sky multiplayer work when you want to bring friends along for the ride, you’re not alone. The feature has evolved a lot since launch, and it’s far more intuitive now than it used to be, but there are still a few hidden rules and settings most new players miss.
How Does No Man's Sky Multiplayer Work at Its Core?
At its most basic, No Man's Sky multiplayer lets you share your game session with other players across almost every platform the game is available on. Hello Games has rolled out dozens of free updates to expand the feature, and today a single public lobby can hold up to 32 players at once, with groups of up to 4 players able to form a formal party for shared missions and progression. You don’t have to pay for any extra DLC to access multiplayer, either—it’s included for all players for free.
You have three core privacy settings for your session that you can adjust at any time, even mid-game. Public mode lets any random player join your lobby if they find your system through the Nexus or in-game search. Friends-only mode restricts access to only people on your platform friends list, which is the setting I use 90% of the time to avoid uninvited guests. Invite-only mode locks the session entirely unless you send a direct invite to another player, which is perfect if you’re working on a sensitive build or rare resource run you don’t want interrupted.
Crossplay is enabled by default for all players, too, so you can play with friends on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch without any extra work. That means if you play on PC and your best friend only has a Switch, you can still explore the same planets and build bases together with no extra setup. The only exception is if you disable crossplay in your settings, which you might want to do if you’re experiencing lag in public lobbies with players on far away servers.
Core Multiplayer Features You Can Access With Other Players
Multiplayer in No Man's Sky isn’t just about running around the same planet together—there are dozens of tailored features designed for group play, with new ones added every few updates. Some of my favorite ways to play with friends include:
- Shared base building: Collaborate on massive outposts, underwater habitats, or even floating space bases with your group. You can split resource gathering tasks, assign roles like electrician or landscaper, and set up shared storage and trade terminals that everyone in your party can use. I once built a 10-story planetary farm with 3 friends in half the time it would have taken me alone, and we all got access to the 10,000+ units of activated indium it produced every hour.
- Co-op mission runs: Tackle Nexus quests, pirate suppression missions, or Expedition challenges as a team to earn bonus rewards you can’t get playing solo. Most group missions give all party members the same payout, so you don’t have to fight over loot. Just make sure everyone in your group accepts the mission before you start, or progression won’t sync for everyone.
- Joint exploration: Discover new planets, tag rare flora and fauna, and unlock shared waypoints that stay visible for all group members even after you leave the session. If one person finds a rare S-class ship or a planet with perfect weather, everyone in the group can go back to that location whenever they want.
- Optional PvP play: Toggle PvP on to have friendly space dogfights, base raiding competitions, or race exocraft across desert planets, or turn it off entirely to avoid any unprompted attacks from random players in public lobbies. PvP is off by default for new players, so you don’t have to worry about getting ambushed during your first few hours of play.
There are a few small downsides to keep in mind, though. Public lobbies do occasionally have trolls who will destroy unprotected bases or steal resources from unguarded storage if you leave build permissions open. You also can’t transfer owned ships or multi-tools between players right now, which is a common request from the community that hasn’t been added yet.
Step-by-Step to Host or Join a Multiplayer Session
Getting a multiplayer session up and running takes less than a minute once you know where to look. If you’re hosting a session, first open your pause menu and navigate to the Network & Privacy tab. Pick your preferred privacy setting, adjust build permissions to only allow party members to edit your bases, and then save your settings. You can then send invites to friends directly through the in-game friends list, or through your platform’s native friend menu.
If you’re joining a friend’s session, you can either accept their direct invite, or navigate to the Nexus in the Space Anomaly and browse your friends’ active sessions from the multiplayer terminal there. You don’t need to have already unlocked the system they’re in to join them—you’ll be teleported directly to their location for free, no warp cells required. That’s a huge perk for new players who want to join more experienced friends on higher-level planets without grinding for warp drive upgrades first.
If you want to join random public groups, you can do that through the Nexus terminal too. You can filter for groups running specific mission types, like Expedition runs or pirate hunts, to find players with the same goals as you. Just remember to double check your build permissions and PvP settings before joining a public lobby, to avoid any unwanted surprises.
Common Multiplayer Issues and Simple Fixes
Even with all the updates Hello Games has put out, multiplayer still has a few small kinks that pop up from time to time. Most of these issues have super simple fixes that take less than a minute to try, so you don’t have to abandon your group play plans over a small bug.
The most common issue I hear from new players is that they can’t see or receive invites from friends. 9 times out of 10, this is because either you or your friend are running an outdated version of the game. Game version parity is required for multiplayer to work, so make sure all players have installed the latest update before trying to connect. If you’re playing on console, make sure your platform’s privacy settings allow game invites, too—many default console settings block invites from in-game by default.
Another common issue is lag or frame drops when joining a friend’s base, especially if they’ve built a huge, detailed outpost with lots of decorations and machinery. This happens because your device has to load all their custom assets on top of the regular planet content, which can be tough for lower-powered devices like the Switch or older laptops. The fix is simple: lower your graphical settings temporarily when visiting large bases, and ask your friend to disable unnecessary decorative elements if the lag is really bad.
If you’re playing through a co-op mission and your progression isn’t syncing, that’s almost always because you accepted the mission before joining the group. Just abandon the mission, re-accept it once you’re all in the same party, and the progression will start syncing for everyone. I made this mistake three times before I figured out the rule, so don’t feel silly if it happens to you too.
At the end of the day, figuring out how does No Man's Sky multiplayer work opens up a whole new layer of gameplay you won’t get from playing alone. Whether you want to build a sprawling galactic empire with your best friends, run high-stakes pirate missions with random players, or just show off the perfect planet you found last weekend, the multiplayer system is flexible enough to fit almost any playstyle. Just remember to adjust your privacy and build permissions to fit your needs, and don’t be afraid to experiment with different group activities to find what you enjoy most.