If you’ve spent even 10 hours wandering the galaxy of No Man’s Sky, you know that thrill of warping into a new system and wondering what’s waiting for you past the space station. I’ve put over 320 hours into the game across three different save files, and I still get giddy when I stumble on a perfect, uncharted lush planet with no storms, friendly fauna, and stacks of rare resources to farm. If you’re tired of wasting warp cells on systems full of dead, irradiated worlds with nothing to offer, this guide breaks down exactly how to find new planets in No Man’s Sky that fit exactly what you’re looking for, no fancy endgame upgrades required to get started.
Prep Your Starship and Tools Before You Start Hunting
You don’t need a fully upgraded S-class hauler to find amazing new worlds, but a few small upgrades will cut your search time in half at least. First, upgrade your analysis visor to its highest tier as soon as you can. The basic visor only scans a small radius around your ship when you land, but the max tier will pull up full planet stats including biome type, resource presence, and weather patterns before you even enter the atmosphere. That means you don’t have to waste time landing on a planet that says “lush” only to find it’s plagued by constant supercell storms that drain your exosuit shields every two minutes.
Next, install an economy scanner and conflict scanner on your starship. These are cheap to craft with basic ferrite dust and chromatic metal, and they add critical info to your galaxy map before you warp. You’ll be able to see if a system has high-value resources, if it’s overrun with pirates, and even how many planets are in the system before you spend a single warp cell. Install at least one hyperdrive range upgrade too, even a C-class one will let you reach far-flung systems that most other players haven’t touched yet, which means more unclaimed planets for you to discover.
Last, stock up on at least 10 warp cells before you head out on a long hunting trip. There’s nothing worse than finding a chain of unvisited O-type stars (the ones with the highest chance of rare biomes) and running out of fuel right as you’re about to hit the third one. I keep a stack of 20 in my starship inventory at all times just to be safe, and I never leave a space station without picking up extra condensed carbon to craft more if I need to.
How to Find New Planets in No Man’s Sky Using System Scanning First
Most new players make the mistake of warping to the closest available system without checking any details first, but that’s the fastest way to end up with a string of boring, already-discovered planets. The galaxy map is your best friend here, and learning how to filter results will make your search way more efficient. First, open the galaxy map and set your filter to “unvisited systems” only. That will automatically hide any system that another player has already uploaded to the server, so you know every planet inside is unclaimed by default.
Next, pay attention to star color, because that directly correlates to what types of planets you’ll find inside. Yellow stars are the most common, and they have the highest chance of spawning lush, earth-like planets that are perfect for building bases. Red stars mostly have dry, desert or dead worlds, but they often have large deposits of activated copper that sells for a lot of units. Blue stars have frozen, icy planets with lots of frost crystal, and O-type stars are the rarest, with the highest chance of spawning exotic biomes like glass planets, bubble worlds, and planets with activated indium, the most valuable farmable resource in the game.
Always prioritize systems with 5 or more planets listed when you’re scanning the galaxy map. More planets per system means more chances to find a rare or perfect world, and you won’t have to waste warp cells jumping between small systems with only 1 or 2 dead planets. If you’re looking for specific resources, you can also filter the galaxy map by resource type to pull up only systems that have the material you’re farming, which cuts out even more guesswork.
One quick warning: if you’re playing on permadeath mode, avoid systems marked as high conflict, even if they have 6 planets and a rare O-type star. The pirate spawn rate is 3x higher in these systems, and you’ll get ambushed within 10 seconds of warping in if you don’t have a heavily upgraded combat ship. It’s not worth the risk unless you’re specifically hunting pirate freighters for upgrades.
In-System Techniques to Uncover Hidden and Uncharted Planets
When you first warp into a new system, don’t fly straight to the space station like most players do. The initial system scan you get when you warp in only shows the most obvious planets, and there are almost always 1 or 2 hidden planets that don’t pop up until you travel away from the spawn point. Pulse jump away from the space station for 60 to 90 seconds and you’ll almost always get a notification that a new planet has been detected. I’ve found 3 exotic bubble worlds and two activated indium planets using this trick alone, and none of them showed up on the initial system scan when I first warped in.
Once you have a full list of planets in the system, hover over each one with your cursor to pull up its basic stats. You’ll be able to see the biome type, weather severity, sentinel activity level, and main resources before you even fly close. If you’re looking for a base planet, filter out any with “extreme” weather or “aggressive” sentinels unless you specifically want a challenge. If you’re farming resources, skip straight to the planets that list the material you need as a primary resource, so you don’t waste time scanning every single one.
If you’re not sure if a planet is truly uncharted, look for these four clear signs:
- No existing player base markers or communications stations when you pull up the planet map
- The planet description includes labels like "uncharted", "anomalous", or "undiscovered" when you first scan it
- You get a pop-up notification awarding you discovery credits as soon as you enter the planet's atmosphere
- Fauna and flora scans all show "first discovered" when you log them in your analysis visor
Once you land, do a full 360 scan with your analysis visor before you start exploring. If you find a rare creature or resource deposit, mark it on your map so you can find it again later. I once spent an hour looking for a rare floating fauna creature I’d seen when I first landed, and I could have saved so much time if I’d just marked it right away.
Pro Tips to Document and Make the Most of Your New Finds
Finding an amazing new planet is only half the fun, and you don’t want to lose access to it right after you find it. The first thing you should do when you confirm a planet is uncharted is upload your discovery to the server immediately. You’ll get a nice stack of units and nanites for every planet, fauna, and flora you upload, and your name will be listed as the discoverer for every other player that visits the system in the future. Even if you don’t care about the credit, uploading the discovery adds the system to your visited list permanently, so you can find it again even if you warp hundreds of systems away.
If you find a planet you love, drop a base computer as soon as you can find a flat spot. Claiming even a small base plot will save the planet’s exact coordinates to your base list, so you can teleport back to it anytime from any space station or other base. I have 12 small base plots scattered across the galaxy on planets with rare resources, perfect biomes, and cool views, and I teleport between them all the time instead of warping.
If you play with friends, you can share the system coordinates of your new find so they can visit too. Just pull up the system in your galaxy map, select “copy coordinates”, and send it to them. They’ll be able to paste the coordinates into their own galaxy map and warp straight to the system, no searching required. Just make sure you warn them if it’s a high conflict system first, so they don’t get ambushed when they warp in.
One last little trick: if you find a planet with really rare resources, build a small storage container next to your base computer and leave a stack of the rare resource inside for other players who stumble on your base. It’s a nice little community touch, and I’ve found all kinds of rare upgrade modules and resources in other players’ base storage boxes when I’m exploring uncharted systems.
Planet hunting is easily my favorite part of No Man’s Sky, and even after hundreds of hours, I still find new worlds that make me stop and stare at the screen for a minute. You don’t need a perfect ship or endgame upgrades to start learning how to find new planets in No Man’s Sky, either. I found my first perfect lush planet only 15 hours into my first save, with a basic C-class starship and no upgrades at all. Half the fun is the surprise of what you’ll find next, so grab some warp cells, set your galaxy map to unvisited systems, and go see what’s waiting for you out in the stars. You never know what kind of amazing world you’ll stumble on next.
