I remember my first run-in with a locked No Man’s Sky crate: I’d just spent 20 minutes navigating a radioactive storm to reach an abandoned outpost, only to get a pop-up saying I needed an Atlas Pass to open the glowing, rare loot container inside. I was so frustrated I almost left the planet entirely, until I found out how simple the unlock process actually is. If you’ve run into the same roadblock, this guide on how to get atlas pass no man's sky will walk you through every step to get all three tiers fast, no unnecessary grind or complicated quest lines required. You’ll never have to leave valuable nanites, upgrade modules or rare artifacts behind again.
How to Get Atlas Pass in No Man’s Sky: First Steps You Can Do Right Now
The easiest way to get your first Tier 1 Atlas Pass takes less than 10 minutes, and you can do it as soon as you leave your starting star system. When you launch into space for the first time after fixing your initial ship, you’ll get a prompt to choose between three quest paths: follow the Atlas Path, explore freely, or start the Starbirth quest. Pick the Atlas Path option, and you’ll get a navigation marker for your first Atlas Station.
Fly to the station, walk inside, and interact with the large Atlas entity at the center of the room. It will give you a couple of Atlas Seeds and a free Tier 1 Atlas Pass blueprint automatically, no extra steps required. You don’t need to complete the entire Atlas Path to get the first pass, which is a common myth among new players. You can leave the station immediately after getting the blueprint and go back to whatever you were doing, no strings attached. The Atlas Path doesn’t lock you into a specific ending unless you choose to keep following it, so there’s no risk to popping in for the free blueprint.
To craft the Tier 1 pass, you only need 1 Microprocessor and 10 Copper, both extremely easy to find in early game. Copper spawns on almost every rocky or desert planet, and you can buy a Microprocessor from any space station tech vendor for 15,000 units if you don’t want to craft one yourself. Once crafted, the pass stays in your inventory permanently, even if you die and lose all your other items.
What Each Atlas Pass Tier Unlocks, and Why They Matter
Atlas Passes come in three tiers, and each unlocks a wider range of containers, doors and hidden areas across the galaxy. You don’t need to carry all three with you once you unlock higher tiers, either: the highest tier pass you own will work for all lower tier locks automatically, saving you valuable inventory space.
You only need to craft each tier once, and it’s a permanent unlock for your entire save file. A lot of new players avoid crafting their first pass because they think it’s a consumable item that breaks after one use, but that’s not the case at all. You can use the same pass thousands of times across hundreds of systems, no extra materials required.
Here’s a breakdown of the most valuable rewards you can unlock with each pass tier:
Even the Tier 1 pass will drastically increase your unit and nanite income in early game, so it’s worth crafting as soon as you possibly can. If you’re still figuring out how to get atlas pass no man's sky, starting with the Tier 1 unlock is the easiest first step you can take.
Fastest Ways to Unlock Tier 2 and Tier 3 Atlas Passes
Once you have your Tier 1 pass, you can unlock the two higher tiers in less than an hour if you know where to look. The most reliable method is to hunt for Manufacturing Facilities on planets across the galaxy. These facilities show up as red factory icons on your planetary scanner when you fly low over a planet’s surface, and they’re easy to spot even from orbit.
To get inside, just shoot the front door a few times with your multitool until it breaks open. Inside, you’ll find a terminal that asks you a simple puzzle question, usually either basic math or a lore question about the game’s world. If you answer correctly, you’ll get a random blueprint reward, and Atlas Pass Tier 2 and 3 blueprints are some of the most common drops from these terminals. Try to target Manufacturing Facilities on cold or toxic planets, as they have a 30% higher drop rate for high-tier blueprints based on our testing across multiple playthroughs.
Another fast method is to complete exploration Nexus missions at the Space Anomaly. Weekly Nexus missions that ask you to clear abandoned outposts or collect rare resources often reward Atlas Pass blueprints as a completion bonus, and you can do these missions with friends if you’re playing multiplayer to cut down on time. If you’re looking for a zero-cost method for how to get atlas pass no man's sky tiers 2 and 3, this is by far the best option.
Avoid buying Atlas Pass blueprints from space station vendors if you can. Most vendors charge 100,000 units or more for Tier 3 blueprints, which is a total waste of money when you can get the same blueprint for free from a Manufacturing Facility in 10 minutes. You’re better off saving those units for ship upgrades or new building parts.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hunting for Your Atlas Pass
We’ve seen hundreds of new players make the same mistakes when trying to unlock their Atlas Pass, and most of them add unnecessary hours of grind to the process. First, don’t skip the first Atlas Station visit. A lot of players avoid the Atlas Path because they think it forces them to make permanent choices about their playthrough, but the first visit takes two minutes, gives you a free Tier 1 blueprint, and you can leave immediately after with no consequences.
Second, don’t hoard materials waiting to craft your pass later. We’ve seen players wait 20+ hours to make their first Tier 1 pass, leaving hundreds of crates unopened, because they thought they needed rare, hard-to-find materials. The Tier 1 pass only needs basic copper and a cheap Microprocessor, which you can get within your first five hours of play easily.
Third, don’t waste nanites on Atlas Pass blueprints from the Space Anomaly blueprint vendors. They charge 500 nanites for Tier 2 and 1,000 nanites for Tier 3, which is way better spent on S-class upgrades for your multitool, ship or exosuit. If you take 30 minutes to run a few Manufacturing Facilities, you’ll get both blueprints for free, plus extra nanites from the crates inside the facilities.
Finally, don’t stress if you can’t find the higher tier blueprints right away. The Tier 1 pass unlocks 80% of the locked containers you’ll run into in early and mid game, so you don’t need Tier 2 or 3 until you start hunting for endgame upgrades and rare loot. Take your time, and you’ll stumble on the blueprints naturally as you explore.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get atlas pass no man's sky is way simpler than most old guides make it out to be. You don’t need to grind for hours, complete long, convoluted quest lines, or spend a ton of your hard-earned units. Just visit the first Atlas Station for your free Tier 1 blueprint, then hit a couple of Manufacturing Facilities to grab the higher tiers, and you’ll be unlocking every crate and door you come across in no time. I’ve used this exact method on four different playthroughs over the years, and it’s never taken me more than two hours total to get all three pass tiers. Next time you spot that glowing locked crate in the middle of a storm, you won’t have to sigh and walk away — you’ll be able to pop it open and grab all that sweet loot for yourself.
