You’ve spent weeks grinding for rare resources, built a sprawling floating base with a full stasis device farm, 10 storage silos, and a custom landing pad for your exotic S-class ship. Then a friend joins your session, misclicks while trying to open a storage container, and deletes half your hydroponic wheat plot by accident. We’ve all been there, right? That’s exactly why knowing how to give base permissions in No Man's Sky is one of the most useful multiplayer skills you can pick up. I’ve had my share of messy co-op moments before I figured out the granularity of the permission system, so I put together this guide to walk you through every step, plus a few pro tips to avoid common headaches.
What Different Base Permission Levels Mean for Your Co-op Sessions
A lot of new players assume base permissions are an all-or-nothing setting, but Hello Games updated the system years back to give you far more control over who can do what on your property. The level you pick will depend entirely on how much you trust the person joining your session, and what you want them to be able to do while they’re there. I always adjust the level per person, instead of using a one-size-fits-all setting, to avoid unnecessary mishaps.
Most players only need to use the build permission level for regular co-op play, especially if you’re just letting friends help you finish a build or harvest resources while you’re offline. It’s the perfect middle ground between total lockout and full access, and it’s what I use for 90% of the people I play with.
Step-by-Step to Give Base Permissions in No Man's Sky
The process to adjust permissions is straightforward once you know where to look, but the menu is hidden a few layers deep in the base computer interface, so a lot of new players struggle to find it at first. You have to be physically present at the base you want to adjust settings for, by the way — you can’t change permissions for a distant base from another star system, which is a common mistake new players make.
First, interact with your base computer — that’s the core device you placed when you first claimed the base plot. Scroll through the top-level menu until you see the “Access Permissions” tab, which is usually near the bottom of the list, right under the “Upload Base” option. Next, you’ll see a list of all players who are currently in your session, plus any players you’ve given permission to in the past. Select the name of the player you want to adjust settings for, then pick the permission level you want to assign them.
If you want to give permissions to a friend who isn’t currently online, you can add them manually by typing in their in-game username, as long as you’re already friends on your platform of choice. Always double check the permission level before you confirm — it’s easy to accidentally click admin instead of build, and you don’t want to find out the hard way that a random player you let join deleted your entire farm. Once you confirm, the permissions take effect immediately, no restart required.
Common Base Permission Mistakes to Avoid
Even if you follow the steps correctly, there are a few common pitfalls that trip up even experienced players. I’ve made almost all of these mistakes myself, so I’m sharing them to save you the frustration of having to fix a messed-up base at 2 a.m.
The first mistake is forgetting to revoke permissions after a random player joins your public session. A lot of players open their lobbies to the public to trade rare resources or get help with a tough mission, and accidentally leave build permissions on for someone they don’t know. I once came back to my main base after leaving a public lobby open for an hour to find someone had built 30 giant gold statues of Atlas all around my landing pad, which took me almost an hour to delete. Make a habit of checking your permission list after every public session to remove any users you don’t recognize.
Another mistake is assuming build permissions let players use all your base features. If you have protected base parts enabled, even players with build access can’t delete those. I always protect my main storage array, my base computer, and my activated indium farm first, just in case a friend accidentally deletes something while they’re building. Protected parts are marked with a small shield icon in the build menu, so you can easily see which parts are safe from accidental deletion.
Third, don’t forget that permissions don’t carry over across different bases. If you have 5 bases spread across 3 star systems, you have to adjust permission settings for each one individually. I learned this the hard way when I gave my friend build access to my main base, then realized they couldn’t harvest resources from my remote frost crystal farm a few systems over. It’s a minor hassle, but it’s a good security feature that keeps your less frequently used bases safe if you forget to revoke permissions for someone.
Pro Tips to Get the Most Out of Base Permissions
Once you get the hang of the basic permission system, there are a few clever ways to use it to make your co-op play far more convenient, and even cut down on grinding time. I use these tricks all the time to make playing with friends way more fun, without the risk of losing hard-earned resources.
If you’re running a shared farm with friends, set up separate storage units for each player, and protect the ones that hold your personal resources. That way no one accidentally takes your stack of 500 storm crystals you’ve been saving for a new multi-tool. I have color-coded storage units for each of my regular co-op partners, so there’s never any confusion about who owns what.
You can also use permission settings to let friends harvest your farm resources while you’re offline, which is a great way to stock up on rare materials without having to grind yourself. Just make sure you only give that access to people you trust, because they can take all your harvest if they want. I have a friend who runs a stasis device farm, and he gives me build access so I can harvest a few stacks of stasis devices every week, in exchange for letting him use my activated indium farm. It’s a win-win for both of us.
Test your permission settings with a friend before you open them up to other people. It’s easy to think you set everything correctly, only to find out your friend can’t access your storage, or they can delete your “protected” parts because you forgot to toggle the protection setting. Spend 5 minutes testing with a friend you play with regularly to make sure everything works the way you want it to, and you’ll avoid a lot of frustration later.
If you’re building a base for a community event, you can set temporary build permissions for all attendees, then revoke them once the event is over. That way everyone can contribute to the build, but you don’t have to worry about someone messing with it after the event ends. I used this trick for a community base build last year, and it worked perfectly — over 20 players contributed to the build, and no one messed up any of the existing structures.
At the end of the day, base permissions are there to make your co-op play more fun, not more stressful. Once you get the hang of how to give base permissions in No Man's Sky, you can collaborate on massive builds, share resources, and run community hubs without worrying about losing all your hard work. Take a few minutes the next time you log in to adjust your base permission settings, and you’ll avoid 90% of the most annoying co-op mishaps that happen in the game. I’ve been using these settings for years, and they’ve turned a lot of frustrating co-op moments into some of my favorite memories playing the game.
