If you’ve ever loaded up No Man’s Sky and stared at the main menu wondering what all the fuss around those limited-time event runs is, you’re not alone. I spent my first three months playing only standard survival mode before I finally figured out how to start expeditions in No Man’s Sky, and it completely changed how I engage with the game. Expeditions give you access to exclusive cosmetics, ship designs, base parts, and even story snippets you can’t get anywhere else, so they’re worth carving out a little time for even if you’re a casual player. Most runs only take 5-10 hours of playtime total to complete, depending on how much you rush the objectives.
Pre-Requisites You Need Before You Start Expeditions in No Man’s Sky
First, let’s bust a super common myth: you don’t need 100 hours of main game progress or a fully upgraded freighter to join an expedition. All expedition runs are separate from your existing save files, so even brand new players can jump in without risking their current base or ship collection. There are only two hard requirements to access expedition mode: you have the latest version of No Man’s Sky installed and an active internet connection to sync the event data from Hello Games’ servers.
That said, there are a few small things that will make your first run way smoother, even if they’re not mandatory. If you’ve played the game before, you’ll already have a feel for core mechanics like resource gathering, combat, and navigation, which will cut down on the learning curve a lot. If you’re totally new, you might want to spend 30 minutes in a standard survival save first to get used to how the controls work, but it’s not a must. One important note: if an expedition is marked as expired in the main menu, you won’t be able to start it unless Hello Games re-runs it later. They usually bring back popular expeditions for a limited time a few times a year, so keep an eye on patch notes if you missed one you wanted to play.
Step-by-Step Process to Launch Your First Expedition Run
Launching your first expedition is way simpler than most new players make it out to be. I fumbled through the menu for 10 minutes my first time, so I’ve broken down the exact steps to make it foolproof:
- Open No Man’s Sky and navigate to the main menu, then select the New Game option from the list of menu choices.
- Scroll past the standard game modes (Survival, Creative, Permadeath) until you see the Expedition tab, which will show the currently active run with its theme and reward preview.
- Select the active expedition, confirm you want to create a new save file for it, and wait for the game to generate your starting spawn point.
- When you load in, open your inventory to find the expedition milestone log, which lists all the objectives you need to complete to unlock rewards.
That’s really all there is to it. You’ll spawn in with a basic ship, multitool, and a small stack of starting resources tailored to the expedition’s theme, so you don’t have to worry about grinding for the basics right away. One thing to watch out for: some expeditions have special starting conditions, like spawning on a toxic planet or with a broken ship part, so take 30 seconds to scan your surroundings before you run off to complete the first objective. You also don’t have to complete the entire run in one sitting. Your expedition save will stay on your account until the event ends, so you can pop in and out whenever you have 20 minutes to knock out a few milestones.
Pro Tips to Complete Your Expedition Fast Without Burnout
I’ve completed 12 expedition runs over the years, and I’ve picked up a few tricks that cut my total playtime almost in half compared to my first messy run. The biggest mistake new expedition players make is trying to knock out milestones in the order they appear in the log, but that’s almost never the most efficient path. Prioritize navigation and inventory upgrades first, even if they don’t count towards an immediate milestone. Getting a better ship hyperdrive, a larger inventory, and a fast warp freighter early will let you zip between planets and systems way faster for all the later objectives.
If you’re playing with friends, you can team up to complete group milestones way faster too. Most expedition objectives are shared between party members, so if one person scans a rare creature or turns in a resource, everyone in the group gets credit for it. That’s how I finished the last aquatic expedition in under 4 hours, with three friends splitting up to scan different ocean biomes at the same time. Don’t be afraid to skip non-mandatory side objectives if you’re short on time. The only milestones that matter for the final exclusive reward are the ones listed in the main expedition track, so you can ignore random side quests from NPCs if they don’t tie back to your log.
One thing I always do at the start of every run is grab as many ferrite dust and di-hydrogen as I can in the first 10 minutes. Those two resources are used for almost every early-game upgrade and warp cell craft, so having a big stack of them will save you from having to backtrack constantly. You also don’t have to stick to the intended path if you find something cool. I once spent two hours chasing a rare S-class sentinel ship I found halfway through an expedition, and even though it pushed back my completion time, it was totally worth it to add that ship to my main save collection. Just make sure you leave enough time to hit all the main milestones before the event ends, if you care about getting all the rewards.
What to Do With Your Expedition Rewards Once You Finish
One of the best parts of finishing an expedition is getting to bring all your hard-earned rewards back to your main save file, but a lot of new players miss this step entirely. When you complete the final milestone of an expedition, you’ll get a prompt that says the expedition is complete, and you’ll have the option to convert your expedition save to a standard survival save if you want to keep playing on that file. Even if you don’t convert the save, all unlocked expedition rewards are added to your account-wide reward library, so you can access them on any of your existing save files.
To claim them on your main save, just load into the file, open the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion next to the Nexus on the Space Anomaly, and scroll to the expedition rewards tab. All the cosmetics, base parts, ships, and multitools you unlocked will be available to claim for free, no extra Quicksilver required. I always recommend waiting until you finish the entire expedition before you start claiming rewards on your main save, just to make sure you don’t miss any of the limited-time items. If you start an expedition but don’t finish it before the event ends, you won’t be able to unlock any of the exclusive rewards unless the expedition gets re-run later. If you really love the build you made during the expedition, converting the save to a standard mode save is a great way to keep that progress forever. I still have the save from my first expedition, which has a rare S-class exotic ship I got from a milestone, and I go back to it every few months to build out more bases on the weird planets I found during the run.
Expeditions are one of the most fun, rewarding parts of No Man’s Sky, and they’re a great way to shake up your usual gameplay routine even if you’ve been playing for years. Now that you know how to start expeditions in No Man’s Sky, you can jump into the next active run without the confusion I dealt with on my first try. Don’t stress if you don’t finish every milestone right away, and feel free to take your time exploring the themed systems and planets that Hello Games designs for each run. Half the fun of expeditions is running into weird, unexpected moments you’d never find in a standard save, so don’t forget to stop and enjoy the view every once in a while.
