If you’ve spent your first few hours in No Man’s Sky stuck mining resources on your starting planet and wondering how to reach the glittering stars on your horizon, you’re not alone. I still remember my first week playing, when I wasted three hours flying in circles around my system’s space station because I had no clue how to use hyperdrive in No Man’s Sky properly. This guide breaks down everything you need to know to unlock, use, and upgrade your hyperdrive so you can hop between star systems without frustrating missteps or wasted resources.
How to Unlock Your First Hyperdrive in No Man’s Sky
You don’t get access to the hyperdrive right when you start the game, and you can’t craft it until you get the official blueprint. The easiest way to unlock it is to follow the main Awakening quest line that pops up as soon as you fix your starter ship and leave your first planet. You’ll get a prompt to meet a mysterious alien NPC at a nearby distress signal, and they’ll hand you the hyperdrive blueprint as part of the quest progression.
Once you have the blueprint, you’ll need two key materials to build the hyperdrive for your ship: 75 Chromatic Metal and 3 Microprocessors. If you’re new to crafting, you can make Chromatic Metal by putting copper, cadmium, emeril, or indium into a portable refiner, and Microprocessors are crafted from 40 Ferrite Dust and 30 Carbon each. You don’t have to follow the quest line to get the blueprint, though. If you skipped the starter quests, you can buy the hyperdrive blueprint from the technology vendor in the Space Anomaly for 5,000 Nanites, but that’s a lot more work for new players who haven’t built up a Nanite stash yet.
You’ll also need to make warp cells to power your hyperdrive, even after you install the base unit. Each warp cell is made from 25 Condensed Carbon and 5 Uranium, and one cell powers a single standard light year jump. Stock up on at least 5 to 10 warp cells when you first get your hyperdrive running, so you don’t get stuck in a dead system with no uranium to make more fuel.
Step-by-Step Process for Using Hyperdrive for Interstellar Jumps
Once your hyperdrive is installed and fueled, using it is straightforward once you know the steps. First, make sure you’re at least 10 kilometers away from any planet or moon’s atmosphere, and that you’re not actively engaged in combat with pirates or sentinel ships. I once tried to jump mid-pirate attack and wasted a perfectly good warp cell when the jump got interrupted mid-warp, so always eliminate hostiles or fly far enough away to lose their aggro first.
Next, open your galaxy map, and you’ll see all reachable star systems marked with bright icons. Yellow star systems are accessible with the base hyperdrive, while red, green, and blue systems require upgraded hyperdrive modules to reach. Select the system you want to travel to, and make sure it falls within your current jump range listed at the bottom of the screen. If the system is greyed out, it’s either too far away or you don’t have the right hyperdrive upgrade to access its star type.
Once you’ve selected your target system, hold down the warp button to initiate the jump. You’ll see a short cutscene of your ship warping through space, and you’ll land right outside the space station of your target system once the jump is complete. You don’t have to do anything during the jump, but if you get a notification about a freighter under attack mid-warp, you can choose to respond to the distress call or ignore it to continue to your original destination. Responding to the call gives you a chance to get a free freighter early in the game, so it’s almost always worth pausing your jump to help out.
Top Hyperdrive Upgrades to Boost Your Travel Experience
The base hyperdrive only lets you jump to yellow star systems and has a maximum range of around 100 light years, which is barely enough to scratch the surface of No Man’s Sky’s 18 quintillion procedurally generated systems. Upgrading your hyperdrive opens up entire new regions of the galaxy and cuts down the time you spend jumping between systems. The best upgrades to prioritize are:
- Cadmium Drive: Unlocks travel to red star systems, which hold rare resources like cadmium for higher-tier crafting and higher-value trade goods
- Emeril Drive: Grants access to green star systems, home to emeril and exotic flora you can’t find anywhere else that sell for high prices at space stations
- Indium Drive: The highest tier base upgrade, lets you jump to blue star systems with indium and the rarest planetary biomes, including lush paradise planets and exotic dead worlds
- Hyperdrive Range Upgrades: Stack S-class versions of these mods next to each other in your ship inventory to extend your jump range by up to 800 light years per trip
- Warp Cell Efficiency Mods: Cut the amount of fuel you use per jump by up to 40% so you don’t have to spend half your playtime mining uranium to craft warp cells
You can buy all these upgrades from the technology vendor in the Space Anomaly, but you’ll get better rolls if you find upgrade modules from abandoned freighters or sentinel pillar rewards. S-class upgrades are way more powerful than C or B class ones, so it’s worth saving up Nanites to buy or grind for S-class modules if you plan on doing a lot of long-distance exploration.
That means you should also pay attention to where you place upgrades in your ship inventory. Placing multiple hyperdrive upgrades next to each other triggers a synergy bonus that boosts their effect by an extra 20 to 30%, so always group your hyperdrive mods together in the same section of your ship’s tech inventory.
Common Hyperdrive Issues and How to Fix Them Fast
Even if you know how to use your hyperdrive, you’ll run into issues every once in a while that stop you from jumping. The most common problem is the hyperdrive refusing to activate at all, which usually has one of three simple causes. You might be too close to a planet’s atmosphere, you don’t have a warp cell installed to power the jump, or the system you selected is outside your current jump range. You can fix all three by moving further away from the nearest planet, adding a warp cell to your hyperdrive, or picking a closer system that’s within your range limit.
Another common issue is getting kicked out of a jump mid-warp without reaching your destination. This almost always happens if you take hull damage during the jump from a random space anomaly, or if you get a freighter distress call that interrupts your travel. You can avoid this by making sure your ship’s hull is fully repaired before you jump, and you can choose to skip the freighter rescue if you don’t want to be interrupted. Bookmarking your target system before you jump also makes it easy to find your way back if you get interrupted, so you don’t have to scroll through hundreds of systems to find it again.
If you notice your jump range is suddenly lower than it used to be, check if one of your hyperdrive upgrades got damaged. Your upgrades take damage if your ship’s hull drops below 20% during combat or a rough landing, so you’ll need to repair them with the required materials to get your full range back. Always keep a small stack of repair materials like Chromatic Metal and Ferrite Dust in your ship inventory so you can fix damaged upgrades on the go.
Learning how to use hyperdrive in No Man's Sky is the first step to unlocking everything the game has to offer, from exotic biomes and rare resources to huge freighters and multiplayer bases with friends. You don’t need fancy upgrades to start exploring, either – even the base hyperdrive lets you visit dozens of unique star systems, and you can upgrade as you go without spending hours grinding for resources first. Next time you’re sitting in your ship staring at the galaxy map, pick a random yellow star and jump – you never know what weird, wonderful world you’ll find on the other side.
