How To Find Settlements Nms

The Planetary Settlement system in No Man's Sky was introduced with the Frontiers update, and with it an entirely new game mode which allows you to govern and aggrandize a settlement, with its own inhabitants, events, and policies. This page details how to detect the best Planetary Settlements according to your own preferences, simply also how to become the best showtime based on the features of a settlement.

Planetary Settlements, No Mans Sky.

Where to Observe Planetary Settlements

Complete the Awakenings Questline

If you're new to the game, y'all'll first need to progress the Awakenings primary questline, which essentially serves as a tutorial introduction to bones game mechanics, and provides you with some of the near important tools that yous'll need to traverse the universe. Once yous're done with that quest, y'all'll be able to fly into orbit around a planet and wait for a signal, indicating that you should investigate a planetary settlement. This will only happen once, and it will be limited to the specific settlement that was identified on the planet you happened to be orbiting at the time. Yous tin can target the settlement and use the Pulse Drive to wing to it speedily and inspect the Settlement Hub Interface to view some of the basic stats of that particular settlement.

When you beginning visit a new settlement, you will always trigger a sentry drone assault if you speak with the marked settler before interacting with the Settlement Hub Interface. To avoid this, you should always interact with the hub interface first. Still, proceed in listen that if y'all fight off the sentinels, the settlers will have you as their new overseer without whatever questions asked. If you don't fight them off, they may request a small quantity of a specific random particular to go overseer when you collaborate with the hub interface.

Purchase Settlement Charts from Cartographers

If the settlement you find isn't necessarily to your liking, or lacks decent starting elements (more than on that below), you don't need to settle for it. Instead, yous tin can exchange five Navigation Data for 1 Settlement Chart from a Cartographer. You'll observe cartographers at every infinite station, just to the left of a Station Terminus teleporter. When speaking with the cartographer, select the option for "Exchange specific charts", y'all'll then observe the settlement charts at the bottom of the list. These are the about expensive charts sold by the cartographer, since every other chart costs only 1 Navigation Information. However, you'll find numerous clusters of Navigation Data on nigh planets, and you can sometimes find them being sold at Galactic Trade Terminals. To find them on planets, look for Aboriginal Data Structures using the Analysis Visor. Alternatively, yous might find some at Cargo Drops or as Encrypted Navigation Data, which are sometimes establish in small shelters, abased buildings, or at space stations.

Withal you lot do it, once you have enough settlement charts you tin can begin using them from your inventory, ideally on a planet that you'd similar to institute a planetary settlement on. In that location's no limit to the amount of charts you can employ, but once you lot've identified a settlement on one planet, you won't be able to identify whatever others on information technology using the charts.

How to Get a Timber (Gek), Stone (Vy'Keen), or Blend (Korvax) Settlement

There are currently three different types of planetary settlement that you can discover: timber, stone, and alloy. Each of these building materials are associated with a specific race. The Gek are associated with timber, the Vy'slap-up with stone, and the Korvax with alloy. If you want a planetary settlement which is constructed from a specific material out of these 3 types, y'all'll need to look for a settlement within a system associated with that item race. Yous tin bank check which race is associated with a specific system using the Galaxy Map when you're in orbit, as shown in the screenshot below. If you're not sure which material yous adopt, you can locate a settlement in all three systems to inspect the structures in person showtime.

(ane of two) Use the Galaxy Map to scout for systems of a specific race.

Use the Galaxy Map to scout for systems of a specific race. (left), Yous can purchase Settlement Charts from Cartographers at Space Stations. (correct)

How to Get the Best Settlements

Settlement Overview Stats and Features

One time y'all've decided on the blazon of settlement you want to oversee (Gek, Vy'keen, or Korvax), it's time to find one with decent overview starting stats. The main elements you lot'll desire to exist concerned with are the Population, Happiness, Productivity, Maintenance Cost, and Lookout man Alert Level. The Settlement Features are as well important, but they tin can be inverse relatively easily equally you aggrandize your settlement. However, you'll nonetheless do good from a settlement with at to the lowest degree two positive starting features if you're lucky enough to find i. What really matters is finding a settlement with the best rest of these overview stats and settlement features.

The first matter you should do once you're on a planet where you want to detect a planetary settlement is build a Save Beacon. Collaborate with the beacon to create a manual save earlier you apply the settlement chart. This will allow you to ringlet dorsum your progress if the settlement that the chart found doesn't take decent starting stats. Go along in mind that it volition be almost impossible to find a settlement with actively good starting stats, but you can still find one which is better than almost to make things easier for you at the beginning, in accordance with the points below.

What to Look For in a Planetary Settlement

The most of import overview stats that yous'll want to consider beginning of all are probably the Productivity and Maintenance Toll numbers. The maximum corporeality of productivity income is 1,000,000, just y'all'll discover that almost all the settlements you detect will have a much lower productivity than that, usually somewhere between 100,000 - 300,000. If you're but starting out and you need to preserve as many units equally possible, you should be aiming for a maintenance toll which is equally close to the productivity output as possible. This will let you to start every bit much loss every bit possible, especially if both productivity and maintenance toll are closer to 100,000 than 300,000.

It volition be substantially incommunicable to find a settlement with a productivity output which exceeds the maintenance price, since this defeats the initial purpose of planetary settlements. The idea is that yous observe a settlement without an overseer and in need of aid, so it's your job to have it from struggling to prosperous. The important thing here is that you reduce the gap between productivity and maintenance cost as much as possible, making information technology easier to brand a turn a profit sooner once you take over the settlement.

Y'all will observe that settlements with smaller population sizes have lower maintenance costs, which is especially desirable if yous're still struggling to make units (see our All-time Means to Brand Units Rapidly page if so!). An additional do good of smaller starting population sizes is that y'all will take more than opportunities to select the types of residents that will inhabit the settlement. This becomes important when you consider the many different job roles which go bachelor as new citizens request to join and as different types of structures are built, with some jobs and buildings contributing more to increased happiness and productivity than others.

You will find that almost every settlement starts off with more maintenance cost than productivity, and with very few positive features.

(1 of 2) Yous will find that almost every settlement starts off with more maintenance cost than productivity, and with very few positive features.

You volition find that near every settlement starts off with more maintenance cost than productivity, and with very few positive features. (left), If you go for a settlement with maintenance costs as close to productivity output as possible, information technology wont take long before youre making a profit. (right)

And so, we've established that yous should exist looking for a settlement which has a productivity output every bit close to the maintenance cost as possible, and that y'all're probably better off starting with fewer citizens. These are by far the about important points to consider when looking at settlements to potentially take over. Yet, you should besides keep the happiness, sentinel alarm level, and settlement features in heed. The level of happiness will always exist on the lower end to begin with, just you can increase this by making decisions which contribute to increased happiness in one case y'all take over. This in turn volition supplant negative settlement features with positive ones, eventually leading to a scenario where you only have positive settlement features.

Finally, the sentinel alert level determines the risk of a sentinel set on. The alert level volition gradually increment as y'all construct new buildings and invite new citizens to your settlement. If an attack isn't triggered by the take a chance every bit you approach 100% alarm level, it will trigger automatically in one case you lot reach this point, so you'll demand to be ready to defend the settlement with decent weapons and exosuit upgrades. As a result, if you're still relatively new to the game and you need to upgrade your gear, look for a settlement with a low watch alert level, giving you more time to prepare. With that said, near players shouldn't take much problem fighting off the sentinels assail even with bones starting gear, so you don't demand to worry nigh this overview stat as much as the others.

This covers everything you lot demand to know about how to find and select the best planetary settlements. For more than information in terms of how to manage settlements, see our page on that here.