Today, Hello Games released Update 5.7, the Beacon update, for No Man’s Sky, overhauling the previous settlement systems and establishing towns and management features, among other things.
Now, players can establish themselves as town mayors of different settlements. As mayor, they’ll be in charge of making buildings and upgrading them over time. These buildings are as much for play as they are for work, with jukebox bars and starship merchants. Mayors can even create ponds for relaxing and fishing.
Town mayors can also put on parties for various things, like music and fireworks.
Settlement inhabitants will talk to the player, and they have different skills and attributes to benefit the settlement. As Overseers, players will have to help resolve disputes between them, while also welcoming new settlers. They’ll also be in charge of hiring protection for the settlement.
Players don’t have to worry about only choosing one settlement to lead — they can be the town mayor of multiple different areas, giving them more freedom to try new things with how they lead each one.
No Man’s Sky Beacon update 5.7 also adds Autophage settlements, which are large town areas for the Autophages, the most recent race in the game. The towns are robotic and mechanical, just like the race. Players can create Autophage-like buildings in their own settlements to give them a new look.
Additionally, this update launches right before the Nintendo Switch 2 edition of the game is released. Continuing with that is the release of cross-saves and cross-play for every player. This had previously been available in a testing period last year to make sure that it was working correctly.
For more news on the Nintendo Switch 2 version of No Man’s Sky, check out the new deep dive video from Hello Games:
There’s also a new trailer for the No Man’s Sky Beacon update 5.7, which players can view below:
Major updates have been coming to No Man’s Sky despite the game being nearly nine years old. Just two months ago, the relics update was also released, introducing fossil mechanics to the game.