As is now something of an end-of-year tradition, Hello Games has announced it’s re-running all this year’s No Man’s Sky limited-time Expeditions (plus a bonus one from 2021) throughout the festive period for those that missed them – and their associated rewards – first time around.
Expeditions, if you’re unfamiliar, are essentially curated several-hour-long campaigns that condense and reshuffle No Man’s Sky’s various systems into a series of progression-based milestone challenges that play out on a brand-new save – with exclusive (and often extremely nifty) rewards unlocking as you complete each tier.
2023, which has been another busy year for No Man’s Sky, has seen the release of three Expeditions in total, beginning with Utopia in February. This one sees Travellers teaming up to rebuild an abandoned solar system for the mysterious Utopia Foundation, with rewards including the Fearsome Visor helmet, a new robotic drone companion, plus a new ship type known as the Utopia Speeder. Hello Games will be giving players another chance to tackle Utopia starting today, 8th December, until 15h December.
Then, from 15th-22nd December, players can tackle Singularity, which originally ran back in June. This one tasks players with investigating curious robot heads delivering cryptic clues across the galaxy and initially served as an introduction to No Man’s Sky’s new race of Autophage robots, which made their proper debut in August’s Echoes update. Rewards for the Singularity Expedition include a striking robotic character customisation set.
Next up, Hello Games will be blasting back to the distant (ish)oast, re-running No Man’s Sky’s third-ever Expedition, Cartographers, which was originally made available in 2021. It’s a particularly great one for No Man’s Sky newcomers, offering a whistlestop tour of some of the exploratory space sim’s nifty but lesser-used features as players attempt to map a single planet. Rewards include the Jetpack Bubble Trail, Feasting Casque, Exotic Wingpack, Streamlined Jetpack, and Golden Vector starship, and it’ll be available to replay from 22nd-29th December.
And finally, the re-runs conclude with this year’s Voyagers Expedition, which can be played again between 29th December and 8th January 2024. Voyagers puts an emphasis on exploration as players step out to catalogue the marvels of the universe, and its rewards include an electric-themed jetpack trial cosmetic for your Exosuit, voyage-inspired posters, a mechanical paw, and – most importantly of all – an adorable HoverDroid companion that basically looks like a flying Roomba with eyes. I love mine dearly.
If you’ve not yet succumbed to No Man’s Sky’s charms, it’s currently discounted by 50% on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Steam, meaning you can pick it up for £19.99 instead of the usual £39.99 (it’s probably also worth noting No Man’s Sky is available for PC and Xbox Game Pass if you’re a subscriber). And it’d be remiss not to mention that if you do like No Man’s Sky, you might very well want to take a look at Hello Games’ newly announced procedural fantasy planet adventure Light No Fire if you haven’t already.