Eight years after its release, No Man’s Sky is still showing players that it has brand new tricks up its sleeves. Its latest update is no different. Developer Hello Games is offering players a way to live out their dreams of having a peaceful life by the sea, with a wave of new, widely requested cozy features like fishing, cooking, and deep water diving.
Dubbed the Aquarius update, No Man’s Sky is adding 12 new elements to the game centered around interacting with bodies of water and the wildlife within. The centerpiece of the update is the brand new fishing mechanic, which finally adds the chill pastime of collecting fish and turning them in for rewards. The update also includes a fishing log to keep track of the more than 160 species swimming across the galaxy, fishing platforms called Exo-Skiffs that act as small deployable boats, a variety of baits, fishing equipment, and trophies associated with the new ability.
For more industrious players looking to automate the process, automated fish traps have been added to collect sea life while players continue exploring the galaxy. Explorers will also have the chance to get the new diving suit which allows players to see the more extreme conditions laying deeper in the endless oceans of No Man’s Sky’s galaxy.
The Aquarius update is a direct follow-up to July’s Worlds update, which greatly expanded the games ability to generate more varied and realistic planet terrains, flora, weather, and oceans. The update essentially incorporated much of the technology that Hello Games has created for its upcoming open-world fantasy game Light No Fire. It was the community’s overwhelmingly positive reception to the substantial Aquarius update that inspired Aquarius, according to a blog post from Hello Games founder Sean Murray.
“[Worlds] resulted in our biggest player numbers in over 5 years,” Murray writes. “Something people really loved in the Worlds update was the new water technology — tons of players were posting videos of themselves just chilling at the water’s edge.”
“One piece of fan art in particular stopped us in our tracks, of a player lazily fishing from their wing of their starship,” he revealed. “This art, and others like it, was right at the heart of the inspiration behind the Aquarius update.”
Hello Games says that the Aquarius update, which releases today, will coincide with a new Expedition that players can take on. If players complete a series of challenges tied to the Expedition in the next six weeks, they’ll be rewarded with “a beautifully detailed set of deep-sea customization parts, including a unique underwater jetpack.”
No Man’s Sky continues to be a glowing example of how the live service model can make a so-so game one of the most complete experiences available for purchase today. The game released in a disappointing state when it was released back in 2016. Many of the promises that sold players on its concept of a limitless universe were missing in action or didn’t live up to the hype.
But a steady stream of free updates has made good on its original promise, and expanded beyond much of what people imagined for this one. The game is virtually unrecognizable from the state it launched in, a testament to Hello Games’ continued work.
