Lush, harsh, empty: No Man's Sky galaxy types explained

What normal, lush, harsh and empty galaxies change in No Man's Sky, how many of each there are, and how to tell a galaxy's type from its number alone.

Four types of galaxy

Each of the 256 galaxies of No Man's Sky has a type, shown in the game and on every galaxy page:

Normal: 179 galaxies, Euclid among them.
Lush: 25 galaxies.
Harsh: 26 galaxies.
Empty: 26 galaxies.

What the type changes

The type weights what kind of worlds you meet, not where you can go:

Lush: gentle worlds are more frequent. A good choice to build, farm and explore in peace.
Harsh: more extreme worlds, with harder weather and more danger. For players who want a tougher journey.
Empty: more dead and sparse places. For players who want solitude.
Normal: the balance in between.

The type shifts the odds, it does not decide everything: there are gentle worlds in harsh galaxies and hostile ones in lush galaxies.

Tell the type from the number

The types follow a cycle of twenty galaxies. In every twenty, two are lush, at the 10th and the 19th place, two are harsh, at the 3rd and the 15th, and two are empty, at the 7th and the 12th. All the others are normal.

Lush: 10, 19, 30, 39, 50, 59... up to Nepitzaspru, the 250th.
Harsh: 3, 15, 23, 35, 43, 55... up to Iousongola, the 255th.
Empty: 7, 12, 27, 32, 47, 52... up to Haffneyrin, the 252nd.

So Calypso, the third galaxy, is harsh, Budullangr empty, and Eissentam the first lush one.

Which galaxy should I pick?

For company: Euclid, where every journey starts and most player communities live. Outside it, Eissentam, Hilbert and Calypso.
For gentle worlds: a lush galaxy, Eissentam first.
For a challenge: a harsh galaxy, Calypso first.
For silence: an empty galaxy, Budullangr first.

How to change galaxy

Two ways. The long one goes through the centre of each galaxy to the next, one at a time: see Black holes and the galactic centre. The short one comes at the end of the New Beginnings mission, which lets you restart in a galaxy of the type you choose.

More on the names and the road between galaxies: the 256 galaxies.

Last updated: 1 November 2026