No Man's Sky updates that changed the universe
Atlas Rises, NEXT, Origins, Worlds: the No Man's Sky updates that rewrote planets and systems, and how this site keeps the places they changed.
A universe that moves under its players
No Man's Sky is not a fixed map. Since its launch on 9 August 2016, several updates have changed how the universe is generated, and the same portal address has led to different places over the years. A base built on a gentle world could wake up on a frozen one.
This page lists the updates that changed places, not the ones that only added features.
The updates that rewrote places
- Atlas Rises, 11 August 2017. Planet generation changed. Player settlements found themselves on worlds that were no longer the ones they had been built on: one base hanging in midair, another buried under a hillside.
- NEXT, 24 July 2018. The universe was reset again, with new terrain and new planets. It also brought the game to Xbox.
- Origins, 23 September 2020. New kinds of planets and new terrain, and many existing worlds looked different afterwards.
- Next Generation, 10 November 2020. The universes of the different platforms were united. Before, an address could lead to one system on PC and to another on PlayStation or Xbox.
- Worlds Part I, 17 July 2024. A new look for planets: terrain, water, clouds and weather.
- Worlds Part II, 29 January 2025. Purple star systems, gas giants and deep ocean worlds joined the galaxy. See Purple stars.
What this site does with the old places
When a place changed, the old record is not wrong: it is what was there at the time. This site keeps it as a historical record next to the current one, instead of deleting it.
Across all 256 galaxies, it holds 902 historical records:
- 150 from before Atlas Rises, when the first universe was replaced;
- 544 that resolved differently on PlayStation;
- 208 that resolved differently on Xbox.
On a system page, a note says when an older reading exists, with a link to it. The reasoning behind this choice is on Why an archive.
How old is a record?
Each recorded system keeps the version of the game it was charted in, when it is known. The oldest records in the catalogue go back to the Foundation update, in November 2016. The most charted versions are recent ones, but more than a thousand systems were recorded during Visions, in 2018.
When an address leads somewhere else
If a portal address from an old video or forum post takes you to the wrong place, the universe has probably changed since. Check the date of the source, and look at the system page here: if an older reading exists, it is shown.
Your own records from before an update are welcome too: they are the only trace left of those places. Contribute them, with the date if you know it.
Last updated: 1 November 2026