Rebel's Guide to No Man's Sky 1.00 (RC1) (Guide Version 0.91b)

gistfile1.txt

A rebel's guide to No Man's Sky 1.0 (RC1) 
Guide version 0.91b
by /u/gistya

Intro:
Below I present to you my guide to No Man's Sky 1.0 (RC1). It was written around the time Foundation update came out, because I went back to 1.00 due to my jetpack getting attached to my ship multiple times. But I held off from publishing it for awhile.

However lately I have started seeing more and more posts from people on Reddit who seem to be getting into 1.00, so I figured it would be a good time to post this guide, since there seems to be interest. Please let me know at gistya@gmail.com if anything seems to be missing from the guide.

Disclaimer: I'm a software developer by day, so I tried to approach this from a developer's point of view and not throw Hello Games under the bus for anything. In fact I was shocked at how great 1.00 was, and it made me realize how most of the things that people on reddit were whining about prior to launch were actually not problems at all, and in fact the release version made the game worse in some respects IMHO. I don't think anyone will want to permanently go back to 1.00, but it's at least worth a gander on a lazy Saturday, for any true fan of the game. It's a matter of opinion, but I think you'll likely come away agreeing that there are maybe one or two little things about this original version that are still better—but read my discussion at the end for more on that.

Required to play:
- Sony PS4
- Original No Man's Sky Blu-Ray Disc

Why try 1.0:
- Pure curiosity / just because you can.
- To better understand the later versions / historical interest.
- To escape frustration with some things that have been changed or removed in newer versions / liked it better how it used to be.
- Devoted fan of No Man's Sky wishing to take a pilgrimage to commune with the first incarnation of Atlas and the universe. 
- All of the above.
- None of the above.

What is 1.0:
- No Man's Sky was originally launched first for the Sony PS4. 
- Following from a long-time Japanese video game console industry practice originally established by Nintendo when it launched the NES, Sony requires video games that it licenses for official distribution on the Playstation platform to undergo stringent quality checks performed by Sony. This practice was originally implemented to reassure retailers who were afraid of mass returns of bad video games, following from massive returns that came as a result of Atari's infamous "ET" game, and which led to the great North American video game market crash of 1983.
- This practice required Hello Games to submit a so-called "golden master" version of No Man's Sky to Sony for quality checks several months prior to the actual launch date.
- The original release date of No Man's Sky was June 21, 2016 in North America, so we would expect that the golden master version for PS4 must have been sent to Sony for its approval several weeks prior to this. 
- Sean tweeted that GM was finalized on July 7, 2016; the pic that accompanied his tweet showed him holding a disc that days "RC 1" in Sharpie. He later tweeted on 7/10 it had "passed cert," referencing the disc in the pic. 1.0 is the version on that disc.

Why you have probably never played or even seen version 1.0:
- The PC never received version 1.0.
- PS4 users and reviewers were strongly advised to play and review version 1.03 (the result of the Day One patch)
- Prior to launch, Hello Games appears to have used (abused?) DMCA to issue takedown notices by having Twitch and YouTube forcibly take down any pre-release videos of No Man's Sky 1.0 
- Also prior to launch, Hello Games and its founder informed the public that a big Day One patch was coming for PS4 via download, that everyone should run it, and that dire consequences (like losing all your progress) awaited anyone who played the game before updating to 1.03. 
- Like good little boys and girls, we all did as told.
- Until I started digging, as it turns out, no one really bothered to check the veracity of many of the claims that Hello Games and Sean Murray made about the content of the Day One patch (1.03). (However, below I will explain in detail what is actually unique in 1.0, and you may notice how some of the claims made by HG about what changes were in the Day One patch are gross misrepresentations, while other of their claims are outright lies.)

Steps to go downgrade to 1.0:
- Go to Settings > Application Saved Data Management and back up any existing No Man's Sky saved game data (from version 1.22 or later) either to the cloud (PS Plus membership required) or to a USB stick. 
- The NMS 1.22 save files are appx. 39 MB in my experience. You can tell what version it's from based on this size.
- Delete any existing No Man's Sky application and saved games off of your console.
- Disconnect your PS4 from the internet (google if you're not sure how).
- Alternatively, if you wish to remain online in order to stream or for any other reason, then make sure to cancel any No Man's Sky updates that might automatically start downloading (as when you start the game or connect online while the game disc is inserted). To cancel a download, go to Notifications > Downloads, then press X while selecting the No Man's Sky update, then select Cancel/Delete.

Steps to upgrade back to the latest version:
- Quit the No Man's Sky app by selecting it in the PS4 main menu, pressing the Options button, and selecting Quit or Close.
- Back up your version 1.0 save to a different USB stick than your 1.22 save. (Best to label them so they don't get confused.)
- Note that version 1.0 saves are appx. 13 MB. This can be used to distinguish a 1.0 save, since PS4 displays the file size. 
- Once you back up your save, optionally, restore your 1.22 save back to the PS4 from a USB stick or the cloud. It will overwrite your 1.0 save. 
- Connect the PS4 online.
- Now select the No Man's Sky application again, select the Options button, and select check for updates. Allow the update to fully download and install.
- Run No Man's sky after the update is finished installing. 
- If your save from 1.0 is still on the console, your ship, multitool, backpack, inventory, and credits are retained (except for certain multitool upgrades that were removed in 1.2). Your galaxy location is also retained. However I think you might need to do Atlas path over again (have not tested.)

Known crash issues with 1.0:
- Pressing and holding the Options button while the game is paused can cause a crash. I discovered this whilst playing and holding Options to center the PSVR. Workaround: bring up the inventory menu, then press and hold Options.
- Going into orbit with a wanted level of 5 can cause a crash.
- The game crashes every 2-3 hours due to a memory leak, especially if you warp a lot. Just save pretty often and you'll be fine.

Known exploits present or missing in 1.0:
- The item duplication exploit does not work because the reload save option behaves differently than in other NMS versions (see Differences below).
- There was rumored to be an "infinite warp cell" exploit. While it's not really an exploit, an Atlas Station can be used to get free fuel and a free Atlas Stone any time. However, since landing at an Atlas Station and talking to Atlas takes so much time, this method is far too time consuming to compare in terms of income or speed with the kinds of core speed runs and lubricant farms that are possible today. (See Atlas Path Changes section below.) 
- Gek Transmission Towers can be used to find an unlimited number of crashed ships, which are almost always one slot better than your current ship.
- Korvax Observatories find crashed ships, not ruins.
- Multitool upgrades to the beam and for rapid fire of the boltcaster have the opposite effect compared to what is listed, meaning you can make a much more effective multitool with fewer tech upgrades in this version.
- Ships are really cheap. Even the best ship can be had for about 5 or 6 Atlas Stones worth of money (1.3 million or so). Not really an exploit, but certainly, a much nicer situation than nowadays!
- When deconstructing certain ship tech, a 100-stack of dynamic resonators or carite sheets can be formed. This is identical to the same bug in later versions—however, since there is no way to duplicate items in this version, the impact of this bug is hard to classify as an exploit on nearly the same scale as it became in 1.03 through 1.08.

Differences between 1.0 and later versions:


Path/quests
- When first starting out, it does not matter which of the three answers you give to Atlas.
- At the beginning of the game, if you don't follow the directions of the little pop-up tasks in the bottom right corner of the screen, then the game can start doing weird things, like crashed ships will be missing, etc. So, just follow the pop-up objectives until they're all done.
- There is only one path, Atlas Path, and it never ends. Once you go to 10 Atlas Stations, the Atlas Dialogue chain just repeats from the beginning. It also has different dialogue, which I liked better (TBH). 
- Because Atlas Path repeats, this allows you multiple chances to create a new star, and means that once you EVENTUALLY learn the full Atlas language, since you can always talk to Atlas, you will be able to read Atlas's hidden text eventually. (This seems to explain why the devs originally thought it made sense to have the Atlas language take so long to learn. But in later versions, you typically complete Atlas Path long before you complete learn even a fraction of the Atlas language, and so you may never get a chance to read all the Atlas dialogue—unless Atlas resets in your next galaxy after passing through the center, but I don't know if it does.)

Controls
- Scanner is circle button while on foot.
- The ship has no scanner, but will occasionally create random waypoints for you on its own. When this happens, you will get a notice in the lower right-hand corner of the screen that keeps popping up until you visit the waypoint. (This is how the beginning quests are handled too.)

Items/inventory
- Inventory cannot be moved around within one area (but it can be sent from ship to backpack and vice versa just like in later versions). 
- Stack size is 100 of a material per stack, or 1 of an item (unless you are using the 100-stack item exploit; see above.)
- All three oxide elements can be directly used to repair protective measures on your suit.
- All three isotope elements can be directly used to recharge most things that requires power. Only Thamium9 can power the Boost and only Plutonium can power the Launch Thrusters.
- Most things require exactly 50 or 100 of something to recharge or repair, depending on what's being used. (This nice symmetry became somewhat hidden after stack sizes were increased.)
- There is no quick-recharge menu. You have to go into inventory and click directly on the thing that needs recharging.
- Commodity prices are very different. Gravitino Balls, for example, are worthless, but Atlas Stones sell for over 200k!
- Tech items have names ending in v1, v2, v3, v4, instead of Sigma, Tau, Theta, Omega. (Using numbers actually seems more sensible, since the letters σ, τ, θ, and ω follow neither sequentially, nor in order, within the Greek alphabet. However, given the lack of correspondence between the real chemical elements and those of No Man's Sky... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.)

Materials
- Heridium is everywhere, and it looks like gold. 
- Green crystals and blackish resource deposits are Emeril. Red are Plutonium.
- Using the scanner will superimpose a glowing grid on top of resource deposits. The grid remains visible for a long time, as compared with newer versions, where it fades quickly. So cool!
- Elements are not distinguished by specific element on the scanner, only by type.
- Aluminum, Nickel, and Copper come from the big asteroids.
- Thamium9 comes from the small asteroids. 
- White/silvery resources on planets can be copper, aluminum, nickel, etc.

Terrain
- Cave systems tend to be a lot more elaborate and deeper, with many continuous, interconnecting tunnels that go for miles. (I think this is still possible in later versions, but I haven't found them very often recently to nearly the same scale and depth as these. Not sure why that could be, but I know the terrain engine was reworked in 1.03 and again in 1.1, so something must have affected it.)
- There seem to be more planets with steep cliffs and exaggerated/huge terrain like big mountains, huge underwater cliffs, and some very abstract-art-looking angular/geometric worlds. (I don't know why newer versions seem a bit more subdued and plain; it's not a huge difference, but the proc-gen engine may have been toned down in newer versions to cure some problems 1.0 has; see below.)
- On very rare occasions, the creature path-finding AI seems to glitch out at the edges of the ginormous, sheer cliffs, leading to odd jittering and strange movement. (That could be why this terrain type was removed or greatly toned down, but it's a damn shame, because these are some of the most epic planets I have ever seen.)
- Sometimes in the mountains or at beaches, buildings will be partially covered up by terrain, requiring excavation with the multitool. (Which, TBH, I rather enjoyed. It felt more like being an archaeologist, than like a bug.)

Menus
- The Discoveries menu shows for each planet a section called Records, which displays a lot of information about what you have personally done on a given planet, such as distance walked, species discovered, words learned, etc.
- For each planet, Discoveries shows an info pop-up showing the type of planet (Scorched, Barren Moon, Lush Lowlands, etc.) and the resource density there, along with the other information that's shown in later versions like flora and fauna density. (In 1.03+, the type of planet is only shown when you first discover it, in the heading of the info box that pops up. Resource density is never shown, however.)

Creatures
- Creatures tend to be more varied with more interesting designs. While you do see some familiar repetition, I have found things in 1.0 that never seem to appear in later versions. (Maybe the variety of creatures from system to system was negatively impacted by the increase in galaxy size after 1.0? Creatures did get better in 1.1, but I can still see a difference.)
- Creatures tend to be larger, more height/weight proportionate, and have appropriately sized heads in 1.0. (In 1.03 onwards, we see a lot more "inbred" and "runt" looking creatures, like the waddling "fat bubba T-rex" from the infamous Jurassic Park spoof video. But in 1.0, I have run across almost entirely the sorts of majestic, properly apportioned creatures from the No Man's Sky pre-release demos. I suspect that the creature proc-gen settings were adjusted to allow for more variety in 1.03 and onwards, with the side-effect that some basic aesthetic limits were removed and started to be consistently violated.)
- There is a bug where fish are often found out of water, face down in the dirt, trying to swim downwards. It's awesome and really fun to find.
- Huge predatory fish are far more common and have a lot of variety in head types.
- Flying creatures are hard to scan, like in some 1.03+ versions as well.
- Creatures seem to appear as a complete family a bit more often.
- There is no objective to scan all the creatures on a planet, but there are still rewards for scanning individual ones.

Space Travel/Combat
- Warp drive upgrades just increase your distance but do not affect which types of stars you may visit
- Going through a black hole damages your exosuit upgrades, not your ship—and there are aliens in the space stations who you can pay to repair your broken suit items. (In future versions, black holes damage your ship to prevent spamming too many in a row. However, the space station guys were never updated to repair ship items instead of exosuit items, which is why you would always get the message, "No repairs necessary", when asking an alien for repairs after your ship got damaged. Also, I suspect the suit getting damage was a leftover from when black holes were portals on planets, since you would walk through wearing your suit. If so, this also explains why portals aren't working.)
- The galaxy center is appx. 2.5x closer to the spawn point than it is in the larger galaxy of versions 1.03+. (The galaxy size was increased due to Sean's paranoia about speed runs, which seems unjustified now looking back on things, considering that not only did the larger size did not stop speed runs, but also, there was nothing at the center anyway!)

Aliens
- Alien voices are completely different than in later versions. (Not worse in my opinion, just different.)
- Other than that, the alien races are seemingly the exact same.

Sentinels
- Sentinel wanted level goes up instantly after each wave
- Sentinels drop titanium
- The waves NEVER END; after wave five, they just keep coming, and the walkers will even blow up your ship if you get inside it and sit
- The final sentinel waves, which never stop, consist of two walkers plus friends, which I have seen to include up to two dogs and three fliers
- After each wave, the next wave shows up much quicker
- On high wanted levels, they seem to keep looking for you forever
- In general the sentinels seem stronger; on wave 5, upon getting out of my ship, I was knocked about 100 meters away from my ship

Atlas Path Changes
Once you open up the first Atlas station and get a ship with good enough warp capability (I believe that Warp v2 is required), you can warp to an Atlas Station and get two free warp cells and an Atlas Stone, then go thru a Black Hole, then go to an Atlas Station, and rinse and repeat until you reach the center. (On paper, that sounds like an exploit, but in practice, it is substantially slower than a speed run in 1.22 with a similar preparation time, because nowadays you can mass-prepare warp cells stacked 5-deep on a ship, and then have 6 ships in a freighter, and have the freighter stacked with 10 crates of warp cells, etc. So nowadays you can speedrun to the center much more quickly, since landing at an Atlas Station every other warp is very time consuming compared to warping through 150 black holes in a row like you can do nowadays. Looking back, it seems silly this was considered an exploit.)

Summary
- Over all, version 1.0 of No Man's Sky on PS4 is less crashy, less buggy, and has fewer exploits than any of the versions from 1.03 through 1.08. 
- Other than the addition of the Nada & Polo path, rewrite/truncation of the Atlas path, and the redo of alien voices, I could not discern any new content or significant changes between 1.0 and 1.03. The rest of the changes, like fixing the multitool upgrades, addition of a second, "previous" save restoration option, renaming of v1/v2/v3 to sigma/tau/theta, addition of the frustrating "scan all creatures on the planet" mini-game, and the resizing of the galaxy, etc., all seem to be minor tweaks that, in all honesty, the game would have been perfectly fine without.
- Meanwhile (at least to my eyes!) the epic terrain and beautiful creatures of 1.0 have something very special about them, which seems to be missing from subsequent versions.
- So I was left to wonder... why in the world was Hello Games so eager to patch 1.0 on Day One, to the extent that they were willing to break people's saved games? And why were they so concerned about using legal notices to yank down any pre-release content?

Discussion
Could there be a hidden story or was it just a case of reddit somehow scaring a developer into unnecessary actions?

I did a bunch of research into this and talked to /u/daymeeuhn on Reddit about it, but I have decided to withold my own personal speculation as to why the changes were made. In the end, only Hello Games knows the real reasons why they made the changes that they did in 1.03, for better or for worse.

The current version (1.24 at the time of this writing) still hides Atlas stations after only 11, meaning I can never go back and redo the interactions now that I've learned the Atlas language. I find this to be sad, and I would personally urge Hello Games to at least make the Atlas stations not get hidden after 11, and revert their behavior to how it was in 1.00.

I would also urge Hello Games to fix the "small heads bug" which is detailed here: https://imgur.com/a/TThN4. Finally I liked having 48 slots on every ship; I think they should have made Haulers have slots that carry 10 items per slot instead of 5, but left the rest of the ships how they were.

But instead of pine for the old days and hate the new version for things that were removed or altered, I would encourage to back up your save and play 1.00 for awhile. It's a great trip of nostalgia and teaches you a lot about the roots of the game. In the end, you'll be happy to go back to the newer versions due to the things that are better in it, but there's a certain simplicity and purity of the old version that's hard to beat. Fun times all around.