The No Man’s Sky: Orbital update landed on March 29, 2024. This was the 31st major update to No Man’s Sky since its rocky launch in 2016. The Orbital expansion brings some excellent new features, including finally fulfilling a long-term community wish, and providing a way for Starships to be modified and crafted.

Related

8 Best Features Of The No Man’s Sky: Orbital Update

No Man's Sky's March 2024 update, Orbital, introduces a number of great features. Here are the best.

The Orbital update also added many new station variations, and a complete overhaul of station interiors. This means that players who previously knew exactly where to find every station facility will now need to track them down in their new format. The new station interior layouts are very different from the single, original one from before the Orbital update.

Teleporter

Located Directly In Front Of The Docking Tube On The Ground Floor

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Walk forward onto the lower level companionway.
• The teleporter is in the center alcove.

How many No Man’s Sky players ever thought to themselves, why did they put the teleporter there? In the old station interior, the teleporter was about as far away from the docking bay as something could get. And, of course, with its symmetrical layout, players also had to remember which side of the station the teleporter was on.

In the Orbital update, the teleporter has been moved to the perfect position. It is in the middle of the ground floor of the station, right in front of the docking bay. Running from ship to teleporter or vice versa, now takes just a few seconds. Now if only the location of the teleporter on NMS freighters could be moved to such a logical place.

Galactic Trade Terminal

Located Directly In Front Of The Docking Tube On The Ground Floor

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Walk forward onto the lower level companionway.
• The galactic trade terminal is in the center alcove.

One of the minor gameplay loops in NMS has always been the need to hop around to multiple different stations looking for commodities to buy, or seeking the best price when selling commodities. This used to mean the player had to exit the teleporter, run all the way along the station to the galactic trade terminal, check it, perform any required transactions, and then run back along the station to the teleporter. Phew.

Related

No Man's Sky: Best Ship Weapons, Ranked

No Man's Sky players have access to a range of great ship weapons. Some, however, are simply much better than others.

Making this run to and from the galactic trade terminal, potentially dozens of times, was tedious at best. The good news is, that with the Orbital update, the galactic trade terminal has been put in the perfect place. It is on the opposite wall to the teleporter. Players just need to step through the teleporter, and the trade terminal will be right in front of them when they exit warp.

Cartographer

Located On The Ground Floor At The Left Side Of The Companionway

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Walk forward onto the lower level companionway.
• The cartographer is in the left-hand alcove.

In No Man’s Sky, the cartographer sells and trades certain types of maps, such as planetary maps, for example. This is another station facility that was annoyingly far away from the main docking bay in the old station layout before Orbital.

The cartographer NPC is now handily located on the bottom floor of the station interior, right next to the docking bay. It is in the next alcove over to the teleporter and galactic trade terminal. Once again, this tightens a minor gameplay loop, reducing the amount of time the player has to spend just running across the station over and over again.

Starship Outfitting Terminal

Moved To The New Large Terminal Area At The Rear Of The Station

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Walk forward onto and through the lower level companionway.
• There is a large open area at the rear of the station.
• The starship outfitting terminal is the left-hand of the 3 terminals in this space.

Staying on the ground floor of the new station interiors in No Man’s Sky: Orbital, the ship outfitting terminal has been moved to the very back of the station, in a large, open area. Players looking for the new location of this terminal just need to move to the back of the station past the teleporter.

Look for the left-hand terminal with the large holograph of a starship hovering above it. This is the new location of the ship outfitting terminal in the Orbital update. NMS Orbital adds functionality to this terminal, in the form of allowing players to salvage ship upgrade parts when scrapping a ship.

Starship Fabricator Terminal

A New Terminal Added To The Open Area At The Rear Of The Station

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Walk forward onto and through the lower level companionway.
• There is a large open area at the rear of the station.
• The starship outfitting terminal is the middle of the 3 terminals in this space.

Located to the right of the starship outfitting terminal, right in the middle at the rear of the station, is the new starship fabricator terminal. This was added in Orbital, and provides the capability for players to craft upgrade components and design and build entirely new ships, leading to more diversity in the types of ships in No Man's Sky.

Related

10 Common Mistakes Beginners Make In No Man's Sky

No Man's Sky is a pretty daunting adventure. Here's a look at some common mistakes that beginners make.

This terminal uses salvaged or looted ship construction parts and upgrade modules as the input. These can be obtained by looting, or by scrapping ships that have either been found as crashed ships and repaired, or purchased from NPCs.

Appearance Modifier Terminal

Moved To The Area At The Rear Of The Station

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Walk forward onto and through the lower level companionway.
• There is a large open area at the rear of the station.
• The starship outfitting terminal is the right-hand of the 3 terminals in this space.

There was obviously a lot of thought put into the new station interior layouts in NMS Orbital. The large appearance modifier terminal sits on the left of the starship fabricator, and makes up one of the three large terminals that use this big open area at the rear of the station.

This is the last of the station facilities on the ground floor that this article will cover. No new functionality was added to this terminal in the Orbital update, apart from the tweaks to the color palette that are common to everything in this update.

Merchant Booths

Moved To The Top Floor Gantry

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Jetpack boost up to the top floor gantry.
• Merchants are located in each of the alcoves on the gantry.

Moving up to the top floor of the station, merchant booths are located in a group of alcoves that run across the top floor station gantry that links both sides of the viewing area. Each alcove has two merchant booths, one on each of the facing walls.

In the Orbital update, the merchant NPCs got a visual update. There is now much more diversity in clothing and body features. They are also much more colorful now, making this procedurally generated content more organic looking. However, they still sell exactly the same goods as before the update, nothing new here at all.

Equipment Terminals

Moved To The Dividing Walls On The Top Floor Gantry

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Jetpack boost up to the top floor gantry.
• Equipment terminals are located on each of the dividing walls on the gantry.

This is the only change to station interiors in the NMS Orbital update that doesn’t place something in a much more logical location. Prior to the update, these terminals were each located right next to the corresponding merchant. The weapon terminal was next to the weapon merchant, and so on.

Related

No Man's Sky: Best Multi-Tool Weapons, Ranked

Multi-tool weapons in No Man's Sky can offer players some serious firepower. Here are the best of the bunch.

In the new station layout, these terminals have been moved to the end of the walls, creating a divide between each of the alcoves that the merchant NPCs now reside within. OK, this is only a minor gripe, and most players will seldom need to find these terminals once they have good S-grade gear anyway.

Guild Envoy

Now In A Nice New Office On The Top Floor

How to find:

• Start with your back to the docking tube.
• Jetpack boost up to the top floor gantry.
• Walk to the right-hand end of the gantry.
• Located the small office that is set into the station wall over to the left.

It seems that the guild envoy NPC has received a promotion in the No Man’s Sky: Orbital update. Before, he used to have a small booth on merchants row. Now, he has his own office over on the right-hand side of the top floor of the station, towards the back, in the corner.

Guild missions received a pretty decent buff in the Orbtal update, including how many nanites are given as a reward, and are now much more worthwhile to take on and complete. Perhaps this is why the guild envoy NPC was given a swanky new office.

No Man's Sky

Platform(s)

Switch , PC , Xbox One , Xbox Series S , Xbox Series X , PS4 , PS5

Released

August 9, 2016

Developer(s)

Hello Games

Genre(s)

Adventure , Action , Survival