You can become a space pirate smuggler in No Man’s Sky Outlaws update, available to play now

Today, Hello Games is introducing one of No Man’s Sky’s biggest updates to date with Outlaws. This DLC is free to everyone who owns the game already and includes quite a few changes, including outlaw space stations, smuggling, a new ship, and even the ability to own more ships. What else can you do in No Man’s Sky Outlaws? Let’s take a closer look.

No Man’s Sky Outlaws lets you take center stage on smuggling missions

There’s a lot to unpack in this update, so we’ll only be hitting the highlights. If you want to see the massive list of every change in Outlaws, then be sure to check out Hello Games’ patch notes.

Solar Ships are a new “high-tech starship class” in the game and offer a “full and diverse range” of variations in game. They’re made to be versatile and long-range ships and even have unique technologies to install.

The big change to the game, however, is when it comes to outlaws. There are new outlaw stations that are in star systems that have fallen under outlaw control. You’ll find them in the galaxy map with a conflict scanner installed. The system authority has been surrendered to rebel forces, and space is “unpoliced and ripe for piracy.” Since there are no Sentinel interceptors in play here, they have their own technology merchants, marketplace for contraband items, and even unique mission agents…as well as much more.

We mentioned contraband items, which indicates you shouldn’t have them, right? Right. These contraband goods are outlawed in the game, meaning you’re not supposed to be transporting them. However, if you can make it across to a regulated system, they can sell for a large profit. Keep in mind that system authorities can now scan ships and “probe their cargo” to see if it contains illegal goods. If they find anything that shouldn’t be there? Well, Sentinel interceptors are on alert and ready to deal with you. However, there are countermeasures you can employ to keep the police at bay, as the Cargo Probe Deflector can assist in your smuggling habits if you’re into that sort of thing.

Continuing on, there’s now a ship cargo hold that looks like it can be upgraded to have an additional 21 slots for storing items. This can be quite useful if you’re doing large hauls of resources to sell at a space station and keep running out of room with all the extra technology you have installed in the primary area.

On the topic of ships, you can now own up to nine as well. That’s up from the six maximum before and is great for collectors now that there’s a new ship class in the game.

Combat has also been overhauled and both the risks and rewards have been rebalanced for “challenge, flow, and speed.” Destruction effects also received an update in No Man’s Sky Outlaws, with new effects taking place for exploding ships, asteroids, freighters, and space cargo. Do you love space battles? Well, now you can engage in in-atmosphere combat. You can attack either outlaw ships or Sentinel system authorities within planetary atmospheres now.

Speaking of combat, you can now recruit your own squadron to accompany you on your space journeys. These wingmen will automatically warp to your location during combat and can even be summoned at any time. You can check on the skills, traits, and battle stats of your squadron as well, expanding the fleet capacity and training existing pilots to upgrade their efficiency as well.

The final thing we’ll talk about here is the new Blighted Expedition and missions available in No Man’s Sky Outlaws. The sixth expedition, Blighted, will start soon. In it, you’ll journey in search of a mysterious treasure after a distant galaxy has been terrorized by pirates known as The Blight. There are exclusive rewards available for those who complete it, and this might be the first Expedition I take part in. On top of that, there’s a new series of missions in outlaw systems where you can earn titles and the exclusive Shroud of Freedom hood customization, since you can also now have capes and hoods in the game. Like we said, there’s a lot to unpack in the No Man’s Sky Outlaws update.

If you own No Man’s Sky already, the update is available to play for free on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation, as Hello Games doesn’t charge anything for its DLCs.

Electronicsforward’ take

No Man’s Sky continues to be one of my favorite games of all-time. The Outlaw update is by far one of my favorite updates to it as well, since it adds so many new aspects to explore in the game. I love the fact that you can now choose to be a pirate outlaw or a law-abiding citizen, depending on what floats your boat at that time. I’m not entirely sure what outlaw tasks I’ll do, but I’m most certainly going to do at least one smuggling run, just to see how bountiful the rewards are.

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