A new No Man's Sky patch is out, promising "more robust" recovery of corrupted saves

Unexpectedly and without warning, Hello Games has announced that a new patch for No Man's Sky is ready to go. It is not, at the time of writing, live on Steam, but the studio said on Twitter that it's been released and the patch notes are up now at the NMS website.

It doesn't look to be a major update, but there are some significant fixes. It's now much “much more robust at recovering corrupted save files,” and it's no longer possible to bypass the Antimatter blueprint, which would leave you stranded in the game's second system. Framerates have been improved when scanning “colossal” structures like space stations, and “galaxy generation [is] more robust during compiling,” whatever that means.

So it's a tune-up, rather than a comprehensive upgrade of places to go and things to see, but that fits with what Hello said earlier this month when it rolled out the 1.07 update: “Our focus is first on resolving any issues people have with the game as it is, then on future free updates which will improve, expand and build on the No Man’s Sky universe.” The full 1.09 PC patch notes, since they're not all that terribly long, are below.

  • The game is now much more robust at recovering corrupted save files.
  • It was possible for players to circumnavigate obtaining the Antimatter blueprint using very specific steps, leaving some players stranded in their second system. This is no longer possible.
  • PC and PS4 galaxy generation more robust during compiling.
  • Exosuit messaging system no longer confuses “on planet” and “docked in station” visor notifications, removing all doubt as to the location of the player’s Starship.
  • Improved framerate when scanning colossal structures such as Space Stations or Outposts.
  • Fix for some terrain resources being indestructible and therefore unmineable.
  • Exosuit messaging system now able to correctly differentiate between resource types.
  • Deposits discovered by scans will now display as the correct element.
  • Gek Factory door manufacturing standards have been improved; they no longer take critical hits from Grenades.
  • Drone vandalism detection improved.
  • Wanted level now increases when destroying Factory doors however powerful the players Multitool may be.
  • Pulsedrive systems now fully offline during warping.
  • Players are no longer able to open crates of any type if their inventory is full, no matter the contents, preventing loss of resources.
  • When interacting with a Terminal, it will print out the players Journey progression. Some strings in this print out where cut-off in Asian languages, these now display correctly in all supported languages.
  • Fixed an occasional bug within the Exosuit system that caused controller prompts to display the wrong button.
  • Changes to player Standing with the Gek, Vy’keen and Korvax now display correctly within the stats menu.
  • Fix for loss of resources when transferring fully stacked items between the player’s Starship and Exosuit in a specific order.
  • Fix for stacking products exploit. Resources salvaged from dismantled technologies now fill inventory slots as expected.
  • Exosuit and Starship messaging system now always displays the correct number of collected resources.
  • Discovery menu improvements, including fixes for incorrectly displayed planet names and creatures displaying as their molecular structure.
  • Discovery menu now supports planets with an abundance of life. Specifically, planets featuring 15 creature types can now reach 100% completion.
  • Multitool Beam Coolant and Exosuit Aeration Membrane upgrades now increase their respective stat wheels as expected.
  • The player can no longer buy multiple products when they do not have enough slots to do so, preventing loss of both the unit cost and the extra products.
  • Japanese localization fixes. Including: scrolling text issues, overlapping prompts in the ship messaging system and Multitool names displaying incorrectly.
  • Fixed clipped text on save game restore buttons in all supported languages.
  • Fixed errant title bar on the menu screen.
  • Player Standing now updates in real time when interacting with members of the Gek, Vy’keen and Korvax races.
  • Minor fix for saves of a duration less than 2 minutes displaying as “1 minutes”.
  • Improvements to various settings within the options menu, including advancements in mouse smoothing and refined gamma settings allowing for increased tenebrosity.
  • Fix for creature generation crash.
  • Fixes to prevent FPS spikes when encountering momentary performance bumps on PS4.
  • Fixed a rare issue where pressing and holding a button would cause the game to crash under specific circumstances.
  • Creature footfall now audibly echos within caves.
  • Fix for perpetual day time if the player updated in a specific order.
  • Bump shader version numbers for patch 1.09
  • Fix for a rare situation where a player’s save could get stuck in a crash loop due to saving at very specific point in planet generation.
  • Improved detection of available PC CPU cores and optimised settings for low-end CPUs with few CPU cores.
Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.