No Man's Sky's next major update adds new ships and spooky corrupted planets

No Man's Sky is getting a new update, a mere month and a bit after it got its last one. The 4.2 Interceptor patch, which releases today, brings new enemies, new resources, and a new starship class, which Hello Games says is No Man's Sky's "most varied starship to date". It also makes a few performance and visual tweaks, especially for users in VR.

The update introduces new "corrupted planets," which have fallen prey to "a darkness" that is spreading through the Sentinel horde. "Many fortified worlds have succumbed to corruption, with strange crystals sprouting from the earth and their robot guardians twisted into bizarre new forms," reads the Interceptor update's announcement, inviting you to "explore these purple-hazed worlds to find new buildings, crashed interceptors, secret equipment and more".

Those planets are home to some of the new "huge spider-like enemies" or—and this is not a phrase I was thrilled to read—"their small crab-like children". The patch also introduces plain old corrupted drones, too, who are neither spider- nor crab-like, but are armed with "stealth tech, flamethrower and explosive weaponry".

You'll need to harvest the shards that grow on corrupted planets to fuel your salvaged Sentinel tech. That includes that new starship class—a range of Sentinel Interceptors you'll be able to salvage for your own use—which you pilot from the security of its "unusual vestigial cockpit," another combo of words that makes me slightly uncomfortable.

If you're feeling particularly foolhardy, you could try using one to take on a Sentinel capital ship, which can now be damaged and destroyed. If you manage to pull it off, you'll clear your wanted status and net yourself some high-value rewards. If you don't, you'll be dead and it won't really matter that you didn't get a reward, so it's a win either way.

There are plenty of other little additions, which you read about over at the official page for the No Man's Sky Interceptor update, plus a whole bunch of tweaks and bugfixes. The update goes live today, free on whatever storefront or platform you happen to have No Man's Sky on.

Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Read more
A gas giant planet in No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky is getting 'trillions of new planets,' some with oceans 'several kilometers deep,' plus explorable 'end-game' gas giants
Fighter spacecraft maneuver around carrier ships in Nebulous Fleet Command
Spacefleet fight sim Nebulous gets carriers in biggest update yet
A scientist firing a rocket from a rocket launcher in Abiotic Factor
Abiotic Factor's massive Dark Energy update, which adds teleporters, pocket dimensions and black hole grenades to the Half-Life inspired survival sim, is out now
The Biovore, a beetle-like alien with an artillery cannon on its back, in a desert environment.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's latest update leads with a fancy datavault for your battle-barge, but I'm far more interested in the new tyranid unit with a cannon on its back
Three hyper light breaker characters running toward camera viewed from below.
A month into early access, Hyper Light Breaker has already added a new playable character, with a perk designed for players who like to 'shoot fast and shoot a lot'
A smiling man in military fatigues
Get in here, stalker: Stalker 2’s Patch 1.3 is here with a whopping 1,200 fixes
Latest in Action
assassin's creed shadows protector's armor
Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet
Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer still - woman in the front seat of a car, looking out the back window while holding a wad of cash
The specter of a GTA 6 delay haunts the games industry: 'Some companies are going to tank' if they guess wrong, says analyst
Western outlaws with masks and guns
'Players don't explore': former Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Online designer lays out the perils of 'open world fatigue'
Monster Hunter Wilds palico
Monster Hunter Wilds' first free update will feature 'a whole host of new additions' and a majestic water wyvern for players to blow sky high
Ichiban Kasuga goes divekicking in the Dave The Diver crossover DLC
Ichiban Kasuga makes like a dragonfish and joins Dave the Diver’s latest DLC on April 10th for some fisticuffs and a few rounds of karaoke
Assassin's Creed Shadows Tea Ceremony answers - Naoe about to sip tea from a bowl.
All Assassin's Creed Shadows Tea Ceremony answers
Latest in News
Silent Hill f transmission trailer screenshots
Silent Hill f is not messing around – now it's been banned in Australia
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 22: A view of Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California, United States on August 22, 2024.
'Google must divest the Chrome browser:' DOJ renews call for Google to sell Chrome, and Android could be next
Victory screen of Big Rigs showing infamous "You're Winner" message under a three-handle gold trophy
One of the worst games ever made is coming to Steam, but we won't know how cruel this joke is until we see the price tag
Sci-fi character from Dune
Dune: Awakening promises us a breath of fresh air, skipping early access for a full launch with no monthly subscription in May
Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach concept art
'The dream of the tech industry is to sell off your company at an overinflated price and retire,' says actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's Karlach, 'And I feel that's being done with game studios right now'
assassin's creed shadows protector's armor
Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 2 million players, putting it on track to be the series' most successful game yet