No Man’s Sky’s Atlas Rises Update is adding a lot of stuff to the game to mark its one-year anniversary. There will be streamlined travel, 30 hours of new story, new aliens, new ships, better graphics and even some rudimentary multiplayer.




One of the crashed freighters.

As detailed on the game’s site, there will also be *deep breath* a new procedural mission generator, UI improvements, crashed freighters to explore, a new mission system in space stations, a terrain editing tool, portals to allow easier travel between planets, a new HUD for dogfighting and the ability to cruise above the terrain in low-level flight.




One of the new ship designs.

Most interesting, though, is the multiplayer, dubbed “Joint Exploration”. Before you get your hopes up for high fives or co-op missions, this is very much a baby step. You’ll be able to see other up to 16 players who are near you, but they’ll only be represented as glowing orbs, not as ships or pilots. And you can’t do much with them in-game, though you can communicate with them over voice chat, hence the “joint exploration” label, since that’ll at least be useful for flying around a planet taking in the sights.



Here’s a trailer for the update, which is out today: