The No Man's Sky community is on cloud nine right now, as the latest content drop from Hello Games has added adorable alien pets to the sci-fi exploration survival experience.
Companions is part of patch 3.2, which was released yesterday. It doesn't simply tack on a creature system to the existing game - it integrates the appearance of four legged friends into the beating heart of No Man's Sky, which is mystery solving and spontaneous adventuring in a procedurally generated universe. Any animal that the player stumbles across is able to be tamed and adopted, though their personality and preferences will differ. The relationship between astronaut and alien will deepen by playing, feeding, and giving attention to the creature. It's even possible to place a harness on the pet to translate their thoughts and wishes to the player as they gallivant across the galaxy. The animal will follow along and react to whatever their pal does, so Hello Games have suggested that players could train their co-explorers with specific command gestures.
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"Keeping your animal companion well cared for brings a host of practical benefits, including: scanning for resources; marking hazards; providing torchlight; hunting hostile creatures; locating buildings; digging up valuable treasures; and deploying their own shoulder-mounted mining lasers," explained the developer. If they're looked after properly, the pet might lay an egg. The Space Anomaly's new Egg Sequencer will genetically modify eggs into even more exotic species, which is just what we do on Earth with ol' Fido. Players will also trade eggs between themselves... hang about... this is sounding very like Pokémon now. Well, if it ain't broke.
Perhaps the highlight of the new update has been seeing No Man's Sky players sharing their new pals on social media. They're utterly delighted with their furry, scaly, feathered, armoured, colourful, toothy friends.
The closest thing to baby Yoda I have found so far! Share if you found something cuter! from r/NoMansSkyTheGame
Everyone's looking for the biggest and meanest pets. Here's my little rebel. from r/NoMansSkyTheGame
Patch 3.2 has also brought a number of other improvements to the UI, creature visuals and animations, warp and loading times on PlayStation 4, and a collection of bug fixes. It's the five year anniversary of the game in August, and there's even more to look forward to, expectedly. "This proves to be a very exciting year for No Man's Sky, and we're excited to show you what else we have planned on the roadmap," said the developer.
Topics: News, No Man's Sky