Your Starship, Exosuit and Multi-Tool are your most important possessions in No Man’s Sky. Mastering their use is critical if you want to survive the quintillions of planets of the game. Your Starship is used in space, while your Exosuit and Multi-Tool are your companions on the ground. Here’s a quick primer on how to get going with each of them.
Starship
Your Starship in No Man’s Sky gives you lots of inventory space, and you can also craft items here. Needless to say, it’s what you use to travel from one planet to another. There starship features a slot system that is tied to various functions of your ship, such as your Hyperdrive, Pulse Engine and Launch Thrusters.
The ship features weaponry that can be used to mine asteroids or even attack other ships. Specifically, you can use the Photon Cannon, which is best used against other ships. The Phase Beam, which is slower, is handier for when you need to break up asteroids. These weapons can be improved by using Companion Units. Your ship is protected by a Shields, which is protected by Oxide elements. As with weapons, you can use Companion Units to improve them.
You can use a scanner to search for information about the solar system and other planets. You may also have a Hyperdrive in your ship, which lets you jump from one star system to another, and a Pulse Engine, which is useful when you need to travel between planets. While your hyperdrive requires Warp Cells, your Pulse Engine is powered by Thamium9. Companion Units can once again be used here: to improve your Hyperdrive’s range, and your Impulse Engine’s efficiency.
Exosuit
Your Exosuit is what you wear when you’re on a planet in No Man’s Sky. It protects you from the elements, while also serving as a mobile storage system, so that you can collect things while on the move. You get a bunch of slots to store things in, of which three are reserved: Jetpack, Life Support and Hazard Protection. Needless to say, you need these.
Your Exosuit helps keep you alive – the Shields protect you temporarily from creatures or Sentinels. Your Shield can be improved using Companion Units. Yoru Exosuit also protects you from environmental hazards, like acid rain, extreme temperatures, radiation poisoning and so on. For this, you need to keep your suit fuelled with Oxide elements. Companion Units let you improve your suit to have better.
Your Exosuit also determines your Stamina, i.e. what lets you run long distances. Specifically, you can upgrade your Exosuit to improve your Stamina. The other functions of your Exosuit are your Life Support and Jetpack. The former is fuelled by Isotope elements, and can be made more efficient by upgrading it. Your Jetpack, on the other hand, is used to shoot up into the air. Interestingly, it requires no refuelling at all, but can be improved using Companion Units as usual.
Multi-Tool
Finally, you have your Multi-Tool, which you can use to gather resources by breaking up the environment. If you’re familiar with Minecraft, this is essentially your pickaxe. The Multi-Tool has a Mining Beam, which is basically the Laser – use it to destroy minerals, plants and animals. It’s fuelled by Isotope elements, and its focus can be improved.
Your Multi-Tool can also shoot projectiles, which is handy when you’re playing offensively. It’s powered by Isotope elements as well, and you can improve its rate-of-fire, capacity and damage using Companion Units as usual. For even more firepower, you can use the Multi-Tool’s Grenade Launcher, which is also powered by Isotope elements. Upgrading the Grenade Launcher will let you make the grenades bounce more, be shot further and cause more damage.
Your Multi-Tool also includes a Scanner – this can be used to find points of interest, and resources. You can use your binoculars, or use the Analysis Visor to scan, name and upload plants, animals and minerals to the Library. This can be upgraded to improve your range.