After yesterday’s new Outlaws Update for No Man’s Sky, Hello Games has enabled Expedition 6: Blighted. As always, everyone starts on the same planet and shares the same goals as they navigate across the galaxy. Goals and required materials are the same, but how everyone gets there is a little different. If you haven’t played in some time, a lot of the early steps can be quite difficult without a veritable treasure trove of units to simply buy your way out of every problem. That’s why we’re going through the expedition ourselves, struggling our way through all of the early processes so you don’t have to.

Note: The Blighted Expedition was available for six weeks and expired at the end of May 2022. Remember to go claim your previous rewards from the Anomaly if you completed them! There’s also always the chance that the expedition will return sometime in the future (as previous Expeditions have done). In the meantime, Expedition 6: Blighted has been replaced with Expedition 7: Leviathan, which you can instead find a guide for right here.

Blighted Expedition Phases and Steps

There are five main phases in the Blighted Expedition, each with five different milestones inside of them. Keep in mind that each milestone comes with significant rewards which will help speed up your progress. This includes resources, warp drives, and supreme mods. Make sure to claim them before proceeding!

One thing we recommend with this expedition is looking over all five phases before leaving the solar system you’re in. Hello Games frequently uses systems where all of the objectives can be completed without the need for travel.

Phase One

This expedition starts off like most of the other ones. Get your ship repaired! Before you do anything, though, you need to repair your Analysis Visor. Gather 50 nearby carbon and craft a carbon nanotube to fix it up. After that, head to your nearby ship, hop inside, and save the game. Make sure to equip the illegal movement system upgrade it gives you — it makes traversing the planet much easier.

Now we need to fix the ship. For this, you’ll need a variety of materials made out of the most basic resources out there. Remember to use the Personal Refiner in your exosuit inventory! For your chromatic metal needs, use that Analysis Visor to locate a nearby copper deposit, mine it using the smallest beam possible (“R” on PC) to maximize how much you get, and then convert the necessary amount using your Personal Refiner. You may need to install the Terrain Manipulator by hitting “E” on an open slot if you haven’t already done so.

After you take off, be prepared for combat before warping to the next system. We recommend bringing sodium with you so you can recharge your shields. This fight isn’t particularly easy in your starter ship and if you die, it is faster to restart the entire save than gather resources so you can keep warping in the hopes of getting the event again.

While the game says you must repair the freighter’s warp system, you do not need to do this. All you need to do is visit a red star system. The easiest way to do this is by getting a few nanites from the space station or nexus missions, then purchasing the upgrade from the Anomaly for your ship.

If you do want to fix the freighter’s jump system, you need a few things, including a Quantum Computer, the recipe for which you can purchase aboard the Anomaly or come across via traders on planets. While you’re there, research the Cadmium Drive upgrade for your starship so that you can get the cadmium that the freighter needs. Weirdly enough, repairing this one requires you to complete the mission before finishing the repairs.

The last thing you need is a Warp Hypercore. These can be dropped as rewards for Nexus missions, found in manufacturing facilities or operation centers, or crafted. The recipe for Warp Hypercores is locked behind a non-insignificant number of AtlasPass upgrades, meaning you’ll need to spend a hefty number of Nanites.

The Compass – Locate your starship
Clipped Wings – Restore critical starship systems
Liberation – Save a freighter from pirates
Red Skies – Visit a red star and repair the freighter’s warp system
Rendezvous 1 – Reach the first rendezvous

Phew! Complete phase one and you’ll get the Sputtering Starship Trail customization.

Phase Two

Don’t leave the system just yet! The lost freighter we are looking for is on Tavisti Hosh, another planet in the Yukotyli system. You need to land in the general area and use your Analysis Visor’s Target Sweep Mode to locate it. Once you have found it, interact with the red orb, and dig up a single cargo pod to get the information you need.

It’s important to activate this next step in Phase Three before you leave the system. Our location for The Last Piece, an upcoming milestone, was on the same planet. At this point, someone has likely built an underwater base, which should make things easier for you. Some kind soul had already built an underwater air pocket at mine. You should also automatically complete Leagues Under the Sea when doing this.

For Coveted Suns’ Gravitino Balls, people have created farms on Tavisti Hosh, but these do not count towards the goal. They must be harvested from live plants in the wild. Look for the Aggressive Sentinels label — these are planets likely to have Gravitino Balls. To save time, head to the second rendezvous point. There’s a planet there called Ladforas that has them available. Keep in mind that you need Chromatic Metal and Sodium Nitrate to install your Haz-Mat Gauntlet.

You will likely stumble upon a pirate system during the expedition, so don’t go out of your way to find one at the moment. That said, we have plenty of Nanites at this point and can easily afford the Conflict Scanner from the Anomaly research stations.

Rendezvous 2 – Reach the second rendezvous point
A Freighter Blighted – Seek the lost freighter
Lawless Sky – Visit a pirate system
Coveted Suns – Collect 16 Gravitino Balls
Emerald Dreams – Visit a green star

Complete phase two and you’ll get the Dread Captain Fahng Poster plans, Outlaw Poster plans, and Resbur XIII Poster plans.

Phase Three

If you have not yet found a pirate-controlled system, install that Conflict Scanner and look for a system like the one in the image above.

As we mentioned in the previous phase, you should already have Leagues Under the Sea and The Last Piece complete. All that’s left is to travel to the third rendezvous point. Somewhere along the way, stop in a world with any kind of deep oceans and make a base nearby. There, you have to search for Submerged Ruins, which are similar to their above-ground counterparts with three sealed chests, each rewarding a random aquatic treasure. Just what we need for the final step!

But first, we need to build a Nautilon Chamber that requires Crystal Sulphide and 100 Salt. The crystals can be found underwater in bunches of three, attached to volcanic vents. This will take a good 10 to 15 minutes if you don’t get lucky, as these can be spread pretty far apart. Use your Analysis Visor to make things easier since salt can be hard to come by. If you don’t happen across any planets that have it intrinsically, you can make your own in a medium refiner by combining Di-hydrogen and Oxygen.

A warning: When you get in the Nautilon, it will tell you there is no scanner installed to help you locate the ruins. The notification will inform you they can be purchased aboard the Anomaly. Take some advice from someone who followed those instructions: don’t. You already know the technology, it just needs to be installed. You will, however, need a Solar Mirror which you either need to buy or construct using the plans purchased from…the Anomaly.

Once you’ve done so, don’t just scan with the “C” button like you would with your spaceship. Instead, open the navigation menu with “X” so you can specifically scan for an underwater ruin. If you spot an Armored Clam along the way, take some time to swim over to it and pry it open with your mining beam. The Living Pearl inside will be required alongside the key you get from talking to the orbs of liquid.

Rendezvous 3 – Reach the third rendezvous point
Submerged – Deploy the Nautilon submarine
The Last Piece – Seek the lost pilot under the ocean
Leagues Under the Sea – Reach an ocean depth of 80 units
Sunken Antiquities – Acquire an aquatic treasure from an underwater ruin

Complete phase three and you’ll get the five different flag plans.

Phase Four

If you’ve jumped ahead to see if you can continue to complete the main questline before keeping up with the journey, this is where I tell you that you can’t. Treasure Hunt first requires you to have reached the fourth rendezvous point before proceeding. For the blue star objective, do the same as we did before and purchase the plans from the Anomaly. It’s faster and easier than doing anything like that with the capital ship they gave you.

Your gut instinct may think the Sentinel Pillar is something the game will lead you to, but it won’t. To get the location of one of these, you need to anger the Sentinel forces on a planet and defeat everything at wanted level 5. Doing so will give you a Sentinel Boundary Map, though sometimes they also drop from Quads, Mechs, and Walkers. If you happen upon any Salvaged glass, consume them for a chance at one as well.

If you’d like to save yourself the effort, navigate your way to the fourth rendezvous point. In that system, Akltsahiro, there’s a planet called Ueensasc Dano where someone has built a base at a Sentinel Pillar. Rather than search it out, go to the space station and interact with the teleportation terminal. Tab over to other bases and then find Sentinel Pillar, which will plop you down smack dap in front of one. When you get there, look for the Boundary Archive Terminal and select “Extract weapons technology.” You do not need to take the multi-tool if you don’t want it. Upon backing out, the milestone will be completed.

When you’re ready to leave, follow the pirate map which takes you to a portal that transports you directly to Rendezvous 5.

Rendezvous 4 – Reach the fourth rendezvous point
Boundary Failure – Eliminate 25 Sentinels
Counterfire – Steal a Sentinel Pillar Multi-Tool
Blue Expanse – Visit a blue star
Treasure Hunt – Follow the Pirate Map

Finish all of this and earn the Wayword Cube base item.

Phase Five

Now that we’ve made it this far, things are really simple. By this point, you’ve probably shot down enough pirates. If not, go do some fighting. Otherwise, head to your frigate and interact with the terminal on the opposite side of the control room where you entered from. Here, you can purchase your first Squadron Pilot slot for 800 Nanites. After doing so, you can recruit any NPC with a ship.

Make sure to complete the second half of the pirate map while you’re here too. Gather the nearby underground keys, open the cache, and be rewarded with 7,200 Activated Cadmium, Indium, and Emeril! In total, that’s worth about 15,000,000 units, which is good if you need the cash. You can also turn it into a lifetime supply of Chromatic Metal.

Those on PC may experience some issues with the final warp to the galactic center. Make sure your ship’s Hyperdrive is 100 percent filled because without that, you can’t warp. It’s here that you can do yourself a favor and plug in a controller if you have one. I fussed with a mouse and keyboard for about 20 minutes trying to get the game to let me warp. After plugging in my controller it took about five seconds. When you do so, keep the final system targeted and push the right thumbstick in the direction of the line to the galactic center. Hold this for about five seconds and you’ll finally be prompted to the the last jump.

Rendezvous 5 – Reach the final rendezvous point
Enlistment – Recruit a pilot to your squadron
Galactic Defender – Shoot down 32 pirates
Intergalactic – Explore beyond the galactic core
Breadcrumbs – Establish your first base

Finish all of this and earn the Hunter of the Blight title, a Blighted Expedition Decal, and the Blighted Expedition banner.

Completing the entire expedition rewards you with the Outlaw Cape customization.

Fussed Dark Mk.21

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