No Man’s Sky is a huge sandbox. You can basically do anything you want. Go explore the cosmos, settle all kinds of planets, invest money into creating mineral extractors, become a farmer, the number of things to do never seems to stop growing. If you’re anything like me, this actually starts to be a problem. I’ve started No Man’s Sky over more times than I have save slots. The early part of the game has clear objectives and goals. You always know what to do next. While I have a list of things I’d like to get to eventually like finally getting an S-Class freighter, unlocking all Nanite research, and getting every Quicksilver cosmetic, those are all user driver goals.
In a recent update, Hello Games added a new Expeditions feature which gives the game more structure than it’s ever had before. These are essentially seasons akin to Diablo, Path of Exile, or other games of that ilk. You start off with nothing, have a bunch of stuff the game wants you to accomplish and earn rewards along the way. At the end of the season your save file converts to a normal save and a new expedition starts with new goals, new locations, and you get to do it all over again. In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at the Beachhead Expedition including a list of all steps, rewards, and more!
The Beachhead Expedition is available for two weeks and should expire around May 31. Remember to go claim your golden ship from the Anomaly if you completed the last expedition.
Beachhead Expedition Phases and Steps
There are five main phases in the Pioneers Expedition, each with five to seven 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!
Phase One
The first phase largely focuses on getting your feet under you. That means getting your ship ready to explore and lift off this desolate planet. As a warning, if you haven’t logged in yet, we’re on a lifeless, airless, low gravity world. I spawned a full seven minutes away from my ship. So be ready to jet boost your way across that gap.
We recommend ignoring Moon Rover for now and saving that for later when you build your base.
- Moon Rover: Deploy a Roamer Exocraft.
- First Steps: Reached your starship.
- Lift Off: Leave the planet.
- Engage Warp: Use a freighter to warp to a new system.
- Rendezvous 1: Reach the first rendezvous.
Complete phase one and you’ll get three inventory slots, the Atlas Firework Pack, and freighter recoloring options.
Phase Two
Phase two is a little more difficult. Keep in mind that you can always click on a milestone to pin it to your log. After doing so, the game will tell you how to complete it!
These steps aren’t nearly as hard as they were in the first expedition. All you need to do is find a crashed ship and get it airborne again, investigate a crashed freighter, and run into the Alien Repair encounter. Though it doesn’t have a particularly high chance of occurring normally, it may have been bumped up for this expedition. It’s a simple enough interaction where someone needs resources to restore their ship as they’ve been stuck coasting through space.
- Rendezvous 2: Reach the second rendezvous point.
- Scrapped: Restore a crashed ship.
- Interstellar Rescue: Come to the aid of a stranded lifeform.
- Fallen Giants: Explore a freighter crash site.
- The Aviator: Pilot your ship 500,000 units.
Complete phase two and you’ll get the Heroic Pose and a Hadach’s Discovery KH3 starship to use in this save file.
Phase Three
Hopefully you didn’t just wander around the system for 500,000 units in your spaceship because we’ve got some traveling to do. While you jump from system to system towards the third rendezvous point, make sure to keep an eye out for the following planet types.
- Rendezvous 3: Reach the third rendezvous point.
- Feet of Flame: Visit a scorched world.
- Life From Dust: Discover one creature on a desert world.
- Pale Blue Dot: Visit a frozen world.
- Rain Like Poison: Visit a toxic world.
- Verdant Abundance: Discover one creatures on a lush world.
- The Glowing Earth: Visit a radioactive world.
Complete phase two and you’ll get the Sparse Horizon Helmet customization for your traveler.
Phase Four
An effortless phase as you trek across the stars. Just make sure to stop in each species’ system type and ask for help with their language ten different times.
- Rendezvous 4: Reach the fourth rendezvous point.
- Words For Friends: Learn ten Gek words.
- Visit the Atlas: Visit an Atlas Station.
- Linguistic Decoding: Learn ten Korvax words.
- Uncharted: Discover ten systems.
- Grah! Grah! Grah!: Learn ten Vy’keen words.
Finish all of this and earn Armored Shoulderpads, Armored Chestpiece, and Armored Leggings customizations.
Phase Five
This is the final and most difficult phase. In fact, you can’t complete it right now. Four of the five tasks are encrypted and “cannot be advanced without unlocking its key.” Once you reach the final rendezvous point you’ll be given a Historiographical Dosimeter. The community as a whole needs to use this object to help Nada and Polo study unusual historical shifts and unlock the next steps of the expedition.
Want to help? When you’re on Phase Five, go to the Quicksilver agent on the Anomaly and purchase the Myth Beacon. Now head over to the Planetary Charts vendor and purchase a few which point you to Ancient Artifact sites. When you’re there, you’ll get some dialog options to help Polo. You need to visit three sites to help currently. Each of these encrypted tasks were related to unlocking the ending of the expedition and can now be finished in order since the community’s global task has been completed.
- Rendezvous 5: Reach the final rendezvous point.
- Historiography Lessons: Transmit three historiographical readings to Nada.
- Collectiv3e Consciousness: Acquire the Myth Beacon.
- Echo Through the Ages: Deploy the Myth Beacon.
This will reward you with the Beachhead Expedition Decal plans, the Beachhead Expedition Banner customization, and an encrypted reward.
Completing the entire expedition rewards you with the Normandy SR1 from Mass Effect as a frigate.
