No Man's Sky Waypoint update guide: How to create a custom game mode and all options detailed

In addition to the Nintendo Switch release, No Man's Sky recently received its 4.0 update, titled Waypoint. It introduces a variety of changes that help enhance a player's experience as a whole – one of the most significant being the ability to set up custom game modes so that players can tailor gameplay to their desire.

This guide details how to set up a custom game mode for your session as well as the settings that are included.

---

Custom game mode makes No Man's Sky accessible to all kinds of players

With the 4.0 update, there are many options to pick from when starting a new game. These include Normal, Relaxed, Creative, Community Expedition, Survival, and of course, Custom. The latter allows players to make their experience as laid-back or brutal as they want it to be.

Clicking on the Custom option takes players to a suite of options that control nearly every aspect of the game. Here are all the options available in the Custom game.

---

1) Survival settings

This revolves around how the world of No Man's Sky and its mechanics affect a player's in-game experience.

• Survival Elements: Governs upkeep of the Exosuit with regards to health, shields, hazards and life support (None, Health Only, Hazards & Health, Full)
• Survival Difficulty: Deermines how quickly various exosuit systems are drained (Relaxed, Standard, Challenging)
• Natural Resources: Tweaks the abundance of natural resources and how quickly they can be gathered (Relaxed, Standard, Challenging)
• Sprinting: Pick whether Exosuit should be affected by sprinting (Infinite, Relaxed, Standard)
• Scanner Recharge: Control how fast scanner recharges between each use (Very Fast, Fast, Standard, Challenging)
• Damage Levels: Scales damage recieved by the player (None, Minimal, Standard, Challenging)
• Technology Damage: Determines probability of damage recieved to Technology Modules (None, Minimal, Challenging)
• Death Consequences: Choose the consequences for dying (No Item Loss, Standard, Items Destroyed, Save Deleted)

---

2) Crafting and items settings

Resource management forms a big part of No Man's Sky and you have full control over that aspect.

• Fuel Usage: Control the cost of recharging fuel for powering your technologies (Free, Discounted, Standard, Expensive)
• Crafting: Determine the cost of crafting items and equipment (Free, Standard)
• Recipes & Blueprints: Toggle between knowing all recipes and blueprints from the get-go or having to learn them as encountered (All Unlocked, Learnable)
• Purchases: Affects the prices of Unit and Nanite prchases across the galaxy (Free, Discounted, Standard, Expensive)
• Goods Availability: Governs the quantity and range of items on sale at Trade Terminals (Abundant, Standard, Scarce)
• Inventory Stack Limits: Scales inventory slot capacity (Standard, Restricted, Harsh)

---

3) Combat settings

No Man's Sky features combat as well, and this is where players can make life hell for themselves if they choose to.

• Enemy Strength: Determines how stronge foes are, including hostile creatures, Sentinels and pirates (Weak, Standard, Challenging)
• On-foot Combat: Controls frequency of combat encounters while on-foot (None, Minimal, Standard, Hostile)
• Space Combat: Controls frequency of combat encounters while in space (None, Minimal, Standard, Hostile)
• Creatures: Governs AI behaviour of creatures (Passive, Defensive, Predators On)

---

4) Ease of use

Give yourself a leg up (or don't) with these good-to-have options in No Man's Sky.

• Tutorial Missions: Enable or disable tips and tutorials (Enabled, Disabled)
• Inventory Transfer Range: Governs the range to allow transfer between nearby Inventories (Infinite, Nearby)
• Hyperdrive System Access: Determine whether or not specialist drives are needed to accesss blue, green and red star systems (Unrestricted, Specialised)
• Base Power: Control whether generators or other power networks need to be built which run on Power Modeules (Free, Standard)
• Reputation & Standing Gain: Scales how quickly reputation is gained among a faction (Very Fast, Fast, Standard, Challenging)
• Starting Slots: Tweak the number of slots for various elements like inventory, Companions and more that players start the game with (Maximum, Standard)

Are you satisfied with the latest update? No Man's Sky is available on PC, PS4, PS5, XB1, XSX|S, and Nintendo Switch.