No Man's Sky Exosuit Guide

No Man’s Sky Exosuit Guide

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No Man’s Sky is a vast game that tasks you to survive not just the hazards of a single planet but an entire Galaxy full of dangers and pitfalls. Only your Exosuit is there to protect you from them all. 

Weather Conditions at extremes you could hardly imagine, and the dangerous planets that litter the galaxy might seem treacherous. Yet, all it takes is understanding your armor to leave you feeling invincible. 

Even better, you’ll start getting the pirates or bounty hunters after you to believe the same.

The Exosuit might seem like a complicated beast, full of potential upgrades and multiple inventories to keep track of. However, with this simple No Man’s Sky Exosuit guide, I will explain absolutely everything you could possibly need to know to venture out into the stars without a care for what dangers might meet you. 

no man's sky bubbleland
Bubbleland is a beautiful as it is maniacal. Image by Daniel Meierer

Exosuit Breakdown

  • Your critical Exosuit-based systems are separated between Hazard Protection, Life Support, Defense, and Mobility.
  • Always keep plenty of Oxygen, Sodium, and Carbon on hand to fuel your support systems.
  • Storms deplete your Hazard Protection at an accelerated rate.
  • Exo-Suit upgrades and Inventory Slots can be purchased from Iteration: Selene on the Anomaly or Exo-Suit Upgrade vendors in Space Stations.
  • Repairing Drop Pods will reward you with Inventory Slots. 
  • One Inventory Slot can be purchased from each new Space Station you visit.
  • One Inventory Slot can be purchased from the Anomaly in every new system it is summoned to.
  • You can not keep Cargo in your Tech inventory nor Tech in your Cargo Inventory.
  • Blueprint upgrades can be crafted after purchase. 
  • Upgrade modules are procedurally generated based on the system the module is made for.
  • Upgrades will gain a bonus based on placement. Place upgrades related to the same device next to each other.
  • Even with all discoverable alien words known, Translator upgrades will be needed to translate undiscoverable words.

Suit Systems

You are likely to stumble across many pieces of tech in your adventures, but only three are crucial to your survival. 

In particular, Life Support and Hazard Protection must constantly be powered by fuel. Your Jetpack will be needed to explore the wilderness. However, it simply feeds off the Oxygen fueling your Life Support systems.

Suit Systems can be upgraded through blueprints and modules purchased from the Space Station or Anomaly. They can also randomly be rewarded to you for completing side quests and structures among the stars. 

Life Support

Element: Oxygen

Alternative Resources: Life Support Gel, Dioxite, Food such as Honey Butter.

NMS Life Support (2)
Image by Daniel Meierer

The core of your survival out in the oxygen-deprived depths of space, Life Support Systems keeps breathable Oxygen pumped through your suit. 

Travelers should be advised that it isn’t just your lungs that will drain your system’s oxygen levels. The Exosuit’s Jetpack, Speed Augmentation, Personal Forcefield, and Torch will drain your systems. 

All drains increase while on a Dead Planet.

Hazard Protection

  • Element: Sodium
  • Alternative Resources: Sodium Nitrate, Ion Batteries
NMS Hazard Protection
Image by Daniel Meierer

As the name implies, Hazard Protection keeps the player safe from the various extreme environments that an active explorer will regularly come across. 

Hazards come classified in various levels. With Gaia Worlds and Non-extreme scorched environments being considered the lowest danger level. While extreme toxic and extreme scorched storms are considered the highest. 

Hazardous Plants are so toxic that not even S-class protection upgrades will save you from their toxins. Therefore, immediate destruction or retreat is advised; otherwise, you will be known as the Traveler who got bested by an immobile plant.

Hazard Protection will make its purpose immediately evident, as you are forced to find sodium to repair this system from the moment the game begins. 

Jetpack

  • Recharge: Life Support.
NMS Jetpack
Image by Daniel Meierer

The Jetpack is your new friend in preventing untimely death by being wedged into cramped spaces. Just as you would expect, it allows the player short boosts in flight at the expense of the Exosuit’s Life Support fuel.

Using Deuterium-rich plants will allow for a ten-second increase in sustained flight and unlimited fuel while supercharged.

Bread will grant an 8-second bonus once consumed.

Bodies of water instantly replenish the Jetpack. Furthermore, the Jetpack can be used with no drain while underwater. It will still degrade the life support’s fuel reserves, however.

Defense Systems

NMS Defense Systems
Image by Daniel Meierer

Life Support protects you from the trials the nature of the cosmos will put you through. But, sadly, that will do little when things start shooting back. 

Thankfully, your Exosuit comes equipped with its own high-tech deflector shield. Its charge is shown as the solid bar in the upper left corner of the screen. This will only appear on the Hud when you receive damage. 

This charge will deplete every time the Exosuit receives direct damage. This shield will automatically recharge should the Traveler avoid taking damage for a long enough period. 

The shield can also be recovered in the heat of battle by destroying Combat Supplies dropped by destroyed Sentinels. Hazard Protection Units, a base building item, can be activated to refuel your shield instantly. This requires the battle to be within the radius of your base to build and place it. 

Continue reading about No Man’s Sky Bases.

Health

NMS Health
Image by Daniel Meierer

Should the Exosuit’s shield be depleted, the lifeform inside will start taking hits. Politely called the Exosuit’s Core. The player’s health is represented directly under the shield meter through the circle-enclosed first-aid symbols.

In those dire times when your core health begins to be depleted, only health-restoring objects such as the Health Stations will heal you. These are found using your Analyzer, appearing as medical crosses.

The game begins with 3 core health squares regardless of game mode. However, what happens upon death will change based on which mode you choose for your save. 

Normal Mode will involve that tried and true survival game method of trucking it back to where you lost your items. This includes dying in space. Only in this case, you will need to repair your ship.

Dying in Survival will cause you to lose your inventory. If you die out of your starship, you will respawn in your ship. If you die in your ship, you will respawn on the nearest planet ejected from your crashed ship. Your ship, in these instances, will be missing all inventory items and one or multiple components will require resources to be repaired. 

Permadeath wipes all progress.

Storage

Fret not about your inventory menu, it might seem a little overwhelming having three inventory spaces, four including your starship, but this allows for optimal organization! 

Items can be moved between inventories through quick swap. When picking an object up, you will be asked to choose between the internal and Cargo inventories. 

An Inventory slot is capable of holding one of the following items. 

  • 99,999 units of combined resources in normal mode. Elements will stay in the same stack as long as there is enough room in your inventory. This number is reduced to 250 if playing survival or permadeath. 
  • 5-10 units of a product. Stack max is dependent on the product in question.
  • A single technology upgrade.

However you choose to distribute them, three of these slots will automatically be taken up by Life Support, Hazard Protection, and your Jetpack.

General Inventory

NMS Gen Inventory
Image by Daniel Meierer

 Your general inventory starts with 24 inventory slots and is capable of being upgraded for a total of 48 slots. They become increasingly costly. The first will start at 5,000 units while your 24th will cost 240,000.

Thanks to its size and ease of use, the general inventory is best left organized with your life-saving Sodium, Oxygen, and Carbon at the top. Meanwhile, the middle should hold all your necessary crafting elements, and the bottom left for things you wish to sell. 

Cargo Inventory

NMS Cargo
Image by Daniel Meierer

You only begin with two inventory slots, which I generally use to house Salvaged Data. After that, an additional 42 slots can be added, eventually becoming as good as your spacecraft and freighter is for storing your money-makers. 

Unlike the previous two categories, Cargo can not house technology.

The first slot costs 50,000 units, with the 18th through 45th slots costing one million each.

Once you buy five general inventory slots, it will be cost-effective to buy another cargo slot. However, the cargo slots become more expensive at a more rapid rate than your general inventory, so following this method of upgrading is advised. 

Technology Inventory

NMS Tech
Image by Daniel Meierer

Unlike General and Cargo storage, the tech inventory can only house Exosuit tech and its upgrades. So, starting with four, you should immediately move your Life Support, Hazard Protection, and Jetpack to this inventory to open up space in the general inventory.

Upgrading the Tech Inventory is important but less of a priority than the high real estate of the other two inventories. Should you have upgrades or tech clogging up these inventories, this is generally the time to hurry off to a space station or drop pod the moment your wallet allows for it. 

Upgrading Inventory

updating inventory no man's sky

Additional slots can be purchased. However, the price increases with each consecutive inventory slot purchased. You can choose between your general, technology, and cargo storage upon purchasing and increasing storage.

Eventually, this cost will become far too expensive for the beginner adventurer. However, there is another method of increasing inventory space.

Inventory slots can be purchased either from an Exosuit upgrade vendor on any Space Station or from Iteration: Selene on the Anomaly.

Drop Pods

NMS Drop Pod
Image by Daniel Meierer

While the initial upgrades to inventory are easy enough, consecutive upgrades require a large amount of scratch to accumulate. Therefore, thanks to the difficulty of rising from rags to riches in any reality, Drop Pods are the recommended option. Depending on your system, it can be far cheaper based on whether you are currently farming units or not.

Drop Pods can be found at random while exploring planets. However, you can perform a more concentrated effort hunting these Drop Pods down with some tech wizardry. 

By building a signal booster, you will be able to Locate Nearby Structures. First, however, you will likely stumble across endless abandoned buildings and trading hubs. 

Through trial and error, you will either find some Drop Pods or enough units to spend on buying the slots themselves.

 The easier, though now a bit more costly, method of obtaining inventory upgrades is to purchase the coordinate data from Trade Networks.

Just because it is cheaper, eventually, doesn’t mean it will be easy. The Drop Pod will be broken. Like any technology, repairing it will require resources from the plentiful Oxygen to the more complex Antimatter. 

Technology & Upgrades

While you might feel unstoppable once you get a feel for your first few Systems, things will get progressively more difficult. Stranger peculiarities will reveal themselves the deeper you venture into the galaxy. 

The storms will become more extreme, planets more uninhabitable as they are beautiful. Worst of all, the Sentinels will be far more obnoxious with whatever they keep getting angry about while a totally innocent Traveler is out on an asteroid mining or hunting expedition. 

You will eventually need to procure some upgrades to take on these trials. Your starship and base aren’t the only things we get to tinker with. 

Upgrade Modules

exosuit inventory upgrade module

Upgrade modules can only be purchased from Exosuit Technology Merchants in the Space Station. They are next to the Starship Upgrade Vendor and the Appearance Modification Station.

Modules will also routinely be given as rewards for side-quests and, occasionally, within suspicious goods found taking down pirate starships.

Unlike blueprint upgrades, Upgrade Modules are procedurally generated upon opening/installing them. They will be given random names drawn from a pool, meaning I’ll just explain the bonuses here.

Up to three upgrades of a single module type can be installed at a time per inventory, with the fourth disabling the lot of them. 

The placement of the upgrade modules is essential. 

Placing upgrades next to related upgrades and the suit system they represent will increase their bonuses above the listed value. You will know this is active through the colored ring that encloses connected upgrades.

Classes rank C at the lowest and S at the highest, with X acting as a wildcard with a potential to be higher than S. X has a broader range for its bonuses but a higher maximum than even S class.

Exosuit Upgrades can only be installed in the General or the Technology storage tabs. 

Movement System Upgrade Modules

Between one to four bonuses pertaining to the Jetpack will be given to the generated object. It might occasionally grant up to two bonuses to sprint. These can include

  • Increased Fuel Capacity
  • Greater take-off height for the Jetpack.
  • Greater fuel efficiency.
  • Faster jetpack cooldown.
  • Increased sprint duration.
  • Decreased sprint cooldown.

Life Support Upgrade Modules

Life Support Modules are split between only two types of bonuses. 

  • Increased fuel capacity.
  • Solar Panels reduce Life Support Drain from movement.

Hazard Support Upgrade Modules

These modules only upgrade various types of protection and can be purchased individually. The randomly generated bonuses are focused entirely on the level of bonus protection offered. The Hazards presented are Toxic, Radiation, Heat, Cold, and Underwater.

Blueprint Upgrades

Exosuit Upgrade Tree

Blueprint Upgrades will grant specific effect bonuses to your Exosuit’s support systems. However, you will need to unlock them by meeting Iteration: Selene in the Anomaly before you can consistently use them.

Some blueprints will be available from Technology Merchants found in space stations and trade buildings discovered on planets. 

Once purchased, a blueprint upgrade can be crafted from your inventory screen.

Blueprint upgrades can be repaired for half the cost of construction. Dismantling the upgrade will grant the same. This excludes any singular components, which will still be required for repair and will not be received on dismantling the upgrade. 

Personal Refiner

  • Class: N/A
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 360 Nanite
  • Ingredients: Chromatic Metal x100, Oxygen x150
  • Effect: A single-element refinery allows players to refine substances in their Exosuit while exploring. A fuel source, such as a Fuel Inverter, is required.

Hazard Blueprints

Coolant Network

  • Class: C
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 160 nanite
  • Ingredients: Phosphorus x150, Silver x60, Copper x75
  • Effect: 21% Increased protection from hot environments.

Thermic Layer

  • Class: C
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 160 nanite
  • Ingredients: Dioxite x150, Silver x60, Copper x75
  • Effect: 21% Increased protection from cold environments.

Radiation Deflector

  • Class: C
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 160 nanite
  • Ingredients: Uranium x150, Silver x60, Copper x75
  • Effect: Increased protection from radioactive environments.

Toxin Suppressor

  • Class: C
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 160 nanite
  • Ingredients: Ammonia x150, Silver x60, Copper x75
  • Effect: Increased protection from toxic environments.

Shield Lattice

  • Class: B
  • Location: Tech Merchants
  • Price: 120 Nanite
  • Ingredients: Sodium Nitrate x60, Antimatter x1
  • Effect: Prolongs environmental protection duration.

Hazmat Gauntlet

  • Class: N/A
  • Location: Exosuit Upgrade Merchant
  • Price: 80 Nanite
  • Ingredients: Chromatic Metal x50, Sodium Nitrate x20
  • Effect: Allows the handling and harvesting of hazardous plants and materials without the threat of damage or danger.

LS Blueprints

Oxygen Recycler

  • Class: C
  • Location: Known from spawn.
  • Ingredients: Oxygen x60
  • Effect: 10% increase in the player’s life support capacity.
  • Upgrade Bonus: The oxygen bonus is further increased if placed next to the Life Support or Life Support Upgrades found in the technology upgrades above.

Aeration Membrane

  • Class: B
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 120 nanite
  • Ingredients: Oxygen x150, Silver x60, Copper x75
  • Effect: This allows the player more Oxygen when exploring underwater.

Oxygen Rerouter

  • Class: A
  • Location: Tech Merchants. Iteration Serene, Space Anomaly. 
  • Price: 250 Nanites
  • Ingredients: Chromatic Metal x100, Quantum Computer x1, Crystal Sulphide x6
  • Effect: The player gains an emergency oxygen supply directly from the life support system. 

Star Seed

  • Class: N/A
  • Location: Finish The Atlas Path mission and choose to birth a new star.
  • Ingredients: Platinum x16, Tritium x16, Gold x16
  • Effect: Permanent One Unit increase in health.
  • Upgrade Bonus: Adjacency Bonus with Remembrance.

Remembrance

  • Class: N/A
  • Location: Finish the Artemis Path mission, The Purge.
  • Ingredients: Heart of the Sun x1, Platinum x8
  • Effect: Permanent One Unit increase in health.
  • Upgrade Bonus: Adjacency Bonus with Star Seed.

Jetpack Upgrades

Neural Stimulator

  • Class: B
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 90 nanite
  • Ingredients: Chromatic Metal x100, Condense Carbon x100
  • Effect: Increases jetpack and sprint duration.
  • Upgrade Bonus: Further increases acquired bonus.

In order to receive the upgrade bonus, the neural stimulator must be adjacent to the rocket boots, movement upgrade, or airburst engine.

Rocket Boots

  • Class: A
  • Location: Any Tech Merchant
  • Price: 200 nanite
  • Ingredients: Tritium x100, Hydraulic Wiring x1
  • Effect: Rapidly pressing the jump button will allow for greater leaps and increase flight time.
  • Upgrade Bonus: While the Rocket Boots do not gain any improvements if adjacent to a Neural Stimulator or Movement System Upgrade, it will trigger their bonuses.

Effective Water Jets

  • Class: A
  • Location: Any Tech Merchant
  • Price: 350 nanite
  • Ingredients: Chromatic Metal x100, Oxygen x100, Living Pearl x6
  • Effect: Reduces marine movement’s strain on Exosuit’s Life Support Systems. Decreases Life Support Drain caused by water movement threefold.
  • Upgrade Bonus: N/A

Airburst Engine

  • Class: S
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Space Anomaly
  • Price: 460 nanite
  • Ingredients: Chromatic Metal x150, Phosphorus x150, Oxygen x150
  • Effect: Grants the Jetpack limited recharging while airborne.
  • Upgrade Bonus: While the Airburt Engine itself does not gain any improvements if adjacent to a Neural Stimulator or Movement System Upgrade, it will trigger their bonuses.

Translator Upgrades

NMS Language Barrier

When you first start playing No Man’s Sky, you will notice that your character requires context to understand what a creature wants. Unfortunately, this will often lead to you accidentally giving a wayward NPC in need of supplies the wrong material.

Automatic Translation Devices help bridge the gaps left between knowledge stones and dialect help from NPCs. Each translator will translate a set number of words the player hasn’t learned.

Four translators are available, with the first given to you early in the story by Artemis. Their abilities stack. However, unlike the other upgrades, no synergy bonus is given for having them next to each other. 

Even after finding all discoverable words in all four languages, a few words are incapable of being permanently learned. This means that to understand the whole meaning of every NPC, you will need to make a couple of translators eventually.

Artemis Translator

  • Class: C
  • Location: Artemis will give you this for free during the Artemis questline.
  • Ingredients: Copper x100, Microprocessor x1
  • Effect: One word per interaction involving the Artemis Path missions.

Simple Translator

  • Class: B
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Spawn Anomaly
  • Price: 90 nanite
  • Ingredients: Wiring Loom x 1
  • Effect: Temporarily translates a single word per interaction.

Superior Translator

  • Class: A
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Spawn Anomaly
  • Price: 310 nanite
  • Ingredients: Chromatic Metal x50, Quantum Computer x1, Wiring Loom x2
  • Effect: Temporarily translates two words per interaction.

Advanced Translator

  • Class: S
  • Location: Iteration Selene, Spawn Anomaly
  • Price: 580 nanite
  • Ingredients: Wiring Loom x3, Korvax Convergence Cube x2, Platinum x50
  • Effect: Temporarily translates three words per interaction.

FAQs

Question: How do I change my armor’s appearance in No Man’s Sky?

Answer: Every space station houses an Appearance Modifier. However, you will eventually unlock the ability to craft these as a base-building item. The Appearance Modifier will not just allow you to change the race of your player avatar. Each race has various customization options for your armor, such as the overall design and color scheme. Additionally, changes to your Exosuit’s appearance will not change its stats.

Question: What should I Upgrade first in No Man’s Sky?

Answer: The Rocket Boots upgrade and Jetpack-oriented upgrades are the first suit system I recommend focusing on. It drastically cuts down exploration time until you get your Exocraft system up and running on your Freight. Rocket Boots send you rocketing horizontally should you activate your Jetpack while sprinting.

Question: What is the quickest way to max out my inventory slots in No Man’s Sky?

Answer: Get yourself a hearty stock of Warp Cells once you have gathered a good supply of units and have access to the Anomaly. From there, start jumping from system to system, making sure to visit each Space Station and summon the Anomaly, purchasing your system-allotted Inventory Slot before jumping again.

Conclusion

As you progress closer to the Galactic Center, planets you touch down on in No Man’s Sky will prove as deadly as the Sentinels and enraged felines roaming them. Understanding the difference between your Hazard Protection and Life Support will save you countless poorly spent units.

Just like every aspect of Hello Game’s sprawling title, the Exosuit is elaborate and might seem unapproachable at first glance, but it is one of the millions of things you innately micromanage in the game to make you feel like a mastermind taking on the galaxy.

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