Pre-order bonuses can get pretty bad, but it’s not very often they break your game entirely. Until No Man’s Sky.
Some context: When you start off in No Man’s Sky, your character has to learn how to travel through the galaxy. By following a few basic paths for the first hour or so, you’ll eventually get the blueprint for a hyperdrive, which lets your ship warp from region to region. You’ll also get the blueprint for antimatter, which you can use to assemble new warp cells and charge up your hyperdrive. (Each warp requires a cell.)
The problem is, the Alpha Vector ship you get from pre-ordering at retailers like EB Games comes pre-installed with its own hyperdrive. That means you can warp around the galaxy without actually starting the opening sequence and getting the hyperdrive or antimatter blueprints, which has led to some problems as people find themselves unable to make any progress in the game.
Multiple people have reached out to Kotaku‘s tips line and posted on various forums about this problem. Some have talked about buying new ships only to find that their snazzy new purchases have no hyperdrives and can’t actually warp anywhere. Others say they can’t get more warp cells because they don’t have the blueprint for antimatter. People have tried exploring planets and buying stuff from space stations but ultimately found themselves out of luck. (Our advice: Reset the game and use a different ship!)
Hopefully the developers at Hello Games will find a fix soon.
Comments
32 responses to “The No Man’s Sky Pre-Order Ship Is Breaking The Game For Some People”
I find the same issue with certain Uplay bonuses, like in ACUnity there was an overpowered automatic pistol that helped me dominate through the majority of the storyline,
nowadays I just get standard editions, cheaper and I get more game for my dollar, until I finish the core game then I contemplate getting either a season pass or a new game
So, were you hampered from carrying on through the game like these people were?
Whilst it’s not exactly the same, it’s still a relevant point as we are talking about preorder bonuses. And I totally get what he’s saying too. I often find that preorder bonuses can make the early game way too easy.
Indeed, through my own fault I had become dependent on that gun and when I had to do a stealth mission my skill set was completely warped. I didn’t have to restart my game but I did have to grind a few missions for days to rebalance my skill set.
What I did (which seems to have dodged the issue): Don’t redeem the bonus ship until after you’ve constructed the hyperdrive. The antimatter blueprint sequence will still kick in.
I did this as a matter of course (didn’t want to spoil the game’s tutorial), but it seems like this may be the practical way to do it afterall.
I did the same thing and had no issue as well. Didn’t want to miss out on anything crucial looks like it was a good choice to make following the games vague tutorial.
I did the same thing same, purely by luck though as I had forgotten to claim the ship 🙂 I’ve now got nearly 900k after finding a planet full of gold, but all the ships I come across are 1.5 million 🙁
I saved up 6million units from grinding gravitino balls on a dead moon got myself a nice 3 mill Starship now
Ahh, wait till you find
a planet with Sac Venom. That stuff spawns by the cargo load. I managed to find a trading post there to boot. Made a mill each run and was about a 10 min round trip 😀I have the Alpha Vector ship. I have used it since the first planet. I also just got the blueprints to make the antimatter yesterday and have the mission to go back to the space station next to the second planet from my starting one so I can make it.
It was that space station that first gave me the quest to go the second planet to investigate a crash that got me the blueprint.
Did these people skip those steps? Can they go back and do that?
I’ve got the alpha vector spacecraft and haven’t had any issues, I’ve also crafted the antimatter and warp cells, so I guess I’m lucky. Mind you I did still get the first spacecraft running so that might make all the difference for me
As much as I want to jump onto this game, from what I can see from a lot of streams/friends playing it, I really can’t justify the $79 price point at the moment.
I love the unique concept and the fanbase backing this game, especially for such a small studio! It is amazing and a step in the right direction for games, but I cannot merit the $79, if the starting price point was $59-$69 different story completely but when I purchased a massive game such as Uncharted 4 on release for $69 (incredible game) I don’t get the price gap.
So, there’s no doubt that if you’d seen the (numerous) posts Kotaku has done lately on NMS,, you’d know there’s actually a copy from GOG for $60 AUD for PC.
If you didn’t see them – There’s a copy from GOG you can buy for $60 AUD 😛
Well it is only $62 at GOG :p
This explains my frustration last night. I thought it was the lack of sleep so i turned it off and figured i would save it for the weekend. Might delete my save and start again now lol
I started using the alpha vector straight away, everything seem fine until i bought my first new/bigger ship. The photon cannons don’t work properly on any ship I buy, they fire but do next to no damage and says I need to recharge them but there’s no way to do it.
I’ve restarted and doing the hyperdrive stuff first in the hope that it’s somehow related.
Nah, photon cannons just suck. Lazors ftw.
They should at least damage the asteroids though.
Blasphemy!
I have the death sentence on twelve systems because of my Photon Cannons!
…
You’ll be DEAD!
I just can’t hit anything worth a damn with those things. At least with the pew pew you almost can’t miss.
Fair enough, I turned the sensitivity down for my flight controls to help with that 🙂
Yeah I almost got stuck. Had to buy some antimatter from a trader to jump a second time. But in the next system it updated with the quest to get the plans.
I managed to wander away from the start area without clicking on all the stuff so i never saw the Atlas path options … and now i cant get back to my starting planet as i warped away. Guess ill just be and explorer then
After a while you meet a dude who gives you the option to join Atlas co again, if you want.
I gather it makes things more linear.
I hate pre-order bonuses that give me an unfair advantage – some have even trivialized entire games for me. I remember some of the Mass Effect (was it 2 or 3?) bonuses being particularly bad.
Why do all my NMS posts always lead back to Mass Effect?
I waited till I had my hyperdrive then redeemed the ship just to get rid of the msg it had 4 less cargo to I went to switch my ship back it was now gone so I went to an earlier save but It glitched I had the name of my old ship with the bigger cargo but looks like the bonus ship
Also I didn’t get anti matter blue print been looking every where in vendors
ha… PS4 users…
My pre-order ship was super broken.
Pre-ordered the limited edition (like steel books).
Get home, no code in the bag…
I swear, every time I get something pre-ordered from EB they never put the code in the bag with your game unless you remember to ask them. I cannot be bothered, I already have a pretty good ship.
Couldn’t you just recycle then re-install the drives to get the quest line to trigger?
Ah, I wondered about that…
For me, the quest was telling me to leave the planet and go to space, after I got my preorder ship. And that was fine. It was talking about firing up my hyperdrive, etc. But I never did it. I mined and upgraded and mined and upgraded, and eventually bought a 25 slot ship from the nearby space station, replacing my trusty preorder ship.
THEN I realized it didn’t have a hyperdrive, started the process for building it, and the quest line kicked back in.
The blueprint missions still pop but its random
Anyone else getting error CE-34878-0? I’m about 15 hours in. Crashes straight as save loads.