The Abyss, No Man’s Sky’s latest update is now live and packs far more new features than anticipated. Loosely teased as related to Halloween, The Abyss is instead a major overhaul of the underwater elements of Hello Games’ space faring sci-fi sim.
Chiefly, The Abyss focuses on underwater gameplay through visual improvements focused on adding detail to the flora and fauna living within the depths. Underwater biomes are now higher quality and more diverse with five times more variety in aquatic flora and fauna, ranging from more frequency to more interesting creatures and new terrifying predators with different behaviors: jellyfish, the Abyssal Horror, one-eyed slugs etc. We were particularly taken with the clam-like creature dangling a spherical treasure tantalizingly before clasping shut, presumably to ensnare its prey.
New lucrative trade goods and craftable aquatic substances can now be found on the seabed as can sunken ruins and lost cargo. These allow players to craft new goods, construct new base components, and make a nifty profit on the galactic market. Crystallised Sulphur, Living Pearls and Hadal Cores are among the new additions. Rare crashed starships can be found underwater for players to restore to their former glory.
Add to that over 20 new base parts for players to create their dream submerged habitat such as indoor aquariums. Swimming and diving controls have been rejigged as well with the ability to use the jetpack and, gesture underwater, as well as swim on the surface with added ease. A host of new techs for deeper underwater exploration, a la Subnautica
The Abyss also adds several more hours of gameplay through a sinister new story line dubbed The Dreams of the Deep about a freighter crew stranded in the depths of the sea, bringing added context to the new changes.
As previously teased, The Abyss introduces the Nautilon, a submersible vehicle to ease navigation through water as well as mine and fight off predators. As with other No Man’s Sky vehicles, the Nautilon is fully customizable and offers new submarine tech to improve performance. The Nautilon works both underwater and on the surface. It can be summoned to any ocean on a planet and docked at underwater habitats.
Beyond the underwater content, the update fixes a number of bugs and offers a few quality of life improvement, which you can check out here in the full patch notes.
