No Man’s Sky is a game about exploration and players finding their own way across the universe. However, this will tend to leave some players confused about how to start certain quests. The newest update for No Man’s Sky added in a new race of Machine-like aliens along with a whole quest line for players to follow. It will not show players exactly where to go, instead leaving most to figure out how to trigger the first quest “Those Who Returned.”
How to Start No Man’s Sky Autophage Questline
Complete the Main Campaign
Players must first have finished “The Purge,” the final quest on the Artemis main storyline. This will dedicate a huge chunk of time for players, so a new save is not recommended for those wanting to jump into the new content right away. The game will guide players where they will need to go for each step of the quest and is crucial for getting upgrades to help survive the vast star systems that will need to be explored.
Have a Settlement and Complete “A Trace of Metal”
The second step will involve players creating a planetary settlement and completing “A Trace of Metal” quest, which will involve No Man’s Sky players creating their own sentinel companion. This quest also has a few requirements to trigger. Players must not have any outstanding tasks to do for their settlement; in “The Settlers” mission log, it should say free to explore.
Once the two requirements are met, players will simply need to leave the star system that their settlement is currently residing in. The quest should trigger after a warp or two from the hyperdrive, so if the quest doesn’t trigger after the first jump, it should trigger after another. Player’s settlements should hail them, stating that they are under attack and need help.
For Switch players, however, this quest should trigger after 25 warps. Once this has been achieved, Switch players should get a message from Iteration Tethys asking them to see them aboard the Space Anamoly. After this, the quest should be the same for all users.
Warp to a Dissonant Star System
Finally, players will need to warp to a Dissonant Star System; these star systems are characterized by the corrupted worlds that inhabit them. Players may have trouble locating one as they will be procedurally generated, but while on the Galaxy Map, any dissonant star system should have it marked in its description.
So, players will need to search around on the map, but once warped, they should get a hail from a wounded Autophage. Helping the Autophage should then start the first quest in the Autophage storyline “They Who Returned.”
This will then start the entire quest line, and No Man’s Sky will start to guide players through the main objectives while encouraging players to explore. There is certainly more to enjoy inside the echoes update between the newly added trench runs, but this quest will give players a good overview of all the new update has to offer.
No Man’s Sky is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
