No Man’s Sky, whether you’ve played it for a minute or a hundred hours, doesn’t give much away. It’s up to you to do most of the legwork, and this applies as much to saving your progress as it does to anything else.
Thankfully, we’re here to show you exactly how to save in this game, via a series of different methods (to learn which method is best used, when, head to our FAQs).
To learn how to save in No Man’s Sky, simply follow our step-by-step guides below. For all additional information, see our FAQs at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to Autosave in No Man’s Sky
If you’ve not got the materials to build a save station, or are nowhere near a save beacon, then your best bet is to trigger an autosave. And the easiest way to do that? Exit your starship. That’s right! That’s all it takes. Simply land your starship on solid ground (or in a space station if you’re far from a planetary surface), and exit your ship.
As soon as your astronaut character appears outside, standing next to the cockpit of your spaceship, an autosave will be triggered and your progress is safe. Wait a few seconds for the save to complete, and you can safely exit the game.
How to manually save in No Man’s Sky (method one)
If you’re near any man-made structures on a planetary surface (which you can either find by purchasing maps from a space station, cruising around in your spaceship across the planetary surface, or by scanning the planet using your spaceship scanner), there’s bound to be a save beacon.
The only structures this doesn’t apply to are ancient ruins and alien monoliths; otherwise, you should see a streetlamp looking save beacon. Approach it and activate it in order to both scan the surrounding area (mapping it to your index) and manually saving your game at the same time. Wait a few seconds for the save to complete, and you can safely exit the game.
How to manually save in No Man’s Sky (method two)
Alternatively, if you’re nowhere near your spaceship, and are miles from the nearest man-made structure, your best bet is to build your own portable save point.
Note: You won’t be able to do this straight off the bat, however pretty much as soon as you’ve completed the in-game ‘tutorial’ surrounding acquiring and using Blueprints. Having built your first ‘Blueprint Analyser’, scan the surrounding area for ‘Buried Technology’. Find enough buried tech, and you’ll acquire Blueprints. Take these back to your ‘Blueprint Analyser’ and you can purchase the blueprint to build a portable save beacon.
To build a portable save beacon, you’ll need 2 x Metal Plating (made in your inventory from 50 x Ferrite Dust (x2)), and 1 x Di-hydrogen Jelly (refined from the Di-ydrogen crystals you can find dotted around most planetary surfaces).
Once you have the requisite materials, press UP on your D-PAD, then navigate to TECHNOLOGY > PORTABLE > SAVE BEACON and press A/X to build it the planet’s surface.
Now, activate the save beacon to manually save your game. Wait a few seconds for the save to complete, and you can safely exit the game.
And there you have it! Three super easy, accessible ways to save, to suit any explorer’s play-style. For any additional information, or if you still have unanswered questions, please see our FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I save from the Start Menu in No Man’s Sky?
No Man’s Sky is quite simply one of the gaming world’s most impressive and signature achievements in open-world role-playing gameplay. There is no other game quite like it. Start the game up and you’ll find yourself dropped without any warning onto the surface of a toxic or radioactive planet. Your spacesuit, which should usually protect you from such elements, is broken, as is your scanner and other life-saving equipment.
With only minimal direction, it’s up to you to repair your equipment and survive long enough to begin the game. Quite a shocking, even frustrating, and most certainly an unexpected start. Little do you know that this will characterize much of the gameplay moving forward.
No Man’s Sky is not a game for the easy-quitters. It takes time (a lot of time) to master, and no instructions will be handed to you on a plate. You’ll have to work out for yourself, without much guidance, how to do most of the things in this massive, procedurally generated universe.
The same applies to saving the game. Open up the start menu, and you’ll be surprised to find that there is no option to manually save your game. Instead, you’ll be challenged to either initiate an automatic save, or find yourself an in-game save point at which to record your progress.
What’s the most effective means of saving in No Man’s Sky?
This totally depends on both your style of play and current situation, but we’d probably say that initiating an automatic save (or autosave) trigger is the simplest, most straightforward, and easily accessible means of saving in No Man’s Sky. (We discuss your best option for triggering an autosave in-game in the tutorials above.)
However, sometimes initiating an autosave isn’t the easiest method of saving. Or, you might just feel more comfortable and confident manually saving – certainly, we like the comfort of pressing that button to save, rather than hoping that it was indeed the autosave icon you saw pop-up and disappear a second ago.
If you’re by any man-made structure on a No Man’s Sky world, then there’s probably a beacon around. Whether you’ve been here before or not, activating a beacon does more than just map the territory to your index, it also manually saves the game. Beacons are tall, white, metal poles usually with a few boxes and wires hanging around (they look like lampposts, essentially).
Alternatively, if you’re out in the wild, miles from your starship or any man-made structures, then your best means of saving is undoubtedly to build a portable save point (provided you have the right components and have unlocked the blueprint!) Do so, and activate it in order to save when there are no other options around.
Are autosaves in No Man’s Sky as reliable as the manual save features?
Yes, most certainly. If you’re certain that you’ve triggered an autosave (you’ll see the icon pop-up in the bottom-right corner of the screen when you do), then you can rest assured that your game has been saved and your progress recorded as securely and safely as it would be in the event of a manual save.
