No Man’s Sky and the Last 2025 Holiday Expedition – Reflecting on Expedition 20 Redux: Breach

There is, no doubt, a lesson to be learned for me from the No Man’s Sky holiday expeditions.

The holiday expeditions are coming

The lesson may be, despite my complaining about some aspects of the five holiday expeditions, all of which I ran, including the two repeats that I had run not too long ago, that I like expeditions.

I suspect that there are a few aspects to this.

Sure, there is the obvious one, the rewards… and I cannot say that I dislike that part of the routine.  But that can’t be all of it.  Or even much of it.  I didn’t even get any special rewards out of the last two repeat expeditions.

Instead I think it is the structure that the expedition brings to a game that can otherwise be a pretty wide-open sandbox.  The sandbox aspect is grand and I have gone off in any number of directions over time… many directions except the center of the galaxy I guess… need to work on that… but sometimes it is nice to have a bit of task driven narrative to ride along with.  Let the game do the work for a bit.

Also, having spent time working on expanding my inventory and collecting a backlog of supplies on my main save, it can be refreshing to start anew for a bit without having to start from scratch.

So off I went into the expedition, trotting over to the first base on the first planet.

Here is where I pick up my ride…

My ship… a tall one this time… was waiting for me, one among a whole pack of vaguely insectoid exploration ships.

Are those wings? Antennae? Signal boosters for the Wi-Fi?

As part of the usual routine, the ship needed repairs, which required chromatic metal.  Fortunately, this time around, I remembered that quartzite can be refined into chromatic metal, something not mentioned in the tool tip that prompts you to get that repair done.

The tool tip remained as uninformative as before and I saw a few posts on Reddit asking how to get chromatic metal when none of the items in the tool tip were available in the first system.

In running around to gather materials, I noticed some oddly named items.

The Mineral “Canonize the RSS Hub”

I had to look up what the RSS HUB was, and I gather it is related to a Spanish speaking in-game group called the Royal Space Society.  When you’re the first to discover something you can rename it, and I gather that an RSS member got in early and started rolling out the propaganda demanding… something.  Being an “official” part of the game I guess.

Anyway, they named a bunch of things.

The plant named “RSS Hub must be canon”

Good luck with that.  Of course, they were not able to be first on everything, and somebody had some thoughts on their effort.

The mineral named, “RSS is the Devil”

Getting past that I managed to repair my ship, make the first jump, and start down the expedition path which quickly has you dropping your shiny new ship for a corvette.  You need it because you have to do a number of space walks.

Outside the corvette, wandering around in space

The story itself… isn’t all that.  It is more a matter of having a list of tasks to finish that I found satisfying.  Also, I am a fan of the corvette and will apparently jump off the back ramp and into a black hole if a tool tip tells me to.

I just need to check it off the list, okay?

Some items on the task list were more enjoyable than others… though even the under water bit, which I found to be a bit of a chore last time around, was smoother now that I had been down that path before.

Into the Nautilon and dive, dive, dive!

There was even a rainbow at the end of that venture.

If you look closely, it is a double rainbow

The one quirk was that, despite the water landing upgrade and a full load of fuel, my corvette obstinately refused to be summoned.  So I had to set sail for a bit to get myself back to my ship… which had also decided to hover 20 feet in the air, so I had to time the jet pack lift off just right to hit the boarding ramp.  But I made it.

Then there was the phase where you hunt things… where the tool tip is still broken, telling you that there are no Hungering Tendrils in the system even as you stand on the planet killing them.

They are literally on this planet, I just killed two!

So some things never change.

But each stage had some more corvette specific activities.

Stepping out in space again

One of the things I did consider when starting this expedition was turning off multiplayer.

Having other players can be a mixed blessing.  At first there is some novelty to it, as rare is the moment when you run into anybody in your main save… or such is the case for me.  But then the game starts to balk at too many players in one location and all the little player and ship location markers and notifications start to overwhelm things.

So it was a bit of a toss up.  In the end I left multiplayer on and it was fine… except for a couple of people who sent invites to group up on random planets.  I am okay with other people around, but I don’t want to… you know… actually interact or anything.

Mostly it was kind of interesting to see what people did with their initial corvette parts and how so many of us opted for the exact same simple design.

At one of the rendezvous with a chip very much like my own in the background

You can see that I added the Atlas shield booster to the top of mine.

And then I reached the end… the last bit being the fishing tasks, which were easy enough.

So it was back to the anomaly to pick what I wanted to carry back and then collect my rewards.

The end of expedition payout

12 million units and 7K nanites isn’t my best haul, but it is a nice little boost at the end of the expedition.

Now I am done and have to wait for whenever the next expedition shows up.  Probably in late February.  That is my guess.

But you too can make it through.  The expedition runs until the 13th, so you have through the weekend to get in and do it.  And, if that Reddit post is to be trusted, you can do the whole thing in two hours if you can follow instructions.

I was never very good at following those kind of instructions.  I am too easily distracted.

Related:

• Hello Games – Holiday Expeditions 2025
• NMS Wiki – List of Expeditions
• Reddit – Finish Expedition 20 in Three Hours (October 2025)
• TAGN – Heading off into Expedition 20 (October 2025)
• Reddit – NMS Breach Redux Expedition 20 In 2 HOURS – Full Guide

No Man’s Sky and the Last 2025 Holiday Run – Expedition 20 Redux: Breach

Here we are, at the fifth and final 2025 holiday expedition for No Man’s Sky.

The holiday expeditions are coming

For the final round we are back to Expedition 20: Breach.

No Man’s Sky – Breach

In their holiday expedition post, the expedition is describe as:

Breach: 31st Dec – 13th Jan Traverse a desolate and abandoned universe, confronting both the awe and the horror that lurks in deep space. Follow the tale of the ill-faded Fireship Arcadia, step into zero-gravity, and scavenge modules from its wreckage to enhance your own corvette builds. Complete milestones to earn a set of ancient, powerful Atlas-themed corvette modules.

And that about sums it up I suppose.  Again, I am not sure if I am going to run it.  I recall it having a couple of tedious bits.  But I am not a fan of some of the “under the sea” aspects of the expedition… mostly because I always forget to bring the parts with me.

My new life, 1,000 meters under the sea

Of course, part of the problem was the UI lying to me.

They were literally on this planet, I had just killed two!

I imagine they have probably fixed this by now… but we will have to see.

Meanwhile, the UI is now nudging people that the expedition is ready.

Just go to the anomaly to start the expedition

Once there, the expedition terminal should be all primed to go.

Well, it is all primed if you’re on PC.  I know from Reddit that the update for consoles can lag by a day or two at times.

Expedition 20 Redux – Breach

Now, the question is, will I run it again?  Maybe.

My previous post about running the expedition back in October, linked below, reminds me that it was not as chill as the Corvette expedition.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind another batch of the Atlas corvette parts.  We shall see how I feel this weekend I suppose.  I’ll look at the shopping list from the guide on Reddit to be sure.  I’ve done it without that once already.  We shall see.

Oh, and quartzite refines to chromatic metal!  Remember that in the first system where the usual four metals are not present!

But for those who have not run it before or who are keen to run it again, it is up.

Related:

• Hello Games – Holiday Expeditions 2025
• NMS Wiki – List of Expeditions
• Reddit – Finish Expedition 20 in Three Hours (October 2025)
• TAGN – Heading off into Expedition 20 (October 2025)
• Reddit – NMS Breach Redux Expedition 20 In 2 HOURS – Full Guide

No Man’s Sky – Heading off into Expedition 20

With the coming of Expedition 20 I figured I was going to be clever!  I had learned about expeditions with 19, so now was my chance to apply those lessons learned.

No Man’s Sky – Breach

Last time around I didn’t know what I ought to bring with me on an expedition.  This time around I figured I would at least stock up on items needed for fuel and related utility items so I could spend a bit less time scrounging for things to make my ship go.

Some goodies for the journey

It wasn’t much, but those were all items I missed having the first time around.

Having done that I hopped right into the expedition which, as before, dropped me… and many other travelers… onto a planet with instructions to go find my ship.  On the way I passed by a phosphorous node, which I promptly mined out.

Some shiny red phosphorous… is it actually red IRL?

I figured that might come in handy… and it actually did later on.

Then I pushed on to my ship, scanning things now and again to earn some credits… only to be dismayed at how little the payout was with no scanner upgrades.  Well, some cash was better than none and my ship was right there soon enough.

The first step in the journey complete

This time it wasn’t the Radiant Pillar support group, but a variety of exploration hulls.  That put me into the first phase of the expedition.

Expedition 20 – Phase 1

There were the expected milestones… all of which required some supplies.  I had to repair the launch thrusters and the hyperdrive, but that was fine because I had packed all these supplies and… wait, where are the supplies?

Oh, yeah, you have to get to the anomaly to claim the stuff on your expedition save… and the expedition was not just going to let you do that first thing.  I managed to gather stuff to fix the launch thrusters, but the hyperdrive needed chromatic metal, which the tool tip in the lower right of the screen kept stridently reminding me requires copper, cadmium, emeril, or indium.

Parts list for the hyperdrive

So I got off planet and scanned the other planets… and none of those came up as available.

How was I going to make chromatic metal?  Certainly Sean Murray wouldn’t leave us stranded in the very first system with no source of chromatic metal.  After double checking every planet I went to the wiki to see if there was any other way to get chromatic metal.

And, sure enough, there is a fifth element… not Leeloo… from which you can refine chromatic metal.  It can be done with quartzite, which was on every planet in the system.  The tool tip just failed to mention that.

So it was back down to a planet to find some of that.

Some shiny purple quartzite… is it actually purple IRL?

After processing that into chromatic I was able to get into space and start jumping to the first rendezvous point.

Headed onward at last in my little ship

Unlike expedition 19, this time around the check in points were on planets in that “approximate location” sort of way that NMS has with directions some times.  It will get you in the vicinity, but then you have to look around to find the actual location.  Not that finding it was difficult.  There are enough other players out with you that there is always somebody in the location you’re looking for, so you can just mosey on over to them.

Heading to the first check-in point

From there I was clear to get back into space and check in at the anomaly and collect my supplies.  Then it was time to undock and use a new tracker to find an corvette wreck from which one can salvage.  Cool stuff, and something new.

Just use your mining laser

While out there I did experience the bounce bug, since fixed, where you might get thrown far away from your ship.  I didn’t end up too far I guess and just motored my way back from my spacewalk.

Free falling back to the corvette

And then things kind of fell into a routine of not so much connected events as a tour of “what’s new” items for the last year or so, covering Voyagers and Worlds Parts I and II.   And that is fine, showing off some features people may not have experience before.

There were some annoying bits, like when I was supposed to go off and eliminate hungering tendrils  the UI, withholding information yet again, kept telling me that there were no infested planets in any system I checked.  Eventually I checked Reddit and found a post about the problem.  There were hungering tendrils to be eliminated all over the place.

Me eliminating a hungering tendril

But even after I had demonstrated that, the UI wouldn’t break cover and kept repeating that there were no infested planets in the current system.

They are literally on this planet, I just eliminated two of them just now!

Then there was the under sea journey where, among other things, you had to descend 1,000 units deep, which meant finding some very deep water in your Nautilon, thge under water exocraft introduced when we got all those deep water locations, because below 200 units there are additional environmental hazards from the pressure.  That was, in fact, new for me, but kind of a brief event.

That was followed by a bit of an under water scavenger hunt which first meant gathering some resources so that I could use the Nautilon to gather some additional resources.

My new life under the sea

Then it was off to a system with a gas giant, and believe me it is odd to be walking around on the surface of a gas giant, something my college astronomy class suggested was an extremely unlikely scenario to survive… but that hazard suit is something I guess.

It is very Arrakis like down here on the gas giant

Then there were moons of the gas giant to land on and more things to find and it was very much a scavenger hunt at the end when, suddenly, I was done.

Oh, and I jumped into a black hole.  That was a task.  I forget when I did that… before the gas giant.  You end up in a distant system with a broken space station (they were all broken during the expedition) but they all still have the portal so you could just telewarp or whatever back to the station where you came from.  So there was that as well.

The payout was decent.  I got some cool items, a stack of cash, and some more nanites.  Worth the effort.

Summaries of my haul

It did feel like it lacked the edge of Expedition 19 that came in after Voyagers.  But that also started when corvettes were fresh and new and it did a lot of corvette things, so perhaps it was a bit more exciting in the moment, but maybe would feel less so now as well, a couple months after Voyagers landed.

It took me a few evenings to get through, running about a phase an evening, with a few delays when the UI was yanking my chain as noted above.  You can, if you optimize, finish the whole thing in three hours according to one Reddit post with all the details.  I was already on phase five before I found that.

Expedition 20 Complete

It kept me busy for a few days and sometimes it is good to have just some specific tasks to accomplish… even if the UI keeps lying to you now and then.

Next time it will be back to the base building story.

No Man’s Sky Unveils Expedition 20: Breach which includes New Corvette Parts

The Voyagers update back at the end of August kept the party going in No Man’s Sky with people figuring out ways to make the ship of their dreams with the new corvette build editor.  But eventually even that started to peter out and new build posts in the subreddit have dwindled to a few a day, down from a fire hose of such posts a month ago.

However, we knew something was coming.  Sean Murray had sent out a message on social media with a door on it, followed by one with three doors.  This is a regular precursor to updates (the chosen emojis for past releases are listed on the wiki) and the community goes into overdrive trying to divine what it means.

There were lots of guesses, but it was clear it was too soon for a big update.  Yesterday the announcement landed and the update was releases.  The main content in the update was Expedition 20: Breach.

No Man’s Sky – Breach

The expedition is described as follows:

Our update for Halloween is called Breach, and it leans into the thrill of custom ship assembly, space-walking, skydiving, and community spirit introduced in Voyagers. It is free to download today for existing players.

In Breach, players will traverse a desolate and abandoned universe and on their travels encounter the abandoned remains of ill-fated corvette ships, all ripe for scavenging ship modules to add to your corvette-building arsenal.

Excavating these wrecks will yield an array of corvette pieces including rare vertical parts which unlock a whole new range of build configurations for the more creative designers.

Among the exclusive expedition rewards, there is also a set of Atlas-themed modules for those wanting to demonstrate their allegiance to the all-seeing entity.

The jewel in the crown of these wreckages is the Fireship Arcadia, the fate of which you will learn as you venture through Breach. But you will have to face your fears and make a leap of faith into the black as you space-walk through these eerie systems to glean their unique remnants.

The spooky Breach Expedition embraces the darker side of the universe and will also lure the bravest Travellers towards the ominous and exotic purple-star solar systems which players first glimpsed in Worlds Part II back in January. The planets in these systems are particularly foreboding with their deep, abyssal oceans, unearthly entities and the notoriously imposing and volatile gas giants.

The Breach Expedition begins today, and will run for approximately three weeks.

I logged into the game as soon as the update was finished, undocked, summoned the anomaly, landed, and ran over to the expedition terminal.

Where expeditions start

On opening up the terminal, I saw that the expedition was already live and running.  Time to get moving.

Expedition 20: Breach is now live

It only runs for three weeks, so I know where I will be headed this weekend.  I just have to figure out what material to bring with me as I leave my main save to go off into where ever the expedition will lead.  Chromatic metal for sure… oxygen… and fuel for the various ship systems I think.

Meanwhile, that was not all the update brought.  In addition to the expedition, new corvette modules are now salvageable from deep-space corvette wrecks and planetary scrapheaps.

There are also some updates to the corvette editor itself to make things easier… or more reliable when building up your next ship idea.

And there is a host of additional bug and quality of life fixes across different aspects of the game.

To bring the whole thing together there is also the expected trailer for the update.

With a fresh round of new stuff to tinker with, we shall see if the game gets another big bounce in users.

Related:

• NMS Release Log – Expedition Twenty: Breach
• NMS Patch Notes – Expedition Twenty: Breach 6.11