As usual, I dove into another event without doing any research… because why would I? I am always interested in how well a game communicates its intentions to players and usually try to work things out on my own for a bit before falling back on the internet for help.
If nothing else, I am on board with the current pattern of expeditions and we have a few short term ones for the holidays, so why not jump right in? All I knew is that for the first one, Expedition 2 Redux, there was some sort of Mass Effect tie in with the Normandy, the iconic ship from the series.
The Beachhead Promo Screen
I will also say I managed to wrap it up over the weekend, which considering all the stuff going on in New Eden and the Pandemic Horde Keepstar, says something… probably that I spent too much time playing video games. But also that with a bit of prep you can run through an expeditions in just a few play sessions.
I also knew a few things more than last time, and the pattern is kind of the same… but not completely. This time around the rendezvous points were once again planetside locations, but the star bases in each system were still fully functional. With the Breach expedition they were all… broken-ish?
As usual, you start out with a ship that needs repairs and then you slowly work your way off planet to the next system. This time around we got a space truck of sorts. Or I did.
My Expedition 2 space truck
Here is the funny thing… I did not know until maybe phase 4 of the expedition that this ship did not have a functioning hyper drive, so could not jump to new star systems.
This was because a lot of the expedition was focused on your freighter capital ship, which was provided to you as part of the expedition.
Summoning my freighter from the space truck
This actually turned out to be a good thing because, while I know I have a freighter back on my main save, I had totally forgotten everything I learned in the intro quest that gets you your first freighter. So going through all of this again was a pretty nice reminder.
As part of the whole venture, I used the freighter to jump between stars, and didn’t even think about using the ship I started with until well into the expedition… and when I finally did, I was told it lacked a hyperdrive. An in-system hauler for me.
Overall the structure of the phases were of the usual “do something” or “build something” where you need to go collect some resources in order to do that.
I did get some help from Potshot mid-way through the expedition with one particularly sticky objective. At one stage it sets you the goal of discovering eight systems. In the open galaxy, this would be a doddle. I discover new systems all the time.
However, on an expedition in that universe with hundreds of other people walking the down the same path, finding even ONE undiscovered system… much less eight… is a pretty tall order unless you’re prepared to go a long way.
As I was just starting down the path to keep jumping forever until I got eight fresh systems, Potshot messaged me and told me to pull my Ethernet cable. Oh, yeah… No Man’s Sky is a single player game that does not require an internet connection. Without an internet connection the game cannot talk to the discovery server that logs all these things, so every system you visit is a new discovery!
Yes, I cheated. On the other hand, I was not keen to put in the effort into what was not at all interesting game play. And once I was done and had collected the reward for the objective, I plugged my Ethernet cable back into the router and carried on.
I didn’t need any help after that until I got to the fifth and final phase, and that was mostly due to the task description not matching exactly what the in-game item I needed was. The planetary chart option required was one for “a relic of an ancient civilization,” however the tool tip and description just said “alien artifact sites” which isn’t what they are called at the vendor.
Anyway, I got that settled and then got the Myth Beacon which needed to be deployed at a specific spot… but it was difficult to find that spot because the marker for it was obscured by the markers for bases people had put around the spot to make it easy to find.
Cannot detect the objective marker through the clutter
These bases are an attempt to help people find the location… and sometimes it works out. But often there are multiple such bases and they have names that are not always helpful… or at least not always in English… so it can be a bit of a crap shoot teleporting to bases that may or may not be at the objective you’re looking for. Fortunately, I was able to find the right spot.
With bases all over the neighborhood
I was able to deploy the Myth Beacon and get the update that led me to the final objective for phase 5.
The Normandy spotted!
When you close in you can add it as a frigate to the fleet that works from your freighter.
Add to you available frigates
It isn’t a ship you can fly or a model you can use or a parts set for your corvette. It is an S class frigate that you can use for expeditions from your freighter. So that is something.
After that, it was time to cash out of the expedition. I had done that before. I collected the things I want to carry back and got credit for the items I left behind in the settling up phase.
Expedition 2 Redux rewards
Then it was back to my main save, where I went back to the anomaly and collected the items I had transferred over and then collect the expedition rewards from the vendor, including the Normandy.
The Normandy Claimed
I was able to add it to the frigate collection of my long neglected freighter.
My current frigate lineup
With that nice frigate I feel like I should look into upgrading my freighter, which is a C-class unit that I picked up as part of the tutorial. But that is another task.
So that is the first of the holiday expeditions out of the way, with the next one coming up on November 19th.
Related:
- Hello Games – Holiday Expeditions 2025
- NMS Wiki – List of Expeditions
The Ancient Gaming Noob 