The 10 Best No Man’s Sky Mods

What are the best No Man’s Sky mods?

No Man’s Sky started out rough, and we mean really rough. In fact, some players literally deemed it unplayable because of its problems.

Fortunately, it has come a long way since its rocky start, though there is still some room for improvement, which is where these mods come in. 

While the vanilla game has certainly been fixed to live up to expectations, there are still some mods that you should consider downloading.

The 10 Best No Man’s Sky Mods

The mods on this list have been chosen based on the improvements they make and the fun content they add.

We’ve tried to add both quality-of-life fixes as well as mods that add new and engaging functions to the game.

If you’re ready to overhaul your next playthrough, here’s our list of the 10 best No Man’s Sky mods:

10. Project Atlas

If you’ve been playing — or trying to play — No Man’s Sky since its launch, you have likely seen everything it has to offer.

Fortunately, the modding community is here to bring you hours of even more content to explore!

Project Atlas is a biome overhaul mod that makes every world in the game feel truly unique.

Every planet in No Man’s Sky is effective, and this mod is so thorough that you will never encounter two planets that are exactly the same.

To make this feat possible, this mod uses procedural generation that spawns several quintillion biomes.

No, that isn’t a typo; that is literally the vast number of spawns this mod adds, and it is literally impossible to imagine.

This is, of course, more biomes than there are planets in the game, meaning you can play through it multiple times and experience new things.

Like the biggest open-world maps, this mod is ridiculously impressive, and it is a must-download for anyone looking for more variety.

If you’re tired of every planet feeling a bit too samey, we highly recommend downloading Project Atlas and trying it out for yourself!

9. Creatures Revamped

Many mods, like Project Atlas, are focused on making the procedural generation of things better, and this one is all about the creatures.

Creatures Revamped aims to make the creatures you encounter more varied and interesting so they’re not just an afterthought.

A few things this mod does is increase creature spawns and make them more likely to appear on different planets for greater variety.

Unused game files containing creatures have also been added, so now giant sea creatures and dinosaurs can roam the planets you land on.

Sizes have also been unlocked, so you can run into tiny dinosaurs or gigantic rodents at random!

Essentially, this game gives players a reason to pay attention to the creatures instead of seeing them as just resources.

Now, every biome you come across will be much more varied, and this mod pairs extremely well with Project Atlas.

8. Exosolar’s Beyond Base Building

No Man’s Sky made many players very happy with its base-building system, but unfortunately, it also frustrated many players as well.

You see, like some of the best open-world PS4 games, namely Fallout 4, the building system here is very finicky.

When building a base, sometimes the game won’t let you put things where you want, which can dismantle an entire design plan.

Fortunately, Exosolar’s Beyond Base Building makes building bases a lot better for players who want to get creative!

This mod adds over 1,000 buildable base components and gives players complete freedom over how to use them.

Almost all parts can be scaled, built below water, in a freighter, and without any build limits to get in the way.

You can also change the colors and materials of items to make them better fit into your desired design.

Best of all, this mod is completely compatible with multiplayer and co-op building because it doesn’t add any assets.

With this mod, you can finally build the base of your dreams and show it off to all of your friends!

7. Busier Space

No Man’s Sky is a huge game, and it covers a ton of planets and the space in between them.

However, some people feel that the lack of activity in space makes the universe feel a bit dead and devoid of life.

This mod fixes that by increasing the number of ships generated across the universe so that it actually feels busy.

With this mod, every solar system will have more ships flying around so that you won’t feel so lonely while exploring the stars.

Planet outpost spawns have also been increased, as have space pirates, battle spawns, and space freighters.

While the battles and pirates can make getting around a bit more dangerous, they do liven things up a lot!

If you’re tired of feeling like the only one flying about, this is a mod you definitely need to download!

6. Exosolar’s Stratos

In the vanilla game, there are six color palettes for skies that can be encountered on any planet you land on.

This is incredibly boring, given how many planets there are to explore in this game, which is why this mod is amazing.

Exosolar’s Stratos adds 2,173 different sky palettes, meaning you will never need to worry about seeing the same sky twice.

Now, No Man’s Sky can look as gorgeous as the best PS5 exclusive games whenever you look up!

Along with this, there are also 1,728 possible nighttime environments that can be encountered throughout the universe.

The main goal of this mod is to create more variety without sacrificing quality, and some of the results are quite stunning.

If that wasn’t enough, the fog has also been made more colorful, shadows have been improved, and sun-glare has been reduced.

Stratos is an all-in-one sky and lighting overhaul that we highly recommend using with Project Atlas.

5. Deep Space

If you’ve found yourself flying between planets in No Man’s Sky only to realize that space doesn’t look very realistic, you’re not alone.

Deep Space aims to make space feel more immersive and cinematic by darkening it and toning down the bright nebulae.

It removes chromatic aberration, depth of field, and the vignette while increasing the details of the planets you fly by.

What’s more, is that it also tones down the global color to make everything a lot less red and makes the cloud textures transparent.

Warp lines have also been reduced so they look less cartoony, though they haven’t been completely removed.

With this mod, everything feels a bit more real, which really makes the whole game a lot more immersive.

It’s a little less like the best Spyro games and a little more like Mass Effect meets Outer Wilds.

Although realism isn’t for everyone, if you’re someone who prefers it, then you will definitely want to download this mod!

4. Hard Start

While No Man’s Sky may not look like the same game it did at launch, if you’ve played it long enough, you may be itching for a challenge.

Fortunately, Hard Start exists to make getting off the ground a whole lot more difficult for veteran players!

What this mod does is make it so that your ship isn’t repairable when you start, so you’ll be forced to find a new way to get off the planet.

This means your ship will only serve as a temporary shelter while you struggle to survive and find a way to leave.

With this mod, your basic multi-tool will also be less helpful than before, adding a bit of insult to injury.

You will also need to download Start No Tuto, a mod that removes the tutorial mission, in order for this one to run.

So, basically, there is zero handholding if you play with this mod, making it the ultimate challenge for any player!

While we wouldn’t recommend this mod for anyone who hasn’t played the game for hours, if you’re a glutton for punishment, go for it!

3. Low Flight

This mod adds a feature that we are honestly shocked was left out of the vanilla game because it seems like a no-brainer.

As the name suggests, this mod allows you to fly as close to the ground as you please, so you can now zoom over the planets you find.

While that in and of itself is awesome, this mod goes a step further by allowing you to “fly” underwater and hover in place.

Low Flight gives you a brand new way to explore the plants you come across, and we totally love it!

That said, because this isn’t a feature that the game world was designed for, there is a good chance you will often crash.

Plus, getting used to being able to fly low will take practice, which will result in, you guessed it, even more crashes!

Thankfully, this mod makes sure that crashing while inside the atmosphere won’t damage your ship, so there is a lot less risk!

So you can, in fact, pretend you’re playing one of the best PS5 racing games with your now indestructible ship.

Once you’ve been able to see the various planets of the universe from a birds-eye view, you definitely get a new appreciation for their scale.

Similarly, being able to dive underwater is incredibly cool, and it pairs incredibly well with the Creatures Revamped mod!

2. Fast Actions

Up next, we have Fast Actions, which make doing multiple things in No Man’s Sky a lot quicker and easier.

While it’s a simple, quality-of-life improvement, once you have it downloaded, you won’t want to play without it!

What this mod does is add fast or instant inputs for menu selection, creating and dismantling, entering your ship, and transferring resources.

It also makes gathering small plants, recovering deployed technology, and launching refinery processing much faster.

There are also two versions of this mod, one that makes everything faster and one that makes actions nearly instantaneous.

So if you like a small delay, you still have the option to keep that with this mod or get rid of it entirely.

Although it is a small tweak compared to many of the other mods on our list, it is definitely one that makes a big difference!

1. Reduced Launch Cost

Launch cost is a huge pain in No Man’s Sky, and there is nothing worse than having to spend nearly 25% of your fuel just getting off the ground!

Gathering resources is extremely time-consuming, and sometimes you just want to go out and explore the universe.

Fortunately, the creator of this mod had the same thoughts and decided to make launching a lot less costly.

With the Reduced Launch Cost mod, you can either set the launch cost to 10%, 5%, or 0%, depending on what you want.

If you don’t want to get rid of the cost altogether, you still have the option of lowering it to make it more manageable.

However, if you’re like us and just want to zoom around, you can cut the costs completely and take to the stars for free!

Although this mod isn’t necessarily going to change the way you play the game, it is a nice addition to have.

Plus, it definitely makes it a bit easier to explore the vast world that this game has created, which is always a benefit!

Summary

We hope you’ve enjoyed our list of the 10 best No Man’s Sky mods and hopefully found some new ones to try out yourself!

While all of these mods are amazing, the ones you choose to download will depend on how much you want to overhaul things.

That said, I think we can all agree that reduced launch cost is basically essential because literally no one enjoys losing fuel!

Here’s a quick recap of the 10 best No Man’s Sky mods:

1. Reduced Launch Cost
2. Fast Actions
3. Low Flight
4. NMS Fantasy Synthesis
5. Deep Space
6. Exosolar’s Stratos
7. Busier Space
8. Exosolar’s Beyond Base Building
9. Creatures Revamped
10. Project Atlas

Which of these mods will you download first? Leave a comment below.