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Will run for the next eight weeks.
Following the release of last week’s splendid Echoes update, No Man’s Sky has now launched its latest limited-time expedition, Voyagers, giving players approximately eight weeks to complete its objectives and secure some very nifty rewards – including an adorable HoverDroid companion, looking very much like a flying Roomba with eyes.
Voyagers – which, like all previous expeditions, starts players afresh on a completely new save – begins aboard a freighter in No Man’s Sky’s Oishida system, where Travelers will embark on a journey to complete exploration-focused objectives, discovering new creatures, braving extreme planets, digging up ancient treasures, and more along the way.
If you’re new to all this, expeditions are something like No Man’s Sky’s stab at live-service-style seasonal content, serving up limited-time, curated experiences that condense and reshuffle the exploratory space sim’s various systems into a series of progression-based milestone challenges. Completing all objectives within a tier unlocks a new reward exclusive to the expedition and completing all tiers awards one final prize.
This time around, rewards include a new electric-themed jetpack trial cosmetic for your Exosuit, voyage-inspired posters, a mechanical paw to (presumably) strap to the back of your tamed companions, plus a small selection of base ornaments – including a replica Autophage head, robotic hand, and makeshift planetary shelter.
And the big reward for seeing Voyagers through to the end is the aforementioned HoverDroid, which starts life as a Robotic Spawn Capsule that can be hatched into a flying mechanical companion whose ‘dissonant frequency turn the air around it a faint purple’. It’s as cute as a button, and is really going to give Laylaps the friendly (and possibly quietly murderous) Sentinel a run for its money in the category of ‘bestest floating droid friend’.
And given developer Hello Games’ propensity for teasing the themes of No Man’s Sky’s next big update with its expeditions, I’m already curious about the story implications of its arrival, having fallen down yet another No Man’s Sky lore hole (yes, No Man’s Sky has lore, and, yes, it’s fab if you like a jolly old pile of nihilism, melancholy, and creeping existential horror with your colourful space adventuring) after last week’s Echoes update.
No Man’s Sky’s Voyagers expedition starts today, 1st September, and runs until 27th October, so if you want to get HoverCutie in your collection, you’d better get your space boots on.
