The Atlas Rises 1.3 update for No Man’s Sky brought it with an entire plethora of changes and new features in celebration of its one year anniversary, including the long-awaited implement of multiplayer, which we’ve previous covered how to access. The other major addition to the space exploration sim is the brand new Atlas story called “Awakening” that promises over 30 hours of new gameplay across the galaxy.
This is completely separate from the original Atlas Path that launched with the game, which can still be done as well. You don’t actually have to have that quest completed or reach the center of the galaxy to enjoy this new content in its entirety.
Waking the Awakening
First and foremost for new (and potentially returning) players, you must have the hyperdrive installed in your ship to access the start of the Awakening questline. With that installed, you have the best chance of quickly unlocking the start of the first quest.
Unfortunately, there is currently a level of randomness to activating your first Awakening mission. However, with the hyperdrive, you can start jumping from star system to star system over and over until you receive the necessary transmission for Atlas Rises.
This transmission will provide you with a waypoint to a Stranger’s Coordinates. Follow the coordinates to this mysterious stranger to begin the Atlas Rises story. From there, it’s straightforward and fairly linear to complete.
Besides the main story, there are also mini-storylines that have been added to No Man’s Sky including sidequests, faction-specific quests (complete with relationship level), and more that encourage you to explore and check out every unusual anomaly in the galaxy.
