Settlements in No Man's Sky: How to find, manage and improve them

 Would you like to manage your own city in No Man's Sky? You can do this by searching for alien settlements throughout the galaxy. We explain how to find and manage them successfully!

The Frontiers update of No Man's Sky brought a very striking addition to the space exploration game: alien settlements, a kind of towns or cities that are procedurally generated throughout the galaxy on planets and that players can manage as if we were their leaders. or mayors to perform numerous tasks (of course, not to be confused with craftable bases ).

In this entry of our guide, we are going to explain how you can easily find this type of settlement whenever you want and what you need to be able to manage them, in case you have any questions about it.

How to find settlements?

Mainly, in No Man's Sky there are two methods by which you can find settlements in your game. Below we will show you both:

Mission to find a settlement

The first method is simple, and that is that as you play and jump from system to system, you may randomly receive an incoming call on your ship with a character who will give you the mission titled "The Settlers".

• This mission invites you to locate an emergency emission source coming from a planet.
• If you go to that location, you will come across a settlement that is under attack by hostile sentinels.
• Now you can defend the settlement and defeat all enemies and then interact with the settlement center interface.
• This way, you will be allowed to "run for supervisor" of the settlement.

Finding settlements on your own

The second method is very interesting because it allows you to find settlements on your own, and as many times as you want. To do this, you will have to follow these steps :

• You will have to visit any space station in a regulated system (outlawed stations in pirate systems are useless).
• Once at the station, go to the Cartographer's booth and talk to this NPC.
• Here choose the "Exchange specific cards" dialog option.
• In the store, specifically, you must purchase the specialized planetary navigation settlement charts.
• Alternatively, you can also choose to "Buy Random Map" with nanites from the Cartographer, but this does not guarantee you will get settlement data.

Remember that to buy these cards you must exchange 5 navigation data. In the space stations you visit, you can easily obtain data by interacting with "cubes" that appear on top of shelves and tables, or in structures and buildings that you find while exploring planets.

When you have enough data, buy one or more settlement cards and go out into space with your ship. Then open your inventory and use the card to reveal the position of a nearby settlement on your scanner. Now you just have to go towards it to find it guaranteed, without any more problems. The good news is that it does not have to be attacked (as happens with the other method), so you will save yourself a battle.

How to claim a settlement to be the supervisor?

Once you find a settlement in No Man's Sky, you can claim it and become its overseer, which gives you the right to manage it as if you were some kind of mayor. But to do this, you must know the following:

• When you interact with a settlement's center terminal for the first time, you'll see its statistics and a button that says "Submit Management Credentials".
• This button is used to become the settlement supervisor, but if you have found the settlement with a navigation card you can only do so in exchange for 3 relics of the race there.
• That is, if for example, the settlement is of the Vy'keen race, you need to deliver 3 Vy'keen Daggers.
• Typically, these resources associated with each race can be easily obtained by trading with NPCs at trading posts on planets (or from damaged containers, monoliths, and frigate expedition rewards ).

Once you have these resources, you can invest them in the settlement to start managing it as its supervisor.

How to manage and improve the class of a settlement?

Managing a settlement in No Man's Sky allows you to expand it, protect it from Sentinel attacks, and keep its citizens happy, among other things. Each settlement starts out small but can be improved and it is even possible to increase its class. Remember that all settlements start out as class C, but they can be improved through certain actions (in a more or less similar way to what happens with frigates).

• After becoming the Overseer of a settlement, in order to properly manage it you must create the Overseer's Office Construction Terminal.
• With this manufactured terminal, you will be able to make decisions in your settlement from time to time.
• For example, from this office, you can resolve conflicts between the settlers of the settlement (as if you were a judge), accept new technologies from other characters, or approve the construction of new buildings such as homes, towers, and so on.
• Each of these decisions will affect the settlement and its statistics in different parameters.

Generally speaking, as you make decisions in your settlement, you should focus on always favoring its level of production and ensuring that there is no debt. Thus little by little the class of your settlement will improve, the citizens will be happier and there will be greater production every day, generating more units and even some materials passively.