Expeditions in No Man’s Sky were first introduced in March 2021. Hailed as community events, each expedition charges players to achieve certain goals to increase the return of their rewards.

Expeditions are timed events ranging (so far at least) between two and five weeks in length. While gameplay techniques you have picked up in the general game will definitely come into play during an expedition, each will mix up the gameplay and each mixes up the gameplay in such as way as to introduce new mechanics.

The perfect example of this is in the latest expedition - Leviathan, which sees players stuck in a time loop. Sometimes the only way to progress is to die, which will seem counter0intuative to the very nature of a survival game. Plot twist.

All this is new content to help keep the No Man’s Sky experience fresh and it is exciting to think where Hello Games might go next. We have already had one crossover event with Mass Effect - the Beachhead expedition, where the major reward was the Normandy SR1 ship from ME.

List of Expeditions in No Man’s Sky¶

Here is the full run down on the missions players have been sent on since their arrival into the game in 2021.

Expedition	Mission Patch	Name	Start	End	Description
1		The Pioneers	31st Mar 2021	16th May 2021	The first Expedition in NMS saw players charging across the galaxy to find items and awarded them with a gold ship for their efforts.
2		Beachhead	17th May 2021	31st May 2021	Crossover mission with Mass Effect, with the reward being ME’s iconic Normandy spaceship.
3		Cartographers	8th Sept 2021	17th Oct 2021	Set on a dangerous planet, your mission was to explore it properly and leave nop stone unturned.
4		Emergence	20 Oct 2021	22nd Nov 2022	The planet Wasan was the seen for Emergence - a barren land infested with Titan Worms. Glad you missed it?
5		Exobiology	24 Feb 2022	4th April 2022	Alien time. Paired up with an ET partner you had to find and interact with alien species in this strange area of the glaxy.
6		The Blighted	14th April 2022	22nd May 2022	Arriving at the same time as The Outlaws free expansion, it was now your turn to hunt down the Pirates known only as The Blighted.
7		Leviathan	25th May 2022	5th July 2022	Trapped in a time loop where sometimes the only way out is to die. Although every tie you do, it resets the loop. Mind-boggling
8		Polestar	26 July 2022 TBC	6th Sept 2022 TBC	Embark on an interstellar cruise in the Polestar expedition. Repair the freighter’s unique technology, uncover its mysterious past, and journey across the galaxy at its helm.

What is the next Expedition in NMS?¶

As yet Hello Games have not released any information on what Expedition will follow up Leviathan. There only seems to be a short downtime of late though so we are expecting news in the coming days and weeks.