Planetary Uncertainty

The subject of this article is from the SentinelUp update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 12 April, 2022.

Planetary Uncertainty
Type	Anomaly
Updated	SentinelUp

Planetary Uncertainty
Type	Anomaly
Updated	SentinelUp

Planetary Uncertainty (PU) is a rare bug / anomaly in No Man's Sky.

Summary

First known and documented near The Fade, the appearance of PU's has also been reported inside of the galaxies where the creation algorithm should be more stable.

It describes the generation of a new and undocumented planet in place of a previous already documented planet. During this event both the biome and local fauna and flora may be subject of change. The former original planet known as Iteration 1 or Canon will not be overwritten by this anomaly's appearance. Instead the data of the correct planet will be called for creatures and mixed with the new one. This can lead to creatures on PU's which are supposedly "devoid of fauna". A PU can be encountered again later upon a repeated rare anomaly or an entirely new one can be found yet to be claimed.

It may affect one in three, half, or all planets of the system at times. This is independent of any change to the universes basic existence (Patches) and is temporary. The planets can and will revert to their former state after a while. Documenting planets that do own a PU state is an ongoing effort.

The phenomenon was believed to be extinct during NEXT.

Oddities

Since PU's keep the basic information of their Iteration 1 and only alter biome and life, this can include mega-biome structures and oceans on abnormal worlds. One such event is the airless mega-exotic which is born from an airless PU anomaly on a previous Mega-Exotic Iteration 1. Yes, gravity is reduced and maximum strain on life-support. Everything works as normal.

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  PU Abra Beta Megastructure
• 
  PU Abra Beta Planet Info

Theories

Initially more common during disconnect events and the red ring of death in earlier versions of No Man's Sky, the initial theory behind the PU was a difference between the client-side generation of a system and the stored data at Hello Games Studios with preference given to the HGS stored data. This would lead to the first registered planet becoming Iteration 1 or Canon. This theory seemed to be confirmed as during the NEXT era sightings of PU's steadily declined as connections appeared to be stronger. Most sightings further aligned with The Fade and disappeared in later versions, implying a more stable generation algorithm over time as Hello Games expanded on the planet diversity and overhauled the entire system.

Recently new PU's have appeared even inside galaxies and they all happened during a green connection to the Hello Games services. This lead to the theory of a bit-flip or other rare accidents causing the generation algorithm to alternate one in a thousand times despite potential fixes to the problem. The source however remains yet unknown. The stable connection confirms that HGS-Server does not enforce conformity between the travellers and their discoveries. Thus this corruption of data remains unchecked.

Gallery

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  Old Eustal /
  Ommund /
  Sea of Onhakitc
• 
  New Eustal /
  Ommund /
  Sea of Onhakitc
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  Old Kamaniwa /
  Netasch /
  Sea of Onhakitc
• 
  New Kamaniwa /
  Netasch /
  Sea of Onhakitc
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  PU Original Name Rendesvouz 2 /
  Exobiology Expedition]]
• 
  PU Joycer as the new former pre-named Rendevouz 2 planet]]