Point of Interest

The subject of this article is from the Endurance update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 6 October, 2022.

Points of Interest are explorable items in No Man's Sky.

Summary

Throughout star systems there are various Points of Interest, ranging from outposts and buildings, ancient structures, to natural resources. They are indicated on the compass (visible while an Analysis Visor is installed) with circular, hexagonal, and octagonal markers, several of which possess icons unique to each Point of Interest, albeit a few are shared between similar Points, such as Manufacturing Facilities and Operations Centres.

These markers will permanently display following Signal Booster, Transmission Tower, and Observatory scans until you visit the indicated location. Alongside this, when provided coordinates during missions, these markers will also permanently display until one visits the destination and so long as the mission's objective is selected from one's mission log.

See also: Category:Point of Interest for a list of points of interest.

See also: Access Codes for solutions with Interactions

Antiquities

Various ancient structures dot the landscapes of planets throughout the universe, telling the history of the inhabitants' ancestors or revealing insight into their culture. Scans for artifacts with a Signal Booster can locate most of these structures.

Plaques & Ruins

The plaques and ruins one may encounter as they explore different planets teach one of the history of the alien race that occupies the star system. Buried ruins often hold Large Artifact Crates which can be opened using Ancient Keys, found in nearby Artifact Fragments.

Monoliths

The monoliths one may encounter as they explore different planets offer trials based on the values held by the dominant lifeform. A wide variety of rewards can be obtained from passing these trials.

Portals

The portals one may encounter allow one to visit other planets in the far reaches of the galaxy they inhabit, albeit cut off from one's ship, unless they should choose to settle upon the world. Each planet has a single portal which can only be located by using specific curiosities at Monoliths.

Boundary Failures

Found only on Exotic and Infested planets, Boundary Failures are large, enigmatic structures which grant lore from the perspective of the Atlas's security protocol.

Secured Points of Interest

Certain Points of Interest are of great interest to the Sentinels. These structures, which can be located by scanning secure frequencies with a Signal Booster, require the player to attract Sentinel aggression in order to claim their rewards.

Manufacturing Facilities

Manufacturing Facilities are factories operated by the star system inhabitants, locked down, and lightly guarded by Sentinel units. Their doors must be forced open with dedicated weaponry (e.g. Boltcaster) to access their terminals, which allow the player to obtain blueprints for advanced products (such as Hot Ice and Cryo-Pumps).

Operations Centres

Operations Centres, referred to as Planetary Harvesters by some missions, are specialised facilities operated by the star system inhabitants, locked down, and heavily guarded by Sentinel units. Their doors must be forced open with dedicated weaponry to access their terminals, which allow the player to obtain Upgrade Modules or blueprints for advanced products (such as temporary frigate upgrades).

Depots

Depots are small structures packed with resources that one may smash up, and will need to smash up, for certain technology blueprints.

Habitable Structures

Various inhabited, and sometimes curiously abandoned, buildings can be found dotting the landscapes of planets throughout the universe. Scans for habitable outposts with a Signal Booster will locate most of these structures.

Habitable Base

Habitable Bases, consisting of standalone Base Computers on flat land, are the initial starting points of player-built structures. They may be claimed by a player, and then enhanced using the many base-building options.

Shelters

Shelter is an unmanned facility with two studio apartments on stilts side by side. There are also often Waypoint on the site.

It seems to be a base for lifeforms and a shelter, but it is all uninhabited and the inside is desolate. By examining objects on walls and tables, Nanite Cluster, Navigation Data, reputations, and words may be obtained. Broken devices and recovered data are also often found.

Minor Settlements

Minor Settlement is.a small commercial facility with life forms. There is a marker beacon on the site. Shelters are often also attached. From the compact building, one square landing and departure area extends. It has a unique shape and seems to be more numerous than other commercial facilities, and it is often found by accident when flying over the ground in a ship.

Interior of the building contains the following:

• The Galactic Trade Terminal is set up. Items and resources can be bought and sold. If you keep your starship at the take-off and landing area, you can also use your starship inventory for trading.
• There is one merchant (similar to being in a huge archive) and you can trade. The product lineup is unique, including wiring fibers, amino chambers, glass, and semiconductors. When you're looking for something you can't make yourself, it's a surprisingly hidden gem.

There is also one expatriate. If you talk to them, they will get involved in unusual things and requests.

• Multi-tools can be purchased in the "weapon container" on the wall. Payment is in units. Similar containers can be found on the Space Station and Space Anomaly, but the multi-tool class that can be bought at them is often low. On the other hand, containers in small settlements can be easily found in B~A class. Although it is a low rate of 1 in 100 cases, you can sometimes meet an S-class. This is important if you want to carefully select a multi-tool.

Observatories

Observatories, which can be located by scans of distress frequencies by a Signal Booster, are facilities said to direct their gaze to the heavens, oft abandoned, and have received a signal from afar. Upon solving a simple puzzle, one is rewarded with coordinates to a ruin on another planet of their current star system.

Trading Posts

Also known as the "Trading Post". A huge structure that looks like a metal aerial stage.

There are 7 Landing Pads and a Galactic Trade Terminal. It's a hectic place where Starship from the star system fly in, disembark, and then fly away after a while. There are also about 4 NPCs living in the area. A useful spot for buying spaceships, cultivated plants, and lifeforms. It can also be used as a delivery destination for Mission Board transportation requests.

The location can be searched for free by using the Starship's Econony Scanner When you run the device from the quick menu, a marker will appear at one location.

You can sit on a chair installed in the building. If the planetary environment is stable and the atmosphere is close to light blue, it is perfect for selecting spacecraft. Unlike the space station, it is also an advantage that you can check the color of day and night in the screenshot.

Transmission Towers

Transmission Towers are facilities used to receive and transmit messages to starships and freighters. However as one encounters them they are typically abandoned by their operator, for reasons unclear, and have received a distress signal requiring one to solve a simple puzzle to recover its coordinates.

These coordinates typically then lead one to either a Crashed Ship or a Crashed Freighter.

Colossal Archive

The Colossal Archive is an enormous building centre. The building features faction residents for that system creating new hubs of life. These huge vaults are repositories of data, treasure, and directions to other sites, as well as a six landing pads for interacting with other travellers, both player and NPC.

Harmonic Camp

The Harmonic Camp is an abandoned campsite located exclusively on worlds with Corrupted Sentinels. Solving the puzzle at the crashed pod in the middle will unlock a sentinel Multi-Tool cabinet, as well as allowing the player to locate crashed Sentinel Interceptors.

Autophage Camp

The Autophage Camp is a campsite and home for Autophage, a divergent species that are disconnected from the Korvax Convergence (the consciousness of Korvax entities). These camps can be found in dilapidated buildings and some other buildings, or located from Polyphonic Core which mark the camp. The camp are being cloaked and a Scan Harmoniser is needed to uncloak the camp, making the Autophages and the camp visible.

There are at least 3 Autophage lifeform that give you missions or help you learn their language. There are also Autophage Synthesis Terminal that allow you to exchange Void Motes for unique cosmestics, Autophage Upgrade Module, or staff a Voltaic Staff using staff components. Multiple terminals may be needed to buy all of the cosmestics.

Dilapidated Points of Interest

Certain structures on planets are heavily damaged for one reason or another. Scanning distress frequencies using a Signal Booster will usually reveal their locations.

Crashed Ships

Crashed Ships, marked by Distress Beacons, are wrecked starships which can be claimed and repaired by the player. The Distress Beacons themselves offer rewards of their own.

The player obtains their first ship, the Radiant Pillar BC1, from this kind of Point of Interest.

Crashed Freighters

Crashed Freighters, marked by Distress Beacons, are wrecked freighters with six cargo pods (similar in design to Storage Containers). These pods must be excavated and repaired to obtain their valuable contents.

Abandoned Buildings

Abandoned Buildings are infested by alien organisms. Inside, their terminals, jammed by Residual Goop, grant Nanite Clusters and hold the logs of the buildings' previous inhabitants; outside, Whispering Eggs, housing Larval Cores, are jealously guarded by Biological Horrors lurking underground.

Story-Critical Points of Interest

These Points of Interest are key to visit during both The Atlas Path and the Artemis Path storylines.

The Space Anomaly

The Space Anomaly is a strange space station that occasionally appears alongside a star system's standard space station as one jumps from star system to star system. It is host to the unusual Korvax Priest Entity Nada, and their Gek friend Specialist Polo.

Holo-Terminus

A Holo-Terminus is a tall structure used throughout the Artemis Path to contact story critical characters during missions to progress.

Atlas Interfaces

Atlas Interfaces are impressive space stations that occasionally appear alongside a star system's standard space station as one jumps from star system to star system, host to the Atlas' avatar.

Natural Resources

In addition to minerals, flora and fauna, planets contain unusual formations which often yield unique resources. These natural resources can usually be located and marked with an Analysis Visor.

Resource Deposits

Resource Deposits are natural formations of concentrated resources, such as Copper, Pure Ferrite, Dioxite and so on. These may be mined to acquire large amounts of resources, and are also where one places Autonomous Mining Units [AMUs], so as to gather from them without having to do so manually. However, remember to mark their location with a deployable beacon, as AMUs do not have a marker on one's compass.

Crop Clusters

Certain valuable crops can be found growing in clusters on planets with specific Biomes. The following crops can grow in the wild in this manner:

• Echinocactus
• Frostwort
• Fungal Cluster
• Gamma Weed
• Solar Vine
• Star Bramble

Class I Resources

The following resources are indicated by the Roman numeral I:

• Ancient Data Structure: Red cubes floating on black pedestals which contain valuable data.

Class II Resources

The following resources are indicated by the Roman numeral II:

• Floating Crystal: Contains condensed resource deposits (Glowing Minerals).
• Gravitino Ball
• Mutant Plant
• 'Organic' Rock
• Sentient Plant
  • Type 1: Stalk-bearing plants which yield Gravitino Balls
  • Type 2: Wild Albumen Pearl Orbs which yield Albumen Pearls

Class III Resources

The following resources are indicated by the Roman numeral III:

• Curious Deposit: Tough spherical rock which rolls around and contains condensed resource deposits.
• Metal 'Fingers' containing Uranium or Gold
• Sac Venom

Cave Resources

• Humming Sac: Underground object which contains an Albumen Pearl.
• Subterranean Relic: Underground object which can be picked up for a Vortex Cube.

Artificial Resources

The following resources, which occur at a similar frequency to true natural resources, are common finds on the surfaces of planets:

• Buried Technology Module: A capsule just beneath the surface which can be harvested for Salvaged Data.
• Cargo Drop: A cluster of containers which can be opened for useful items. Some containers require an AtlasPass v1 in order to access their contents.
• Damaged Machinery: A cone-shaped object with a single Damaged Component. Repairing the component grants Nanite Clusters or an Upgrade Module.
• Natural Burial Site: It marks the location of buried Ancient Bones container, which gives a random Excavated Bones after excavating it.
• Salvageable Scrap: A long-forgotten remains of a fallen satellite. The Protective Casings need be destroyed before the Salvage Container, which gives a random Salvaged Scrap.
• Buried Cache: Has the same icon as Cargo Drop and has one buried yellow container. After opening, container can have a Suspicious Module or other high value loot.

Miscellaneous Points of Interest

Waypoints

Alien Structure waypoint (Atlas Rises)

Waypoints, which accompany most other Points of Interest, allow the player to make manual saves and claim discovery of regions of the current planet.

Knowledge Stones

Knowledge Stones teach the player a word of the dominant lifeform's language when activated. Several of these stones can be found on the sites of Plaques and Monoliths.

Beacons

Beacons are infrequent tall, thin structures enable one to scan for nearby Advanced Lifeforms, such as Gek, Korvax, or Vy'keen, inhabiting a Minor Settlement.

Drop Pods

Drop Pods are small structures that hold exosuit inventory space upgrades, allowing one to improve item or technology capacity for free once they have been repaired. They also provide shelter from harsh weather should one step within their small space.

Galactic Trade Terminals

While rare outside of colonial outposts and trading posts, one can come across stray Galactic Trade Terminals to use to sell excess inventory one might have gathered during their explorations, or to purchase items one may need.

Space Points of Interest

Space Stations

Inhabited star systems are host to a Space station where one may dock and disembark to trade, purchase blueprints, and/or take on missions. Uncharted systems do not have space stations. Abandoned systems do have a station, however it will be devoid of NPCs, and therefore also absent blueprint traders, star ships and missions. They do still have a working Galactic Trade Terminal and teleporter.

Black Holes

Black Holes, which can be easily distinguished from other space Points of Interest but are not marked on the player's compass, are rare objects allowing the player to make significant progress toward the galactic centre.

Space Fleets

Each star system typically has Space Fleets that warp in, with freighters which one may dock in and purchase and frigates which one may hail and purchase, should you have the funds.

However, in some star systems, these freighters will be assailed by pirates, and one may choose to rescue them or not. If one chooses to rescue them, they may then dock in them and purchase the freighters at a significantly discounted price (or for free if the player does not yet own a freighter).

Release history

• Origins - Added Colossal Archives