Species

Caesarus Prime from the original Galactic Hub (Pathfinder)

Species are the flora and fauna of No Man's Sky.

Summary

Species in No Man's Sky are procedurally-generated, and can be affected by a number of factors such as the player, surrounding area, environment, or location. Plant lifeforms can range from the purple bio-luminescent mushrooms showcased on Sayall, to the green grass and trees of New Ventu, while creatures include both the towering Daplokarus and the small fish-like Ictaloris Alus. All flora and fauna in the game is mathematically generated using a series of algorithms, rather than being individually designed.

Player interactions

Fauna can be fed to befriend them. The food needed to befriend an animal varies by species, but is usually easy to obtain on their native planet. Befriended animals have a smiley-face icon. Befriended animals will occasionally give you Coprite or point out interesting features. Animals can also be killed to obtain Mordite, and can be scanned after they've been killed. Hostile, aggressive animals that are near the player are indicated by a red paw icon; they will attack and try to kill the player when in range.

Most flora can be mined to harvest Carbon and other resources. Scanning flora and rocks can reveal their secondary minable resources. Brightly-colored flowers can often be harvested to gain a variety of resources. Some flora is hostile, damaging players that approach.

Sentient species

Main article: Faction

Otohime - Korvax, Gek, Traveller, Vy'keen (Atlas Rises)

There are five sentient species that can be encountered throughout the universe, each with distinct languages, lore, and technology aside of the Anomaly.

Most sentient species can be found at space stations and points of interest inside buildings except for the Anomaly. Each of the three main races (Gek, Korvax, Vy'keen) have a reputation system with several ranks. Helping the common species or successfully interacting with their monuments provides reputation increases and rewards such as blueprints, money, locations of interest, vocabulary words, and access to services such as shield recharges. The player can also obtain different multi-tools and ships from interactions with other sentient species.

• Gek
• Korvax
• Vy'keen
• Travellers
• Anomaly

Known fauna

Main article: Fauna

Example of fauna.

There are 23 genera or types of fauna in the game. For a list of the general, refer to the "Divisions & Scientific Name" section of the Fauna page.
For records on the largest and smallest fauna in the game, see Fauna Hall of Fame.
For a list of discovered species, refer to the Species category.

Pre-release fauna

For a list of pre-release species, refer to the Pre-release species page.

Known flora

Main article: Flora

Example of flora.

Most of the flora can be generally classified into 6 major types:

• "Mushroom" type
• "Bulb flower" type
• "Tree" type
• "Fern" type
• "Coral Fan" type
• "Carnivorous" type (tentacle shape and will attack the player)

Most flora-existent planets have variations of the major types, either in size, shapes, colours or details. Many have variations of the same type on the same planet. It has been stated by Sean Murray that there will be carnivorous plants on some of the planets.

Grass is generally considered backdrop and not part of the scannable flora.

Speculation

• Species' vocal calls are also procedurally generated; each call is determined by the shape and size of the species.
• As of the Foundation Update, it seems that only animals count towards "completing" a planet by scanning all species. The percentage only goes up when scanning a new animal, but stays the same when scanning plants, rocks, etc. Noted on PS4, may not apply to PC or PS4 before the Foundation Update.

Gallery (pre-release)

A Daplokarus on Oria V (Pre-release)

In a December 2014 interview with Game Informer Magazine, Sean Murray, the founder of Hello Games, revealed several images of procedurally-generated animals giving an indication of what might appear in the released version of the game. See further images here.

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