Waypoints

The subject of this article is from the Origins update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 9 November, 2020.

Waypoint
Category	Save Location point
Updated	Origins

This article is about the Point of Interest and save point structure found on planets and moons. For the 2022 update to No Man's Sky, see Waypoint.

A Waypoint is a Point of Interest structure.

Summary

Waypoints enable saving one's game, and logging of one's discovery of a Point of Interest. They can be found as standalone Points of Interest, but also alongside the following, listed below.

Points of Interest:

1. Abandoned Buildings
2. Boundary Failures
3. Crashed Freighters
4. Crashed Ships
5. Depots
6. Drop Pods
7. Galactic Trade Terminals
8. Manufacturing Facilities
9. Holographic Comms Towers
10. Operations Centres
11. Observatories
12. Shelters
13. Transmission Towers

Waypoints are the sole means of claiming discovery of specific regions of a planet. Discoveries of this nature can be uploaded for 3 Nanite Clusters per discovered region.

Name generation

The names are procedurally generated using one of the following methods, where the Sector and Numeral terms are procedurally generated as well.

The headers indicate the landscape according to the game file. The sequence is also taken from the game file.

Generic

1. "The" + Sector
2. Sector + "Crossing"
3. Sector + Numeral
4. "Point" + Sector
5. Sector + "Sector" + Numeral

Elevated

1. Sector + "Slopes"
2. Sector + "Hills"
3. Sector + "Peak"
4. "The" + Sector + "Mountains"
5. "Mountains of" + Sector
6. "Mount" + Sector
7. Sector + "Highlands"
8. Sector + "Pass"
9. Sector + "Hill"
10. Sector + "View"
11. Sector + "Reach"
12. Sector + "Point"
13. Sector + "'s Seat"
14. Sector + "Hill" + Numeral
15. Sector + "'s Lookout"

Low

1. Sector + "Plains"
2. "Plains of" + Sector
3. Sector + "Dale"
4. Sector + "Flats"
5. Sector + "Lowlands"
6. Sector + "Moor"
7. Sector + "Valley"
8. "The" + Sector + "Expanse"
9. Sector + "Basin"
10. "The Vale of" + Sector
11. Sector + "Plateau"
12. "Windswept Plains of" + Sector
13. "The" + Sector + "Levels"
14. Sector + "Flats" + Numeral
15. Sector + "'s Last Stand"
16. "Great Plains of" + Sector
17. Sector + "'s Great Reaches"
18. Sector + "Floodplain"

Trees

1. Sector + "Woods"
2. Sector + "Woodland"
3. Sector + "Forest"
4. "The" + Sector + "Ranges"
5. "The" + Sector + "Praire"
6. Sector + "Scrubland"
7. Sector + "Thicket"
8. Sector + "Grove"
9. Sector + "Grasslands"
10. Sector + "Heath"
11. Sector + "'s Weald"
12. "The" + Sector + "Pasture"

Lush Trees

1. Sector + "Jungle"
2. Sector + "Rainforest"
3. "The" + Sector + "Wildlands"
4. Sector + "Meadow"
5. Sector + "'s Orchard"
6. "The" + Sector + "Wildwood"
7. Sector + "Glade"
8. Sector + "'s Hunting Grounds"

Lush

1. Sector + "Meadows"
2. Sector + "Fields"
3. Sector + "Clearing"
4. Sector + "Grassland"
5. Sector + "Gardens"
6. "The" + Sector + "Everglades"
7. Sector + "Heath"
8. "Garden" + Numeral
9. Sector + "Living Expanse"
10. Sector + "'s Bounty"

Wet

1. Sector + "Wetlands"
2. Sector + "Swamp"
3. Sector + "Marsh"
4. Sector + "Bog"
5. Sector + "Swamplands"
6. Sector + "Fen"
7. Sector + "Mire"
8. "The" + Sector + "Morass"
9. Sector + "'s Quagmire"

Cave

1. Sector + "Tunnels"
2. Sector + "Cave"
3. Sector + "Caves"
4. Sector + "Mines"
5. Sector + "Crater"
6. Sector + "Impact Site"
7. Sector + "'s Lost Cavern"
8. Sector + "Depths"
9. Sector + "Deep"

Dead

1. Sector + "Wastes"
2. Sector + "Badlands"
3. Sector + "Crater" + Numeral
4. Sector + "Desert"
5. "Lost Plains of" + Sector
6. Sector + "Wasteland"
7. Sector + "'s Graveyard"
8. Sector + "Bonefield"
9. Sector + "Sands"
10. Sector + "'s Drift"
11. Sector + "Dustbowl"
12. Sector + "'s Wilds"

Buildings

1. Sector + "Station"
2. "Camp" + Sector
3. "Point" + Sector
4. Sector + "Outpost"
5. Sector + "Enclave"
6. Sector + "Post"
7. Sector + "Encampment"
8. Sector + "Platform"

Water

1. Sector + "Ocean"
2. Sector + "Sea"
3. Sector + "Pool"
4. Sector + "Depths"
5. Sector + "Reef"
6. Sector + "Sound"
7. Sector + "Sea"
8. "The Briny" + Sector
9. "The" + Sector + "Fathoms"
10. "Tidal Sector" + Numeral

Ice

1. Sector + "Glacier"
2. Sector + "Snowplain"
3. "The" + Sector + "Drifts"
4. "Ice Station" + Sector
5. "Frozen Wastes of" + Sector
6. Sector + "Ice Field"
7. Sector + "Ice Sheet"
8. "Blizzard Point" + Numeral
9. Sector + "Ice Crust"
10. "Frozen Plains of" + Numeral

Additional Information

• The name generation is extracted from the NMS_UPDATE3_ENGLISH.MBIN (1.77) game file.
• Waypoints can be detected using a starship's scanner. A detected Waypoint displays as an Unknown Building.
• When one nears a Waypoint, typically a message will appear on the HUD with the message: "Waypoint Detected".
• In Pre-release versions of the game, Waypoints were a larger structure called Beacons, and were suggested to be one's method of uploading all discoveries, instead of the discoveries menu found in the release version of the game. While Beacons remain in the present version of the game, they have since changed in functionality.