How to Build a Base in No Man’s Sky Foundation Update
Yesterday, I talked about the frustration and confusion I had in trying to build my first base in No Man’s Sky. I found a world I wanted to make my home planet, but I couldn’t find an outpost location to start building the base.
In No Man’s Sky, you can’t just build a base anywhere. There are limitations. You have to find an outpost site that allows for base building before you can begin. Sometimes you can find one when you scan a planet from space (target the planet and press “C” to scan). But more often than not, you’ll find nothing.
It took a bit of reading a few forum posts, but I’ve finally got it together. I wanted to write a quick guide for anyone who wants to build a base, but can’t find the outpost to start.
How to Build a Base in No Man’s Sky
- Find your dream planet and land on it.
- Press the Z key. This will bring up a new building menu that was introduced in the Foundation Update.
- Select the Signal Booster from the menu. I had to use the arrow keys on my keyboard to switch between the options.
- Press F to place the Signal Booster. Keep in mind that you must have the required materials to build it – you’ll find this information in a box in the lower right hand corner. From my understanding, these materials can change depending on which mode (Creative, Normal, Survival) you are playing.
- Press E to interact with the Signal Booster. It’ll give you a list of locations to scan for.
- Select Habitable Base and allow it to scan. It’ll show you the location of a nearby outpost that allows for building a base.
- Fly there and scope it out. If you like it, go inside and interact with the terminal to claim it as your base and home planet.
Keep in mind that there are usually more than one Habitable Base locations on a planet. So you don’t have to take the first one you find. If you don’t like the area surrounding the site, move along.
Just make sure that you first walk inside the outpost you don’t want to keep to discover it, then fly a distance away — this way, the signal booster will hopefully not pick up the same location a second time. Repeat the process: build a new signal booster and scan for another Habitable Base until you find one you love.
Once you’ve claimed the base, building is super easy. You use the same Z menu to rotate through the different building parts, then place them with the F key. The game gives a little mini-walkthrough on what to do with your first base.
When you have rooms and stations built, you’ll need to go to a space station to hire NPCs like builders and farmers. Also, make sure that you locate the teleporter in the space station and use it to establish a link to your base. This makes quick travel back to your base possible.
I found the teleporter located behind the door up the stairs on the left side of the landing pad in the space station, which is directly across from the door where you go to access vendors and NPCs.
Hopefully this quick guide will help you get started. The rest is up to you, so reach for the stars!
