No Man’s Sky has turned out to be one of those unexpected games that have been back on my radar again this year. Especially since folks in the Posse have picked it up, and we’ve been able to exchange information, help and game support.

Syn discovered that Hello Games is re-running all of the previous expeditions back-to-back in the case that you missed them, like we did. Since we were on vacation and waiting for Endwalker anyhow, we turned our eyes to the prize of the first expedition: the Golden Vector ship.

The one catch – instead of having two months to finish the expeditions, you only have two weeks. At first, this seemed a really daunting task, especially once you look at the laundry list of things you needed to do to finish it. I admit, this one took longer than Expedition 4 – I clocked in almost 15 hours on this whereas Expedition 4 only took me 8-ish hours.

The thing about Expedition 1 is that it basically asked you to play NMS in high-speed to check all the boxes and earn rewards. A new player would likely be completely lost in doing all this. Even having put 66 hours on my main game, there were things the expedition asked me to do that I’d never attempted before.

For someone like me who who just putters around and does the little quest lines, this was a very good learning experience to see what all kinds of content the game provides. I was happy to have gained all the game knowledge that came from this run, if nothing else.

At first glance, it felt like it was going to be difficult to finish up everything that needed to be done in just two weeks. Turns out, somewhat like the previous expedition, finishing certain steps and milestones grants you items that help you to finish other milestones.

For example, one step rewards an S-Rank multi-tool. This completes the requirement for the step that asks for you to have an A-Rank multi-tool.

The quest that asks you to find an A-Rank ship quickly makes that ship obsolete by handing you a nice S-Rank ship, too. Having that ship in your fleet makes warping around to meet other requirements a breeze as it rarely needed fuel and had so much inventory it wasn’t funny.

So, it really pays to look through the rewards you get for each step and decide which order to do them to make your progress easier.

Again, the most fun part of the expedition was the fact that everyone else was all gathered around the same systems you were – and there were a lot of folks doing it! I guess they were like me and had missed out on the Golden Vector.

It was great to see bases built around landmarks that could help others out, and all the communication pods leaving messages to those who explored after. This time, I built my base around a technology merchant and labeled it Tech Merchant just in case anyone needed one. It felt much more like I was doing something to contribute to other people that way.

I also had a lot of fun seeing what people named things…

I think the most time-consuming of the tasks was ranking up with the Explorer’s Guild. This set you out to do small missions which had a lot of back and forth. Things such as “Scan 7 plants” or “Take a picture on a volcanic planet.”

But once it was done and all rewards claimed, the Golden Vector ship made it all quite worth it. It’s a nice S-Rank fighter of a style that I really like. It needs a few upgrades added – such as better launch thrusters – but overall, it’s a great ship to have and should be an asset to my main game.

Though the Expedition 1 character is even better set than my Expedition 4 character, I still plan on playing my main playthrough in general. This has been slow going in terms of upgrades and gear for her. However, I’m also far more attached to that save and all the items I’ve earned there. I feel like I can bring back some of this knowledge and get a lot more out of the game on my main save.

While the other four expeditions will be available, seeing that most of them fall within Endwalker launch, I’m not sure if I’ll be going on to do any of them. The other rewards were nice, but nothing quite as important as the Golden Vector.