On release, No Man’s Sky started out as a rough third-person action-adventure, space-exploration game, but over the last 7 years or so, with continued dedication from its developers Hello Games, today, this game is one of the best space exploration games available.
The constant free DLCs, major bug fixes, and whatnot turned a missed opportunity of a game into an explorer’s paradise. It is worth pointing out that No Man’s Sky is still not everyone’s cup of tea as many gamers still find the game lacking in certain aspects, but that is where the vibrant modding community comes in.
The modding community has done a commendable job of creating numerous intuitive mods for this game that not only add a plethora of options for gamers to enjoy this game exactly the way they would like to but these mods also help fill the little gaps still existing in the game’s overall design, to provide players with a more comprehensive and immersive gameplay experience.
Best No Man’s Sky Mods Content List
How To Install Mods In No Man’s Sky
Before using mods in No Man’s Sky, gamers must know how to properly integrate and install mods in this game.
Here are the following steps to properly install mods in this game:
- Find the mod that you would like to add to your game, download it, and then extract it to a folder of your choice.
- Once extracted successfully, players should either see a .pak file, a .lua file, or both in the folder.
- Now go to the folder where you had installed No Man’s Sky. From the main folder, go to the Gamedata folder, and then the PCBanks folder.
- In the PCBanks folder, find a .TXT file by the name of Disablemods.txt. Once found, delete it.
- Next, create a new MODS folder and place the .pak file that we had initially downloaded in it. (Place the .pak file directly in the MODS folder, not in any other subfolder.)
- Now, boot up the game and wait for the splash screen to appear.
- If you have followed all the steps correctly, the game will display a small warning message before presenting you with the saves screen to allow you to begin your game.
Now that we know how to install mods in No Man’s Sky, without any more delays, let us jump right into the light of some of the best No Man’s Sky mods:
1) Reduced Launch Cost
| Created By | Lex – lo2k |
| Released On | 20 August 2016 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 186,000+ |
The Reduced Launch Cost mod by Lo2k is necessary if you, like us, are into serious planet exploration in No Man’s Sky, as it allows players to reduce or completely negate the fuel their trusty spaceships consume for each subsequent launch into space.
At the time of writing the article, the mod has three fuel consumption settings that players can switch between in the game, requiring 50% for launch, 25% fuel for launch, and for players who do not want to be bothered with this gameplay mechanic at all and just want to hop on into their spaceships and launch at will, there is also a ‘no fuel required’ option available as well.
2) Better Planet Generation
| Created By | WoodyMontana |
| Released On | 19 August 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 191,000+ |
Are default planets in No Man’s Sky looking a bit lame and uninspired? Not to worry, as the Better Planet Generation mod overhauls the entire planet generation system of the base game and enables it to generate more diverse planets throughout the galaxy, allowing players to visit truly distinct and unique environments for a more memorable experience.
Some of the examples of planets players can expect to see in this game range from scarcely populated planets with only a few grass, plants, and stones on them to planets densely populated with a lot of trees and greenery.
If you’re looking to give the planets in the game a truly Next-Gen feel, this mod is a must, but make sure you have a moderately capable system to run it too.
3) Fast-Text-View
| Created By | Userpro66 – AnDiPro |
| Released On | 6 November 2020 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 12,000+ |
Tired of waiting for subtitles to slowly appear on your screen when interacting with objects or NPCs in the game? Wait no more, as with the help of the Fast-Text-View mod, players will be able to instantly read the entire contents of the NPC’s dialogue through subtitles long before they even complete saying it themselves.
For PC users, the text will be displayed even faster than before, especially if they keep the left mouse button pressed. Not by much, mind you, but still something worth knowing.
On the surface, it may appear to be quite a simple mod, but it is still nevertheless one of the best quality-of-life improvements one can implement in their games to prevent themselves from wasting precious time on slow-loading texts and rather spend it on playing the game instead.
4) Exosolar’s Beyond Base Building
| Created By | Exosolar, Sparky, NeptuneX3, Babscoole |
| Released On | 17 August 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 95,000+ |
No Man’s Sky gives its players a plethora of options to choose from when looking to build their ultimate space home/station on a distant planet, but even then, quite a lot of players felt a little constrained and wanted more build options, that is when Exosolar’s Beyond Base Building mod comes in.
With the help of this mod, players gain access to 1000+ additional base parts that were previously unattainable in the base game, giving them unprecedented levels of freedom to design their dream space home to their heart’s content.
Another good part of this mod is that it is completely multiplayer-friendly, so players wanting to collaborate with their friends through the game’s co-op mode will freely be able to do so without any problems whatsoever.
5) Learn More Words
| Created By | TheJollyDuck |
| Released On | 7 April 2021 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 41,000+ |
Numerous Knowledge stones and encyclopedias are scattered around the game’s universe that players have to find to gain invaluable knowledge into the game’s lore, among other things, but many players have found that the amount of knowledge gained from these in-game artifacts is not sufficient enough, hence the conception of this mod.
With the implementation of the Learn More Words mod, players will be able to learn more words at a faster rate, from the various Knowledge Stones and Encyclopedias they might come across during their intergalactic travels.
This mod comes with two inbuilt settings. The first one keeps the mod at default settings, allowing players to learn 10 words per knowledge stone or encyclopedia. In the second setting, however, players will need to interact with an in-game artifact only once during their playthrough to attain all the words to be learned in the game.
6) Almost Perfect Flight
| Created By | Silent369 |
| Released On | 22 April 2022 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 10,500+ |
Players have access to a large variety of spaceships that they can pilot in No Man’s Sky, but each one of them is held back due to the game’s underwhelming flying and landing mechanics. Thanks to Silent369, this will not be the case anymore due to the Almost Perfect Flight mod.
The Almost Perfect Flight modifies the flight and landing mechanics of spaceships in this game by improving their overall handling and landing capabilities and increasing their maximum speed capacity. A new ‘hover-in-space’ gameplay mechanic is also added to the game, allowing players to suspend their spaceships in mid-air.
Additionally, the mod comes with two functionality settings in place. Through the first one, all the spaceship stats multipliers have increased slightly, but not by much. In this way, players get a little taste of what the mod is all about while keeping the spaceship’s overall stats close to its base settings.
In the second option, however, all the stat multipliers of the spaceship have been increased considerably, giving players the experience of flying enhanced versions of their base spaceships with considerably faster maximum speeds and warp speeds and much smoother landing animations.
7) HD Clouds
| Created By | Lo2k |
| Released On | 15 August 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 73,000+ |
Are you a keen observer? If you are, then you must’ve noticed the semi-dense layer of clouds covering the planet’s surface just before entering its atmosphere. If you look closely, you’ll find they aren’t the most detailed when it comes to their textures. The HD Clouds mod, however, addresses this issue and completely modifies this.
When implemented into the game, the HD Clouds mod completely replaces the dense and foggy cloud textures present in the base game with clouds that are sharper in texture, much crisper, and refined in regards to their overall details, giving them an extremely immersive, non-intrusive look.
Once again, this might not be one of those game-altering mods like others on this list, but one cannot deny that this cloud mod completely changes and enhances the level of immersion players get from the new and improved high-definition clouds. It is a must for players who prioritize immersion in this game.
8) LowFlight
| Created By | Hytek |
| Released On | 23 August 2016 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 100,000+ |
The flying mechanics in No Man’s Sky is quite straightforward and fairly flexible, but one thing it does not allow players to do is to let them fly their spaceships closer to a planet’s surface. Flying close to a planet’s surface enables players to survey the planet from afar without needing to land on it, but unfortunately, the base game does not allow that.
With the help of the LowFlight mod, however, players will be able to do exactly what the base game did not allow them to do, i.e., fly as low as they would like to a planet’s surface to survey them without needing to land on them and also hover in place if they happen to come across points of interest they would like to examine from afar for a bit longer.
Furthermore, this mod allows players to increase their spaceship’s base speed and acceleration capabilities and use their spaceships and swim(fly?) in waterbodies across space to explore their lively aquatic life.
9) Fast Refiners
| Created By | wim95 – NooBzPoWaH |
| Released On | 3 July 2021 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 24,000+ |
Suppose you are someone who has been playing No Man’s Sky for a considerable length of time. In that case, you must’ve noticed that all the refiners in the game, by default, process minerals and resources at considerably slower speeds, causing subsequent actions to be completed with frequent delays.
To help with this annoyance, however, an impressive Fast Refiners mod was created. This mod does nothing but amplify the default processing speed capabilities of the refiners in the game to such an extent that it makes them operate at ten times their default speeds, thereby allowing them to process minerals and materials faster.
On the surface, it may appear to be quite a simplistic mod, but no player should need to wait around and waste their precious in-game minutes waiting endlessly for refiners to churn out their processed resources and rather spend it on trying to explore a gazillion more planets in this game.
10) Fast Actions
| Created By | Lo2k |
| Released On | 15 August 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 195,000+ |
No Man’s Sky has a lot of in-game elements that require players to press a particular button for a few seconds to activate them. Although it looks and feels great on the surface, one cannot deny the fact that it becomes quite cumbersome and time-consuming the longer players keep doing it.
To help with this, the Fast Actions mod replaces all the ‘press-and-hold’ options in the game with a single tap option. Now through this mod, players will not need to hold a particular key for a few seconds to activate them, instead, all they have to do is give it a single tap.
The Fast Action mod applies to all the settings in the game, ranging from menu selection to entering the spaceship, speaking to NPCs, gathering plants and resources from the planets, etc.
Additionally, to cater to a larger audience, this mod comes equipped with two settings options: fast actions and instant actions. The fast actions options allow players a closer-to-base-game experience by reducing the button hold duration but not eliminating it.
On the other hand, the Instant Actions option eliminates the need for players to hold buttons completely and allows them to activate options in the game with just a single tap of a button.
11) Companion Pet Unlocker
| Created By | Mjjstral aka MetaIdea and Babscoole |
| Released On | 27 February 2021 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 16,500+ |
No Man’s Sky is a huge game, and players trying to explore the quintillion planets the game has to offer may suffer from exhaustion and loneliness from time to time, especially while playing the game’s dedicated single-player mode, but that does not have to be the case any more thanks to the intuitive Companion Pet Unlocker mod.
The Companion Pet Unlocker is a pet mod for No Man’s Sky players. It allows them to convert any creature in the game into their own in-game pet and accompany them on their numerous adventures through space. Players can choose to convert any of the following creatures into their pets: Bigfish, Seasnake, Drill, Shark, Fiend, Weirddigger, Rockspider, etc.
Apart from just owning them, players can also ride select creatures in the game to travel between locations on the map. The list of rideable creatures is as follows: Fish, Shark, Mole, Slug, Plough, Floater, etc.
Also Read: Interested in playing more space games like this one? Check out our list of some of the best space games to play that enable players to live their ultimate space fantasies.
12) ArghWater
| Created By | Argh |
| Released On | 2 August 2021 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 31,500+ |
When visiting and traveling through the various planets in No Man’s Sky, players must have noticed that the water bodies present in the game, in general, are not of the highest quality, especially regarding their visual quality and the way they behave. Although it is not a big issue, many players pointed it out by saying it felt a little under-baked and broke their immersion.
The ArghWater mod is a water shader mod that tries to modify and enhance certain settings of water present in the game to not only give them a more life-like appearance but also in turn help players get a more immersive experience from them.
This mod focuses on numerous water settings like tweaking the wave generation settings to give the waves generated in the game greater height, more realistic motion, and a higher level of detail, adding blur effects to reflections created by the waves, fixing the intensity of the rendering process of the waterlines in the game, improved the appearance and visibility settings of the foam being generated by the waves, and much, much more.
13) Lasagna Biome Generation
| Created By | aghostlypepper aka Lasagna |
| Released On | 17 September 2021 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 14,800+ |
Bored with seeing the same plants, wildlife, and foliage on multiple planets across the galaxies? With the help of the Lasagna Biome Generation mod, however, that won’t be an issue anymore because this mod adds a plethora of cool variations to the base game’s biome settings to give all the planets in the game a much-needed boost in terms of their biome quality and its variations.
The Lasagna Biome Generation mod completely overhauls the overall variety of biomes that players will encounter on their travels by introducing new, custom-made biome options into the world all around them, so there is a great chance players may not see a particular biome variety for a considerably long interval.
Apart from overhauling the varieties of biomes players will see in this game, this mod also aims to amplify other details of the game like enhancing the foliage density, increasing the level of detail of objects in the world and increasing their overall draw distance, adjusting creature sizes to make them appear more alive, etc.
14) Better Rewards
| Created By | MrTrack |
| Released On | 27 February 2020 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 111,000+ |
Are you looking to earn more lucrative rewards for completing the game’s quests/missions/tasks? If yes, then the Better Rewards mod is the perfect mod for you to implement in your game as it enables players to earn up to 5 times more units, quicksilver, and nanites for every completed activity.
Furthermore, just like the ‘Learn More Words’ mod, this mod also allows players to learn more words from knowledge stones and dictionaries at three times their normal speeds.
Moreover, players will be able to harvest two times the normal amount of resources from not only varying resource nodes found throughout the galaxy but also from other sources like containers, other spaceships, depots, asteroids, guild rewards, and more.
On completing Frigate Expedition missions, players can expect to receive five times more units and nanites, three times more resources like Copper and Cadmium, and two times more products like storage augmentations.
15) No Camera Shake
| Created By | RyokuHasu |
| Released On | 21 July 2020 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 5,200+ |
The No Camera Shake mod is more of a quality-of-life improvement mod, unlike the majority of other mods on this list that look to provide players with a plethora of options, but it is still an important mod nonetheless.
This mod specifically caters to players who have issues with shaking camera effects in games, so when implemented, this mod completely removes/disables the camera shake feature from the game.
The game does have an in-built ‘camera shake’ option of its own located in the game’s settings menu to allow players to lower the intensity of the camera shake effect in the game, but the settings menu, unfortunately, does not have a dedicated toggle button to turn off the camera shake feature completely.
Many gamers prefer to have the camera shake feature turned on in their games as it gives them a more natural feel, whereas some players decide to turn it off completely as it makes them nauseous, so having a setting like this on standby is always a good move.
16) Dud’s Sky – Colors
| Created By | jasondude7116 |
| Released On | 3 February 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 137,000+ |
Do you find the color scheme of the sky on the planets you visit to be pale and uninspiring? Worry not because by using the Dud’s Sky – Colors collection of mods, players will be able to modify the overall color and visual effects of the skies in this game to give them a more vivid and vibrant look.
To make things a little clearer, the Dud’s Sky – Color is not a single mod, it is a collection of many different color and visual effects mods compiled together to give gamers an all-in-one sky modding kit that they can use to modify the skies in their games.
Moreover, the creators of this mod have ensured that the colors generated by this mod are not too flashy and stay closer to the original aesthetics of the base game.
17) JJs Better Ships
| Created By | JJhookah |
| Released On | 29 October 2017 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 70,000+ |
As mentioned earlier, space exploration plays a big role in No Man’s Sky, and with the integration of the JJs Better Ships mod, players will have a more enjoyable time flying the various types of spaceships in the game as this mod replaces all the entry-level C-class spaceships of the base game with more S-Class, A-Class, and B-Class spaceships.
Moreover, the mod also alters the spawn multiplier rate of the S-Class spaceships to allow them to spawn more frequently, giving players a higher chance of acquiring a much-coveted S-Class spaceship for themselves during their playthroughs.
18) Fine LOD
| Created By | Prof Horatio Hafnaugels |
| Released On | 17 December 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 87,000+ |
For a game that relies heavily on procedurally generated content, the level of details of objects and sceneries, along with the overall graphics, is truly commendable, to say the least, but that is not to say that there aren’t obvious glaring deficiencies in its implementation.
The Fine LOD mod fixes a few major issues with the base game, like enhancing the level of detail of the ground, rectifying the way the game used to render and display uneven water levels when the players were in it, greatly improving the level of detail on far-off objects and rendering them quicker than before, slowing down the speed of clouds to give them a more nature flow, and much more.
19) Exosolar’s Expanse
| Created By | Exosolar |
| Released On | 26 August 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 36,000+ |
Players in No Man’s Sky spend a lot of time and resources trying to visit the quintillion galaxies and systems during their playthroughs, so it is only understandable that after a while, they might start finding the colors and designs of some of the ‘newer’ galaxies to be a little repetitive. To eliminate this repetitiveness from the game, Exsolar’s Expanse mod aims to add more color to it to keep it fresh and engaging.
Exsolar’s Expanse mod completely overhauls the color and design template of space in the base game to such an extent that there is a good chance that players might not see the same space color combination ever again on their playthroughs. All in all, this mod adds 700+ color combinations for space in general, with many more settings that provide brightness levels for stars and even add color variety for the nebula.
This mod also has a black edition in which players can experience a grimmer space that is completely devoid of any vibrant colors, where players will find a darker space with a few glimmering stars in the distance and a lone sun at the center.
20) Faster Analysis
| Created By | alechielke |
| Released On | 29 July 2018 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 54,000+ |
One of the core elements of the engaging gameplay loop in No Man’s Sky involves players discovering and scanning various extraterrestrial animals, plants, and resources through their analysis visor to get more information on them.
It is worth pointing out that as good and important as the analysis visor is, it takes its fair share of time to completely scan any object in the game, and this is something that bothers quite a few players, but worry not, because the Fast Analysis mod is created for that very purpose.
The Fast Analysis mod takes away the tedium that comes with scanning each object on any given planet, as with the help of this mod, players can now scan objects found in the game’s world almost instantaneously.
This faster scanning of objects prevents players from wasting their precious gaming time by staring down the drawn-out scanning animation of the base game. Instead, it encourages them to go out and scan even more objects to gain more knowledge.
21) Superman On Steroids (SOS)
| Created By | JimminyBillyBob888 AKA TheNexGDD and NooBzPoWaH |
| Released On | 13 August 2018 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 18,500+ |
No Man’s Sky is among the few games in gaming history that have allowed the players to maneuver around its map with the help of a highly advanced jetpack. Although the jetpack does indeed allow players to reach hard-to-reach places and even hover above the ground, it only allows players to do so for mere seconds before they have to come back down and wait for it to recharge.
To rectify this issue, in comes the Superman on Steroids mod. This mod changes the way jetpacks act in this game. Instead of flying and hovering for a few seconds at a time, the jetpack will now become like a small portable rocket that allows players to travel for longer and farther and also allows them to go higher than ever before, just like Superman, all while not consuming any fuel.
Moreover, players will be pleased to know that apart from all the features mentioned above, this mod will also enable players to walk 2 x faster, run and swim 3x faster, reduce weapon recoil, give increased hazard protection and underwater breathing capabilities, have reduced enemy cooldown period, and much more.
22) Astroid Reduction
| Created By | HennySea |
| Released On | 19 August 2019 |
| Total Downloads So Far | 4,500+ |
Are excessive astroids bothering you to maneuver in space? Don’t worry because you are not alone. No Man’s Sky does a lot of things right, but one aspect many gamers agree on is that sometimes the asteroids found in space are a little too much to contend with.
The Astroid Reduction mod by HennySea allows players to reduce the number of asteroids that will spawn in space, not only helps players see the area around them much more clearly and enables them to admire the beautiful colors of space but it allows players to navigate the areas between two points of interest better, without the added worry of crashing into countless asteroids on the way.
To compensate for fewer asteroids in space, players will be able to harvest a considerably larger amount of resources from the asteroids that do spawn.
Conclusion
That’s all we have for you all today! These were some of the most used and popular No Man’s Sky mods that players use around the globe to enhance their gameplay experiences.
From generating better planets with more diverse points of interest to see and resources to harvest to freeing outer space from the clutter of numerous asteroids, players will find a lot of interesting mods to experiment with to find the ideal ones that suit their playstyles the best.
Players are advised to keep visiting this post occasionally whenever they might require a particular mod to assist them in their gameplay sessions, as we at BenettonPlay will keep updating this post regularly with all the latest updates and mods to help guide them the right way.
