No Man's Sky The Swarm Update Brings a Star Wars-Inspired Threat

This week marks the 49th anniversary of the original Star Wars movie, and Hello Games appears to be paying homage to the seminal flick with its "mysterious Death Star-like construct" debuting in the No Man's Sky The Swarm update. As Expedition Twenty-Two kicks off, players will face a massive new threat that brings epic space battles and a colossal boss ship reminiscent of the classic sci-fi franchise.

The Swarm targets every living being in the galaxy, forcing travelers to unite against this encroaching danger. To defeat the Swarm and its massive weapon, participants are split into three teams: the Royal, the Sage, and the Weaver. These factions must collaborate to unlock a final confrontation, with the team contributing the most to the war effort earning eternal glory in the Space Anomaly.

The Hive of Glass and Epic Battles

Hello Games' Sean Murray described "The Swarm" as featuring the biggest and most epic space battles seen in the game to date. The update introduces the Hive of Glass, a formidable boss that protects itself by releasing swarms of robotic drones, creating a spectacle with hundreds of ships on screen.

Murray noted that the Hive is also a weapon, with an iris that opens to release the largest gun ever added to No Man's Sky. This laser is capable of destroying freighter fleets and potentially even structures as large as space stations. While Murray stopped short of calling it a planet killer, the Swarm can contaminate worlds, which players can heal while investigating wreckage for clues about the enemy's past.

Expedition Mechanics and Rewards

During the eight-week expedition, players assigned to a team will receive a ship and uniform in their faction's colors. Progress is tracked through the construction of the Prismatic Core in the Space Anomaly, as well as via the Mission Log and Galactic Atlas website. Construction is driven by completing missions across three categories:

  • Purge: Directly counteracts the Swarm threat.
  • Restoration: Heals broken worlds and recovers resources.
  • Sabotage: Targets Swarm infrastructure for bonus progress.

Each category impacts the rate and balance of construction, requiring strategic teamwork. Successful travelers can earn a variety of exclusive rewards, including:

  • New posters, decals, and titles.
  • Flags representing your assigned soul fragment.
  • The Direwasp rifle Multi-Tool.
  • The Direwasp Flightpack.
  • A six-piece Direwasp customization set.

New Enemies and World Hazards

The Swarm update introduces two distinct enemy types: small, agile swarmer ships and the massive Hive of Glass. Players exploring dissonant planets may encounter crashed swarmer ships defended by deadly planetary swarmers. Additionally, buried debris containing salvageable scrap can be found on worlds that feature both dissonance and scrap resources.

Salvage missions carry new risks, as the Swarm defends itself even after its ships are destroyed. This adds a layer of danger to exploration as players hunt for clues on how to defeat this persistent threat. The update also follows previous additions like Pokemon-style battles and Gravity Guns, suggesting a continued push toward dynamic combat mechanics.

Patch Notes Highlights: Stability and Combat Improvements

Beyond the new expedition content, The Swarm brings significant technical updates. Stability fixes address a rare softlock with the Connecting banner and crashes related to rendering complex corvette-class starships. Memory and performance optimizations improve ship trails, speedlines, and object visibility in complex scenes.

Performance gains are notable across several platforms:

  • Improved Exocraft piloting on Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.
  • Significant optimization for freighter battles.
  • Enhanced lighting calculations on CPU.
  • Optimized UI rendering for sub-4K resolutions on PS4 Pro.
  • Fixed a crash when playing in 4K on PS4 Pro.

Space combat receives numerous refinements, including improved target visibility, weapon aiming, and auto-follow navigation with boost capabilities. Enemy ship patterns have been adjusted, and weak point mechanics are now more precise: hitting a weak point always results in a critical hit, while other areas never crit. Additional fixes address mission notification delays, Sentinel interceptor spawning, and pulse engine countdown timers.