I suppose when you can’t use a bunch of profanity to name an expedition you just end up calling it the cursed. Everything from my starting locations down to the plants I'd end up exploring to work on the expedition milestones ended up being truly cursed.
I jumped into the last expedition that was now over and sent back some resources as per usual to my main save. I then loaded things up for the Cursed Expedition. This was the one time I decided not to include any technology since I never use anything I bring in and for once I would have.
This expedition would be quite different from others. I would end up using a warp drive zero times. I don’t think I had one even installed on my ship till late into things. Instead, I'd need to craft elixirs for finding a portal and of all things smearing blood onto it. I know this one is going to be a bit strange.
Usually, I'd like to stop and spend a moment to take a look at the milestones and what I'd need to be doing in The Cursed. That was going to have to wait. It turns out my starting location was dreadful.
As the game was loading in and doing its usual slow panning in while telling me different systems were being online. I did not like what I was seeing. I could tell things were already not right.
I ended up spawning underwater in the ocean. Into some kind of plant that was covering a part of my screen. Even worse some kinds of creatures seemed far too interested in me.
This rather trippy-looking screen would end up being how a lot of the time it ended up playing in The Cursed would look. It was something I did my best to adjust to while trying to as quickly as possible push forward on this expedition where it seemed the further I got the worse my situation would become.
In this expedition, I would constantly get my screen spammed with messages. If it was not for that I think this one would been a rather thrilling adventure. It got old fast with some kind of voice telling me to not do that, not to go further, and so on. It’s clear some kind of being did not want me to get off the starting planet let alone make it to the end. It would usually go on and on about glass making me wonder how insane the being that was sending me messages must have been.
I would also always while on planets be dealing with the boundaries falling and these giant squid-looking things that would be breaching whatever reality I was in. After a while, they would become hostile as well.
This would end up replacing the normal hazard conditions shielding that you have. There would only end up being two ways to replenish my sanity. The first was crafting an Elixir Of Glass. The second was flying into space and then back down onto the planet I was on. I’d end up using the second one quite a few times anytime I fell short of needed materials for crafting.
There was also technically a third option. Just ignore things and let my character go fully insane. While not recommended I just could not be bothered sometimes to go out and find the resources to make another potion or go up into space and back down. This would end up creating some hardships. I felt sometimes it was the only way to get things done.
My ship ended up being crashed on some tiny island with a building in it. One of the milestones would require me to interact with the building itself. I was however not that concerned with any of that in the short run.
After my rather long swim to that island. I noticed there would not be enough resources there to fix up my ship. I would also not get any of those resources in the ocean waters around the island either.
Instead of getting everything I needed my ship was. I ended up going for quite a long swim to find the mainland. I ended up staying there for as long as I could bear ensuring I had everything I needed to repair my ship and at least move to a better location if not a better planet outright.
By the time I made it back to the island the barrier with reality was more than broken. I ended up shooting at Boundry Horrors which were becoming quite hostile by this time and showing up in greater numbers. At least they were dropping one of the two items needed to craft the elixir I needed to keep things more reasonable.
Once things calmed down a bit. I decided to open up the expedition milestones and take a look. All the usual stuff about getting off the planet and going to another solar system was not in there.
I even noticed some of the phases were quite short. Just a couple of milestones in them. As far as expeditions go this one would end up being quite intense but rather short. It felt like a lot of the usual nonsense was removed.
There would still be some random stuff that I'd need to keep an eye out for. Like going fishing and catching four fish. Scanning two rare creatures on a certain kind of planet. Farming certain types of materials. Along with one I was sure would be an issue this time around getting enough nanites. Overall, it looked reasonable.
After blasting off to space visit the space station and unlock an inventory slot. I found myself just going back to the planet I started on. It was quite a tiny solar system I was starting in. It would seem most of what I needed to move forward should be on the starting planet.
I ended up crafting some Elixir’s of Blood. While I'd end up crafting a few of these to use on portals I needed to find them. It would turn out I'd need to finish a certain milestone in each phase to get the correct version of it that would only work on the next portal.
I also needed to craft an Elixir of Quicksilver. These I'd end up making a few of as well. Unlike the Elixir of Blood, I did not need to keep unlocking different crafting blueprints. They would just show the location of a portal I needed to reach. I could even craft a few up at once if I wanted.
I ended up going into space for a bit to do some framing. I needed quite a bit of silver for the Quicksilver elixir. I also did some refining to make chromatic metal that would end up being the ingredient in that elixir that was the hardest of the three to get.
I then again found myself going back to the same planet I had left. It ended up having indium deposits on it. That I could refine into chromatic metal. It was starting to feel like I was never going to be exploring anywhere else in the galaxy. As I kept just returning to the same planet. Quite a cursed feeling that was for sure.
Final Thoughts
At the very least I was checking off a few milestones. Some were even in the second phase. I kind of guessed however that trying to do things out of order was not going to be a big thing in this expedition. The number of systems, I'd end up going to let alone planets I'd explore was going to be a rather small amount compared to other expeditions I've done.
Once I had everything, I made a couple of elixirs. I drank one quicksilver that took me to my first of many portals. I had no idea at the time the kind of horrors that would be lurking for me on the other side. I just knew I was finally getting off the starting planet.
Information
No Man’s Sky.Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about
Is this worth doing? After a 4 year break, I cranked up NMS less than a week ago and am getting into the swing again. Was looking forward to trying one of these, but this one seems to suck.
If the Boundary Herald S class ship is something you want then yes. Otherwise it’s a skip. There is an egg companion and a jetpack trail cosmetic among a couple other stuff. I did not really care for the rest.
Let me know if you want a screenshot of the ship.
I haven't seen a single 'S' ship since starting again, and I don't want to use any cheats as it ruins games. I am using a 'A' Fighter, and it kicks arse in combat.
I was contemplating getting this game the other day but after watching a few videos it appeared to me as though there is a TON of written dialogue and menus that will require a bunch of reading. I don't have a problem with reading stuff but because my mid-range vision is pretty terrible it seemed like I was going to be standing up from the sofa very frequently for almost everything this game has to offer. I decided to give it a miss because of this.
I don't feel in the general game there is a lot of written dialogue outside of help pin tips, crafting, and expeditions. Sure you might run into some text needed solve a puzzle from time to time. You could also just not do that kind of activities.
More times then not when interacting with an alien you don't know enough of their words to fully understand what they are saying anyways. As one activity in the game is going around learning different words for each language.
A lot of the time I just skip over any text. If I’ve already done a certain activity a few times over. I already have a general idea of what is needed anyways.
What would be an issue is crafting and stuff like that since the text can be a bit small in that aspect of the game.
You might have some issues in something like the expedition I'm doing since you need to read the milestones to know what to do. Expeditions are also limited time events that are played on a separate save. So they are rather optional.
That starting location alone would've made me reconsider continue playing the game. I'm looking forward to seeing what horrors awaited on the other side of that portal for you.
This is one of those were it was more about the adventure then the end result. It was tempting to give up a couple of times.
I totally understand that and its good that you can hold onto it. I normally give up in such situation.