Games

'No Man's Sky' Players Find a Way to be Alone Together During COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the bleak expanse of this virtual universe has become a new meeting space.
ss_2ebd1eeb22c8cf019bd4965b8cade02a281bcc21

In order to combat the isolation of the global COVID-19 pandemic, No Man's Sky players are gathering in the easiest place to find in the galaxy.

Playing collaboratively in No Man's Sky can be a hassle. In order to make it to the place where other players are, you'll either have to do dozens, maybe hundreds of hyperdrive jumps from system to system, or you'll have to learn all 16 glyphs to make use of portals that allow you to instantly hop around entire regions of space. Right now, when cities across the United States and the world are getting orders to mostly stay in their homes, No Man's Sky player Nevadander found a way for people to get together in-game much more easily.

Advertisement

Where Nevadander lives in the real world, everything is already locked down. Using glyphs in No Man's Sky is a headache because you can only find them at portals, and finding a portal can be time consuming once, let alone the 16 times you'll need to find all the glyphs in the game. Most portals in No Man's Sky correspond to a specific combination of glyphs. The convenience of the location Nevadander is highlighting is that it only calls for one glyph, so you don't have to find every glyph to use a portal to get there. Nevadander also tweeted out some guides for players that need help gathering the necessary materials to look for glyphs, if they don't have any yet.

"I know a lot of us are out there in a studio apartment, alone. And you can be surrounded by family and still feel alone," Nevadander said. "We're being kept apart in a way few of us have seen in our lifetime. I saw a safe way to bring us back together."

So far, the only person to settle on this planet is a player by the name of TocTik. They've dubbed the location Bird System, and they've started growing crops there.

"They say if you grow crops in a place, you've officially colonized it," TocTik said on Twitter. "Well, Bird system is a colony now!"

If you're feeling lonely, then why not make the trek to Bird System. Even though it's not the real world, No Man's Sky's community has still given us a way to come together in this frightening time.