No Man’s Sky: Aquarius
A real hoot of an expedition, from the perspective of a drifter.
I started my journey on Urus XIX, a wind swept planet. I came across my ship, a bit of an ugly duckling named the Celeste. It was a rental, what to expect. After discovering the Angler’s first message I was filled with a sense of discovery. The tentacles with that bottle were suggesting a direction. Casting the rod on an alien ocean, it brought great intrigue to this wizened anomaly. Onwards ho!
Getting off world was a snap. Urus XIX was quite a sparse world filled with odd fan shaped plants and cactus.
My next destination was the station.
Aboard this station I found many odd creatures. Korvax they were called. I had barely any money, so I decided to head to another planet to make some cheeky creds.
A terrain manipulator, just like a dog — is a man’s, woman or other’s best friend.
I had found myself on a cold world but it had many riches. Salvageable scrap, and these strange whispering eggs. I discovered that once broken down in my portable refiner I collected 50 nanites per egg. The other beauty of this world was the fact that it was a low gravity world. I could bounce from place to place and barely push down with my legs. I put in some time mining ferrite and transforming into pure and magnetised variants. I also picked up plenty of oxygen here. A dip into the odd cave and I came back with cobalt, which I turned into ion batteries to power my environmental shields.
There was a problem in this system. I couldn’t call in my friends Polo and Nada. The anomaly was unable to find me here. There was only one thing for it. Now armed with a much better multitool, it was time to make the journey to another system. I was able to fashion a hyperdrive, and with a single ampule of antimatter I was on my way in the colourful tunnel of light. FTL travel never felt so good. All those nanites I’d put together had come in useful buying an A class hyperdrive upgrade buying me some extended light year range and efficiency on my newly fitted hyperdrive.
System: StBury
I’d made the short jump to StBury system. There were a few planets in this system to check out. Before I even engaged on getting to the rendezvous the angler had mentioned in his message, I called in the anomaly and set aboard.
I had left two pre-packaged pieces of technology for this expedition. An advanced mining laser and an optical drill. I realised I would be needing to make plenty of items, so having the resources at hand would be helpful. My newly acquired mining laser felt a lot sexier now.
I decided to salvage my old multi-tool in order to try and cover this purchase off a little and with hopes I might manage to get a module to expand my new one. Sadly I just got some rather naff C class modules.
Upon reaching the station in StBury, I had a look around and sold my C class modules. I also sold the components to get around 1.25 million credits back into the bank account.
I then spotted this rather classy vessel in the bay.
Though shall not covet a Gek’s fighter, unless ye have enough credits. Sadly this little gal was 21,500,000 credits. A little rich for my blood. But it was very tempting. I’ll remember this ship is here. I’m sure another will fly past at some point.
The first little fishy I caught was a Rockfin. It was a medium sized fish that had much in common with a manta ray, it had stripes and a big delta shaped winglet structure. Next was an uncommon Needlefish. It looked something like a tuna only with more stripes. Next was a Clearwater skipper. Then a Pondskipper. To finish off my five, I discovered a Mellifluous Jellyfish.
I had a long pause and took a deep nap aboard the The Celeste. Not a bad rental ship. An interesting design trying to build a hauler around the central container. I could imagine how useful this might be, being able to drop that rectangle at a dock and pick up a new one. Some silly Gek had welded the container in now. It was integral to the ship’s design.
I wok from my slumber with a renewed spirit, a dream of scales in the water.
Soon I fished a boot out of the drink. Size 7, female. Kinky. then a message in a bottle. I decided to fish on, foregoing my urge to read that message.
I landed 2 mud crabs, a Wandering Kelpfin (an interesting mauve fish) and a tiny scuttlefish.
A storm was starting to blow in, superheated, I decied to dash inside The Celeste and take cover.
The message in the bottle told me not to drink the water and to leave this place. It was time to travel once again. Before enjoying a journey, my stomach rumbled. It was a decision, whic of these prime fish or crustaceans or Jellyfish was I going to cram in my gullet. The scuttlefish, the smallest of my catch, would be sacrificed to make some fry. Happy day.
I went a little explore, and discovered a buried cache. The broken device yielded me blue gold. Indium. All I need do was to upgrade my personal refiner and I would be able to make unlimited chromatic metal. Deepest joy.
I installed the beginnings of my cadmium drive blueprints and made a charge to the next location as marked on the Angler’s cryptic message.
System: Syathse
Upon arriving at the next destination it was about time to fall into the age old habit. Visiting the anomaly. One of my favourite travellers bid me welcome. It was always wise when visiting a new system to pickup an exo-suit upgrade at the terminal resting beside my beloved Selene.
After farting around on the station for a hot minute, I decided to make my journey to the next waypoint. The planet was Odeg 89/A2, such a catchy name for a planet, really.
Upon touching the ground, I felt the heat in my boots. It wasn’t long before I discovered an ancient site which would point me to my next clue.
I soon fished out another bottle. I caught a few diurnal fish that day with my trusty lures.
I saw a lone sentinel wandering around and my lust for nanites overtook me. They had to die, those orange plated bastards. Their glass would embolden me to greatness. I dispatched many of the filthy sentinels and managed to escape before their threat escalated to epic proportions. I scanned the biggest crab I’ve ever seen in the depths, the kind of abyssal nightmare to give anyone a fright. It was more a preying mantis that lived underwater when viewed up close. It’s bug eyes gave me the heeby jeebies.
I returned to the hot planet, with a wealth of information. I had unlocked many things in the Anomaly now. It was time to release 3 fish. I decided to honour the crabs in their release. They could salute me from afar.
I had some upgrading to do that involved crystal sulphide and living pearls, so it was time to don the diving helmet and make my way down.
I have always suffered a degree of thalassophobia, the fear of a deep body of water but I managed to brave the colourful depths of this fiery ocean. It just didn’t feel all that deep even in the night.
It was time to begin the Chromatic Expansion as well.
After some pearl diving it was time to get back to the surface.
It was back to fishing. Now with the newly finished Skiff it was time to play with some new bait.
A legendary catch. With mealworms, how could I be such a lucky anomaly?
The Skiff is a tippy boy, especially in big swells. I may have to log the number of times I suffer a severe concussion when being launched from this platform.
I was growing restless of this fishing hole. With a Legendary Iron tail, a Pyrefin, Solar Roach and Ash Snail, along with a piece of ossified coral, it was time to head home. Ossified, what a lovely word. Meaning something that had pretty much turned to pure calcium, hardened like stone, inflexible, unchanging. Some older anomalies suffered the ills of ossification, either through diseases like arthritis that came with age, or other maladies.
I missed a fish. The Basalt Bloater. How dare I.
System: Eugeli
Quite an amazing station to arrive to. There was one radiation rich planet here, it would interesting to see what kind of fish lay beneath the radiation soaked waves.
After a few sales it was time to hit the hammock. All good Anomalies needed some rest here and there.
I flew my way to Awki Sigma.
I could feel the light zing of the gamma waves as I stepped out of my ship. With my trusty Skiff, I could do some serious fishing now so it was time to have a session on these yellow waves.
The Bionic Lure. It did net me two A class hauls. An Immortal Flat Fish and a Shrieking Oyster.
A big haul. The highlights were the three A class landings. Mud crabs, Reef Eels and Depleted Razorjaws seemed common. I worked myself through 40 mealworms, I even caught a few without bait, there seemed no shortage of prey on this Gamma irradiated world.
I took a trip to the next rendezvous, Ietap prime. A frosty world. I’d have to wrap up warm.
My skiff, when deployed, performed an epic barrel roll in the high winds. I questioned whether it was safe to hop on.
This chum clearly hasn’t read Moby Dick.
Another small haul and I decided to pay the Anomaly a visit. Of note was the Brinefish (pictured left), a new fish to the collection.
I would think that with the amount of credits that Iteration: Tethys has managed to accrue in all of his multi-dimensional forms (presuming Tethys is a he) that he has probably made hundreds of millions of units. He claims we have never met, but I’ve met him thousands of times. He’s a filthy liar.
Three autonomous fishing traps. It was time to hit the hammock once again.
I must admit viewers, I’ve been keeping a few secrets from you. You haven’t seen my underwater base yet. In time.
My automated fish traps did me proud while I spent some time in the hammock. Some more hypnotic octopi were present.
Note: Skiff concussion No1
I had decided to head off world, I’d spent a long time on the ice world. It was about time to warm up. I headed to Taak 88/H8. The hottest planet in the system.
The local fauna were quite friendly here so I tossed them a few treats. I particularly liked this unusual critter. The swoop head with those interesting and decidedly beady eyes. I particular found the legs interesting. Why was that not a design I had seen before? I drank at least a few pints of warm milk before having a good nose around.
I then discovered a distress signal.
Could this be my new ship? I looked around, there were no survivors. This place had long since been abandoned. There was no salvage permit on the ship. This was as good as mine. All I had to do was get it off the ground. I headed to the black box first.
It took a little while to look the ship over but I started getting my wrenches out. It didn’t take long to get most of the ship systems tip top.
I had a cunning plan with this ship but it would involve some Sentinel aggravation. First though, I planned to get every last slot repaired.
There was a little trick with Paraffinium. It was very time consuming using the terrain manipulator to mine hunks of Paraffinium. It was far easier to just go and make it. How, you might ask. Silver and Oxygen in the refiner. I came across two lumps of Aronium on my nose around the planet, and this could be synthesised into some silver, 500 silver to be precise. I actively collect oxygen as it is an excellent base to many expansion based recipes so I was already prepared. I had exactly enough. There was 750 Paraffinium required and I would get 1000 from my refining, so 250 spare.
The activated copper for the corroded tanks alongside the wiring looms was about the only thing I couldn’t get without going to get it. I had some pugneum spare from my sentinel encounter earlier. I could manufacture dioxite, but seeing as my base is on a cold world anyway, it would be easy to come by a patch. Plenty of required platinum was waiting up in space for me to blast. So, it was time to get the show on the road.
Mercury is quite a serious guy. I like him.
We had a bumper crop back at base. Particular highlights was the Colossal Shrimp and the other Cold Critters. The mud crab was putting in a good show once again.
Following that, another bumper crop. The cold storage was looking rather full. Top landings in this group were the Colossal Shrimp, the Frostbite Ray, the Giant Rays, and the Giant Icefins.
It was time to head on to the next System.
System: Riynton XIII
It was a quick stop in this system. It didn’t contain the worlds I was looking for. So I would quickly stop at the station to get the backpack upgrade, a rapid stop in the Anomaly to get the backpack upgrade there, the on to the next system.
System: Inzagda-Mye
I was launched into battle almost immediately after touching Inzagda-Mye’s local space.
I was careful to check my fire and avoid friendly damage to the freighters.
The captain was very pleased with my work. A Korvax.
I inherited the freighter with thanks. It would make an excellent mobile command centre.
An S Class. Very fancy. Unfortunately I would not be keeping this Freighter. It would only be on loan until I returned to my freighter. Still, it was nice to look at. One of the Korvax, I believe the Captain, had a penchant for growing Gravatino balls. I found a healthy number just around the corner in the freight section.
I stopped on Enport Imoto to acquire some Activated Copper to finish off the fighter.
This was a very odd planet.
System: Zaresvet XVI
I arrived in Zaresvet XVI, the finally leg for the 4th Rendezvous. It was funny how I could tell I was somewhere important when I saw all of the message beacons around.
It was time to fish. I did of course merc ever last larval core I could get my hands on. Like you do.
This Angler has gone too far. He must be stopped.
System: Riynton XIII
I made a return to Riynton in hopes to catch some high temperature fish. It was on my list of things to do. Unfortunately, Tibertonron Okuts, whilst seemingly hot, was not hot enough.
I completed the list for the night at the very least. A happy accomplishment. The Shadow Lure was effective during the night.
System: Galince
I had an unanswered distress call on my comms, so I decided to loop back for it and picked up this little number. It’s an A class with lots of storage. The wings are a little bit odd but its nice. I should have gone for this ship sooner. Famous last words.
System: Ilfarinei
I was on the trail of a hot planet, it was like my secret calling. I couldn’t find a decent planet here so quickly moved on.
System: Pungdengz
The Vykeen were rather friendly in this system. Once again, no hot planet. I did get into some space combat and received a freighter cargo slot for my troubles.
I hit a few more systems in between but for brevity I opted to skip them. Most were a blink and you’ll miss it kind of affair.
System: Sylph
This was the jackpot system.
Firstly I successfully defended a fleet of traders from a pirate battleship and picked up a very nice S class upgrade for fleet command. I had a look around the frigates but they were all too expensive.
I then purchased a huge swathe of stock from the outlaw station. This being an outlaw system was rather handy.
I then took to the planet Lekgrozny Etaj (below) where I proceeded to finish off my hot fish fishathon.
My haul. The two best were the Moon Turtle and the Cadmium Pearlcase.
Quite a bewitching sunrise on the salmon ocean after a stint of pearl diving. Plenty of deep water in this sea.
I stepped over to Heraele XIII in the same system. It was a disonance world brimming with Atlantideum. I happened across a base from another traveller that had an S class sentinel multi tool at my fingertips.
This place gave me some eerie vibes being a nuclear planet as well.
System: Eugeli
I returned back to my base in order to drop off some ill gotten gains. It was then a matter of heading to Zaresvet XVI to pick up the trial again for the final Rendezvous.
System: Zaresvet XVI > System: Bychiem
I was there at last, the final furlong.
A strangely totem like station resided in this system as if pointing me to the final place. Perhaps I would discover the fate of the Angler?
I followed the nav marker to planet Cayet Major.
The Waypoint led me below the waves. It were ever thus. A strange liquid bubbled from an ancient relic.
What strange magic was this?
The last bottle. How it found my line is anyone’s guess.
I cast my line into the sea and what should I find…
The Angler. I would set the angler free. It seems to far to come to murder such a legend. It shall be free.
Note: Skiff concussion Number 2, full yeet. Concussion Number 3. Double tap.
The final yield
Obviously the Angler was the star of the show. Also a very nice Thunderfin and two Ribbon tails caught with the magpulse lure during quite an epic storm. The last fish to be caught was a Stonescale Shark. There are some more fish on the automated traps but I won’t count those.
The final Skiff haul
I let the Angler go. I swear that the octopoid looked at me with a smile as it slithered away into the depths, I caught it’s golden glimmer one last time as I waved. Deepest joy.
Rocket 1: 1,022,131 units
Rocket 2: 465,846 units
Rocket 3: 206,867 units
Grand Total 1,694,844 units.
The place I launched the fish from. Got to love the other travellers sometimes.
The solitary critters that roamed on this tiny island. I called this one Mungo, he looks like a Mungo, don’t you think?
Time to start clearing up for home.
The junk collection. My good friend had already completed this expedition ahead of me, and had some quite different results. I didn’t receive any water logged technology. I subtracted two boots as they were given to me as rewards.
The Cleanup and My Base
The first thing I like to do, because I’m a pack rat, is pick up a load of cookable items while I’m blazing around. You’d be surprised if you know some good recipes on the nutrient processor. Check this out:
The best performing biscuits are always the cream fingers. How are they made?
You will need a Nutrient Refiner portable technology. If on a world you can carry this refiner along with you. It is quite a space saving tip to put all of the ingredients in the refiner’s ingredient storage. The storage is quite large and shared among multiple nutrient refiners.
If you run out of cream, experiment with other fillings. Just be careful that the filling doesn’t end up being less than the item would be if you sold it on its own. It appears that you can add fish to the biscuits now. If you don’t add cream you get a simple biscuit. Pro tip, it is always worth adding some kind of filling as you will get more than just a simple biscuit. You can always make a floral biscuit by adding any piece of plant life. You can make a fishy biscuit by adding any fish. You can make a salty biscuit by adding salt. You can make a questionable biscuit by adding meat. You can refine cream one stage further to butter. You can make butter biscuits. Kelp produces the most flour overall. Heptaloid wheat is far less common on your journey. On radiation worlds you are likely to find both Grahberries and Sweetroot which increases your sugar production. On worlds with lots of water, you are likely to find tons of kelp. Kelp is also useful to make oxygen in the refiner, so it is a toss up between the two.
Black Market Sales
It is actually quite good to swing by a black market hub. My friend Bubbad Geklan Gek said his whole career was made around black market sales and he wasn’t even a pirate.
Pro tip; make a base on a world inside the pirate system. Invest in the portal technology and power your base. Use the portal to portal to another base in a friendly system. Before the authority has a chance to scan you, sell your illicit goods either through a trade terminal in your base, or via a trade rocket. You could also position your freighter with a portal in another system away from the pirate system then sell to one of the passing traders in the freighter’s hangar bay.
What Was in the Automated Nets?
That legendary sea snail was worth 200K!!!
Too the Scrapyard
I got this too late. Should have picked it up earlier. I had the opportunity as it was in the starting system. My impetuous adventuring spirit.
This wasn’t a bad little fighter. Didn’t quite have enough technology slots to be swapping out for the hauler but was decently quick. I got 1 storage upgrade from this ship.
The Celeste. Turned like a dustbin, looked like a dustbin, saw me through. No storage upgrade when I junked this one.
The Bases
Aquatico. A simple base with two moonpools and a portal. It also had a built in storage unit. The approach to this base was always pleasant.
Pianna Base. If I wasn’t on an expedition, I would have really built up this base. It was truly an excellent base location. The world was radioactive and littered with dissonance. It was also in a renegade system. you couldn’t ask for more. Inside the simple base was a storage unit, 2 nutrient processors for all of my biscuit baking, 2 portable refiners and some power. It didn’t need much else.
What I’m Taking Home
Nothing particularly exotic, but it was more about the journey than the stuff. Stuff is nice but you have to be sure you enjoyed the journey because those baubles could remind you of a bad one otherwise. Sentiments aren’t always good. Fortunately, my briny adventure was rather joyful.
For Technology: S class Salvage fleet combat unit, water jets (pre-packaged), S class mining laser upgrade.
For cargo: Indium, emeril, cadmium, activated copper, copper, chromatic metal, shadow lures, bionic lures, freighter cargo module, starship cargo modules, backpack modules, mealworm lures, magpulse lures, trident keys, echo locator beacons, repair kits, glass, gravitino balls, amino chambers, radiant pillars and an inverted mirror.
I could take more valuable stuff, but there is fun and there is greedy. The technology was fairly self explanatory. I wanted some aqua jets to put on another of my fleet. The freighter upgrades are as common as a pacifistic sentinel loving Vy’Keen.
For cargo I took a selection of the metals, mostly because metals come in useful and can be expanded. Indium is the best of these but I like to keep a bunch back at base. Activated metals can’t be expanded in the refiner so are finite but useful. Chromatic metal is always useful and something I go through quickly. I brought a selection of the fishing lures, the trident keys and the amino tubes just for ease of access. I could make tons more, but I had a surplus so I thought I’d save myself some hassle. Bringing back upgrade modules is a no brainer. The echo locators were a nice find. I picked up a whole bunch of these after knocking out a sentinel nest. I am bringing the repair kits along as they are very handy for fixing up downed ships at speed. They don’t require you to have all the constituent parts which can save you time and credit. The Gravitino balls, glass and radiant pillars are also useful in certain recipes so I thought I’d bring those along. I managed to convert a lot of my excess silicon from this expedition into glass.
Pictured above is the Blue Angler’s Dawn. I did swing by StBury station to pick it up. Only 10,023 light years on the clock, a steal. Currently only a B class with some room for growth. I had fitted a lot of landing thruster modules because I tend to do a lot of hopping from place to place and hate to be out of thruster fuel. I found a walker brain through some of the illicit goods so decided to construct a conflict scanner. The Celeste had a fully functional cargo scan deflector which was also quite useful. I found having an economy scanner to be beneficial. The phase beam is by far one of my favourite weapons. Another favourite is the Infra Knife. Plenty of room for more upgrades. Despite having a cadmium drive upgrade to my hyperdrive, I didn’t actually use it. I stayed in yellow systems for the majority of this fine expedition.
I had a major crisis when it came to the Multitool. My head was telling me to keep the S class sentinel tool I’d picked up. It had 3 supercharge slots very close to one another which would have really suped up any weapons I put in there. Ultimately it looked pretty boring. I wanted a sexy weapon to take home. Here’s what I discovered out and about. The heart won this time. This at least has two supercharge slots right next to each other. I parked my mining laser modules right over the top. 88% extra material is really rather nice. This upgrade was not available in the regular expedition. I packaged a pre-packaged piece of tech to take with me, my friend Grobnax suggested I should along with an advanced mining laser to get me started quicker. That proved to be helpful. Thanks Grobnax, the brave.
The Ohmic Dream Entangler. A lovely gal. Goes with my drifter aesthetic like a dream. You won’t see many upgrade modules for the multitool because I applied them all. This weapon started out as a C class but with a healthy does of nanites I upgraded it further. The pulse spitter is an excellent weapon, as is the scatter blaster. I had a plasma launcher but the most useful item bar the terrain manipulator, was the personal cloaking shield. It can get you out of a jam very quickly, so I always install one on my multi-tools if I have room. The only big thing this weapon is lacking is the Survey device and personal shield. Plenty of room for those. I have the Angler’s pro fishing rod installed so more fish to be had when I return.
And that, as they say, was that. It was tempting to linger, but I had to return to the voyage. I had missions to accomplish. What a fun expedition this was. It was almost like a vacation. Bon voyage Angler!
