The most amazing No Man's Sky planets and aliens found in the Next Update so far

After that troubled launch and a mixed couple of years, No Man's Sky has released its much awaited NEXT update. It's totally overhauled the game, creating a more involved and accessible universe to get lost in, as well as a menagerie of weird creatures and wonderful worlds to discover. 

Obviously a single person can only explore so far, so we've asked for your help to find some of the best, most interesting and downright weird planets and aliens from the farthest corners of the galaxy. Here are your best No Man's Sky Next planets, aliens and photos so far, with a little help from Reddit's intrepid explorers, too.

This Morrowind forest 

Image source: TheJonzu

Image source: TheJonzu

The Elder Scrolls world of Morrowind loves a good mushroom forest. This not only captures that look but with the light mist and leafy trees is totally a place we'd visit.

The apply named 'WTF planet'

Geometric shapes, undulating energy tentacles, are you sure this is the way to IHOP? 

Welcome, to Jurassic (space) Park

Image source: u/g5457s

Image source: u/g5457s

If you wanted to know if there was a dinosaur world in No Man's Sky, well, uh, there it is. 

This beautiful water world with floating islands

Robin's discovery is just the right mix of recognisable paradise and strange alien weirdness. How do those islands work, magnets? 

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This majestic, uh... this.

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Sometimes space God just makes things wrong. 

This idyllic scene with a humbling counter point

What could be more idyllic than this gentle sunset, strange alien birds soaring in the distance? How about flying up to that distant moon for a different perspective. 

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This guy!

Look at that little face... [checks] Yes, face. He's so happy... [checks] Yeah, happy. Probably because he lives on the lovely little world Kitty found. 

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That... thing 

Image source: CodependentlyWealthy

Image source: CodependentlyWealthy

"Why does God hate you?" is the obviously question we don't want to ask this swimming, toothed anus. 

Happy space frens

Image source: Kevinm

Image source: Kevinm

Just a little eye bleach to clear out the memory of the last thing. It just looks so happy and the scale of it leads nicely into...

These absolute units. In awe of the size of these guys...

Image source: Voidlust75

Image source: Voidlust75

According to r/nms_zoology the max recorded height for a creature in No Man's Sky is 8.43ms. Currently the NEXT update is challenging that record with a range of literal monsters. That thing up there was discovered by Voidlust on reddit, while the brain on legs below was found by Amixis. 

Image source: Amixis

Image source: Amixis

While most people are watching any giants from a safe distance, TannerFrank is taking a more risky approach to these encounters 

Image source: Tannerfrank

Image source: Tannerfrank

And Sagramore is just straight up touching the toe. 

Image source: Sagramore

Image source: Sagramore

And, finally on the 'big' front, giant wild Geks seems to be a common occurrence. 

This weird floating robot plant planet

God knows what happened here. Everything from the plants to the rocks seem to be made from some sort of mechanical growth. 

I didn't know there was this much green in the whole galaxy

Image source: Beowulf

Image source: Beowulf

As some one who's spent nearly 40 hours playing No Man's Sky and only seen hot radioactive dust, this is my response to that:

You've seen the heavens, but what happened when someone mapped Fallout 4's ocean floor?

Leon Hurley
Managing editor for guides

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides, which means I run GamesRadar's guides and tips content. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.