No Man's Sky's new update brings weekend mission stories and featured bases

No Man's Sky has come a long, long way since its controversial state at launch in 2016. Numerous expansions, including two major overhauls, have added a list of features longer than I can count, but which includes farming, base-building, base-sharing, a fully-featured multiplayer experience, and 30 hours of new story content. Now the latest update is bringing story-based weekend missions among other fairly significant additions.

The Beyond Development Update 3 is available now on all platforms and the first weekend mission will kick off "very shortly" - we'll take that to mean probably not this coming Friday.

"Nada’s spacetime loom has detected a concerning pattern resonating across the universe, and they need help from their explorer friends to investigate. Readings indicate a disturbance in reality, where an anomalous – and possibly sinister – force has begun to leak through to this universe," reads the official description.

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Weekend missions will see players gather together on one planet to experience a single chapter of a continuous story lasting several months, and apparently quicksilver rewards will be bountiful. Weekend missions will last from Friday evening (GMT) until early Monday morning. Hello Games says not to worry if you can't swing it for a weekend, as they plan on keeping weekend missions going indefinitely.

Patch 2.15 also introduces featured bases, accessible via the Space Anomaly Teleporter, which will showcase the bases Hello Games deems worthy. The update blog goes on to feature some of the most stunning screenshots and artwork submitted by the No Man's Sky Community in the Community Spotlight section, before Sean Murray signs off with the promise that there's "much more coming very soon."

Added Featured Bases to the teleporter on the Space Anomaly.
The list of featured bases will change periodically to highlight the best the base building community has to offer.
The Featured Bases lists allows anyone aboard the Space Anomaly to easily visit and be inspired by other base creators.
Bases featured in the list are protected to keep them as their architect intended.
Added a new series of story-based mission to the Nexus.
These missions are available each weekend and will advance over the course of the coming months.
These missions are highlighted when viewing the Nexus mission board and reward a large amount of Quicksilver.
Missions will involve using a portal to travel to a unique destination. This destination is shared across the entire community.
Fixed an issue that caused galactic generation on PS4 to be out of sync with other platforms. This caused some system to vanish with the arrival of Beyond. These systems have been fully restored. As a result, however, some of the new and erroneously-created systems have been hidden on the galaxy map. These systems can still be visited via teleporter if bases have been established there.
Fixed a number of issues related to the display of base screenshots in the Space Anomaly Teleporter list.
Fixed an issue that caused reported bases to linger in the save-game of those who reported them.
Allowed bases to be reported via the Build Menu, for instances where the base computer is not locatable.
Added an autosave when handing in a mission on the Nexus.
Added a community goal progress tracker above the Quicksilver shop in the Space Anomaly.
Added a notification to clarify that your position is not saved while undertaking a multiplayer mission from the Nexus.
Added the name of the current galaxy to the Galactic Map.
Increased the stack size of Living Pearls.
Added an icon to Kelp Sacs that appears when scanned, similar to sodium and oxygen-rich plants.
Fixed an issue that caused long load times and poor performance around bases with complex power and wiring setups.
Fixed an issue that caused tagged markers not to clear when their object was used.
Fixed an issue that caused glitches in water rendering when entering the atmosphere.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck when performing a gesture while seated.
Fixed an issue where NPC ship pilots would get out of their ship and become stuck within its landing gear.
Fixed a number of issues that prevented switches being used when visiting other bases.
Fixed an issue where background missions can update and disrupt a Nexus mission.
Fixed an issue where Ares had the wrong head.
Fixed a crash in network replication.
Fixed a number of rendering crashes.
Fixed a crash that could occur when viewing discoveries

Now that No Man's Sky offers a worthwhile multiplayer experience, check out our 10 essential No Man's Sky multiplayer tips.