New No Man's Sky update has players working together to shatter a time loop

No Man's Sky
(Image credit: Hello Games)

No Man's Sky launches a brand new Expedition update later today called Leviathan, which sees players trapped in a time loop with space whales.

No Man's Sky developer Hello Games just announced the Expedition, and its imminent release, today on May 25. Players will be caught in a time loop in Leviathan, and will have to work together as a community to break the cycle, with each death putting players right back to the beginning of the time loop.

Difficulty has been tuned up in a "variety of ways," according to a press release accompanying the announcement, and each death gives players a brand new loadout to work with. With the goal being to complete the loop in one go without dying, the entire No Man's Sky player base will improve the quality of each loop by simply progressing.

This brings the entire community together with the goal of breaking the time loop as a group, a neat twist on the time loop formula. As for the actual plot of the Leviathan Expedition, it'll revolve around Specialist Polo, and feature the titular "Leviathan" creature as a gigantic space whale roaming the galaxy.

In fact, this space whale doubles as a reward for the Expedition. The "Space Whale" frigate is the first ever living Frigate for No Man's Sky players to earn, but there'll also be rewards like The Whalestalker cloak, a mini Organic Frigate for your home base, and the Temporal Starship trail to earn. Leviathan sounds like quite the shift for No Man's Sky, as it ventures into brand new territory.

Meanwhile, Hello Games continues to work on a brand new game, which apparently would feel impossible even with "a thousand people working on it."

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.