If you’ve ever dreamed of hopping into No Man’s Sky and channeling your inner dinosaur enthusiast—while somehow imagining you’re dating Jennifer Aniston—then today’s update might just be your ticket to happiness. Hello Games has rolled out the Relics update, and its star feature is the chance to unearth massive alien fossils.
This update comes on the heels of the expansive Worlds update, which hit the game earlier this year in January. That earlier update brought “billions of new stars and planets,” complete with massive gas giants and bizarre, squid-like creatures likely to give anyone a run for their money if they fish too aggressively.
In a recent blog post and video, the Relics update is described as an introduction to space paleontology. Imagine Ross Geller from Friends diving into the universe, not fretting over sandwiches or dressing up as a festive armadillo, but instead digging through cosmic bones. Now you can embark on your own interstellar adventure, discovering and piecing together fossils to display in your very own museum. Perhaps you’ll even concoct creative, new histories for these ancient remnants, convincing No Man’s Sky’s diverse alien life forms that they are the descendants of an awkwardly named race with questionable habits.
But hold on—there’s more to consider. Alongside this fossil hunt come formidable Reanimated Guardians. These stone behemoths stand guard over fossil sites, protecting them from anyone curious—or reckless—enough to disturb their rest. They won’t exactly fit into your bum-faced theories, since they lean more toward the “imposing stone protector” look. And that’s not all; you may encounter Living Stone Sentries and the grandiose Colossal Stone Effigies, watchful remnants of long-gone alien civilizations.
Planets in certain purple star systems might even host living fossils, like Titanic Boneworms and “skeletal fauna.” Fossil Collectors stationed across the galaxy are ready to trade bones with you, or perhaps buy your painstakingly reassembled exhibits. Plus, bones might even find a way into your cooking experiments.
Joining the Galactic Paleontology Society might also catch your fancy, especially with the new expedition embedded in the Relics update. It offers nifty rewards like a jetpack made from sentient rock and the ability to morph your character’s look into a living stone. And yes, you can gain a skeleton animal as a pet.
Have you secretly wished to explore the cosmos as a space-age Ross Geller all this time? Share your thoughts below!