No Man’s Sky settlement guide – Best settlements, are they worth it?

No Man’s Sky features a massive universe to explore, filled with spaceships, aliens, and other players. On top of all of these features, the game also includes sporadic Settlements made up of NPC characters.

Settlements are small towns on the verge of collapse due to intergalactic debts—unless you have what it takes to become the Settlement’s overseer. If you’re ready to put on your building cap and invest your time into a community, here’s everything you need to know about Settlements in No Man’s Sky.

How to find the best settlements in No Man’s Sky

The best Settlements in NMS are always located on lush planets that have no harsh weather conditions or Sentinel activity. It can be incredibly cumbersome and downright annoying to live on a planet constantly wracked by storms or swarms of robots, so picking a Paradise Planet is your best bet at finding a suitable environment.

All Settlements have grades that determine how profitable the entire town is. This grade ranges from C to S tier, but it can be easily influenced by your actions, so don’t worry about overseeing a lower-tier Settlement. Finally, a planet’s resources determine the goods you earn from your Settlement, so it’s best to oversee a Settlement on a planet rich with useful ores like Copper.

Once you have entered your desired Star System, you can use a Settlement Chart to automatically pinpoint the location of a random Settlement. These Settlement Charts can be purchased from any Cartographer aboard a Space Station, each costing just five Navigation Data.

Since these charts also reveal the locations of on-planet shipping hubs, this could take more than one try. We suggest purchasing multiple Settlement Charts until you find your desired Settlement. Alternatively, you can always create a save and reload the game if you do not find what you’re looking for.

How to grow settlements in No Man’s Sky

The Settlement mechanic has many different moving parts which can all be customized to your liking. Ultimately, your main purpose as an Overseer is to ensure the growth of your Settlement, so prepare to farm resources and build a myriad of work buildings and homes. Here is a detailed breakdown of the core aspects of owning and building a Settlement.

Claiming a settlement

Luckily for us, claiming a Settlement and becoming its Overseer is relatively simple. Every Settlement has a large statue in the center of the area which you can simply walk up to and interact with to become the Overseer.

Once you accept ownership over a Settlement, you’ll have to get to work and use some basic materials to construct an office and base of operations. Inside the Overseer’s Office is the Administration Terminal, a computer that controls all major features of the Settlement. There is also a Warp Portal next to the terminal allowing you to teleport back to your office from anywhere in the galaxy.

Constructing buildings

You can only begin to construct Settlement buildings after completing the Overseer’s Office and gaining access to the Administration Terminal. When you head into the Terminal to construct new buildings, you’ll always be met with two different choices.

Typically, you’ll get to choose between an industrial building that increases your output of goods, or a domestic building that increases settler happiness. For example, the first building I picked was a grain silo, but I also had the choice to build a cantina for my settlers.

After you pick a building, an area of the Settlement will be automatically transformed into a construction site. All buildings in a Settlement require basic materials to construct, such as Ferrite Dust or Metal Platings. When you supply the necessary construction materials, there will also be a long wait time for the construction, such as one real-life hour.

How to manage your settlers

On top of building your Settlement from the ground up, you’ll also have to interact with your civilians. These settlers help manage the entire settlement, meaning their happiness directly impacts the amount of materials generated. Here is everything you need to know about working with settlers.

Recruiting settlers

Whenever a Settlement spawns, there will be a few random aliens that already live within the town. As you continue to build up the Settlement and improve the living conditions, more aliens will land and join your community.

There’s no specific way to mass-recruit settlers, but building plenty of domestic buildings will increase this likelihood. Whenever a new member wants to join your community, head over to the Settlement Computer in the Overseer office to recruit the Settler or turn them away.

Settling disputes

Every so often, two of your civilians will have a dispute, and it’s your job as the Overseer to dispense justice. To deal with these domestic issues, go to the Administration Terminal to listen to both sides of the dispute.

Unfortunately for players, there’s no middle road when it comes to governing in NMS, so you’ll have to side with one of your civilians and jilt the other. When settling a dispute, you could pick the option that seems morally correct, or select whichever side gives you the greatest rewards.

Ultimately, while these disputes do not have a massive impact on the Settlement as a whole, angry civilians could end up abandoning your town in search of other areas to live.

Are settlements worth it?

Generally, Settlements are a great way of earning extra resources in No Man’s Sky. You can log into the game every 20 hours to collect crafting materials, resources, and ores that the Settlement passively generates.

However, Settlements will not create these materials on their own. You’ll have to carefully plan out the expansion of the Settlement, rescue your citizens from debts, and defend against hostile invaders. Remember that you can only oversee one Settlement at a time, so you’ll only be able to collect a set amount of goods each day.

Overall, Settlements are incredibly fun building opportunities and great ways of generating materials. However, you’ll only receive as much as you put into the Settlement.

If you are a free spirit who is interested in exploring as many planets as possible, then this may not be the gameplay mechanic for you. Players willing to sink a large amount of time and effort into a single project will get more out of the Settlement experience.