Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Open-universe survival craft game No Man’s Sky’s latest update, Xeno Arena, just added Pokémon-style creature collecting and battling. Like all of No Man’s Sky’s updates, the content is completely free.
With Xeno Arena, players’ tamed wildlife (introduced in 2021’s Companions Update) can now become full battle squads, expanding the number of tamed creatures from 18 to 30.
Companions are no longer just cute pets. Each creature has unique battle moves, traits, affinities, and characteristics shaped by their species and environment. After earning experience, they can unlock new genetic mutations to increase their prowess.
And it’s not a creature collector without turn-based battling. I like that creatures battle via holographic combat in Holo-Arena tables, so no real harm is inflicted.
Holo-Arena tables resemble that “Let the Wookie win” scene from Star Wars: A New Hope. They’re found in buildings, space stations, settlements, and aboard the Space Anomaly. At the Space Anomaly, players can also battle each other, and meet Iteration: Oceanus, who can introduce the concept of creature collecting. Oceanus also offers challenging daily battles for all players.
By progressing through the Arena League ranks, players can unlock unique creature companions from Oceanus.
Xeno Arena also introduces creature breeding. By using the Egg Sequencer at the Space Anomaly, players can modify the offspring of their creatures to create the perfect organism.
Hello Games is celebrating No Man’s Sky’s 10th anniversary this year. The open-world indie space exploration game famously launched with a myriad of problems, mostly related to overpromised expectations. But through a stream of consistent, high-quality, expansion-level updates, the game has gained back all good will, and then some.
No Man’s Sky is available on Steam PC, Mac, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox, and rated T for Teen.
