Part of the Starships series:

Quick Answer

  • Exocraft racing arrived in the Pathfinder update (March 2017), the same patch that introduced Exocraft, Geobays and base sharing.
  • The only part you build is the Race Initiator, a platform that acts as start line and finish line. It costs Metal Plating x5, Microprocessor x2, Ion Battery x1.
  • There is no separate checkpoint part. Checkpoints are free markers you drop from the driving seat once you put the Initiator into track-editing mode.
  • The track can run well outside your base boundary. Community reports put the ceiling at roughly 1,500u from the Initiator before checkpoints stop registering.
  • A best time is stored with the track. Players who visit your base through base sharing can run your circuit and take the top slot from you.
  • The Pilgrim is the fastest land Exocraft: around 18.8u/s stock, roughly 34.5u/s fully upgraded, and about 41.0u/s under boost. The Nomad sits just behind it.
  • Racing awards no units, nanites, milestone or trophy that could be confirmed. The lap time is the whole prize.

Overview

Racing is the oldest social feature in No Man's Sky that nobody talks about. Pathfinder gave players vehicles, then gave them a way to compete in those vehicles, and then the game grew in about forty other directions and left the Race Initiator sitting quietly in the build menu. It still works. It is still the only sanctioned way to put a stopwatch on a planet.

It is also unpolished in ways you should know about before you invest an afternoon. The in-game explanation is roughly one sentence long, terrain generation does not care about your racing line, and there is a long-running bug thread about checkpoints refusing to place. None of that makes it a waste of time. A well-chosen planet with a natural ridge run or a dry lake bed makes for a genuinely good circuit, and handing a friend a time to beat is more fun than any of the numbers suggest.

Getting and Placing the Race Initiator

The Race Initiator is a base building product, not Exocraft technology, so it appears in the build menu rather than in a vehicle's tech slots. Historically the blueprint came from the Blueprint Analyser, the terminal that predated the Space Anomaly. That terminal's role has since moved to the Construction Research Station aboard the Anomaly, where base parts are bought with Salvaged Data. If the Initiator is missing from your menu, work through the Exocraft section there. The base blueprints and unlocks guide covers how that terminal orders its unlocks and what else is worth buying on the same trip.

Two placement rules matter. The Initiator must sit on terrain, and it cannot be built underwater, which rules out any clever submarine circuit with the Nautilon. It also has to sit inside your base building zone, so the start line is anchored to a claimed plot even though the rest of the track is not.

That makes site selection the single most important decision in the whole exercise. You are choosing a start point that dictates every metre of the circuit around it. Look for open ground with rolling relief rather than sharp spires, and check the biome before you commit: extreme storm worlds will interrupt runs, and dense forest planets turn a fast lane into an obstacle course. Our notes on planet types, biomes and hazards are a decent filter for what to look for, and the same reasoning that drives good base locations applies here with one change: flat and boring beats resource-rich.

Laying Out the Checkpoints

Interact with the Initiator and choose the option to create or edit the track. You are dropped into your Exocraft. From there you drive the route you want and drop a checkpoint marker wherever you want the racing line pinned. Checkpoints cost nothing, so there is no material penalty for building a long circuit or scrapping one and starting again.

A few things learned the hard way:

  • Drive the line at racing speed, not at survey speed. A gap that looks generous at 10u/s is a wall at 35u/s. Place markers while moving at the pace you intend to race.
  • Space markers so the next one is visible from the last. The checkpoint chain is your only navigation. If a marker sits behind a hill, every run turns into guesswork.
  • Watch the distance ceiling. Players report that checkpoints stop placing at roughly 1,500u from the Initiator. Plan a loop that comes back toward the start rather than a point-to-point sprint that runs out of leash halfway.
  • Test a short circuit first. Four or five checkpoints in a small loop tells you within two minutes whether the system is behaving on your build, before you spend an hour mapping a grand tour.
  • Use terrain as the corner, not the obstacle. Natural bowls, canyon floors and coastal shelves make better corners than anything you can build, because you cannot place barriers or track surface. There is no track-building part in this feature at all.

That last point deserves emphasis. The Race Initiator is a timer with waypoints. There is no kerb, no gate model, no barrier, no grandstand, no lap counter part and no leaderboard board you can plant next to the line. Everything visual is the planet you picked.

How Timing and Best Times Work

Complete a lap and the game records your time against that track. The best time is stored with the circuit rather than with your save, which is what makes the feature social: players who visit your base through base sharing can drive your circuit and attempt to beat the posted time. If a friend beats it, their time takes the top slot, and you are free to take it back.

That is the extent of what could be verified. There is no galaxy-wide leaderboard, no in-game browser of other people's tracks, and no ranking screen. Discovering somebody else's circuit means physically visiting their base, which in practice means arranging it. If you want people racing your track, you will get more traffic by organising a session directly than by hoping someone stumbles across it, and the multiplayer guide covers the joining methods that make that painless.

The bugs worth knowing about

Community reports going back to the NEXT update (version 1.5) describe the track creation option placing players into their Exocraft with no way to drop a waypoint, races terminating partway through, and checkpoints registering at inconsistent points. No patch note could be found that specifically addresses the checkpoint placement problem. Treat racing as a feature that usually works rather than one that always works, save before you start editing a track, and build the short test loop described above before committing to anything ambitious.

Which Exocraft Is Actually Fastest

For a land circuit this comes down to the Pilgrim and the Nomad, and the Pilgrim wins. If you are deciding which light Exocraft to actually build a geobay for, the Roamer, Nomad and Pilgrim comparison covers the trade-offs outside of racing.

Exocraft Stock speed Fully upgraded Racing verdict
Pilgrim approx. 18.8u/s approx. 34.5u/s, approx. 41.0u/s boosting Fastest on land. Short boost cooldown, big jumps, two wheels
Nomad approx. 17.7u/s approx. 33.7u/s Close second. Hovers, so water crossings do not kill a lap
Roamer Not published in sources checked Slower than both above Midfield. Fine if it is what you own
Colossus Not published in sources checked Slowest of the wheeled craft Built for cargo, not lap times
Minotaur Not published in sources checked Walks rather than drives Not a racing vehicle
Nautilon Not published in sources checked Submarine Cannot race a land circuit

The Pilgrim's advantage is not only top speed. Its boost cooldown is much shorter than the other vehicles, so you can chain boosts through a series of corners instead of spending one and coasting. It also leaps well, which matters if your circuit crosses broken ground. Its weakness is water, where it crawls. If your track touches a shoreline, the Nomad's hover closes the gap and can beat the Pilgrim outright on a wet layout.

The Upgrades That Decide a Lap

Two categories matter and everything else is dead weight in a tech slot.

Propulsion. The module now called Exocraft Boosters raises top speed and boost performance. It was the Exocraft Acceleration Module, then the Exocraft Boost Module, and was renamed again in the Waypoint update, so older guides use all three names for the same line of technology. The Pilgrim ships with acceleration tech pre-installed, which is part of why it starts ahead. Stack the upgrade modules and mind their placement.

Suspension, and only one of them. There are three: Drift Suspension, Grip Boost Suspension and High Slide Suspension. They are meant to be exclusive choices, and installing more than one partially cancels the effects. Drift Suspension trades sideways grip for forward bite, listed at front traction +200% and side traction -34%. Grip Boost Suspension is the opposite philosophy and lets you take sharp corners without sliding wide.

Which one you fit should follow the track you built. A circuit of long sweeping bends rewards drift, because you carry speed through the corner and steer with the throttle. A tight technical loop with hairpins rewards grip, because every slide is time lost correcting. Build the track first, then pick the suspension.

Placement inside the tech grid is not cosmetic. Exocraft benefit from adjacency between related modules the same way ships and multi-tools do, and the speed figures quoted above assume a sensibly arranged layout rather than modules scattered across the grid. If you have not optimised a tech grid before, the technology upgrades and supercharged slots guide explains the grouping rules.

Strip everything else. Mining lasers, cannons and cargo modules do nothing for a lap time and compete for slots.

What Racing Does Not Give You

Nothing could be found linking Exocraft racing to a journey milestone, a Steam achievement, a PlayStation trophy or a Nexus mission. Racing is not part of the milestones and journey progression, and the Nexus mission board offers no racing contract. The reward is the time on the board and whatever you can talk a friend into wagering.

That reframes the feature honestly. It is a toy, and toys are worth building when they look good. A circuit through a canyon on a red desert world photographs beautifully, and photo mode will do more for the finished track than any lap record. Pick the planet for the view as much as the racing line.

FAQ

Which update added Exocraft racing?

The Pathfinder update, released March 2017. It added Exocraft, Geobays, base sharing and the Race Initiator together, so racing has been in the game since vehicles themselves existed.

Where do I get the Race Initiator blueprint?

It was originally unlocked at the Blueprint Analyser. That terminal's function has since been folded into the Construction Research Station on the Space Anomaly, where base parts are bought with Salvaged Data. Look under the Exocraft section. The build cost is listed as Metal Plating x5, Microprocessor x2, Ion Battery x1, though recipes shift between patches, so trust the in-build tooltip over any written figure.

Can other players race on my track?

Yes. Best times are stored with the circuit, and players who visit your base via base sharing can run it and post a better time. If they beat yours, theirs takes the top slot until you take it back. There is no global leaderboard and no in-game way to browse other players' tracks, so visits generally need arranging.

Which Exocraft should I race?

The Pilgrim, unless your circuit crosses water. It is the fastest land vehicle at roughly 34.5u/s fully upgraded and about 41.0u/s boosting, with a short boost cooldown that lets you chain boosts through corners. The Nomad is close behind and hovers, which makes it the better pick for a track with a shoreline section.

Why can't I place checkpoints?

This is a long-standing bug, reported since the NEXT update, where the track creation option drops you into your Exocraft with no working waypoint control. No fix could be confirmed in any patch note. Separately, checkpoints stop placing at roughly 1,500u from the Initiator, so a track that ran out of range will look like the same failure. Test a short loop near the Initiator to tell the two apart.

Do I get anything for winning a race?

No reward could be confirmed. No units, nanites, milestone, achievement or Nexus mission is tied to Exocraft racing. The recorded time is the entire payoff.

Key Takeaways

  • Build the Race Initiator on terrain inside your base zone. It cannot go underwater, and it is the only part the feature has: no gates, no barriers, no track surface.
  • Checkpoints are free markers dropped from the driving seat in edit mode. Drop them at racing speed, keep the next one visible from the last, and stay inside roughly 1,500u of the Initiator.
  • Test a four-checkpoint loop before mapping anything ambitious. Checkpoint placement has been buggy since NEXT and no fix could be confirmed.
  • The Pilgrim is the fastest land Exocraft, with the Nomad close behind and better across water. Everything else is built for a different job.
  • Fit Exocraft Boosters and exactly one suspension: drift for sweeping bends, grip for hairpins. Installing two suspensions partially cancels both.
  • Best times save with the track and can be beaten by anyone who visits your base through base sharing. There is no global leaderboard.
  • Nothing rewards you for racing. Pick a planet worth looking at, because the view is the return on the afternoon.