Part of the Expeditions series:

Expeditions Guide Hub: Start here.

Expedition Rewards & Redeeming: Claim rewards on your main save.

Quick Answer

Every expedition has both a number and a name, and the community uses them interchangeably (Expedition Two is Beachhead, Expedition Seven is Leviathan).
Expeditions run for a limited window, typically a few weeks, then close and disappear from the terminal.
Past expeditions are periodically rerun through the Space Anomaly, usually branded as a redux, most often in a cluster over the winter holidays.
Rewards are exclusive to expeditions, but almost all of them return during reruns, so a missed event rarely means a permanently lost item.
You join and replay everything from the Expedition Terminus on the Space Anomaly, or from the main menu when starting a fresh save.
Hello Games announces new expeditions and reruns in patch notes and on social channels, so there is no fixed public calendar.

Overview

No Man's Sky has been shipping expeditions since the Expeditions update in 2021, and they have grown from short themed challenges into full narrative events with unique starships, companions, and cosmetics attached. Because each one is time-limited, players often go looking for a specific name months after it ended, wondering whether the Golden Vector or the Normandy SR1 is still obtainable.

The short version: the archive is a rotation, not a graveyard. Old expeditions come back. What follows is the list of expeditions with the details worth knowing, how numbering and redux runs work, and the exact process for replaying one from the Anomaly.

How Expeditions Are Numbered and Named

Each expedition gets a sequential number assigned at launch (Expedition One, Expedition Two, and so on) plus a thematic name. Hello Games uses the name in marketing and the number in the game's own menus, which is why community wikis, Reddit threads, and search results mix the two freely. Searching for "Expedition 12" and "Omega" should land you in the same place.

A few conventions to keep straight:

The number never changes. When an expedition returns, it keeps its original number and name.
Reruns are labelled "Redux." A redux is the same expedition with the same milestones and the same rewards, re-opened for a new window. Some redux runs get light adjustments so the missions work with systems added since the original launch.
Redux runs do not consume a new number. A rerun of Expedition Two is still Expedition Two, not a new entry in the sequence.
Expedition names are not sequential themes. There is no ongoing storyline connecting them in order, though several tie directly into the major update released alongside them.

If you have never played one, the expeditions explained guide covers the phase and milestone structure before you commit to a save.

Every Expedition in Order

Number	Name	Theme / notable reward
One	Pioneers	The original expedition; the Golden Vector starship
Two	Beachhead	Sentinel and combat focus; the Normandy SR1 frigate (Mass Effect crossover)
Three	Cartographers	Exploration, scanning, and survey work
Four	Emergence	Hostile, worm-haunted worlds and Sentinel escalation
Five	Exobiology	Creature discovery, taming, and companions
Six	The Blighted	A darker, hazard-heavy run
Seven	Leviathan	Time-loop roguelike structure; the Leviathan living frigate
Eight	Polestar	Freighter and capital-ship focused voyage
Nine	Utopia	Community construction and settlement rebuilding
Ten	Singularity	Narrative-heavy Autophage storyline
Eleven	Voyagers	Long-range travel and deep-space exploration
Twelve	Omega	Launched with the Omega update; notable for its free-trial weekend
Thirteen	Adrift	A universe emptied of sentient life, derelict stations and a silent Anomaly; the Iron Vulture starship and Iron Panels customisation. Ran 29 May to 15 July 2024, with a redux that December
Fourteen	Liquidators	Purging a corrupting "vile brood" from the stars, with a combat and weapon-cosmetic slant
Fifteen	Aquarius	Fishing, built around the Aquarius update's water content
Sixteen	The Cursed	Horror-tinged run tied to the Cursed update window
Seventeen	Titan	Begins on a gas giant and charts new stars; the Pillar of Titan staff and the Wraith living starship. Ran from February 2025
Eighteen	Relics	Ran alongside the Relics update's paleontology content; the Basilisk Crown staff, a skeletal companion, and the Living Stone jetpack
Nineteen	Corvette	Themed around the buildable Corvette-class ships from the Voyagers update
Twenty	Breach	Began 22 October 2025

Expedition Twenty-Two: The Swarm ran for eight weeks from late May 2026 and worked unlike anything before it. Instead of a solo route through milestones, it split every player into one of three factions by quiz and set them building the Prismatic Core together against a shared boss, the Hive of Glass. The Swarm update guide covers the campaign, the factions, and the permanent space combat changes that shipped with it.

Expedition Twenty-One is deliberately absent above rather than forgotten: we have not been able to confirm its name well enough to publish it, and a wrong entry in a numbered list is worse than a gap. The Expedition Terminus is the authority if you need it.

One naming trap worth flagging: "Vile Brood" is not an expedition. The phrase comes from Expedition Fourteen's own description of the corruption you are sent to purge, and it gets searched for as though it were a title.

This list is maintained rather than complete. Hello Games announces expeditions and reruns on their own schedule, sometimes with only a few days' notice. The in-game Expedition Terminus is the authority on what is currently live, and the 2026 update timeline tracks new announcements as they land.

How to Replay a Past Expedition

Replaying is only possible while a given expedition is actively rotated in. You cannot browse the full archive and pick any entry at will.

From an existing save:

Summon or fly to the Space Anomaly.
Walk to the Expedition Terminus on the entrance floor, near the Nexus.
Interact with it to see the expeditions currently available.
Select the one you want and choose whether to start a dedicated expedition save or join with your current character, depending on what that expedition supports.

From the main menu:

Choose to start a new game.
Pick the Expedition game mode.
Select from the list of currently running expeditions.

If nothing is listed at the terminal, no expedition is live right now. That is normal between events. Watch patch notes for the next announcement, and expect a burst of redux runs in the late-November through mid-January stretch, which has been the most reliable window for catching up on old events.

Difficulty settings behave a little differently inside expedition saves, so it is worth skimming the game modes and difficulty settings guide before you start one on a mode you are not used to.

What Carries Over When You Finish

Finishing an expedition is not the end of the process. You still need to close it out properly at the terminal so your progress lands on your main save.

Account-wide unlocks such as exclusive ships, companions, titles, decals, and cosmetics apply to every save once claimed.
Your active ship and multi-tool at the moment you end the expedition come back with you.
Units, Nanites, and Quicksilver transfer automatically.
A limited manual selection of uninstalled technology and cargo items can be carried across.
Freighters, frigates, learned words, and installed technology do not transfer at all.

The full mechanics, including the exact transfer limits and where to claim everything, are in the expedition rewards and redeeming guide. Note that living ships are unlocked through their own quest chain rather than an expedition, covered separately in the living ship guide.

FAQ

Can I still play old expeditions?

Only when they are actively rotated back in. Hello Games reruns past expeditions as redux events, typically several back-to-back over the winter holiday period, and occasionally at other points in the year. When a redux is live it appears in the Expedition Terminus list and can be started like any current event. There is no permanent archive you can browse and replay on demand.

How long does an expedition last?

Most run for a few weeks, though the exact window varies by event and is announced when the expedition launches. Redux runs are usually shorter, often a week or two each, because several are scheduled in sequence. Once the window closes the expedition disappears from the terminal until the next rerun.

Do I need a new save to play an expedition?

Not necessarily. Newer expeditions support joining from an existing save as well as starting a dedicated expedition save. Starting fresh keeps things clean and matches the intended shared-start experience; joining from an existing save lets you keep your progress and gear. Older redux runs may only offer the fresh-save path, so check the prompt at the terminal.

What happens to my expedition save when the event ends?

The save is not deleted. It converts into a normal save you can keep playing, and any milestones you finished stay credited. What you cannot do is complete remaining milestones after the window closes, so finish the phases you care about before the deadline. Ending the expedition properly at the Expedition Terminus is what triggers the reward transfer.

Are expedition rewards ever gone forever?

Very rarely. The reward sets come back with their redux runs, which is the main reason the rerun rotation exists. Crossover items tied to external licences are the likeliest candidates for not returning, but the general pattern has been that patient players eventually get another shot.

Key Takeaways

Expeditions carry both a number and a name, and reruns keep the original pairing rather than taking a new number.
Redux events are the mechanism for replaying old expeditions, and they cluster most heavily around the winter holidays.
The Expedition Terminus on the Space Anomaly is the single place to see what is currently playable, so an empty list simply means nothing is live.
Missing an event is rarely permanent; almost every reward set has returned through a rerun.
Expedition numbering past the first dozen entries is easy to misquote, so trust the in-game terminal over any list, including this one, when the exact number matters.
Start with the expeditions hub if you have not run one yet, then come back here to track what is playable.

No Man's Sky Expedition Archive: Every Expedition & How to Replay Them