No Man's Sky Nexus Missions Guide

Part of the series:

• No Man's Sky Tips & Tricks: Hub for multiplayer, QoL, rewards, and hidden questlines.
• How to Play Multiplayer With Friends: Group up for Nexus missions.

Quick Answer

• The Nexus is the mission board inside the Space Anomaly.
• Missions reward Quicksilver, Units, Nanites, or products depending on type.
• Daily Quicksilver missions grant 400 Quicksilver and can be reserved up to three times.
• Weekend missions grant 1,800 Quicksilver and run from Friday night to Monday morning.
• All Nexus missions can be completed solo, even with multiplayer disabled.
• Report back to the Nexus after completing objectives to claim rewards.

Overview

The Nexus turns the Space Anomaly from a shopping hub into an endless source of objectives. Whether you want Quicksilver for cosmetics, Nanites for upgrades, or just a structured activity with friends, the Nexus has a mission for you.

It is also the most under-used system in the game, and for a specific reason: the board looks like filler. Seven vaguely worded objectives, a difficulty rating nobody trusts, and no obvious sense of which is worth doing. Most players read it once, take whatever is on top, find it takes twenty minutes, and never come back.

The board rewards being read properly. Some missions pay in currencies you cannot easily farm any other way, some take four minutes, and the free warp attached to every one of them is quietly one of the best travel tools in the game. What follows is how to use it deliberately rather than dutifully.

Accessing the Nexus

The Nexus is located inside the Space Anomaly. You unlock the Anomaly naturally during the Artemis Path. Once inside, the Nexus terminal is the large mission board near the center.

Interact with the terminal to see the current mission list. The list updates every 10 minutes for standard missions, with special missions rotating on different schedules.

That ten-minute refresh is the first thing worth exploiting. If the current board is all long-haul combat missions and you wanted a quick scan job, do something else on the Anomaly for a few minutes and check again. There is no cost to waiting and no reason to accept a bad board.

Mission Types

Standard Missions

These appear in the regular rotation and cover activities like:

• Investigating a planet and scanning species
• Excavating ancient bones
• Rescuing stranded lifeforms
• Hunting pirates
• Taming wild creatures
• Raiding planetary depots
• Constructing outposts

Each mission displays a recommended difficulty and reward. Groups of up to four can join.

Daily Quicksilver Missions

A Quicksilver mission appears once per real day and rewards 400 Quicksilver. You can reserve up to three uncompleted Quicksilver missions, allowing you to play every few days without losing income.

Weekend Missions

Weekend events run from Friday night through Monday morning and reward 1,800 Quicksilver. All players receive the same mission destination and objectives, making these highly social events.

Encrypted Missions

Rare missions with scrambled descriptions appear when a purple question mark hologram is visible. The objective is unknown until you start, but rewards are slightly better than standard missions.

How to Join a Mission

1. Approach the Nexus terminal.
2. Select a mission from the list.
3. Choose to join an existing group or start your own.
4. Leave the Space Anomaly within 90 seconds to avoid being marked as abandoning.
5. Complete the objectives.
6. Return to the Nexus and report.

If you start a mission alone, you can still complete it solo. The game warps you to the mission system automatically without consuming Hyperdrive fuel.

Rewards

Rewards vary by mission type:

Quicksilver is especially valuable for purchasing the Void Egg needed for the Living Ship quest and cosmetic items from the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion.

The Rewards Worth Coming Back For

The reward line on a standard mission usually reads as units or nanites, which is unexciting. Two exceptions justify checking the board every time you dock at the Anomaly.

Salvaged Frigate Modules. Some missions pay one, and the Nexus is the only guaranteed source of them in the entire game. Everything else (cargo pods, derelict crates, frigate expeditions) is a roll of the dice. Given that fully unlocking your freighter's Upgrade Control terminal costs seventy-plus modules, taking every module-paying mission you see is close to mandatory. The Salvaged Frigate Modules guide covers the alternatives and why they are worse.

Products you would otherwise craft. Some missions pay finished crafted products rather than raw currency. If the payout is something sitting mid-chain in the Stasis Device recipe, the real value is considerably higher than the number implies.

Reading the Board Efficiently

The difference between a good Nexus session and a tedious one is mission selection, and there are only three things to check.

Objective type, not difficulty. The difficulty rating tells you how dangerous a mission is, not how long it takes, and length is what actually costs you. Scanning and investigation missions are usually short. Excavation and outpost construction are usually long. Combat sits in between and depends entirely on whether you have a loadout that ends fights quickly.

Whether you already have the gear. An excavation mission is fast if you have an Exocraft with a drill and slow if you have to go and get one. A taming mission is fast if you carry creature bait. Take the missions your current loadout already suits, and refresh the board rather than adapting to it.

Whether it stacks. Several standard missions can be run in the same trip if their objectives overlap: two scanning missions on the same planet, for example. The board does not tell you this; you notice it by reading all seven entries before accepting any.

The Free Warp Nobody Uses

Accepting a Nexus mission warps you to the mission system without consuming hyperdrive fuel.

That is a genuine travel tool, and almost nobody treats it as one. If a mission points somewhere you were heading anyway, or towards a system type you have been looking for, the mission is effectively paying you to make a jump you would otherwise fuel yourself. On a save where warp cells are still expensive, this matters.

It also means the Nexus is a reasonable way to see parts of the galaxy you would not otherwise visit, which occasionally turns up good planets as a side effect.

Tips for Efficient Completion

• Read the objective carefully before leaving the Anomaly. Several missions look similar and want different things.
• Bring appropriate gear: weapons for combat missions, Exocraft for excavation, scanner upgrades for investigation. Missions do not supply anything.
• Leave the Anomaly within 90 seconds of accepting, or the game marks you as abandoning the mission.
• In multiplayer, coordinate who reports objectives to avoid sync issues.
• If the mission location is harsh, stock Sodium, Oxygen, and hazard protection recharges. Nexus destinations are not chosen to be pleasant.
• For weekend missions, expect many player communication stations at the destination. Reading them is usually faster than working out the objective yourself.
• Bank your Quicksilver missions. Three can be held at once, so a player who logs in twice a week loses nothing.

FAQ

Do I need PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live for Nexus missions?

Some platforms require a subscription for online multiplayer features. Check your platform's requirements. Solo completion of missions does not require an online subscription in most cases.

Can I fail a Nexus mission?

In solo play, death does not fail the mission. You respawn and continue. In Permadeath mode, death ends your save as usual.

What happens if I disconnect during a mission?

Progress during a Nexus mission is not saved. Disconnecting may reset the mission, but you can usually reaccept it from the Nexus.

Can I do the same Quicksilver mission multiple times?

Daily Quicksilver missions are once per day per save. Weekend missions are once per weekend per save.

Why is the report button not showing?

Wait a few seconds in front of the Nexus. Some missions require the game to process completion before the report prompt appears. If it still does not show, check your mission log.

Can I refresh the mission board if I do not like the options?

Yes. Standard missions rotate roughly every ten minutes, and there is no penalty for waiting. Spend the time at the Anomaly's other terminals (the Technology Merchants, Helios and Cronus are all a few steps away) and check back rather than accepting a mission you did not want.

Which Nexus missions are actually worth doing?

Anything paying a Salvaged Frigate Module, because the Nexus is the only guaranteed source of them. After that, take the shortest missions your current gear already suits, scanning and investigation jobs typically, rather than the highest difficulty rating.

Does accepting a mission cost hyperdrive fuel?

No. The game warps you to the mission system for free, which makes the Nexus a useful travel tool in its own right when a mission happens to point where you were already going.

Key Takeaways

• The Nexus offers daily, weekend, standard, and encrypted missions, and the board refreshes about every ten minutes at no cost.
• Quicksilver missions are the most reliable source of Quicksilver. Bank up to three so a few days away costs you nothing.
• Take every mission paying a Salvaged Frigate Module. It is the only guaranteed source in the game.
• Pick by objective type, not by difficulty rating. Length is what costs you, and difficulty does not predict it.
• The free warp attached to every mission is a genuine travel saving, not a footnote.
• All missions can be completed solo, but grouping speeds them up.
• Save Quicksilver for the Void Egg and cosmetics you genuinely want.