Part of the handbook:

No Man's Sky Beginner's Guide (2026): Start here if you're new to the game.

Base Building Guide: Build the infrastructure that supports your settlement.

Quick Answer

Planetary Settlements are found with Settlement Charts from the Cartographer or through The Settlers mission.
Claim a settlement by interacting with the Settlement Hub Interface and offering race-specific items.
Build the Overseer's Office to unlock the Settlement Administration Terminal.
Manage Population, Productivity, Happiness, and Maintenance through decisions and construction.
Claim produced resources every 20 real hours after paying off any settlement debt.
You can oversee up to four settlements at once.

Overview

Settlements give you a slice of civilization to manage. As Overseer, you guide a small town's growth, resolve citizen disputes, choose policies, and direct construction. A well-run settlement produces resources you can claim daily, while a neglected one slides into debt and unhappiness.

The system runs on real-world time rather than play time. Construction stages, decision cooldowns, and the production cycle all advance whether or not you are logged in. That makes settlements a background income stream instead of something you grind, and it also means you cannot rush one to S-class in a single session no matter how many resources you carry. Progress is gated by patience and by the quality of your choices, in that order.

Two facts shape everything else: only one construction project runs at a time, and settlement buildings cannot be demolished. Every approval therefore delays the next one and adds permanent overhead, which is why selective Overseers run profitable towns and indiscriminate ones end up with sprawl they cannot pay for.

Finding and Claiming a Settlement

There are three ways to find a settlement:

Settlement Chart: Purchase from the Cartographer in any space station for Navigation Data.
The Settlers mission: Follow this secondary mission to be directed to a random settlement.
Exploration: Stumble across one while exploring a planet.

Charts resolve within the system you are currently in, so buying several charts in one station gives you several candidates on nearby planets. If you dislike all of them, warp somewhere else and buy again. Navigation Data is cheap, and shopping around costs far less time than correcting a bad settlement over the following weeks.

Settlements do not appear in Uncharted or Abandoned systems. Once you find one, interact with the Settlement Hub Interface in the town center. The interface previews the settlement's stats. To claim it, you need positive faction standing and three race-specific items:

Gek: GekNip
Vy'keen: Vy'keen Dagger
Korvax: Convergence Cube

Carry a stack of all three if you are hunting seriously, since you will not know the resident species until you arrive.

Before you offer the items, read the preview screen and the planet you are standing on:

Starting stats. Settlements are generated with a stat spread already in place. One that opens with healthy productivity and a low maintenance burden saves you weeks of corrective decisions compared to one that starts underwater.
Sentinel activity on the planet. Aggressive Sentinel worlds put your settlement at higher risk of attack, and you will be the one defending it. See the Sentinels and combat guide if you claim one anyway.
Weather and biome. You will return to this place repeatedly. Extreme storms turn a two-minute admin visit into a hazard-protection problem.
Existing buildings. Some settlements come with structures already standing, which is a head start on both productivity and the player-facing perks.

After offering the items, you become the Overseer permanently until you choose to retire. Retiring is not a punishment mechanic: it simply frees the slot, so claiming an average settlement to learn the system carries little downside.

Building the Overseer's Office

Once appointed, the mission directs you to a Construction Terminal marked by a floating red icon. Build the Overseer's Office in three stages:

Supply Silicate Powder or Ferrite Dust
Supply Metal Platings
Supply Microprocessors

Each stage has a short wait timer. When complete, the office contains a Settlement Administration Terminal and a Base Teleport Module.

The whole appointment sequence, from finding the town to running it, breaks down like this:

Step	What you do	What gates it
Locate	Buy a Settlement Chart, follow The Settlers, or find one while exploring	Navigation Data, and a system that is not Uncharted or Abandoned
Inspect	Read the stat preview at the Settlement Hub Interface	Nothing; free to walk away
Claim	Offer three race-specific items	Positive standing with that faction
Stage 1	Deliver refined or mined base material at the Construction Terminal	A real-time build timer
Stage 2	Deliver Metal Plating, refined from Ferrite Dust	A real-time build timer
Stage 3	Deliver Microprocessors, crafted from Chromatic Metal and Carbon Nanotubes	A real-time build timer
Take office	Use the Settlement Administration Terminal inside the finished building	Office completion

Bring materials for all three stages on the first trip. Each stage only starts its timer once you hand over the goods, so a single well-stocked visit collapses three separate journeys into one and lets the timers run while you are elsewhere. The office also installs a Base Teleport Module, which is what turns future visits into a few seconds at a teleporter rather than a flight across a system. Stock Chromatic Metal, Carbon Nanotubes, and Ferrite Dust before you claim anything; the resources and crafting guide hub covers the refining chains involved.

Settlement Stats

Every settlement tracks four core stats:

Stat	Effect	Pushed up by	Pushed down by
Population	More citizens enable more buildings and productivity	Accepting new arrivals, residential construction	Turning arrivals away, harsh rulings that drive citizens off
Productivity	Determines resource output	Productive buildings, class upgrades, decisions that favor output	Nothing removes it directly; it is eroded by maintenance
Happiness	Influences productivity and citizen mood	Approving requests, leisure buildings, even-handed dispute rulings	Denied requests, extractive policies, unaddressed complaints
Maintenance	Ongoing cost that reduces net production	Every building you approve, higher building classes, decisions with ongoing costs	Decisions that cut services or trim spending

Settlements also carry a Sentinel alert level. It sits outside the productivity equation but determines whether your town gets attacked, and several policy decisions move it in exchange for a stat swing elsewhere.

The number that actually matters is productivity minus maintenance. A settlement with enormous productivity and matching maintenance produces nothing and slides into debt exactly as fast as a small one. Treat maintenance as the price tag on every approval and judge construction offers on the net figure, not the headline productivity gain.

These stats combine to give the settlement an overall class from C to S. Starting settlements are usually low class, but consistent good decisions raise it over time.

Making Decisions

Decisions appear at the Settlement Administration Terminal every 15 minutes to 2 hours. They fall into categories:

Construction Opportunities: Build or upgrade a structure.
Policy Decisions: Choose laws that affect stats.
Citizen Requests: Approve or deny individual appeals.
Citizen Disputes: Resolve conflicts between citizens.
New Arrivals: Decide whether to let newcomers stay.

Every type carries a characteristic trade-off, and knowing the pattern tells you what to look for before you read a word of the flavour text:

Decision type	Trade-off pattern	Take the offer when
Construction Opportunity	Productivity for maintenance, and it consumes your only build slot	The net gain is positive and the building fills a gap you actually have
Policy Decision	A broad, ongoing swing: usually productivity against happiness, or Sentinel alert against output	You have surplus in whichever stat the policy spends
Citizen Request	Happiness for units or materials	You can afford the cost and happiness is your weakest stat
Citizen Dispute	One stat up, another down, with no neutral option	Always; pick the side that feeds your weakest stat
New Arrival	Population for maintenance	You have maintenance headroom and buildings waiting on workers

Decisions do not stack while you are away. There is one waiting for you whether you left for an hour or a month, so long absences cost you the decisions you never saw rather than banking them.

Each decision nudges your settlement's stats in different directions. The settlement policies and decisions guide explains how to evaluate choices.

Production and Debt

A settlement produces two resources every 20 real hours. You claim these from the Settlement Administration Terminal. However, if the settlement has debt, you must pay it off before production resumes.

The 20-hour clock restarts when you claim, not on a fixed daily schedule. Claim eight hours late and the next window opens eight hours later, so a settlement checked at random times drifts steadily out of your play schedule. Claim slightly earlier than the deadline rather than later and the cycle stays anchored to whenever you usually play.

Debt appears when maintenance outruns productivity, and some decision outcomes add to it directly. It does not shrink on its own, and it does not drain your personal wallet either; it simply sits there halting production. Paying it off from the terminal is nearly always correct, because a settlement in debt earns nothing while the clock keeps running. Clearing the debt without fixing the negative net just buys a few cycles, so follow it with decisions that cut ongoing costs rather than add them.

Set expectations on the payout. Settlement products are respectable passive income for a few minutes of attention a day, and they cost you nothing to generate, but they will not fund a capital ship. Treat them as a supplement to an active earner from the best money-making methods by game stage guide rather than a replacement for one.

Common Overseer Mistakes

Approving every construction offer. Buildings are permanent and each one adds maintenance forever. Reject offers that duplicate a category you already cover.
Chasing the biggest productivity number. The highest-productivity option on a card is frequently the highest-maintenance option too. Compare the difference, not the headline.
Filling all four settlement slots early. Four struggling towns produce less than one healthy one, and each additional settlement multiplies your daily admin loop.
Agonizing over individual disputes. A single ruling moves the needle slightly. Consistency across dozens of rulings is what shows up in happiness, so pick quickly and move on.
Waiting to claim production until it is convenient. The timer only restarts on claim, so every delay is pure lost throughput.
Building a base on top of the town. New settlement structures can spawn over player-built parts, and you will not get a warning first.

Child Guides in This Series

How to Manage a Settlement — daily routines and stat balancing
Settlement Policies & Decisions Guide — how to choose between options
Settlement Buildings & Upgrades Guide — what each building does and how to upgrade it

FAQ

Can I have more than one settlement?

Yes. You can oversee up to four settlements at once across your save. You can also renounce a settlement to free up a slot.

What happens if I ignore my settlement?

It will slowly accumulate debt and happiness will drop. Production stops while in debt, but the settlement does not disappear.

Can I build inside my settlement?

You cannot place a Base Computer directly inside the settlement boundary, but you can place one just outside and then move it to expand your buildable area. Be aware that new settlement buildings may spawn over player-built parts.

Do settlements defend themselves?

Settlements can be attacked by Sentinels. Higher Sentinel Alert Levels increase attack risk. Some building upgrades and decisions reduce alert levels.

Can I check a settlement's stats before claiming it?

Yes. The Settlement Hub Interface shows the settlement summary before you hand over anything, and walking away costs you nothing but the chart. Inspect two or three candidates before committing.

Does my settlement progress while I am logged out?

Timers do. Construction stages, decision cooldowns, and the production cycle all run on real-world time. What does not happen is decisions resolving themselves, so nothing improves while you are away, it only becomes available.

What are Autophage Settlements?

After completing the They Who Returned questline, you can claim settlements inhabited by the Autophage. These settlements use Void Mote as currency and offer unique cosmetics and items.

Key Takeaways

Find settlements with Settlement Charts or The Settlers mission.
Claim by offering GekNip, Vy'keen Daggers, or Convergence Cubes.
Build the Overseer's Office to unlock management tools.
Balance Population, Productivity, Happiness, and Maintenance.
Claim resources every 20 hours after clearing debt.
Use the child guides for detailed management and building strategies.

No Man's Sky Settlements Guide (2026): How to Get & Run a Settlement