Since 24th November Hello Games have been letting us replay previous expeditions in No Man’s Sky. The latest Expedition, Leviathan, runs from 22nd December to 5th January.
Expeditions are self-contained modes that require you to start a new save. They are essentially limited-time events that start at a fixed point in the No Ma’s Sky universe and allow the community to go on a shared journey. Expeditions consist of a series of milestones that you will have to complete.
For this guide, I am focusing on the start of the Leviathan exhibition and the first four milestones as shown in the image below.
The four milestones we will be competing in this guide are:
- Iterate / Repeat
- Remembrance
- A New Beginning
- Observing the Cycle
Starting the Leviathan Expedition
To start the Leviathan expedition you will need to start a new save and then from the next menu choose the Community Expedition.
You will then spawn (awaken) on a planet somewhere in the No Man’s Sky universe. I awoke on a hellish toxic planet called Lowest Mano. I am not sure if everyone starts on this planet but if not, you will likely be on an equally inhospitable planet.
Iterate / Repeat Milestone
Before you go to your ship or start mining for materials the first thing you will want to do is get the Iterate / Repeat milestone out of the way. This milestone simply requires you to die. The Leviathan expedition is a permadeath mode but some things like rewards will persist with each “loop.” However, you will lose anything in your inventory that you have mined or picked up, so it is best to get this milestone completed before doing anything else.
As you will probably be on a toxic planet you can simply wait until your hazard protection and health is depleted, Or you can fall from a great height or locate some Hazardous Flora and stand next to it until you die. The choice is yours.
Once you have died you will be taken to the main menu screen where you can load your expedition save and you will be back on the planet. When you spawn back on the planet, don’t forget to go into your milestones (options> expedition) and claim the reward for this milestone.
Your reward will be the Hermetic Seal plans/blueprint which you will need for repairing your ship a bit later.To get
Remembrance Milestone
The next milestone we will complete is the Remembrance milestone. This one is pretty easy, just go into your exosuit inventory by pressing the touchpad and find the Memory Fragment (exosuit) item as shown below.
Now just hold Square while hovering over the memory fragment to “absorb” it. Once you see the nonfiction on your screen that it has been completed, you can go to options > expedition and claim the reward for that milestone.
A New Beginning Milestone
The next milestone we will complete is the A New Beginning Milestone. This one is pretty easy as well and it simply requires you to reach your ship. You can locate your ship by looking through your visor and finding the ship icon. You can then mark it to make it easier to follow.
On your way to your starship, you should be collecting as many resources as you can. This will be mining Ferrite Dust from Minerals, Carbon from Plants and Trees and Di-Hydrogen from Di-Hydrogen Crystals (blue crystals found on every planet.) These are the main resources you will need to repair your ship and leave the planet. You might also want to mine some oxygen from Hazardous Flora or from Oxygen rich plants and Sodium from any Sodium Rich Plants you find. If you come across any cargo drops these are also worth searching.
Bear in mind that at this stage your inventory space is limited so try and only collect the essentials.
Also, keep in mind that the Leviathan Expedition is a permadeath mode and you will lose your inventory upon death. So be careful when exploring and traversing the planet.
Once you reach your ship and the milestone is complete, collect the reward from the Expedition page and then we can get on with the task of repairing your ship.
Repairing Your Ship
When you reach your damaged ship, enter it and you will receive a message. You will then be presented with two options. Either Purge ship audio or Trace anomalies. I selected Trace anomalies so I am not sure if there is anything different with selecting the first option.
One you have done that, view your ship’s inventory, specifically the technology and you will see the two pieces of technology that need to be repaired: the Launch Thruster and Pulse Engine.
To repair the Launch Thruster you will need:
- Pure Ferrite x 50
- Di-Hydrogen Jelly x 1
And to repair the Pulse Engine you will need
- Hermetic Seal x 1
- Metal Plating x 1
Let’s take a look at what you need for each repair material.
Mining Resources
For 50x Pure Ferrite you will need 50x Ferrite Dust. Ferrite Dust can be mined from rocks you find on the planet’s surface. On the planet, I was on, most of the rocks were pretty small and found on the ground, so use your analysis visor to find them. Remember to scan everything you come across as well as this will net you some valuable units.
You will also need 50 x Ferrite Dust to craft Metal Plating so in total you will need to mine 100 x Ferrite Dust.
For 1 x Di-Hydrogen Jelly you will need to mine 40 x Di-Hydrogen. You get Di-Hydrogen from the blue crystals found on pretty much every planet’s surface. There is always plenty of Di0-Hydrogen crystals on a planet and they are not too difficult to find.
To be able to craft the Hermetic Seal you will need 30 x Condensed Carbon. For 30 x Condensed Carbon you will need to mine 60 x Carbon from plants or trees.
If you are on a toxic planet, I recommend staying near your ship when mining for resources. This way if your Hazzard Protection runs out you can quickly re-enter your ship and wait for it to re-charge.
Refining Resources
Once you have mined enough resources we can then get onto refining the Pure Ferrite from Ferrite Dust and the Condensed Carbon from Carbon.
While on a planet surface, press up on the d-pad to open the build menu. On the first page, you will see some technology items. The one you need is called the Portable Refiner.
Select the Portable Refiner and place it on the ground.
To charge up the portable refiner you will need some extra Carbon, so make sure you have enough to power the refiner and refine the Condensed Carbon. Place some Carbon into the refiner’s fuel inverter to charge it. Then place whatever resource you want to refine, either Ferrite Dust or Carbon into the input slot.
When refining Ferrite Dust into Pure Ferrite, remember to only refine 50 x Pure Ferrite as you will still need 50 x Ferrite Dust to craft the Metal Plating. You do not need to refine any Di-Hydrogen as the Di-Hydrogen Jelly can be crafted from your inventory slots.
Once you have enough resources mined and refined, you can now go and repair the damaged components on your ship.
Don’t forget to pick up your Portable Refiner by highlighting it so it turns a dark orange colour then hold R3 to pick it up.
Repairing the damaged tech
Get back into your ship and bring up the inventory. Hover over an empty slot and select craft product. Find the Hermetic Seal and craft it. Then craft the Metal Plating and the Di-Hydrogen Jelly. Now got back to the ship’s inventory technology slots and tap X over each bit of technology you need to repair. This will take you to the repair screen where you can then insert the relevant parts/material to repair the technology.
Now that you have repaired your ship, you can now take off and get off whatever hell-hole planet you are on. Once you are in the air, fly our into space and we will go and meet Specialist Polo for the fourth Milestone.
The Anomaly and Specialist Polo
Once you are out in space and sufficiently far enough away from the planet you can summon the Anomaly. You can do this by pressing down on the d-pad and then selecting ‘Summon the Space Anomaly’ from the menu. The Space Anamoly (large spherical space station/ship) will then appear in front of you.
Fly into and land on the Space Anomaly and then exit your ship. You can then go and talk to Polo and report the loop anomaly to complete the fourth milestone ‘Observing the Cycle.’
You will find Polo in the heart of the Anomaly. Go up a couple of ramps and Polo will be in a room opposite from where you can buy all the technology upgrades and blueprints.
And that that is the first four Milestones of the Leviathan complete. You will still have another four to complete before finishing iteration one of the expedition. But I hope you found this guide useful to get you started if you have never done an expedition before.
For more information on No Man’s Sky, resources, crafting, etc. check out the No Man’s Sky wiki, it is full of useful information about the game.
