No Man’s Sky has gone dark for Halloween. Hello Games released FORSAKEN on October 28, a free update that sends players into the most unsettling corners of the universe to scavenge preserved organic matter, trade it with a new breed of collector, and bolt grotesque biomechanical parts onto their corvettes. It also slips in a handful of long-requested quality-of-life features, including seamless warping to visible stars, a radial weapon wheel and a minimal HUD mode.
It is the studio’s fifth major update of 2026, following REMNANT, XENO ARENA, THE SWARM and last month’s 10th-anniversary COSMOS overhaul, and it landed on the same day No Man’s Sky made its debut on iPhone and iPad.
Haunted mementos and the traders who want them
The core of FORSAKEN is a new scavenging loop. Vessels of preserved organic matter, which Hello Games calls mementos, now turn up in the places the game has always treated as its spookiest: derelict freighter hulks drifting in space, abandoned freighters, dig sites on planet surfaces and infested outposts. They are tucked into shadows and corners, so finding them means poking around locations many players have learned to skim through.
Those finds have drawn a set of enigmatic traders to the fringes of the game’s deep-space outposts. Each is building a collection, and each is willing to deal. Hand over mementos and they will pay out in a new catalogue of rewards that is not available any other way. Summoning them at the edges of outposts is part of the hunt, so the update ties exploration of wrecks directly to the shopping that follows.
Biomechanical corvettes, new cockpits and a larva cannon
The headline reward is a set of biomechanical corvette modules. Corvettes are the player-built ships that arrived with last year’s Voyagers update, and FORSAKEN’s parts let players either add a few organic, ribbed pieces to an existing build or commit fully and construct what the developer has cheerfully called a “scarecraft”. New habitation modules, structural pieces and a range of more lavish cockpits round out the building kit, along with a new interior set the studio says is inspired by a distant galaxy.
The theme carries over to the player character. Determined scavengers can earn a larva tank helmet, and anyone who stockpiles enough preserved grubs can buy a wriggling larva cannon multi-tool. New weapon and suit styles are also on the traders’ lists, so the look can run from hull to helmet.
Courier work: corvette haulage missions
FORSAKEN also gives corvette owners a new job. Package courier missions turn players into interstellar delivery drivers, carrying important cargo from one system to another. It is a modest addition next to the cosmetics, but it gives the larger ships something practical to do between salvage runs, and it pairs neatly with the update’s biggest navigation change.
Seamless warping, a radial weapon wheel and a minimal HUD
The quality-of-life list is where long-time players will feel FORSAKEN most. The biggest change is seamless warping to nearby stars: lock on to one of the bright stars visible in the sky and fly straight there, without opening the galactic map. For a game built around the promise that every light in the sky is a place you can visit, that is a meaningful step.
Hello Games has also added a radial menu for weapon selection and a new minimal HUD mode aimed at experienced players who want a cleaner screen. Both have been requested by the community for a long time. The update also carries dozens of smaller accessibility tweaks, many of them a by-product of the work on the new mobile version.
Day one on iPhone and iPad
FORSAKEN arrived alongside No Man’s Sky’s launch on Apple’s mobile devices, and the iOS version includes the new update from day one, on top of every one of the 40-plus updates released since 2016. It runs on iPhone 11 and later and on the third-generation iPad Air and later, and the opening portion of the game is free to try on the App Store.
The mobile version has some limits. Multiplayer is not supported, and planetary settlements require an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. Hello Games has rebuilt the touch controls from scratch, supports controllers and mouse and keyboard on iPad, and kept the download to a single file under 4GB.
What comes next
FORSAKEN is free for every existing owner, and full patch notes are on the official No Man’s Sky site. Hello Games says it is already planning what comes in 2027. The studio also continues work on its next game, Light No Fire, and is helping Overcooked developer Ghost Town Games bring its co-op game Stage Fright to release.
For a ten-year-old game, the pace remains remarkable: five major updates in a single year, a full mobile port, and a Halloween update that is as much about smoothing the moment-to-moment experience as it is about dressing ships up as something that crawled out of a specimen jar.
