'No Man's Sky' update lets players adopt aliens as pets

The latest major No Man’s Sky update is shaking up the exploration sim yet again by letting you befriend and adopt wild alien creatures. Given that the flora and fauna are procedurally generated, you can have some extremely unusual pets.

When you feed a creature, a interaction menu will pop up with options to milk, ride or adopt it. You can have up to six companions at the outset, though you can unlock new slots. Companions have their own personalities and you can customize them with a new name, accessories and decals.

You'll need to earn creatures' trust over time. They'll sometimes need food and your attention, but they can do much more than simply provide you with company. They can assist you while you're exploring by looking for resources and buildings, digging up items, hunting and flagging hazards for your attention. Companions can even use items like the torch and mining lasers. You can summon them or direct them with gestures. If you're playing in virtual reality, you can point at a location to send your alien friend there.

Riding an alien creature in No Man's Sky's Companions update (Hello Games)

Creatures can communicate with your exosuit through a neural link from their harness to give you some idea of their thoughts, wants and needs. You'll have the option to ride giant creatures as well.

If you take good enough care of your companions, they'll lay eggs. These can hatch to give you a brand new baby creature and you can trade eggs with other players. You can even harness your inner CRISPR gene editing scientist to produce unique creatures by changing the genetic material of eggs in an Egg Sequencer on a Space Anomaly.

The update fixes some bugs and improves load and warp times on PlayStation 4. There's also a welcome update to the user interface. You can use analogue sticks (or hotkeys if you play with a mouse and keyboard) to quickly select options in dialog menus and interactions.

This patch is primarily about the creatures, though, right down to improvements to movement animations and "particle effects emanating from creature dung." The free Companions update is available now on all platforms.

Befriending alien creatures in No Man's Sky's Companions update (Hello Games)