Following No Man"s Sky"s massive February drop, the second major content update of the year for the sci-fi sandbox game is already here. Hello Games has delivered a unique update this time that has taken inspiration from monster-collecting adventure games like Pokemon or Palworld. The No Man"s Sky Xeno Arena update is now live.
The update"s biggest feature is a brand-new turn-based battle system involving alien fauna. For this, players can now explore the No Man"s Sky universe to find exotic critters to assemble their battling teams. Each creature will have their own movies, traits, and personalities depending on what planet and atmosphere they are found in.
Hello Games says there are hundreds of variations for attack, defense, and healing abilities that these creatures can use in battles. Each battle also earns them experience to unlock genetic mutations, which can further enhance their attack timings, dodges, health, and damage.
As for who players can battle, both player versus player and AI options are available, with holographic combat tables being installed into planetary buildings, space stations, planetary settlements, and the Space Anomaly. It looks like the creatures themselves aren"t the ones doing the battles, with their holograms thankfully taking over.
"The Space Anomaly has recently been decked out with an array of holodeck tables where you can enter your most powerful animals in simulated battles with other space farers for bragging rights and tangible rewards," says Sean Murray, Founder of Hello Games. "If you prefer a more solitary journey, there are also NPC alien lifeforms to challenge at Space Stations – including champion battlers who take expert advantage of the local wildlife’s biome affinities, and reigning champion iteration: Oceanus at the Anomaly."
On top of the alien creatures that players can find on planets, they can also breed their own battlers. This involves the Egg Sequencer aboard the Space Anomaly. This lets players enhance and modify offspring of their prized battlers to customize and create a new generation. There is even an in-game league to rise through for competitive players to grab medals and titles in.
The new No Man"s Sky Xeno Arena update is now available across PC (Steam and Xbox app), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 systems. Find the full patch notes here, which details some Switch 2 and PC performance improvements too.