8 things you should know before jumping into 'No Man's Sky'

The newest PlayStation 4 blockbuster may be the biggest game ever made.

"No Man's Sky" is a gorgeous space exploration game. Its main feature is a massive universe, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 quintillion (18,000,000,000,000,000,000) planets to discover, mine for resources, and map. That's a lot of universe to explore! 

With such a huge game comes anxiety. What to do first? What am I doing wrong? It can feel overwhelming. Agreed! Here are all the things I wish I'd known before putting 15 hours into "No Man's Sky":

Don't worry about saving resources — you'll find plenty more!

"No Man's Sky" is a game where your main actions are exploration and mining, and the combination thereof. The further you explore, chances are you'll find some pretty rare stuff. And the first time you find this rare stuff — gold, for instance — you'll want to hoard it. "What if I need it to build such and such in five hours?!" 

Stop. Relax. Breathe. With 18 quintillion planets, there's plenty of "rare" resources to go around. Letting go of the concept of rarity will free you to enjoy the game even more. Space pirates steal your precious cargo? Don't worry. There's plenty more.

The same goes for upgrading your ship/suit/gun. Don't bother digging in and upgrading the stuff you start with too much. You'll find better stuff.

The ship you start the game with is fine. The gun (mining tool) you start the game with is fine. The suit you start the game with is fine. All of them could be better, and you can make them better. 

But you don't have to do that right from the jump. In fact, you probably shouldn't do that, because you'll find even better stuff along the way. Every planet you visit is full of entirely new versions of the stuff you start the game with. Don't like your ship? There are crashed ships all over the place, just waiting to be found. Better yet, some of them have sweet upgrades that would otherwise take a ton of time to build. So instead of trying to slowly make your stuff better, give it a few hours. Find some stuff in the wild, then consider how you want to approach improving the stuff you've got.

Don't worry about money too much — you can get money from pretty much everything in "No Man's Sky."

I know, I know — you've been hustling your whole life. What's to stop you from hustling hard to get that space cash in "No Man's Sky?" Logic, I hope. 

I spent an hour mining resources, flying those resources to a trading post, and trading them in for cash. Turns out that was a tremendous waste of time. For every plant and animal you document in-game, you get in-game cash for uploading them. For every planet you encounter, you get in-game cash for uploading them. For every star system you enter, you get in-game cash for uploading them. 

All of which is to say: Don't bother wasting your time early on mining rare resources and re-selling them. You'll get tons of money along the way.