Looks like No Man’s Sky just got a lot more interesting. Announced by Sean Murray from Hello Games as well as a blog post on the official website, the games ninth and free update comes with a brand new feature that has the potential to bring in a plethora of players, new and old. The update is titled Living Ship, and just as the name implies, gives players the ability to literally grow their own sentient, organic, very much alive and aware spaceship. On top of that, the update is releasing today!

The Living Ships Update

🥚 Living Void Ships
🍆 Organic Technologies
🐔 Origin Story Mission
🦑 Tentacle Cockpit
🐙 Varied Space Encounters
😘 Space NPCS
👍 Quality of Life Improvements

Find out more:https://t.co/WMIqK7UNxO pic.twitter.com/7J5NqYuGUQ

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) February 19, 2020

Of course every ship will be procedurally generated, just like everything else in the game is. While this means that they can’t be upgraded like a normal ship, they do come with their own unique abilities that are determined on how you set certain specifications before they are born. As mentioned in the post, in order to become a loving parent to one of these ships, you’ll need to go to the Space Anomaly, which is a giant Death Star-like station, and purchase the Void Egg from the Quicksilver Merchant. This will start up a series of new missions called Starbirth which will have you researching the Korvax experiments, where you’ll eventually find out how to birth your own ship.

You can check out the Living Ship trailer here:

In addition, Hello Games has added new encounters for those who are journeying through the vast emptiness of space on their ships. Now when you’re flying around, you have a chance to run into “mysterious space objects” and “strange new lifeforms” adding to the off-planet experience. Alongside this, the studio has also added in NPS’s who can directly contact you on or off your ship. According to the post, these characters can either be traders looking to sell you something, or someone in need of assistance.

Lastly, Hello Games has also improved the Quality of Life that a game of this longevity usually necessitates. This includes managing your inventory system with a new shortcut, being able to warp as a group for those who are playing with multiple friends, and general gameplay improvements/bug fixes to boot. It’s astounding to see just how much the game has grown after it’s disastrous launch in 2016. Since then, Hello Games has turned a complete 180 on the project, making it a fun-filled experience that people keep coming back to. With this new update, which is filled with so much already, it’s safe to say that No Man’s Sky is off to a good start in 2020.

No Man’s Sky is available now for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.