Despite the game’s age and initially limited scope, No Man’s Sky has continued to impress players with a series of new mechanics and ways to interact with the game since the initial launch. In the latest update, the Hello Games team surprised fans yet again with the addition of a turn-based creature battle system, titled Xeno Arena. The update came with a full set of patch notes and an announcement video showing off many of the new features.
The trailer introduces the new mechanic immediately by showing two players at a table, with small creatures standing in front of each. These creatures are explained be pets, which players can acquire through exploration in the wild. While outside the battles, the pets are much larger and serve more as companions, even able to provide varied forms of transportation. Players will also have access to daily challenges in the arena involving their new pets.
More details about the specifics of the battles is available in the update’s patch notes. The pets will be organized into teams for the turn-based battles, with each offering different strengths depending on traits and appearance, in addition to their personality. The creatures take on a variety of forms, from friendly butterflies to liquid bubbles and triangular prisms. The creatures can also be augmented after participating in enough fights and earning experience allowing players to change attributes like size and type for various trade-offs. There is also a greater emphasis placed on collecting creatures with the new update, allowing players to tame 30 creatures at once.
While some games benefit from sticking to their core genre and refining the gameplay, No Man’s Sky has proven that a single game can branch into many genres and still find ways to piece them together in a satisfying way. The Xeno Arena update is available to play on all versions of the game.