No Man's Sky: How to Start an Expedition (Beginner's Guide)

Starting your first No Man’s Sky expedition is a five-minute job once you know where the game hides the button — and a confusing one if you do not, because the expedition option lives inside the New Game menu, the tutorial never mentions it, and the second entry point is a terminal you have to fly to. Last updated: August 18, 2026. No expedition is live right now (Expedition 22 closed on July 19), so this guide is written to have you ready the day the next one opens — every step works the same whether the run is brand new or a Redux rerun.

The short version:

1. Main menu route: press New Game, then select the Expedition save slot instead of Normal, Creative, Survival, or Permadeath. The game builds a separate save, skips the tutorial, and drops you into the scripted opening.
2. Terminal route: on an existing save past the opening, summon the Space Anomaly and use the Expedition Terminal by the main entrance to enter the run — and to copy a few useful items in from your main save.
3. First ten minutes: open the Expedition tab in your log, read the milestone list, and chase milestones until you hit the first phase threshold.

For the system-level picture — phase math, threshold skipping, transfer rules — our main expedition guide is the deep dive. This page is the zero-experience entry version: what to click, what you will see, and the mistakes that cost first-timers hours.

What an Expedition Actually Is

An expedition is a seasonal game mode on its own dedicated save file. Instead of the open-ended sandbox loop, you work through a fixed list of objectives called milestones, grouped into phases — usually five or six. Hit a phase’s milestone threshold and that phase’s rewards unlock. When the event window closes, typically after about six weeks, everything you claimed is yours permanently and the save converts into a normal save.

For a newcomer, these are the differences from a regular save that actually matter:

	Normal save	Expedition save
Save file	One of your permanent slots	A separate seasonal slot, created for the run
Objectives	Open-ended, you set the goals	A fixed milestone list in phases, with thresholds
Time limit	None	A limited window with a countdown at the terminal
Starting gear	Whatever you left in the slot	A curated loadout — everyone starts equal
Tutorial	The full opening questline	Skipped — no tutorial, no Artemis storyline
After it ends	Continues forever	Becomes a normal save; claimed rewards unlock account-wide

The reason players care is exclusivity. Expeditions hand out starships, multitools, exocraft parts, armor sets, and titles that cannot be obtained through normal play — the full rewards list runs from the Golden Vector to Expedition 21’s Colossus Mechanical Legs, and all of it is locked behind knowing how to start, and finish, an expedition.

Route 1: Start from the Main Menu (Best for First-Time Players)

This is the route for anyone new to No Man’s Sky, or who does not want to load an old save first — you need no normal save and no prior progress.

1. From the title screen, choose New Game. The mode picker appears: Normal, Creative, Survival, and Permadeath, plus the expedition entries.
2. Select the Expedition slot for the run you want. While an expedition is live, the current one appears here alongside the difficulty modes — during Expedition 22, picking it was as simple as picking Normal. The same screen also lists previously released expeditions for replay or practice. Only one expedition runs live at a time, but the menu gives you the backlog.
3. Confirm and enter. The game creates the separate expedition save, arms the milestone list, and skips the regular opening — there is no tutorial in expedition mode. You are deposited straight into the scripted opening scenario with a preset loadout.

Two reassurances. Starting an expedition never touches your other saves: it is a new, separate file. And if you quit partway, nothing is lost — reload the expedition save at any point while the window is open.

Route 2: Start from the Expedition Terminal on the Space Anomaly

The second entry point requires an existing save past the opening tutorial — you need to be free to fly before you can use it.

1. Summon the Space Anomaly from your ship and dock.
2. Find the Expedition Terminal just inside the main entrance, on the plaza level where the vendors are. This terminal is the hub for everything expedition-related: entering the active run, reviewing the milestone list, and — critically — claiming phase rewards.
3. Enter the expedition from the terminal. Your expedition save is created and entered from here, separate from the main save you flew in on.

The terminal route has one real advantage: item transfer. The terminal beside the expedition one lets you copy a selection of items — upgrade modules, weapons, essential resources — from your established save into the fresh expedition save, softening the curated starting loadout. The exact rules have shifted between runs, so check what is on offer when you start; this is why veterans start from the Anomaly while first-timers use the menu.

Your First Ten Minutes: The Scripted Opening

Every expedition opens with a scripted scenario instead of the standard crash-site tutorial, and recent runs have started in wildly different places. Expedition 22: The Swarm dropped you next to a crashed starship and opened with a personality quiz that assigned you to one of three teams — Royal, Sage, or Weaver — feeding a galaxy-wide war. Expedition 21: Remnant started on the single salvage planet that hosted the whole run. Titan, the water-world expedition, began underwater. The constant: a preset loadout, an on-screen marker on your first objective, and a milestone list already ticking.

That opening hour is where the “fix my ship or chase milestones” question comes up, and the answer is nearly always both, in the right order:

1. Open the Expedition tab in your log before you move. In the pause menu, your log has an Expedition tab listing every phase and milestone. In The Swarm, repairing the launch thrusters and pulse engines was an early milestone — the repair you would do anyway counts.
2. Follow the on-screen marker through the scripted beats. The opening milestones are a guided sequence — investigate the wreck, craft the starting items, repair the ship — and they teach the controls as you go. This is the tutorial, just wearing expedition clothes.
3. Repair only what the milestones ask for. The starter ship is a tool, not a keeper. Do not mine for twenty minutes to upgrade technology the list never mentions.
4. Claim your first rewards before leaving the opening area. Early milestone payouts include resources and blueprints that later milestones consume — The Swarm’s opening milestones fed the very next objectives.

One more expectation: some expeditions gate the finale behind a community-wide progress bar. The Swarm’s last stage, the Chromatic Distortion milestone, unlocked only once the whole player base filled a shared meter — you could finish your personal milestones and still wait for the community clock. If your run stalls at a milestone you cannot personally complete, that is probably why.

Reading the Expedition Interface

The UI is thin once you know the three places information lives:

• The Expedition tab in your log. Every phase, every milestone, your progress counter, and the current phase’s threshold. This is where you plan — and where you check whether a milestone is required or optional, since most phases let you skip a few.
• The Expedition Terminal on the Anomaly. The event countdown lives here, along with the milestone list and — the part people forget — the reward claim. Rewards do not auto-drop into your inventory; you collect them at the terminal.
• On-screen markers and notifications. Milestone completions ping as you play. A new ping means it is time to think about a terminal visit, not an immediate detour.

The most important read is the phase threshold. Phases unlock at a milestone count, not at 100 percent completion, so every phase has skippable objectives — new players who try to complete everything burn out on optional milestones. Our fast completion guide covers the routing side.

Claiming Rewards and Getting Them to Your Main Save

This is the part with a hard deadline. Rewards are claimed manually at the Expedition Terminal — if you never visit, the unlocks sit there unclaimed, and when the event window closes, unclaimed rewards are gone until a rerun.

What carries over, and how:

Reward type	Examples	How it reaches your main saves
Ships, multitools, exocraft	Golden Vector, Basilisk Crown, Colossus parts	Claim at the terminal, then redeem free from the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion on the Anomaly, in any mode
Cosmetics	Armor sets, posters, decals, titles, gestures	Same route — claim at the terminal, redeem at the Companion
Blueprints and upgrades	Technology unlocks, upgrade modules	Account-wide once claimed
Currencies and consumables	Units, nanites, Quicksilver, materials	They do not transfer — they stay inside the expedition save

The transfer ritual: finish the run (or the phases you wanted), claim everything at the terminal, load your main save, summon the Space Anomaly, and speak to the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion. Every reward you claimed sits in its catalog priced at zero — collect your ship, multitool, and armor set, and fly off. This works on every save, in every mode, forever.

Beginner Mistakes to Avoid in Your First Expedition

Mistake	Why it hurts	What to do instead
Selling or dumping the starting resources	Opening milestones consume exactly those materials	Touch nothing until you have read the milestone list
Never opening the Expedition tab	You wander like it is a normal save and backtrack constantly	Open it in the first ten minutes and plan by phase
Repairing and upgrading everything on the starter ship	The starter ship is a stepping stone, not a project	Repair what milestones require, then move on
Not claiming rewards as milestones complete	Later phases grind without the free upgrades	Claim at the terminal after every batch
Treating the run like a normal save	Base decorating and side quests eat the limited window	Expeditions are sprints; the sandbox waits afterward
Stopping with rewards unclaimed near the deadline	The window closes and unclaimed unlocks vanish until a rerun	Claim everything early, then double-check each phase

The meta-mistake behind all six: forgetting the clock. A normal save forgives; an expedition window does not.

So When Can You Actually Start One?

As of August 18, 2026: not a new one. Expedition 22: The Swarm ran May 27 to July 19, 2026, and nothing has been announced since. The realistic next opportunities, in order:

1. Expedition 23 alongside or after the Cosmos update. The tenth-anniversary update was announced August 9, 2026, and new expeditions have historically shipped with major updates — Remnant with the Remnant patch, The Swarm with version 6.4. Hello Games has not confirmed an expedition for Cosmos yet. Our Expedition 23 page tracks the announcement.
2. A Redux rerun of an older expedition. Hello Games periodically re-runs past expeditions in shortened windows — roughly two weeks each — with the same milestone and reward structure. The 2025 holiday season ran five back to back, and a similar block in late 2026 is the community’s working expectation. The Redux expeditions schedule tracks every confirmed window.
3. A replay from the terminal, today. Past expeditions remain playable from the Expedition Terminal and the New Game menu even with nothing live, so you can practice the entire start-to-finish flow on an old run — including The Swarm — right now. The catch: replays of ended expeditions do not re-issue the limited-time reward track; that needs a live window or a Redux.

That third option is the best preparation: run an old expedition this week, and when Expedition 23’s countdown appears, you will start it already knowing the menu, the terminal, the log tab, and the claim loop — with no deadline attached.

Related Guides

• No Man’s Sky Expedition Guide: Phases, Rewards, and Speedrun Tactics — the system-level companion to this page
• Expedition 22 (The Swarm): Rewards and How to Replay — the most recent run, milestone by milestone
• Expedition Fast Completion Guide — routing and threshold skipping
• Redux Expeditions Schedule — every confirmed rerun window
• Every No Man’s Sky Update in 2026 — Cosmos and the rest of the year’s patches