Hello Games have released a new patch, version 1.77 to introduce a new Community Mission, new collectible items and several bug fixes. Unlike previous Community Missions this one is scheduled to last 28 days, right through the Christmas and New Year holidays. Given the length of this Community Mission it’s likely that this will be the last update this year. Hopefully the staff at Hello Games will get some much-deserved time to relax with their loved ones over the holidays.
2018 has certainly been a monumental year for No Man’s Sky. For the first six months of this year the community spent a great deal of time playing through the second season of the Waking Titan ARG while Hello Games quietly worked on the biggest update since launch; No Man’s Sky: NEXT.
NEXT was released in late July 2018 and received generally high praise from the players. NEXT also thrust Hello Games back into the spotlight of the wider gaming community by introducing key features like multiplayer, better base building and the Xbox console release. The favorable response to the NEXT update was so profound that it finally tipped the the lifetime reviews on Steam from “Mostly Negative” to “Mixed”!
Lifetime Steam Reviews Chart from Steam
Yet the story doesn’t end there. After acknowledging that their silence and lack of communication was a mistake, Hello Games have taken proactive steps to improve their public relations by publishing more frequent content updates and engaging on social media. Since NEXT launched they have published two other significant updates, The Abyss and Visions,both of which address key gameplay issues requested by players.
With each new patch Hello Games always mentions how they are still planning and working on even more updates in the future. Needless to say, Sean Murray and the team at Hello Games are dedicated to this game. It’s clearly a labor of love for them. Sometimes it’s good to take a step back and marvel at what they have been able to accomplish. In my opinion it takes some extremely talented developers to pull off a triple-A quality game like No Man’s Sky with the limited resources of a small indie studio. If 2018 is any indication of the future direction of No Man’s Sky I can’t wait to see what Hello Games have in store for 2019!
Hello Games announced today the upcoming release of their next named update, Version 1.75: Visions.
This new update includes a huge list of improvements and changes with a notable focus on new exotic biomes and more planetary variety. You can watch the trailer for the Visions update below:
Although the Abyss update didn’t cause a universal reset it did change the content of the oceans, with new flora and fauna. I suspect Visions will do something similar, modify existing biomes but not cause a complete transformation. My plan is to start adding keyword tags for each address submitted to start identifying which update it was posted under (NEXT, Abyss, Visions, etc).
I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has financially supported The Portal Repository over the past several months. I received the first donation through PayPal back in February this year, and since then over a dozen other individuals have come forward and either pledged through Patreon, made a one-time donation through PayPal or purchased merchandise via the Teespring store.
I am truly humbled and honored by the generosity of everyone who has been and continues to be supporters of The Portal Repository. Your contributions have motivated me to continue making improvements to the website and have helped to offset the costs of the hosting infrastructure needed to keep this website up and running.
So, I’d like everyone reading this post who finds this site helpful to please leave a comment below thanking the following people for their role in making this site what it is today:
If you would like to support The Portal Repository as well you can do so via Patreon, PayPal or Teespring. All supporters receive the following benefits:
1. Names are added to the website footer
2. Can post portal addresses instantly (skip moderation queue)
3. Get a unique supporter icon next to your name indicating that you’re a supporter
4. All your portal addresses are included on the special Supporter Addresses page.
Awake and witness creation! The Beyond takes us in an instant. The cycle continues but our time here is brief. The galaxy is our burden. Things fall apart because entropy holds.
Ever since portal glyphs were introduced into No Man’s Sky there has been much debate in the player community on what to call each glyph. During the Waking Titan ARG the 16 portal glyphs were slowly introduced through a series of puzzles, but in the end we were never explicitly told what the name or meaning of each glyph was supposed to be.
This lack of information from Hello Games has left the community to fill in the blanks. Immediately after the Atlas Rises update came out players started coming up with all sorts of different naming conventions for all the glyphs, mostly based on what they looked like. For example, the first glyph has been called by several different names: water, sunset, sunrise, hamburger, etc. But all of these names are highly subjective perceptions of what different players think the glyph visibly represents. Eventually Reddit conducted a community vote to determine the glyph names. Although the hexadecimal glyph format is more practical and popular, wouldn’t it be nice if we had official insight from the actual creators of No Man’s Sky as to what each glyph meant?
Not satisfied with the community-approved glyph names I set out to find the meaning of the glyphs using in-game sources. In No Man’s Sky there are four different languages that players can slowly learn: Gek, Vy’keen, Korvax and Atlas. The words in each language are learned in a fixed order. I compared the 16 glyphs with the first 16 words of the Gek, Vy’keen and Korvax, but saw very little correlation. However, when I compared the glyphs to the first 16 words of the Atlas language the correlation was almost undeniable.
#
Glyph
English
Atlas(Capitalized)
1
0
awake
Paka
2
1
witness
Zazaneng
3
2
creation
Oltozmang
4
3
beyond
Goric
5
4
instant
Tevastani
6
5
cycle
Rongil
7
6
continues
Avskyansc
8
7
time
Auers
9
8
brief
Aecimm
10
9
galaxy
Udgord
11
A
burden
Tacocel
12
B
things
Guhtle
13
C
fall
Ofte
14
D
apart
Itjal
15
E
entropy
Pekerk
16
F
holds
Dixono
Meaning Analysis
Now that we’ve established the correlation between the Atlas language and the glyphs, let’s delve deeper into the meanings.
0
Awake: Visually this glyph does appear to be the sun positioned half-way over a watery horizon. This could be interpreted as a sunrise, which is traditionally associated with waking up. When we start a new game the first thing we do is “wake up” next to our crashed ship on an alien world.
1
Witness: Commonly referred to as the “bird” glyph. A witness is someone who has seen an event. Since birds fly high above the surface they get the “bird’s eye view” which correlates nicely with the word “witness”. After we start the game and we initially “wake up” the next thing we do is look around and witness our surroundings.
2
Creation: This glyph has several different interpretations, most commonly known as face or faces. Continuing with the previous glyph themes of waking up and looking around, the next thing we do is take personal inventory, we become aware of ourselves, our life support, our hazard protection, etc. Likewise, after we wake up and witness our surroundings, we become aware of the creation of the simulated universe in which we explore.
3
Beyond: Although this glyph is often referred to as the “diplo” it could be interpreted in a more broad sense to represent the flora and fauna that we scan and discover. After waking up, witnessing our surroundings and the creation of the universe, we then move beyond the world from which we initially awoke.
4
Instant: This glyph is commonly understood to represent an eclipse, which is a precise event where one celestial body temporarily obscures the light from another. In celestial time-scales this event could be understood to be only a brief moment, or an instant.
5
Cycle: Some people see this glyph as a balloon or a waypoint marker. If we interpret it as being a balloon of sorts we understand that it spins (cycles). In a broader sense, we could also envision the motion of a floating balloon to be subject to the influences of a planet’s atmosphere, which is cyclic.
6
Continues: This glyph pretty clearly shows a ship, boat or vessel. Seeing that the purpose of a vessel is to travel, the meaning of continuing on our journey is a fairly reasonable interpretation.
7
Time: Although most people see a beetle or spider in this glyph the representation of “time” could be understood on a more symbolic level. Time having 3 major components, the past, the present and the future. This glyph shows two legs pointed upwards (future), two legs pointing straight to the sides (present) and two legs pointed downwards (past).
8
Brief: Commonly called the “dragonfly” glyph, the tail of the dragonfly evokes imagery of movement. Being some sort of flying winged insect its motion would be quick, giving observers only a brief glimpse before it flew away.
9
Galaxy: Perhaps the most obvious correlation between the player glyph names and the sequential order of the Atlas language. This glyph is broadly interpreted by players to be a spiral galaxy, like our own Milkyway. It also just so happens that in the Atlas language dictionary, the 10th word is also “galaxy”. Coincidence? I think not!
A
Burden: This hexagonal-shaped glyph wasn’t easy for players to name. Ultimately Reddit users settled on the word “voxel” to describe it, however perhaps the Atlas word “burden” more accurately represents the intangible nature of this glyph’s meaning. A hexagon is understood to be nature’s most efficient shape. You can pack many hexagons closely together without wasting space. The dot inside one of the wedges may symbolize something being stored inside the hexagon. Using hexagonal containers would permit efficient transport, even when heavily laden (burdened).
B
Things: Unfortunately the Atlas word doesn’t make a great correlation to what appears to be a whale or a fish glyph, although in the most generic interpretation, whales and fish are just “things” in the sea.
C
Fall: This 13th glyph seems to represent a tent or teepee. A tent being a ground-based shelter, it could be understood that when one “falls” from the sky you must erect a shelter on the planet’s surface to protect you from the elements.
D
Apart: Visually, this glyph appears to be some sort of spaceship or rocket. The purpose of a spaceship or rocket is to take you into space. Space being (essentially) a vacuum puts you “apart” from everything else in the universe.
E
Entropy: In the most general terms, entropy is an irreversible process (increasing disorder or chaos). This glyph starts as a single line on the bottom and appears to branch out at the top, visually representing increased chaos from bottom to top.
F
Holds: Players typically call this the “Atlas” glyph because of the similar triangular shapes, however it could just as easily be perceived as the representation of “containing something securely”. The three outer triangles are positioned to securely hold the inner triangle.
I fully acknowledge that some of the glyph interpretations are a bit of a stretch, however sometimes the visual representation of an intangible concept or idea can be tricky. Also, it’s important to remember that it’s entirely possible that Hello Games didn’t intend for there to be any correlation between the portal glyphs and anything in-game. Maybe they wanted the glyphs to remain open to interpretation. On the other hand, maybe there are some deeper meanings that they wanted us to find on our own. What do you think?
Hello Games has recently announced the next named update coming out the week of October 29th. The title of the update is “The Abyss” and according to Sean Murray:
It focuses on some of the eerier elements of No Man’s Sky, in keeping with the theme of this season.
Not much else is known about what may be included in this update, however Xaine has put together a helpful video explaining some of the possible upcoming features based on information data-mined from the game files:
There have been several universal resets throughout the history of No Man’s Sky, the most recent one happened with the NEXT update. It is unclear whether another universal reset is coming with The Abyss, although personally I would be surprised if procedural generation seeds got reset again so soon after NEXT.
In any event, if the universe does get reset with The Abyss I will migrate all the NEXT addresses from the Main Repository onto a sub-site like I did with Atlas Rises and will also clear out all the old tags on the Main Repository so we can start fresh after the update.
Oct 29th 2018 Update:
The Abyss update is out and although ocean biomes got an overhaul it appears the universe didn’t go through any wide-scale reset. Since procedural generation didn’t reset I’m not going to split the database or archive the addresses submitted during NEXT. You can read the official patch notes here.
Please note that in the current version of No Man’s Sky there is a known bug that prevents shared bases from downloading while exploring. This means that if you dial a portal address for a planet where you expect to see someone’s base there is a good chance that it won’t show up.
You can read the full patch notes here. The relevant excerpt is below.
1.59 Patch Notes
I will post another update after the next patch is released with regards to this base visibility bug. In the meantime please don’t report addresses for missing bases as such reports will be ignored.
October 14th Update:
Based on the latest information it seems that this bug has been fixed. If you still encounter missing bases please leave a comment on the associated portal address so that A) Other players are made aware of the potential visibility issue and B) so that the person that posted the address will be notified that people couldn’t see their base. Do not report missing bases using the “Report/Update Address” feature, such reports will be ignored.
Since NEXT launched a little over a month ago players have submitted over 200 portal addresses to The Portal Repository! Although it’s exciting to see the user-base expanding, one of the drawbacks is that sometimes people accidentally post inaccurate information. Not too long ago I introduced a feature that lets anybody report feedback on a particular address, however that is a reactive solution and I know I can do better.
That’s why I’m introducing a new feature: Verification.
Address verification is simply an audit of the existing addresses on this site. Administrators and auditors will go through the addresses that players submit and they will dial them in-game, verifying that the basic information is true and that the glyphs do indeed lead to the planet players would expect. Auditors will also check if player bases are visible, if special multitools/ships can be found and they will upload a screenshot if one wasn’t provided originally.
Once an address is audited a green check mark will appear in the list of icons above the meta table. This green check mark lets other users know that a staff member has personally dialed that address and confirmed it to be accurate.
It’s my hope that we can improve the content quality and instill greater user confidence by implementing a more structured audit program.
To become an auditor you must be a registered member on this site, you should be familiar with WordPress (or willing to learn), and obviously must have an updated copy of No Man’s Sky on either PC, PS4 or Xbox. If you are interested in becoming an auditor please email admin@portalrepository.com.
I’d like to thank all of my current supporters for your generous contribution to The Portal Repository on Patreon, PayPal and TeeSpring. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes to improve the way addresses are published in order to maximize automation and reduce the amount of manual edits needed before an address can be published.
I’m happy to announce that I’m ready to beta-test “instant publishing” exclusively to my supporters!
In order to take advantage of this new benefit you must:
If you’ve met these four requirements then your address will skip the manual review and get instantly published. All the necessary categories and keyword tags will be automatically set when your address is published. Also, if you make a mistake or want to change anything you can go right to the Dashboard and edit your post.
First off I want to thank everyone who’s submitted an address to The Portal Repository so far. Since NEXT launched on July 24th players have submitted 70+ portal addresses on all three major platforms, PC, PS4 and Xbox. Traffic has also been increasing, with over 8,000 unique visitors and 55,000+ page views in the last 7 days alone!
The best part about The Portal Repository is that it is an organized catalog, which means that addresses submitted early on won’t get buried and forgotten. Even old addresses can still be easily sorted and searched for at any time in the future.
I have been very busy over the last week, taking everyone’s feedback and suggestions to heart and doing what I can in the limited time I have available. Below is a summary of a few notable recent changes:
New Logo
On August 1st I revealed the new official logo for The Portal Repository. The design is styled after the 16 glowing glyphs on the outter ring of the portal entrance and on the pedestal.
Added To Reddit Sidebar
I contacted the mods for the No Man’s Sky subreddit and requested The Portal Repository to be added as a resource in the sidebar. My thanks go out to mods October_Citrus and WithYouInSpirit99 for getting this added so quickly!
New Official Twitter Account
Up until now I’ve been posting all news, events and updates from my personal Twitter account. Recently I made a change on this site where every new address is automatically shared to Twitter. This is a great way to show activity and grow the community, however with so many addresses being added recently it was starting to clutter my Twitter feed.
So based on a survey I conducted (and Peaceful Gamer’s suggestion) I decided to start a new Twitter account dedicated exclusively to The Portal Repository: @PortalRepo
Merchandise
In addition to my Patreon I also started a merchandise store on Teespring. Depending on popularity and feedback I may add more gear or change the available selection. By buying merchandise you can support this website and get something cool at the same time! It’s a win-win for all of us!
The Portal Repository Teespring Store
User Feedback Ticket System
As traffic increases so does the amount of feedback I receive. Tracking suggestions and bug reports can easily get out of hand using email alone. That’s why I’ve setup a managed helpdesk-style ticket system for registered users. Now any logged-in user can submit feedback and track the status of their ticket right from the new Contact page.
Users who are not registered can still submit tickets here, but beware that responses may be delayed.
Style Changes
As some of you may already have noticed I’ve made a few style changes to the theme of the site. Mainly the top menu on desktop screens has been re-styled to be white-on-black text, with the iconic “GeoNMS” font being used more frequently throughout the site. I also changed the color scheme and font for the meta data table for each address, more closely reflecting the palette of the in-game menus. Some other tweaks and changes have also been made to improve the overall look of the site.
As you can see it certainly has been a busy week. Thanks again for everyone’s continued feedback and contributions! Please remember that I personally fund this website myself and between hosting costs, security, bandwidth, domain names, etc the bill can really add up. If you enjoy using this site and want to support it please consider either becoming a monthly Patron or purchasing some of the merchandise. All earnings are used to offset the operating costs and are 100% re-invested into this website.
Now that the NEXT update has been out for a week I wanted to take this opportunity to get everybody up to speed on the latest happenings on this website and evaluate how NEXT affects The Portal Repository.
The Changes
Since NEXT was the biggest update from Hello Games it’s unsurprising that some things about this site would need to change. Below is a list of some of the changes implemented to accommodate the latest version of No Man’s Sky.
When NEXT launched it included a universal reset of the procedural generation seed. This meant that most planetary characteristics such as biome type, flora, fauna, etc were changed. To keep a historical record of the Atlas Rises era I created a subdomain site (https://atlasrises.portalrepository.com) where all 372 addresses submitted before July 24th are stored in perpetuity. Each address is accompanied by a purple banner with a link to the corresponding address on the Main Repository, that way users can see how the address has changed after NEXT.
Tags Added, Tags Removed
On the main site, all Atlas Rises addresses are still present, but they’ve had all their tags removed and replaced with “Atlas Rises” (except for addresses “Near Center” since they are still near the center of the galaxy). The glyphs background for all Atlas Rises addresses has been changed to purple to help differentiate outdated information. A banner has also been added to the top of the metadata table that contains a link to the Atlas Rises subdomain archive, where users can view all the original tags associated with that particular address.
Got Updates?
On the submission form a new selection option has been provided to indicate whether the information you’re submitting is to update an existing address. When an old Atlas Rises post is updated with NEXT information the “Updated” tag will be appended, which applies a banner at the top of the metadata table, indicating that the address has been updated and gives a link to the original Atlas Rises address in the archive subdomain.
Top Ten Reset
The Top Addresses page has been updated and now will only display the top ten favorited posts from the NEXT version of the game. The favorite count for the old Atlas Rises addresses have not been changed, but they will no longer be included in the Top Addresses page since they contain outdated information.
Well, not actually, but I have updated the submission form so people can indicate if there are any publicly available player bases located at that portal address. Now that we are not limited to only one player base per planet I don’t think the “Base Redacted” tag is needed anymore, since it’s no longer possible to exploit that game mechanic and overwrite other people’s bases. I’ve also included an option to indicate how many player bases are present so that large multiplayer colonies can be sorted appropriately in the future. As a side note, the old tag for player bases was “Base (Inhabited)”, however since you can place base computers anywhere I’ve changed the tag to just be “Base”.
Remember, a base will not be publicly available until it has been uploaded!
Now that No Man’s Sky is available to players on the Xbox platform I’ve created categories for Xboxgalaxies just like we have for PC and PS4 platforms. Since Xbox players are all starting from scratch I know it might take a little while before the Xbox community becomes familiar and comfortable with portals. Rest assured, The Portal Repository is ready and waiting to accept portal addresses from Xbox players!
Reach The Unreachable
During the Atlas Rises iteration of No Man’s Sky we quickly discovered a pretty substantial glitch in the portal network where we could not dial the address to the last planet in any star system. This became known as the frustrating “Unreachable Last Planet Glitch” and was the bane of many traveller’s existence. Fortunately my preliminary tests in NEXT indicate that this bug has been fixed and now we can reach every planet in a given star system!
In addition to the changes listed above I’ve made a few other tweaks and fixes to the website over the past week. That being said, I’m constantly improving this site and would welcome any suggestions from you guys on how The Portal Repository could be better. Please comment below or reach out to me via email.
has been called by several different names: water, sunset, sunrise, hamburger, etc. But all of these names are highly subjective perceptions of what different players think the glyph visibly represents. Eventually 
