No Man’s Sky’s latest update is adding alien settlements for you to discover as you explore its procedurally-generated universe. The appropriately titled “Frontiers” expansion was first teased last month, and represents the game’s seventeenth major update since its launch five years ago. It’s available to download today, free of charge, like the rest of No Man’s Sky’s updates.

A brief trailer released by developer Hello Games gives an idea of what players can expect from these settlements, which come complete with aliens wandering their streets. Players will be able to become the Overseer of a settlement, and build it up from a small collection of buildings into a larger town. Once you’re in control, citizens will ask for help with their problems, and the town itself will need to be defended against attack.

Image: Hello Games

Alongside settlements, the Frontiers update includes more base-building parts and a redesigned construction interface. There’s also a new expedition which will task players with mapping and exploring planets, as well as more minor quality of life improvements like redesigned visual effects, and the addition of deep space nebulae to pretty up the night sky.

Frontiers looks like another impressive free update for a game whose launch was rocky, to say the very least. But over the past five years Hello Games has turned No Man’s Sky into an experience that arguably exceeds anything its developers promised prior to its release. No wonder it now has such a dedicated following.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/1/22651804/no-mans-sky-frontiers-free-update-alien-settlements-overseer-release-date-price