No Man's Sky is free to play this weekend as new Omega update lands

It's been fairly quiet on the No Man's Sky front since its previous big update, Echoes, introduced the world to a mysterious new robot race known as the Autophages last August, but all that changes today with the release of its new Omega update — which coincides with a first-ever free weekend for the exploratory space sim.

No Man's Sky's Omega update introduces a handful of new core features, including on-planet missions. These procedurally generated quests can be initiated by speaking to alien lifeforms roaming around on planets, and are assembled based on a number of factors, including locale, climate, and alien personality.

Elsewhere, the update makes it possible to captain an imposing Dreadnought capital ship, but this first requires a spot of successful space combat; players will need to defeat the pirate freighters surrounding a hostile Dreadnought during an encounter before they're able to board it and take control.

No Man's Sky: Omega Update Trailer A trailer for No Man's Sky's Omega update.

Omega's other core changes include a revised Atlas Path quest line — rewarding a new Atlas staff, jetpack, and helmet — plus a significant overhaul of No Man's Sky's Expedition system. Previously, Expeditions — essentially curated several-hour-long campaigns that condense and reshuffle No Man's Sky's various systems into a series of progression-based milestone challenges — operated as a discrete mode, but today's update more closely integrates them into main saves.

Expeditions are now accessed via a new terminal found within the Space Anomaly lobby, and can be played using players' own starships and multitools. The rework arrives alongside the new Omega Expedition, which is designed to introduce new players to some of No Man's Sky's fundamental mechanics — including base-building, trading, and pace combat — across a series of missions. Rewards include the rather fancy, and disticntly tubular, Starborn Starship.

No Man's Sky's Omega Expedition runs for four weeks