No Man's Sky 7.0 Cosmos is a free update aimed at the empty space between planets

No Man's Sky is a science fiction game about exploring and surviving in an endless, procedurally generated universe [6]. It is usually called a space game, yet in its September 9 announcement Hello Games wrote that it had never really updated space itself since release [1]. Cosmos, the 7.0 update that went out the same day, is aimed at exactly that gap.

According to the announcement, Cosmos is the tenth-anniversary update and is free for all existing players on every platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 1, Switch 2, Mac, PSVR 1 and 2, PC VR and Xbox Game Pass [1]. Everything below is as of September 12, 2026.

Become a station director and remodel it inside and out

Space stations sit at the centre of this update. Prove yourself to the local authorities and you become a station's director, with the right to change its exterior decoration, interior layout and ancillary rooms [2]. The full range of existing base parts can be used on the interior, and extra rooms can be attached to the main hangar [2]. In the announcement, Hello Games calls it probably the most requested feature since launch [1].

Directors can also found an alliance. Other players join by visiting any station the alliance owns, and one player can belong to up to three alliances. Alliances are graded by how active their members are, and the largest and most active appear on a leaderboard at the station core [2].

Building beyond the planets, and stripping wrecks for parts

Bases are no longer tied to planets. You can build on a natural asteroid platform or stake a claim on any empty volume of space [2].

A new star system map opens from the Quick Menu and shows nearby celestial bodies, the space station and new deep-space points of interest [2]. Those include rocky and icy asteroid belts, inhabited and infested outposts, huge derelict hulks and debris fields. They only start appearing on the map once a save has reached the Space Anomaly for the first time [2].

Hulks reward restraint. Disturb their structure and they can melt down and explode, so the announcement advises scanning first and going for the most valuable salvage [1]. Salvage is pulled into the hold by the Tractor Beam, a new part for Corvette-class ships [2].

Spacewalking has changed too. Ships other than Corvettes now have an eject button in the Quick Menu, and movement in space has true six degrees of freedom, including roll [2]. Stars can be reached by long-haul flight, though the patch notes describe them as ultimately lethal [2].

An expedition that retraces ten years

Alongside Cosmos comes Expedition Twenty-Three, Our Journey Continues, which runs for approximately six weeks [2]. The announcement explains that each milestone represents one of the 40 major updates released since the game launched in 2016, unlocking those features in the order they were added [1]. Every milestone carries developer commentary read by Hello Games' Sean Murray [2].

The rewards look backwards. They include a golden edition of the Rasamama S36 starship, the Interceptor ship and diplodocus companion seen in pre-release trailers, an astronaut bobblehead, and the Starbound v0.27 Multi-Tool designed from original concept art [2].

Fortieth on Steam, and 7.01 the next day

On Valve's most-played games list, checked on September 12, No Man's Sky sat in 40th place. The same entry listed a last-week rank of 161 and a peak of 39,588 concurrent players [3].

Patch 7.01 reached Steam first, on September 10. It fixed station decorations going missing in some stations, players falling out of stations, and errors when several people tried to claim the same station, with other platforms to follow as soon as possible [4].

Kotaku advises collecting every resource needed to claim a station before getting attached to one, and notes reports on Reddit of other players tracking down popular locations and taking them first [5].

If you do not own the game yet, the Twitch Drops are worth a look. Watching a Drops-enabled stream between September 10 and September 14 banks rewards in your inventory even without the game, ready to claim at any time [2]. On the US Steam store on September 12, No Man's Sky was $23.99, 60 percent off its $59.99 list price [6].

Sources

[1] Hello Games. No Man's Sky: Cosmos. September 9, 2026.

[2] Hello Games. Cosmos Update overview and 7.0 patch notes. Checked September 12, 2026.

[3] Valve. ISteamChartsService, most played games. Queried September 12, 2026.

[4] Hello Games. Cosmos 7.01. September 10, 2026.

[5] Kotaku. Players Can't Believe No Man's Sky Is Finally Letting Them Build In Space. September 12, 2026.

[6] Valve. No Man's Sky Steam store page (appid 275850). US store, checked September 12, 2026.