Turns out there’s a much faster way to get around in No Man’ Sky

For a game all about jumping between star systems and moving at the speed of light, No Man’s Sky can really feel slow at times. It’s no more apparent than when you’re making your way across a planet surface on foot. Your intrepid explorer moves at a snail’s pace, and the (obnoxiously mapped) sprint button does little to alleviate that. Too bad that jetpack on your back can’t help things along right?

Well, wrong apparently, as some equally frustrated players on Reddit have found a way to combine that very same jetpack and the melee attack (yeah, there’s one of those too apparently) into a solution to slow exploration. If you manage to time it right, you can propel yourself forward by tapping on R1 to melee, and quickly hitting X to jetpack straight after. If you get it right, you’ll shoot forward – and be allowed to continue doing so as long as you keep the rhythm going.

Here’s a handy little example of what this should look like in action, courtesy of the same Reddit thread.

I’ve tried it myself just now and it certainly does speed up exploration (even if it is a little tricky to get the timing right). It makes getting back to your ship after a binge of resource hunting a cake walk now, rather than the slow burn of watching a counter tick down as you look for any possible shortcut on your way back. Which is even more dire if your suit is currently freezing over thanks to the massive blizzard that just rolled in.

I’m still making my way through No Man’s Sky’s enormous galaxy as I piece together my review. We should have a lot more finite thoughts on it next week.

Last Updated: August 12, 2016