No Man's Sky: How to Find and Identify Rare Planet Types

To find the rarest planet types in No Man's Sky, install specialized Hyperdrive upgrades to warp beyond standard yellow star systems into red, green, and blue star systems. Once you arrive, scan planets from orbit with your starship to spot non-standard biome designations before landing.

Warp to Colored Star Systems

Standard yellow stars (spectral classes F and G) primarily host conventional toxic, radioactive, scorched, frozen, and lush environments. To find anomalous, extreme, and exotic terrain, craft and install dedicated drive upgrades on your starship:

Cadmium Drive: Unlocks travel to red star systems.
Emeril Drive: Unlocks travel to green star systems.
Indium Drive: Unlocks travel to blue star systems (spectral classes O and B).

Blue star systems offer the highest natural chance of generating anomalous, mega-exotic, and extreme hazard environments. Aim your starship at individual planets and initiate an orbital scan. Unconventional worlds will display anomalous descriptors instead of basic biome labels, including:

Breached
Terraforming Catastrophe
Malformed
Lost Green World
Planetary Anomaly
Chromatic Fog

Identify and Harvest Glitch Worlds

Glitch planets feature synthetic, repeating geometric flora and structures rather than procedural organic ecosystems. These worlds maintain calm weather with no environmental hazard drain and passive Sentinels, making them completely safe to survey.

Each glitch subtype contains portable planetary trophies marked by yellow question-mark icons when viewed through your Analysis Visor. You can pick up these items to place as decorations in your planetary bases or freighter:

Planet Subtype	Visual Marker	Collectible Trophy
Light or Breached	Columns of glowing light	Light Fissure
Mechanical	Giant rotating gears	Glitching Separator
Cabled or Webbed	Interlinked conduit structures	Cable Pod
Calcified	Levitating bone-like structures	Calcified Shard
Bubble	Drifting translucent orbs	Bubble Cluster

Prepare for Extreme Volcanic Worlds

Volcanic planets generate high-heat environments filled with magma rivers, active eruption cones, and jagged peaks. Direct contact with molten surfaces quickly damages your Exosuit, and vertical cliffs rapidly exhaust Jetpack tanks.

Before exploring a volcanic planet:

Install stacked Thermal Protection Modules in your Exosuit technology inventory.
Summon a Minotaur exocraft or Nomad to traverse the surface safely. The Minotaur grants complete environmental immunity to extreme heat, allowing you to walk directly across volcanic ground and mine resource deposits without expending sodium.

Survey Chromatic and Monochromatic Planets

Chromatic planets apply permanent atmospheric color filters across the screen, such as deep crimson, sepia, violet, or total black-and-white desaturation.

Because atmospheric filters disguise the natural colors of plants and minerals, do not rely on visual cues to find resources. Use your Analysis Visor to track HUD markers for Sodium, Oxygen, and metal deposits directly. Flying through the cloud layer dynamically shifts the palette between the upper atmosphere and the ground.

Locate Bioluminescent and Deep Ocean Worlds

Bioluminescent and deep water worlds offer specialized environments for base building:

Bioluminescent Lush Worlds: These planets look like standard grassy biomes during the day. Land your starship and wait until nightfall to verify luminescence; during darkness, the grass and fungal trees illuminate in pulsing neon waves.
Deep Ocean Worlds: Dominated by vast planetary seas with small islands, these biomes contain underwater ruins, Alluring Specimens, and living pearls. Equip the Aeration Membrane upgrade on your Exosuit to extend underwater breathing, and deploy the Nautilon submarine to explore deep marine trenches safely.