No Man’s Sky is finally adding what players demand: space whales

polygon.com:

A new update is rolling out in No Man’s Sky, and it adds one thing all players want: space whales. The Leviathan update is live Wednesday and adds more than large, flying sea mammals — it’s also got a “roguelike”-esque time loop gameplay addition for players to toy around with.

In a news release, Hello Games said that players begin the expedition together, and every time they die, they’ll lose progress and have to start again. Each player death helps the community “break free” from the time loop together, though.

“Difficulty has been turned up in a variety of ways, but every death means a reset of the loop and a new proc-gen loadout,” Hello Games said. “To make it easier to complete the eventual goal of breaking out of the loop with just one life, the community can work together on a persistent, global goal that permanently improves the quality and frequency of upgrade rewards found during each loop. It’s so different to anything players have experienced in No Man’s Sky before and brings a new vibe to the universe.”

All this ties into a story that’ll slowly show itself, and that, of course, includes “a large and imposing space creature shrouded in myth and mystery.”

Rewards for playing the expedition include a new cloak, “The Whalestalker,” and other items. Most importantly, a space whale of your own to add to your fleet of ships, Hello Games said.

Hello Games also said the developer is also continuing to work on a Nintendo Switch version of No Man’s Sky, as well as some other “large upcoming updates.” No Man’s Sky’s last update, Outlaws, was released earlier in May.