Crafty explorers in Hello Games' procedurally generated space exploration sim No Man's Sky have discovered an exploitable 'cheat' that duplicates rare items.

By using the trick, players have successfully replicated Atlas Stones - the most valuable trading item in the game - and sold them on for quick and easy credits hauls.

No Man's Sky on IBTimes UK

The ill-gotten-gains exploit could be considered game-breaking, in the sense that it tips the balancing of No Man's Sky's survival gameplay firmly into the realms of the stupidly easy (and possibly dull).

While players using the glitch have yet to report any save corruption as a result of the exploit, you may want to consider strongly before trying the trick for yourself.

The exploit essentially allows for the cloning of any items in the PS4 version of No Man's Sky, such as Warp Cells for unlimited Hyperspace jumps, but selling Atlas Stones (worth around 70k units) is a tremendously easy way of gathering enough credits for that Starship or Multi-Tool you've had your eyes on.

Ready to get your hands dirty? Here's how to perform the glitch on PS4 before it gets patched:

No Man's Sky: How to perform the item duplication trick

  1. Obtain at least one Atlas Stone or item(s) you wish to duplicate. Check our Atlas guide.
  2. Place the item(s) into your Starship inventory and head into space.
  3. Save your current game - done by docking with a Space Station.
  4. Die, no really. Attack some nearby ships and they will soon make short work of you.
  5. After you revive, check that your Starship inventory has been cleared of all resources / trading items.
  6. Load up the game's main menu by pressing the Options button on your controller, scroll to "Options" and select "Reload previous" under "Saved Game Data".
  7. Once loaded, check that your Starship inventory is as it was before your untimely demise.
  8. Find the "Grave" located near to where you died (this will show up on the HUD).
  9. Pick up the items from the Grave and reclaim the items you lost.
  10. Sell, rinse, repeat.

The exploit requires a fair amount of inventory space (find out how to expand this in our guide), but after about an hour of farming and selling you will have a serious unit tally. Get in quick, this one is likely to get patched soon.

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No Man's Sky