Hello Games' grandiose space survival adventure is often quite enigmatic when it comes to its myriad of hidden spoils. While your general understanding of the game's mechanics slowly grows as you progress toward the centre of the universe (or go off the beaten track and chart your own path), there are always a few moments where you are lacking the requisite resources or that one key item.

Within the first ten minutes of your journey, No Man's Sky teases you with goodies in boxes, and behind locked doors, which require an Atlas Pass. As with most other 'keys' in the PS4 and PC final-frontier-simulator, the Atlas Pass can be crafted – but first you'll need the recipe.

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As with any No Man's Sky guide, your experience will differ heavily to anyone else as the game's impressive algorithm tailors pre-set events to your tiny, tiny section of the universe.

Planets, creatures and timings may change, but once you have an Atlas Pass you'll quickly become the master of unlocking (doors and chests).

It is unconfirmed at this point, but some users are reporting that choosing the path of Atlas at the very start of the game increases the speed at which you receive the Atlas Pass. If you want to test this, when you awake, bleary-eyed on your first world, approach the red orb and accept the path rather than opting to be a 'free explorer".

No Man's Sky: Where to find an Atlas Pass

  1. Repair your ship, leave your starting planet and continue following the main quest objectives.
  2. After you are told about a 'special' Monolith. Time appears to vary, but it appears to occur after around 4-6 hyperspace warp jumps and after you've obtained crafting recipes for Antimatter and Warp Cells.
  3. Travel to the Monolith and interact with it. You should receive an "Anomaly Detected" alert.
  4. Return to space and access the Galactic Map, find the marker for the Anomaly and travel to it (this may be across a few galaxies so pack some Warp Cells for the journey).
  5. You will arrive at an Atlas Station. Marvel at it for a second (not actually necessary).
  6. Dock at the station and talk to the rather large orb.
  7. Your next step may vary. First off, the nice orb may gift you with the Atlas Pass V1 crafting recipe straight away, possibly along with some extremely valuable Atlas Stones (although you may not want to sell them - hint, hint). If it doesn't, accept its missions until you are sent to investigate a "Space Anomaly" - they look a bit like a gun-metal grey Death Star. Interact with the alien race inside and you should receive the blueprints for an Atlas Pass.

Note: To craft the Atlas Pass V1 you will need 25 Iron and 10 Heridium.

As the name suggests, there are 'better' versions of the Atlas Pass beyond V1. To craft these you will need further recipes. You can grab these as you progress toward the centre of the universe by seeking out other Atlas Stations. These appear on your Galactic Map as stars with three red markers around them. Accept the orb's missions and eventually you should receive V2, V3 and beyond.

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