📋 TL;DR
- No Man’s Sky has 24 custom difficulty settings across 4 categories, all adjustable from the pause menu
- 4 settings lock at save creation: Survival Elements, Recipes/Blueprints, Tutorial Missions, Starting Slots
- Custom mode does NOT disable achievements (only ~4 mode-specific trophies require preset modes)
- We break down every setting with exact values, then give you 4 ready-to-use preset builds
No Man’s Sky overhauled its difficulty system with the Waypoint update in October 2022, replacing rigid game modes with 24 individual settings you can mix and match. The problem? The game doesn’t explain what half of them actually do, and the numbers behind options like “Challenging” or “Scarce” are hidden. After digging through patch notes, wiki data, and hundreds of community discussions, here’s the complete breakdown of the best custom difficulty settings for No Man’s Sky, plus four preset builds you can copy right now.
📋 In This Guide
How Custom Difficulty Works
Open the pause menu and go to Options > Difficulty. That’s it. Most of the 24 settings can be changed at any time, on any save, in any mode. You can start a Normal save and crank combat to maximum, or start Permadeath and turn off space pirates entirely.
Four settings lock the moment you create your save: Survival Elements, Recipes/Blueprints, Tutorial Missions, and Starting Slots. If these matter to you, set them before you hit “Start.”
Changing any setting from a preset mode’s defaults re-labels your save as “Custom,” but this is cosmetic. Your achievements still work. The only trophies locked behind specific modes are the ~4 that require reaching the galaxy center on Survival or Permadeath presets specifically.
There’s also a “Difficulty Settings Changes” toggle at the very bottom of the menu. Setting this to Locked permanently freezes every setting on that save. You can’t undo it, and you can’t even view your settings afterward. Don’t touch this unless you’re absolutely sure.
Survival Settings
These 8 settings control your moment-to-moment survival loop: hazard management, resource gathering, damage, and death penalties.
| Setting | Options | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Survival Elements* | None / Health Only / Hazards & Health / Full | Controls whether you manage health, life support, and hazard protection. “Health Only” removes environmental drain entirely. |
| Survival Difficulty | Relaxed (0.33x) / Standard (1x) / Challenging (3x) | How fast life support and hazard protection drain. At 3x, you’ll burn through sodium and oxygen constantly. |
| Natural Resources | Abundant (2x) / Standard (1x) / Scarce (0.5x) | Material yield when mining. Scarce means each rock gives half as much ferrite, which compounds fast. |
| Sprinting | Infinite / Relaxed / Standard | Infinite removes stamina limits and life support drain from sprinting. Relaxed keeps stamina but removes the life support cost. |
| Scanner Recharge | Very Fast (5x) / Fast (3x) / Standard (1x) / Challenging (0.2x) | Analysis visor recharge speed. At 0.2x, scanning fauna for units becomes painfully slow. |
| Damage Levels | None / Minimal / Standard / Challenging | All incoming damage from combat and environment. “None” makes you invincible. |
| Technology Damage | None / Minimal / Challenging | Probability of tech modules breaking when you take damage or fall. At Challenging, expect frequent repairs. |
| Death Consequences | No Item Loss / Standard / Items Destroyed / Save Deleted | Standard drops a grave you can recover. Items Destroyed means they’re gone. Save Deleted is permadeath. |
*Survival Elements is creation-only and cannot be changed after starting your save.
Crafting & Items Settings
These 6 settings affect your economy: how much things cost, how much you can carry, and whether crafting requires resources at all.
| Setting | Options | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel Usage | Free / Discounted (0.375x) / Standard (1x) / Expensive (1.5x) | Launch fuel, pulse engine, and ammo consumption. Free means unlimited launches from any planet. |
| Crafting | Free / Standard | Whether crafting costs resources. Free lets you build anything without materials. |
| Recipes/Blueprints* | All Unlocked / Learnable | “All Unlocked” starts you with most recipes already known, skipping the discovery loop. |
| Purchases | Free / Discounted / Standard / Expensive | NPC and terminal prices. On Expensive, a Microprocessor jumps from 27,500 to 104,000 units. |
| Availability | Abundant / Standard / Scarce | Shop stock range. Scarce removes basic materials like Ferrite and Cobalt from terminals entirely. |
| Inventory Stack Limits | Standard (9,999) / Restricted (500) / Harsh (300) | Max resource units per inventory slot. Restricted forces constant inventory management. Note: existing saves can only increase this, not decrease it. |
*Recipes/Blueprints is creation-only and cannot be changed after starting your save.
Combat Settings
4 settings that control how dangerous the universe is. Worth noting: the community consensus is that even maximum combat settings don’t create Dark Souls-level challenge. They mostly mean longer fights, not smarter enemies.
| Setting | Options | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Enemy Strength | Weak / Standard / Challenging | Enemy health and armor. On Challenging, sentinel ships feel nearly invincible in early game before you’ve upgraded weapons. |
| On-Foot Combat | None / Minimal / Standard / Hostile | How often Sentinels engage you on the ground. “None” removes ground combat entirely. |
| Space Combat | None / Minimal / Standard / Hostile | Pirate attack frequency. This is the only combat setting where ALL options are Permadeath-compatible. |
| Creatures | Passive / Defensive / Predators On | “Passive” means no creature will ever attack you. “Defensive” means they only fight back if you shoot first. |
Ease of Use Settings
These 6 settings are quality-of-life toggles that don’t affect difficulty as much as convenience. A couple of them are easy to overlook but change the experience more than you’d expect.
| Setting | Options | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Tutorial Missions* | Enabled / Disabled | Whether the intro tutorial plays out. Disable for alt characters if you already know the basics. |
| Inventory Transfer Range | Infinite / Nearby | “Infinite” lets you pull from your ship and freighter inventories from anywhere on a planet. Huge convenience boost. |
| Hyperdrive System Access | Unrestricted / Specialised | “Unrestricted” lets you warp to red, green, and blue star systems without upgrading your hyperdrive first. |
| Base Power | Free / Standard | “Free” removes the power wiring system from bases. Great if you just want to build without electrical engineering. |
| Reputation/Standing Gain | Very Fast (5x) / Fast (2x) / Standard (1x) / Challenging | How quickly you earn standing with Gek, Korvax, and Vy’keen factions. |
| Starting Slots* | Maximum / Standard | “Maximum” pre-unlocks all squadron and companion slots from the start. |
*Tutorial Missions and Starting Slots are creation-only and cannot be changed after starting your save.
4 Recommended Custom Difficulty Presets
These four builds cover the most common playstyles. Start with the one that fits, then tweak individual settings as you play. Every setting not listed stays at Normal defaults.
1. Relaxed Explorer (Photography & Building Focus)
For players who want to explore planets, build bases, and take screenshots without worrying about dying. You’ll still gather resources and progress through the story, but nothing will kill you unless you’re trying.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Survival Elements* | Health Only |
| Survival Difficulty | Relaxed (0.33x) |
| Natural Resources | Abundant (2x) |
| Sprinting | Infinite |
| Scanner Recharge | Very Fast |
| Damage Levels | Minimal |
| Death Consequences | No Item Loss |
| Fuel Usage | Discounted |
| On-Foot Combat | Minimal |
| Space Combat | Minimal |
| Creatures | Passive |
| Inventory Transfer Range | Infinite |
| Base Power | Free |
2. Balanced Adventurer (Normal+ With QoL Tweaks)
Normal mode but with the tedious parts removed. You still manage resources and fight enemies, but you’re not punished for sprinting or waiting on your scanner. This is the build most veteran players end up on, based on community threads. Inspired by builds shared by players like zemerick13 on Steam.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Sprinting | Infinite |
| Scanner Recharge | Very Fast |
| Purchases | Expensive |
| Availability | Abundant |
| Inventory Transfer Range | Infinite |
| Everything else | Normal defaults |
The key insight here: Infinite Sprint and Very Fast Scanner don’t make the game easier, they just remove busywork. Meanwhile, Expensive Purchases makes money matter. Common items are common (Abundant availability), but buying upgrades requires real planning.
3. Survival Lite (Resource Pressure Without the Grind)
You want meaningful resource management and real danger without the punishing stack limits and scarce shops that make Survival mode feel like a chore. This sits between Normal and Survival, keeping the tension while cutting the tedium.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Survival Difficulty | Challenging (3x) |
| Natural Resources | Standard (1x) |
| Damage Levels | Challenging |
| Death Consequences | Standard (grave) |
| Fuel Usage | Expensive (1.5x) |
| Purchases | Expensive |
| Inventory Stack Limits | Standard (9,999) |
| Enemy Strength | Challenging |
| On-Foot Combat | Hostile |
| Space Combat | Standard |
| Everything else | Normal defaults |
The big difference from Survival mode: you keep Standard resource yields and Standard stack limits (9,999 instead of 500). This removes the inventory Tetris that drives most players away from Survival while keeping the fast drain, expensive economy, and dangerous combat.
4. Hardcore Survivalist (Maximum Difficulty, Permadeath-Compatible)
Everything cranked to maximum within Permadeath-compatible limits. This is for players who want real consequences. One warning: Challenging Enemy Strength plus Hostile Space Combat plus Expensive Purchases creates a brutal early game. Sentinel ships become nearly unkillable until you’ve significantly upgraded your weapons.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Survival Elements* | Full |
| Survival Difficulty | Challenging (3x) |
| Natural Resources | Scarce (0.5x) |
| Sprinting | Standard |
| Damage Levels | Challenging |
| Technology Damage | Challenging |
| Death Consequences | Save Deleted |
| Fuel Usage | Expensive (1.5x) |
| Purchases | Expensive |
| Availability | Scarce |
| Inventory Stack Limits | Harsh (300) |
| Enemy Strength | Challenging |
| On-Foot Combat | Hostile |
| Space Combat | Hostile |
| Creatures | Predators On |
Settings to Watch Out For
⚡ Warning: Three settings in combination create an especially punishing early game: Expensive Purchases + Scarce Availability + Challenging Enemy Strength. If you’re new to NMS, avoid stacking all three.
Creation-only settings: Survival Elements, Recipes/Blueprints, Tutorial Missions, and Starting Slots all lock the moment you create your save. If you want “Health Only” survival or “All Unlocked” recipes, you must set these before hitting Start.
The Lock toggle: At the very bottom of the difficulty menu, “Difficulty Settings Changes” can be set to Locked. This permanently freezes every setting and hides the entire Difficulty menu. You cannot reverse this. There’s no confirmation dialog beyond the initial toggle. Unless you’re specifically going for a locked-settings challenge, leave this alone.
Inventory Stack Limits: Existing saves can only increase stack limits, not decrease them. If you start with Harsh (300) and switch to Standard (9,999), you can’t go back to Harsh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I change difficulty settings mid-game in No Man’s Sky?
Yes. Open the pause menu, go to Options > Difficulty, and adjust most settings freely. The only exceptions are 4 creation-only settings (Survival Elements, Recipes/Blueprints, Tutorial Missions, Starting Slots) and the permanent Lock toggle.
Does custom difficulty disable achievements or trophies?
No. Custom mode still allows most achievements. Only about 4 mode-specific trophies (like reaching the galaxy center on Permadeath or Survival) require those exact preset modes. Everything else works fine on Custom.
What’s the difference between Normal mode and Custom mode?
Nothing mechanical. Custom is just a label applied when you change any setting from a preset mode’s defaults. A “Custom” save with all Normal values plays identically to a Normal save. The label doesn’t affect gameplay or achievements.
Can I unlock difficulty settings after locking them?
No. The “Difficulty Settings Changes: Locked” toggle is permanent and irreversible for that save file. Once locked, you can’t view or change any settings. The only way around it is a third-party save editor, which isn’t officially supported.
Does higher difficulty in No Man’s Sky actually make the game harder?
Somewhat. The community consensus is that higher settings mostly increase grind (more recharging, more bullets to kill enemies, fewer resources per rock) rather than creating genuinely smarter enemies or more complex encounters. Combat difficulty is the setting that makes the biggest tangible difference.
Summary
No Man’s Sky’s custom difficulty system gives you real control over your experience, but the game doesn’t do a great job explaining what each setting actually changes under the hood. The short version: bump Sprinting to Infinite and Scanner Recharge to Very Fast for quality of life, adjust combat and economy settings to match how much friction you want, and leave the Lock toggle alone. If you’re coming back to NMS after a long break, check out our guide to every No Man’s Sky update to see what else has changed since you last played.