How to chart waypoints in No Man’s Sky

As you drift through galaxies exploring new systems and worlds in No Man’s Sky, you’ll find yourself wondering what the purpose of it all is. While there are several mission types to take on and the overall goal of reaching the center of the galaxy, there’s also a much more relaxed objective. Exploring every world at your own pace, charting each one through its various waypoints. In this guide, we’ll explain how to find these waypoints and what it means to chart them.

How to chart a waypoint

To chart a waypoint, you just have to walk up to it and interact with it. To find them, you need to fly over the surface of a planet or moon and use your ship’s scanner. Any points of interest with a waypoint will pop up as an indicator with a white house and blue outline. Fly to these locations, and you’ll see a waypoint.

The interaction prompt will most commonly say “save,” but occasionally, you’ll get a waypoint that says “waypoint” on it. You’ll find waypoints scattered all over the No Man’s Sky universe. They’re usually placed at every point of interest, and there are more major ones to find that chart entire regions of planets or moons for you in your journey of discovery and cataloging.

What are waypoints?

Waypoints are simple devices that are placed somewhere around every single structure in No Man’s Sky. They mostly look like small cylinders that are about half your protagonist’s height. They also have an antenna that sticks up out of the top. This version of waypoints has the “save” prompt on them.

You can also find waypoints that are huge towers dotted around planets. They are incredibly tall and have the prompt for “waypoint” on them. When you interact with this device, it will scan the region for any distress beacons nearby, and you’ll then get a notification for the nearby location or point of interest. This is actually a great way to find crashed ships.

Why should you find and use Waypoints?

Waypoints chart a planet or moon. If you want to play as an explorer and fully chart a planet, you need to be using waypoints to discover more and earn more from your discoveries. This is the main reason to use waypoints, and the more you chart, the better your standing as an explorer will be.

In Expedition Pioneers, one of the milestones was to chart 50 waypoints in your save file. Just in case a milestone likes this pops up again in future Expeditions, it’s well worth knowing how to chart these and do so quickly.