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The subject of this article is from the Fractal update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 4 April, 2023.
Hyperdrive
Hyperdrive
FTL propulsion drive for warp speed
Category Starship
Type Lightspeed Warp Drive
Recharged with Warp Cell, Warp Hypercore
Updated Fractal
Disambig This article is about the current version of Hyperdrive. For the Atlas Rises version, see Hyperdrive (Atlas).

The Hyperdrive is a starship propulsion method.

Summary[ | ]

The Hyperdrive is the starship's faster-than-light propulsion drive to aid players travel across galaxies. It is also known as a warp drive. By default, each warp between star systems consumes one Warp Cell which is the equivalent of 20% of the Hyperdrive's fuel supply. A hyperdrive can be pre-charged with up to 5 warp cells. It can also be fuelled with a Warp Hypercore.

The base range of a hyperdrive is 101 light-years (LY) and the player can only warp to yellow coloured systems. Installing proper hyperdrive upgrades, bought from Technology Merchant, in the ship will boost the range and create synergy. That doesn't mean it is advised to install the new hyperdrives in the technology slots. The technology slots are best used to activate a secondary synergy chain to specialize once your former module count reached its limit of 3 upgrades in the general cargo slots. If a player makes a mistake, they can now transfer the technology to the general inventory and back again.

The Cadmium Drive, Emeril Drive and Indium Drive upgrades do not count to the upgrade limit and can fill up general slots easily. Initially these drives didn't activate a synergy bonus, but later this ability was re-implemented. However they do not have abilities that can be boosted, so they should be build near actual modules to offer the synergy to them.

Game description[ | ]

FTL propulsion drive that allows starship to attain warp speed and jump between neighbouring systems.

User is advised to access Hyperdrive systems through Galactic Map.

Sources[ | ]

Once you’ve mastered the basics of Base building, you’ll receive an emergency broadcast coming from the nearby Space station. If you haven’t explored it already, you’ll find that Space Stations are home to various life-forms that can give you items, directions, and more (if you can get the general idea of what they are saying). You'll also find a trade hub to buy and sell items, and kiosks to buy blueprints and modifications using Nanites.

Ask the various life forms questions until you find one that has a mysterious message to you; it will send you back to your base planet with the location of a Distress Signal.

Heading back down to the planet, you’ll come across a huge Crashed Freighter, with debris everywhere. Look around for a pod with the transmission that was broadcasting. Request the logs to find a Hyperdrive blueprint.

Crafting[ | ]

Hyperdrive can be built using a blueprint and the following ingredients:

Hyperdrive can be repaired using the following ingredients:

Hyperdrive cannot be dismantled.

Synergy[ | ]

The synergy bonus is 5% per bordering module.

Initially in NEXT the three special drives didn't activate a synergy bonus anymore. With Update 1.63, this ability was reimplemented. However they do not have abilities that can be boosted, so they should be build near actual modules to offer the synergy to them. Their best position is around the main module cluster for their best effect. The same goes for the normal hyperdrive as it doesn't have its own bonus to boost either.

The best synergy blueprint (14 module boosts) is done this way (H=hyperdrive, M=upgrade module, S=special drive):

General:7

  • H-M
  • M-M-S

Technology 7:

  • S-M-S
  • M-M

For those with less tech slots to waste, this works too (14 module boosts):

General 8:

  • H-M-S
  • M-M-S

Technology 6:

  • S-M
  • M-M

Anomalies[ | ]

The Emergency Warp Unit was added later and shows one anomaly, it offers a 6% boost instead of 5%. This will add an additional 2-3ly for top notch modules PER link and it should thus be treated as a central booster, replacing any central inactive booster with 2 links (or more) to another active module, offering up to 5-7.5ly extra.

Further hidden bonuses were added for direct attachments of the colour-drive technologies to the hyperdrive. Each DIRECT link between the colour drives and the base hyperdrive adds 5ly to the ultimate range. This makes any other link than S-H-S below grade B weaker at all times. Later modules reach up to 12.5 per 5% synergy and easily beat those colour drive bonuses. As thus S-Ranks should prefer to attach to them first and the hyperdrive second.

A last balance change was done with direct links between upgrade modules. These now give their 5% synergy to each other AND an additional 5ly similar to the colour-drive and hyperdrive bonus. As such a 12.5 boost between two top notch modules does not give 25, but 30ly. This means links between upgrade modules and links between hyperdrive/colour drive are to be preferred if possible. Once S-Class modules are used their boost is so powerful, this choice becomes less relevant.

Considering all these bonuses, the best configuration for A/S-Class is:

H = Hyperdrive, C = Colour-Drive, B = Best Modules, M = Secondary Modules, E = Emergency Warp Unit

H-C
B-B
M-E

+

M-B-C
C-M

These two combinations collect 4 M-Bonuses, 1 Hyperdrive-Bonus, 2-Emergency Synergies for a total 25ly extra and 2% more synergy.

Note: Lower class upgrades might be able to validate other setups due to flat 5ly bonuses!

Upgrades[ | ]

Additional information[ | ]

  • The pre-order starships Alpha Vector and Horizon Omega came equipped with the Hyperdrive to give pre-ordered players a head start whereas the starting ships needed to craft it. Nowadays, this is standard.
  • A fully charged Hyperdrive allows the player to travel through the centre of the galaxy to another one. The jump can only be made from a gateway system.
  • Hyperdrive is one of the only technologies that can be crafted but not dismantled.
  • The Blueprint can be acquired from Iteration: Hyperion for 1 nanite.
  • Typically in science fiction, a "hyperdrive" and "warp drive" are two separate concepts (a hyperdrive uses alternate dimensions to go FTL and a warp drive bends spacetime to go FTL). However, No Man's Sky uses the terms interchangeably.

Release history[ | ]

  • Release - Introduced to the game.
  • NEXT - Hyperdrive technology reworked, with limited range (100 LY) and limited travel (only yellow coloured systems). Blueprint changed, formerly used Dynamic Resonator and Heridium. Cadmium Drive, Emeril Drive, Indium Drive and procedurally generated Hyperdrive Upgrades added, while Warp Reactor Sigma/Tau/Theta upgrades removed. Hidden changes: Removed the synergy and light-year boost of the special drives used to visit new star types.
  • NEXT 1.63 - Hidden changes: Synergy for special drives re-added.
  • Synthesis - Added Emergency Warp Unit as an upgrade, changed base range to 101 LY.

Gallery[ | ]

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