No Man’s Sky’s Sentinel update overhauls combat and adds more deadly robots

One of gaming’s greatest comeback stories continues to soldier on. Over the course of its six-year run, No Man’s Sky has radically evolved beyond its galactic, but basic, survival game roots. However, there are still improvements being made to the game. No Man’s Sky‘s next bit of free content is here with the Sentinel update — available now. The update overhauls the game’s combat, while making Sentinels an even bigger threat than before.

Combat has never been a strong suit for No Man’s Sky. With the update, Hello Games has at last put some more work into No Man’s Sky‘s various weapons and tools. Combat against the game’s Sentinels will now be a “faster-paced, more varied and dynamic experience.”

Combat gets a rework

This update covers a lot of ground beyond just the combat, but the highlights are certainly worth talking about. The general feel of using weapons has improved, along with the inclusion of brand new offensive and defensive armaments. The Neuron Cannon, for example, is a “rapid-fire projectile launcher” that looks to be pretty beefy. The Paralysis Mortar can be used to temporarily stun enemies for a short period of time. Other weapons in the game have had their damage values altered, along with other miscellaneous changes that could make them more fun to use. There’s also a range of new combat upgrades that can be applied to various weapons.

Weapons and items have received a visual overhaul, too. Laser beams, projectiles, muzzle flashes, and trails have all been reworked. There are loads of minor changes besides this, so a dive into the patch notes would be worth it.

Sentinels are more dangerous than ever

As you’d expect from the title of the update, Sentinels have received a major rework. They’ve now got new utilities like mobile shields, grenades, and flamethrowers. Plus, they can summon three different kinds of Drones. Heavy Combat Drones pack lots of firepower, Repair Drones can fix up Sentinels, and Summoner Drones can call in reinforcements. There’s also the new Hardframe Mech that comes equipped with a jetpack.

Players can even the odds against Sentinels with the Minotaur AI Autopilot. It takes control of a Minotaur, which travels beside you as you explore planets and aids you in combat when needed. Players can also create friendly Sentinel Drones, effectively giving you the opportunity to amass your own small AI-controlled army.

Technical Improvements for PC players

The Sentinel update also brings a few technical improvements to the game that should make PC players happy. For starters, AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution is now fully supported, allowing players to squeeze more performance from the game. Support was also added for Nvidia’s DLAA, which can further improve the image quality on RTX cards. DLSS has been updated to version 2.3.0, so performance should be a little better when using that feature now.

No Man’s Sky‘s Sentinel update is a beefy one indeed, and there are a lot more changes to be found. So be sure to look over the full list of patch notes to see what’s been added to the game.