In Dataset D: a Fourth Race is mentioned. HG has given another bread crumb regarding v1.3?
INCOMING TRANSMISSION… SOURCE: UNKNOWN…
You are not – kzzktt – alone –
Please, identify yourself. I’m – kzzkttk –
. Race Fourth - ID mercury
Early in development sean meantioned there were 4 races. Some point over the years that changed to 3. I am excite!!! I hope they are lovecraftian in nature as the abandoned buildings/ new lore in 1.2 hinted at,
It says “you are not…alone”. People are taking this to mean that the individual sending the message is the same race as us.
However, the “you are not alone” statement has a break in it, which means there may be more to that sentence that could refute this if we knew what word or words are missing.
Also, they ask us to identify ourselves, which could mean the sender does not know who we are, and therefore do not know what race of being we are, so how could they know we are the same race?
Some took this to mean that Sentinels are the 4th race, since Sentinels have been refered to as “a race of self-replicating robots”. After all, the Korvax are basically robots and are considered to be a race, why not Sentinels? One caveat though, Korvax are sentient, while Sentinels seem to be mindless drones, so that could be the difference that removes Sentinels from the “race”, no pun intended.
Also, there are currently 4 languages in No Man’s Sky: Korvax, Vy’keen, Gek, and Atlas. Could Atlas be the 4th race? Or possibly a being connected to the Atlas? It is sometimes hinted that the Travellers were created by the Atlas, so maybe we are a part of it, and therefore, we are the fourth race.
One problem with that though is that you don’t start the game knowing the Atlas language. If we are the same “race” as the Atlas, shouldn’t we already speak its language?
The datasets were:
A: Korvax
B: Vy’Keen
C: Gek
D: Fourth Race
Whether “Fourth Race” is a new Race isn’t specified as of yet. I agree the meaning is unclear. The Fourth Race could be us, a new race or something else. Waking Titan seems to building an infrastructure for community collaboration that might give us the ability to have a type of community in No Man’s Sky.
I almost didn’t say this because the cry of HypeTrain is too loud these days.
The Forth are diplomats… They resemble some of the features from the popular alien archetype know as the “greys”. They fly on ships of decadent ornamentation and unprecedented organical shapes.
That much can be read from the entrails of a dove…
You have such a way with words, I love it. Sadly I’m all outta hearts 
How would they know we are not alone if they don’t know what race we are, unless the proclamation is a reversed sentiment in which they are saying this as affirmation that THEY are not alone? Things to think about.
Whether or not the fourth race is able to identify who WE are is not conditional to whether or not they are the same race as us. So you can’t overlook the fact. And if that’s where people tend to hedge their bets, they’ll either themselves have affirmation, or pleasantly surprised. Regardless, the most exciting thing is that we have another race to look (literally) forward to!
In the saved game files, there is an entry for “Known Words”. It is a 7 element structure for each learned word. Entries 1, 2, and 3 are set when the player learns a Gek, Korvax, or VyKeen word. Entry 5 is set when the player learns an Atlas word. Entries 6 and 7 are never set (so far). This suggests to me that entry 4 was reserved for the “fourth race” and this fourth race is not the same as the Atlas.
If the Fourth Race is humanity, we may finally know why the Atlas compels us to upload data on everything we find. It may just be that we are unwitting scouts (or dare I say, “pathfinders”); helping the Atlas to understand if this simulated universe is ripe for human colonization and transmitting intel to the approaching invaders.
Regardless, I’m loving all this speculation!
here is an interesting link Atlas™ | Boston Dynamics
If the theory in this thread is anything to go by, it could be the sentinels/atlas as a presence in the universe, and that we’re looking into the past.
I think the Citizen Scientists may be the “mind” of the fourth race. I think Hello Games hope to use the creativity and collective decision making capacity of the various groups to generate dynamic game lore.
Otherwise, why recruit such a large group of creative volunteers?
Hello Games may simply be trying to stir up gamer interest in their Simulation. Involving gamer cooperation in the Sim would require some mechanism for that. And right now, all we can do is leave VERY short messages to each other. People hoping for more MMO-ish aspects might be caught up in wishful thinking, so I’d stay away from that until HG makes some solid hints in that direction. I’d love to be able to share resources and Units with family and friends, but we can’t even do that. So as of now, all cooperation is on forums and Discords, which is fine with me. I hope that ANY multiplayer aspect of NMS in the future is entirely optional. I have no desire to see my base ransacked by punk kids, or attacked while I’m trying to further my goals.
Woops, forgot my reason for hopping back into the thread.
As I posted in the “Villain” thread, indications are that the “Forth” are diplomats and explorers, maybe another adherent to the Atlas Path. The tall blade-like ship that was leaked looks quite gaudy and aristocratic. And a race of diplomats makes perfect sense in this situation, given the Euclid galaxy’s tortured history. With the genocidal rampage of the First Spawn across the galaxy, wiping out whole civilizations, and the lengthy war of the Vy’keen against the Sentinels, I could easily see a collection of the other races in Euclid banding together and electing a race of philosophers and diplomats to shepherd some sort of galactic detente to insure that every culture has a chance of survival. And when do diplomats earn their paychecks? In times of conflict.
I’m hoping the form they take aren’t either bugs or “grays” with thin, gangly bodies, big egg-shaped heads and large black almonds for eyes. Reptiles either, we have the Gek to cover that base. I was hoping that the Forth would be some kind of dignified race rather like Egyptians. Furry forms popped into my head, and I could see them as feloid beings, or people like anthropomorphic otters or even meerkats, perhaps raccoons as they are fendishly clever.
Those looking for bad guys, we already have those. The First Spawn could resurrect themselves and become a threat to all races again. The Vy’keen could declare war on the Gek and this would require us to choose a side. As I said before, the pirates could band together into a Private Military Company-like enclave.
They can’t be otters. South Park will be the only thing anyone thinks about.
Yeah I agree with youre theroy. Hopefully they add a bit more “life” on planets and stations too. Maybe some wandering npc or larger stations… maybe even Cities 
I too hope that the fourth Race is something unique. When we look at the lore from NMS we know that there are only 3 Races because the Gek Firstborn conquered the Galaxy and the Sentinels (Aerons) killed every of then leaving the 3 known Races: Gek, Korvax and Vy’keen. So the “fourth” Race has to be a lot older than the great War… Meaning they could hide for the Firstborn and the Aerons!!!
Or another theory: It could be a “new” Race build like the Aerons by Atlas? 
I’ve been meaning to post my wishes in the wishlist thread, because it would be great if HG included some of those aspects in the Sim. Sean didn’t want cities to be in the game because he thought it would make it too “Star Wars” or something. But I want civilized planets in the galaxy, like hub clusters for the Three (plus 1) Races, and this means cities. They could be unvisitable, but having a little “mall” style spaceport with NPCs populating it, or other players too, would be great and add a lot of life to the game. In particular, I want the races to have a homeworld.
Another thing I’d thought of is to have a legendary Traveller or so in the game, like the one mentioned in the abandoned building Lore. Their name has been wiped out in history, likely so it could be the archetype for all of us. But to have a charachter on the hunt for Lore, like Red Ring Rico from Phantasy Star Online, would be a nice addition.
I do hope we’ll get them at some point in time, especially given that Sean Murray doesn’t actually like the NPCs in their current state very much (I don’t know how they convinced him to include them in the first place, given his attitude towards NPCs, but I’m glad they did).
I do doubt however that it will be this time. That stuff be expensive!