I appreciate it 
The thing is, I am helping out a lot on the NMS Discord (Atlas Emissary), and to be able to provide some of the usual expedition info, I am often the one rushing through it a first time (next to save editing and other tools). Some of that info is shared here as well.
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Jumping to my next rendezvous, I dropped into a space battle. The attackers knocked out my ship weapons, which could then only be repaired with sodium nitrate (I didnāt have any). Very tricky.
I didnāt know that could happen.
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This will take a while
I am a little confused, as usual, but really happy with the way this story is going. It ties some things together. Will pour over the story later. Have to take a break. Still have not finished the whole expedition because some of the milestones are still scrambled.
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Iām just at the end of phase 4/ did the first two parts of phase 5.
Switch blade hands was a bad choice Polo. What the hell?
edit
So Iām on phase 5, have the construct chilling by tethys and Iām collecting souls for Polo to complete this progression bar. I put about 38 souls in with artemis so far.
I decide to swing by the construct on the way out and realise I can show it the echo shell and then I get some new dialogue as well as the option to now attach the final peice you get at the start of phase 5. However it looks like you can attach it now or wait until later (I still haveto visit the last atlas terminal and get last seed).
Iām wondering if the story will have different outcomes or variances? I was afraid to connect it anyway in case I break progression so Iām going straight to Atlas Terminal now and Iāll report back.
More edit
Okay yeah I have a choice between the seed or the atlantid reactor.
One gift from the void one gift from the atlas.
If I knew what the atlasās new screams were maybe Iād know what they wanted me to doā¦ so Iām gonna go with atlantid reactor
*covers eyes with one hand and inserts fork in to mains with the other *
One more Edit
So the choices are tied to the optional tasks. You can only do one per expedition run so if you want to unlock both rewards you will need to do this expedition twice. Although the game notified me I had completed one of the optional tasks and also one of the last main tasks (all done now except the community task and the optional task I didnt choose) the last few are still scrambled and I cannot claim the rewards even though the game is telling me I have new ones to claim.
I switched over to my main save to collect the other expedition rewards and to my surprise, the reward for the optional task was at the QS vendor 
So PSA: You can claim your optional task reward from Nexus even though you cant from the expedition tab.
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From SM
ā¦communal goal that may shape the future of the universeā¦
Singularityās mysteries extend into several layers, and players who are especially interested in the narrative can delve below the surface to uncover further clues to what is on the horizon for No Manās Sky.
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Wait a second, is that the same thing as what happened to me? I arrived at a new system inside a freighter battle and usually I can win these.
But one pirate was constantly right behind me and I could neither avoid it nor properly aim at it nor get any distance. I did have sodium nitrate and used it up to recharge my shields but they were down again quickly after.
Sometimes I can get away at high speed, but this time I couldnāt even tell whether I was moving at all (in first person), though it showed 200 something u/s. The shield was offline and it said ācritical damage takenā a dozen times while slowly counting down armour symbols like lives.
After a minute or two when I āserpentinedā I saw that the space station was 15 sec away from meā¦ So, after minutes of fighting without shields, and flying away from the battle, I was still in front of the station, right where we usually arriveā¦? I simply flew into the stationā¦ One of the drives was damaged and needed one metal plate.
I blamed the B class starter ship I gotā¦ maybe it had a very bad turning radius and was much slower than any ship I had before? Or were the pirates faster than usual?
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I thought Iād have some neat time yesterday evening to start this thing, then I got clobbered by Feverā¦ 
Oh well, presumably Iāll get something done in 5 weeksā¦
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They certainly seem to be doing more damage. I have never known my ship weapons to be destroyed before.
And it was the first space battle of a new game - when you win, you get a free freighter - but if you ignore it, or mess it up, the chance doesnāt come again. If I want a freighter now, Iāll have to buy one.
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A very, very common occurence if you set both combat difficulty and equipment damage to max. Iāve had my guns shot to scrap in early game more times than I can countā¦ (And the shields, and the engines, and just about everything, reallyā¦)
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Ah well that may be it. I only ever play on normal difficulty.
Just like I donāt wear a blindfold before crossing the road.
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It all depends on what youāre crossing the road forā¦ 
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I just got into another space battle. I won this one (more careful this time).
I got a second chance at the free freighter. To the best of my knowledge, that didnāt used to happen. In the past, if you missed it, that was it - it was gone.
Anyway, Iām now a freighter owner, and desperately looking for sodium - thatās not a position I want to be in again.
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I found that out recently when I started a fresh save. Initially I just skipped the freighter but then was annoyed at myself for doing so because itās just easier having one. Anyway 5 or so warps later, another battle & another opportunity for a freeby.
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So long as you donāt accept that first one, you can keep trying until you get a freighter you like. Some people do this for hours on a new save to get an s class they like. I dunno when they started behaving this way but has been like this for a while now.
I donāt think I could stomach that process though, whatever space throws at me, Iāll take.
As for the space combat in the expedition, it does feel a little tougher than usual but the expedition rewards give you some good X upgrades for your ship.
Have you seen what the ground combat is like in comparison? They have that turned way down. Early on you get a Neutron Cannon attachment from the phase rewards. Kiling those giant corrupted spiders in two shots, killing sentinel quads in one shot. Ground combat is REALLY easy. (I play in my main with a neutron cannon that has ten times more power and it could not do this XD)
My take away last night was they wanted the ground combat to not be too bad for those who dont like combat since its required for the expedition to proceed.
I didnt actually notice the space combat as I had been avoiding it personally bar that first freighter battle but then the game gave me a phase reward for warp on my starship and my freighter became useless very quickly.
The game should not allow all your weapons to be destroyed, I seem to recall an update a while ago mentioning this should no longer happen. Its possible you still might have had your useless rocket launcher XD But damn is it scary when all your weapons bar one get destroyed. If all your weapons did get destroyed then sounds like its bugged again.
With regards to my last post about
the āchoiceā, and the game making it seem like you havent unlocked your optiona ltask reward (but it being available when you check nexus on other saves), heres how my guy looks with new head and cape
Sorry about the quality, playing in hdr on windows and then pressing the screenshot key can be ugly most of the time.
As for our new friend on Nada and Polos anomaly, Iāve taken to calling 'em Grant. Huge Grant.
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@toddumptious Your screenshots take on a hand-drawn sort of look by the time they get to my screen. Quite cool looking actually.
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Due to my heritage and yours I couldnāt help but picture my screenshots going over on coffin ships before making it to your screen. Thatās why theyāre illustrated, no tvs yet.
Written correspondence ruled the day
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A couple of thoughts
- since the collective is just now at 1%, maybe I should have waited to remove the echo from the terminal? Though I doubt it has any real affect on the outcome.
- since there is so much ARGness going on here, I wonder if our choice (which SM stated has consequences) is some kind of poll?
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The echo collective is just a portable status monitor, a bunch of Atlantideum attuned to the terminal so it will report back the current progress. It seems itās going to let us know when we reach 20% without having to fly back to the nexus.
Going off the patch notes, thereās only two options at the end and you can make those now while waiting for the soul convergence to happen. What Iāve gathered from flavour text is, the souls in Polos terminal are creating a new convergence and our new robot friend is separate from that but very excited at the prospect of meeting the new being also being made in Polos machine.
Because itās being made from the others who are lost, the ones he keeps crying for, think of him as a fractured soul we got talking but the other will be made whole from a collection of fractured souls by igniting a convergence in Polos machine.
I mentioned it in the arg speculation but I think a war is coming, crimson versus atlantid. Atlas v korvax prime, a rematch iterations in the making. I think the choice we make will depend on what side we go with. Or itās all just personalized flavour leading to unique endings and nothing more than that. Either way Iām all in
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Okay so apparently everything I mentioned in this post hidden behind spoilers was a bug and I should not have been able to do the bit that I did. Wuh oh.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the assembled Construct to offer its final choice too early in Phase 5 of the expedition, before the completion of the community goal in Sentience Echo. Note: until the community goal is completed, players who have already spoken to the Construct and made this choice early will be unable to redeem the rewards earned and their Ignition milestones will remain locked + encrypted.
I wonder if HG know that even though we cant claim the rewards from the expedition milestone menu, we can still claim them from the Nexus QS Store as if we had (the optional choice reward, not the actual expedition completion reward, thats still locked off bar for save editor folk)
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Still no update for PS5 unfortunately.
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