Is it like a swarm?
Honestly that was one of the thoughts I had about this expedition and the 10 year anniversary and Project Skyscraper.
Metaphorically, the Atlas (Hello Games) has been attacked by their creation (the development and updates to the game have taken so much of their life) and building the towers in Project Skyscraper represents the end of development.
Very underwhelming ending
Psssst, fellow Sages, don’t tell anyone, but we can still do missions. If the other groups stop, we might catch up with them? 
Psst I’m not stopping, having too much fun : )
Also got four pages of secondary missions to tidy up. I have to beat @sheralmyst 's huge haul of expedition nanites. : D
Hint: pop that gooey stuff in your refiner
I’d forgotten about the Gooey icky stuff - Ichor!! I have a few stacks lol. Can you recall @sheralmyst the ratio of nanites though? Is it like tainted metal?
A few thoughts on the impact of The Swarmer expedition on character progression sprang to mind and I drifted into thought while enjoying a coffee and being pestered by a cat to feed them lol:
I started two expeditions. One from a brand new start and one joining from my main save. I’ve been amazed how far the new start has progressed. So much so I was curious how much could I progress by the time the expedition completes (not ends). I hadn’t tried that in a long while as I always use my main save. So far though I have unlocked the entire suit tech and inventory, which is why I visited so many stations to collect missions and slots. All the Anomaly vendor tech purchased with nanites and all the exocar and useful Anomaly salvageable items. Just missing more decorative items. Never ever done that in an expedition before. Also nearly unlocked all the creature slots with the nanites from scanning complete planets. Not done that before. I used to struggle with unlocking 6 lol.
One good thing about this expedition is character progression. Not in the story of course but for preparing them to make quicker progress in the game and have fun, when the main story begins. Interesting really, as it might be an attempt to replace how the game start of 2016 began and has not changed all that much in those years. As the game has developed there is a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff to collect and expand which may seem slow to acquire for new players. That leaves a new character with a bit more freedom to concentrate fun gameplay on acquiring the huge number of quicksilver items.
I’ve always thought expeditions kind of change that dynamic for the better as the game is much broader today in scope. Than the ‘simple’ start of ten years ago. A No Man’s Sky two, would ideally kind of need a fresh look at how a player begins in the much bigger, modern game that it is now, but keeping the vibe of the original release. Expeditions like short sci-fi novels or comics are ideal to start a player journey and tutorial in different ways.
I also have managed to unlock access to the high ranked secondary missions and almost all ranks with the Merchant Guild. I think they were the only Guilds I seemed to meet at every space station? The expedition seemed to award all the high value goods I needed via free guild stuff, without crafting things and the repeating swarmer missions also suspiciously, intentionally dropped the high value ingredient items too. That helped me craft the stasis devices etc. A new player may not realise what useful things they had found though. The expedition has been a good test of how a player without any knowledge of the game might play through the game. Does it drive them nuts, overwhelm them or capture their hearts and minds? : D
Other ranks for other factions simply unlocked by mass completion of secondary missions. If those repeating missions hadn’t been so long I probably wouldn’t have visited so many stations as I have a habit of being compelled to find every creature on a planet before I move on lol. Every station became a habit of land, click, click, click and leave. I do enjoy the exploration in the game more the discovery of ‘what’s around the next hill’. Well I love it all really : D It’s just fun being the heroic warrior and also the botanist collecting creature samples or cataloguing the weight of fish or the heroic PvP botanist exocar champ! Life is a game in a game lol. Knowing the game well of course it was perhaps easy to double up and complete secondary missions efficiently. I would worry about new players not being encouraged, (because of one type of game play approach), to enjoy being in the moment of a secondary mission ie relishing the description and the challenge. Secondary missions are another topic.
With the huge number of crafted units, valuable mission ingredient drops and so on I was buying multi-tools from the Anomaly and anywhere else cheaply and trashing them selling them for nanites and getting the odd expansion thingy. Instead of finding inventory slots they were bought with units from crashed ships and selling those high value items. Not usually the way I play buying and selling stuff for progress. The swarm expedition is for a very different kind of player approach like the PvP player, probably not willing to invest much deep time in the game but still enjoys meandering about the game universe looking for fun things to do. And why not. Expeditions should explore all the different aspects of game play and they do. Something for all and something not.
I’m happy expeditions try wild almost experimental things. They must be fun to work on too and explore what is possible. That’s what’s so good about No Man’s Sky and the talent that works behind the game. From music to art to animation and of course the programming. They are not afraid to try and they shouldn’t be. Like all great art is a talking point or should be, why should main stream computer games be any different. Hello Games have worked so hard to be able to have that independent creative freedom and uniquely be able explore what is possible in a sci-fi game of their own. I think this is why I enjoyed The Swarm a great deal because like some previous expeditions it tries new things and adds fascinating possibilities and directions into the game that may be used in the near future or later connecting other parts of the universe puzzle, which we all fit into in our own unique ways. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
I paid no attention to ratio. I even stopped gathering the stuff because I enjoyed chunking the parts so much. It was a shame to destroy the bits for some goo
I did too. Once I got the into the routine and way to use the coil gun, pulling out the parts was really fun. Swishing them into a pile beside me. I kept thinking Edward Scissiors hands for some reason lol.
Haha I built the colossus and had fun crashing through all the trees and rocks and stuff, for needed resources (and doing the Restore mission searches - easier than walking) and just parked it near by to the downed swarmer to confuse noobies (but not really), as I chucked in the the swarmer parts. The gravity coil thing is a fun tool indeed! The colossus also gave me cover from some of the sentinels. I couldn’t fit them in the colossus but tried. Whether I encouraged noobies to go build colossus I don’t know but they would be well on their way with recycling trash milestones now, on those repeating swarmer missions. : ) Another good thing about the expedition. 
What they should do of course is take the parts to the coloured recycle posts. I didn’t do that. Been there done that on ‘some other’ expedition…
It’s the same as Runaway Mould, 5:1.
Yeah. Gripes me too. I even had a player angrily state that this was not just Hello Games’ game; it belongs to the community. Hello Games should be adopting what the community wants.
I’ve always viewed that as Hello Games’ game, not mine. I can suggest things I’d like but never get incensed that they didn’t add things that people said it “needed.” Wants are personal in nature and never needs.
I’ll play whatever changes Hello Games publishes. Well, when my replacement PC is finally set up. Upcoming home asbestos remediation work will delay it being active. Sigh.
If all ATLAS cores pulse than what happened to my new save? ATLAS did not have any purple plasma pulsing for my playthrough of SWARM like it did for many others. I have found one other who did not have any purple plasma seen here Xaine’s World.
I just finished the expedition again moments ago using an existing save that has purple systems and atlas path completed… i saw the purple plasma
At first i was worried i had missed something. There is a difference tho
New save = No purple plasma surrounding ATLAS
Existing save with Unknown/Artemis/Atlas missions completed = purple plasma effects on final encounter?
I have not done any sound analysis into secret sounds if there are any like there are at Korvax systems with atlantid tools.
Maybe I did not see the purple plasma in mine…maybe not enough damage? I really don’t know but it seems to vary for some people.
It is cool though, like some of the world of glass is infused into the system?
I just finished the expedition and I didnt have any plasma stuff on the atlas interface either. Just a big red ball for me.
If it helps, I didnt receive any additional dialog or anything out of the ordinary.
I wonder what the dialog was hinting at?
I did NOT see any purple plasma effects again after completing another playthrough yesterday while using another existing PlayStation 5 save. I don’t know what i did to change things. It could be a visual glitch, or this could be the result of some choice we make in the dialog? i didn’t record my entire playthrough so i cant really do a step by step comparison on what all the differences were.
Here are a couple clips to show the difference. Both saves have remembrance and star seed in exosuit before starting swarm, and both can see purple systems.
I did not see the purple plasma. third playthrough using a a cross save from PS4 to PS5 started sometime in 2017
Multiplayer off
I did see the plasma for my second playthrough of Swarm using an existing save started with the Voyagers update
Multiplayer off
Using a new save makes no difference ? Others have seen the purple plasma when using a new save.
I have yet to do a second new save playthrough as i want to bring a prismatic core back for another 2 existing saves i have going before i run outta time.
Am i seeing some visual glitch or could this be the result of a choice we make during swarm that changes what the Atlas looks like?
Did you make the same choice for Artemis in each of these saves? That’s the only other thing I can think of, but not sure if it can be related at all.
I did see the purple plamsa on my run that was a new save (so no possibility to do that quest yet) and on two runs from within recent but weel-advanced saves where I had uploaded Artemis , but the two saves I did not see that plasma were:
First from within a save which was only part way through the quest, so that decision had not yet been made - but this was in Steamdeck so could simply have been graphics/eyes limitations
Second on a run I did from a very old save where I chose not to upload Atremis.
some kind of visual glitch is possible
Yes i did. I was thinking the same thing, and my next move (last week) was to use the only save where i let Artemis perish. But before i did that, i browsed livestreams of players who were using new saves that saw both versions. just in case, I’ll use the save where i let artemis perish next as i want that prismatic core. i dont think it will bee the difference tho
This has me thinking it’s something we do in the Swarm. Xaine’s World didn’t see the plasma using a new save on day 1 of counter measures going live, and then did end up seeing it while using a new save again later in week. Jason Plays saw the purple plasma too doin some new save speed runs and i’d have to double check if he had an encounter where purple plasma was not there.
I first saw the purple plasma while watching Captain Steve live stream during the moment countermeasures went live, and immediately thought wtf, why did i not see it then? was i too fast or missed and did something different? I did flick multiplayer on and off while waiting and dancing in anomaly for the first new save playthrough of swarm and thought that was a reason, until i did a second and then a third playthrough with multiplayer off the entire time.
I do not know why this is, if this is intended or not, and if there are any secrets to uncover 
Well, I finally took the time to allocate myself an hour on NMS & finished the Swarm expedition.
Wasn’t the most climactic finish but I did enjoy the process although dropping off for a few weeks to wait sort of dampened the fun.
I’m not loving the fact I will forever have flags I can’t access from the Quicksilver guy. Not a fan of segregation. Maybe after the expedition they’ll let us have all the flags 
What time does the Expedition end? I think it’s 22nd July but not sure of the UTC time. I’ve also some loose ends to tidy up. I’ve not seen my corvettes for soooo long. It’ll be like a new game. : )
