Custom game progress does not count towards your main save file or achievements in No Man’s Sky.
Ever wondered if those custom game settings in No Man’s Sky actually affect your overall progress? It’s a question many players ponder. Specifically, does custom game count toward anything in nms? The freedom to tweak the experience is fantastic, but the implications are important.
Players often want to experiment with difficulty and resource settings in a safe space. So, if you’re making a creative base in a custom game, don’t expect it to carry over to your main adventure. It’s a separate experience altogether.
Does Custom Game Count Toward Anything in NMS?
So, you’re a No Man’s Sky explorer who loves to tinker, huh? You’ve probably messed around with the custom game settings, maybe cranking up the difficulty or making resources super rare. That’s awesome! But a big question often pops up: does all that fun in custom game mode actually count for anything in the bigger picture of your No Man’s Sky adventure? Let’s dive deep and figure it out. We’re talking about things like unlocking milestones, getting achievements, progressing in expeditions, and whether your custom shenanigans affect the overall universe.
Understanding Custom Game Mode
First, let’s clarify what we mean by custom game mode. In No Man’s Sky, custom games let you adjust a wide variety of game parameters. You can tweak anything from resource scarcity and enemy aggressiveness to how often you encounter anomalies. This means you get to mold the game experience to your preference, creating anything from a chill exploration session to a brutal survival challenge. Think of it like being the game master, with ultimate control over your experience. Here’s a peek at some things you can alter:
- Difficulty: Make those Sentinels extra tough or turn them into gentle space puppies.
- Resource Availability: Find rare items everywhere, or make them a genuine scavenger hunt.
- Survival Elements: Do you want to struggle against extreme weather conditions, or stroll through paradise?
- Creative Elements: Play with building restrictions and free crafting for designing impressive bases.
Custom game mode gives players freedom, but the way it interacts with the game’s progression systems makes it different from a regular, ‘normal’ playthrough. Let’s explore that.
Milestones and Achievements in Custom Mode
Now, the real question: do your actions in custom mode get you closer to those sweet milestones and achievements? The short answer, and it’s important to remember this, is: mostly no. Here’s the breakdown:
Milestones
Milestones in No Man’s Sky track your progress in different areas, like exploration, combat, and crafting. They’re like your personal report card, showing how far you’ve come. However, when you are in custom game mode, progress towards these milestones gets limited. Why? Because some of the settings changes you make may drastically change how easy or how difficult it is to reach these milestones. For example, if you set resource availability to abundant, the crafting related milestones will be easier to reach, thus the game may not give them to you.
For example, if you have a custom game where combat is set to be extremely easy, defeating sentinels or other enemies will not count towards your milestones for combat in that profile. However, the game may sometimes let you collect some, but this is on a very rare situation and not consistent. The game considers a number of factors before giving milestones in custom mode, such as:
- The game makes sure to give progress on milestones for things that you achieve, whether you get any kind of benefit from altering that settings or not.
- If the setting you alter drastically increase or decrease the requirement to reach that milestone, the game may not give the milestone.
Achievements
Achievements work pretty similarly. They’re like the trophies you get for hitting big goals. Think of it as a pat on the back for something special you did. And just like milestones, achievements are mostly off-limits in custom game mode. The same reasoning applies, since modifying the game settings will drastically change the difficulty of the game, therefore, the game doesn’t give achievements.
So, if your goal is to get all the shiny achievements, you’ll need to stick to the standard game modes— Normal, Survival, or Permadeath. Those are the places where your hard work is recognized with those coveted achievement badges. While you could explore, craft, build, and defeat enemies in custom mode, most actions do not register for achievements. So, you would not get the achievement even after reaching the desired requirements in a custom game mode.
Expeditions and Custom Games: A No-Go
Expeditions are limited-time events in No Man’s Sky where everyone starts with the same gear and faces challenges. They are like big community-wide quests where you can earn exclusive rewards. This is where custom games fall short. You cannot participate in expeditions using a custom save file. Expeditions require you to start with a fresh, unaltered game. If you try to start an expedition with your custom save, it will make you start a fresh expedition save file, and you will lose the ability to work on the custom profile you created. Think of it as the expedition only allows participants who have not altered the standard rules of the game.
This means, if you love expeditions, you must always play a new standard save, and you need to leave your custom save behind. This is the main reason why some players start with a normal save and then progress to a custom save after they are done with the expeditions for the season. This makes sure you don’t miss on any rewards, and also get to play the game how you want to play, in your own custom game.
What Does Count in Custom Game Mode?
Okay, so custom game mode doesn’t rack up milestones or achievements. Does that mean it’s pointless? Absolutely not! Custom game mode is a playground, a creative space where you can mess around without worrying about consequences. You can experiment, build massive bases without resource limitations, test new ship builds, and generally just have a blast with the game. This is where custom game mode is at its strongest. It allows players to focus on specific aspects of the game, without worrying about any in-game progress. Here are some great things you can do:
Creative Building
Want to design a massive, intricate base? Custom mode lets you do it without grinding for resources or worrying about base complexity limits. This mode allows players to bring out their inner architect. You can build creative bases using this mode. You can practice building a specific design in this mode, and then go to standard mode to do the same thing, while grinding for resources.
Exploration Without Limits
Set your survival settings to super easy, and just wander through the universe without worrying about getting eaten by a sandworm or freezing to death. This is perfect for people that just want to enjoy the vistas and scenery that the game has to offer. You can enjoy the game by exploring the planets and stars, without worrying about surviving.
Gameplay Experiments
Use custom settings to see how different mechanics work. You can quickly test out ship builds without investing a lot of time. You can also try different weapon combinations and combat settings. This can also let you learn a lot about the game mechanics that can help you in a standard save.
Relaxing Play
Sometimes, you just want to chill. Custom mode lets you customize the game for a super relaxing experience. You can set the game to easy mode and just explore and relax, while not having to worry about survival.
The Impact on Your Save File
One thing to keep in mind is that custom game mode creates a separate save file. This means, your custom progress doesn’t mingle with your standard progress. You will have both save files. This is great, because you don’t have to worry about messing your progress in a standard save, by experimenting in custom mode.
Here’s a quick look at how the save files work:
- Separate Files: Custom game progress gets stored in a different save file than your normal games.
- No Impact on Main Game: What happens in custom game mode stays in custom game mode. It doesn’t impact your normal game progress.
- Experiment freely: Feel free to go wild, without worrying about ruining your main progress.
Specific Settings and their Effects
Let’s look at some specific custom settings and see how they influence what does or doesn’t count towards in-game progression.
Difficulty Settings
Altering difficulty settings like enemy aggression, damage taken, or environmental hazards does not change the fact that combat or exploration milestones will not count. If you make the game too easy, the game will mostly not register any progress towards combat, survival, or exploration milestones. This is to maintain a balance between how easy it is to reach a milestone. If you make the game too hard, the game may sometimes recognize those, but mostly will not count them either. The main reason for this is because the game makes sure to give these milestones, without any unfair advantages.
Resource Settings
If you set resources to be very abundant, crafting milestones and base-building milestones will be affected. Since you can gather resources quickly, the game will not give you milestones for crafting certain items. However, the resources and materials you gather in custom mode will be useful only for the custom game you have. You cannot transfer them to your standard saves.
Survival Settings
Adjusting survival settings can affect your exploration and survival milestones. Turning off extreme weather and hazards completely will mean that any survival related milestone will not progress. This happens because the game will not find any reasons to give those milestones. However, there are some exploration milestones, for finding specific buildings, planets or other aspects that might still count, since those don’t have a direct relation to these settings. As long as the requirement to get the milestone is not influenced by survival settings, they might count.
Creative Settings
Creative settings related to building are mostly for custom mode alone, allowing you to build bases without resource restrictions and build massive bases. Any progress you make in these do not affect any other standard game save.
The Joy of Customization
While it may be a bummer that your milestones and achievements don’t carry over, custom mode gives you total control of the game. It’s a space to do anything you want. This makes custom mode different from other modes, with an individual charm and uniqueness. It is the perfect place to play around in the game, without having to worry about any consequences in other parts of the game.
A Quick Summary
Let’s wrap it up quickly:
- Custom game mode is all about freedom.
- It generally does not progress milestones or achievements.
- You cannot play expeditions in a custom save.
- It is the perfect place for creative building, chill exploration, and experimenting.
- Custom progress is stored in separate save files.
So, while your custom adventures might not boost your official game stats, they provide a unique way to experience No Man’s Sky. It’s all about finding fun your way! Use custom mode for what it’s great for: exploration, creating, testing, and relaxing.
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Final Thoughts
Custom game progress does not carry over to your main save in No Man’s Sky. You can experiment and enjoy different settings without affecting your core game. This means your main save remains untouched by any actions in custom modes.
Therefore, does custome game count toward anything in nms? The answer is definitively no. Custom game settings offer a separate space for gameplay and fun.



