How to Name Planets and Animals in 'No Man's Sky'
Grab a thesaurus.
Easily one of the most exciting things in No Man’s Sky is naming planets and fauna when you discover them. With over 18 quintillion planets, the game is a near endless frontier for discovery, allowing players to leave some kind of legacy in a virtual world. But there’s a small process before you can start naming every mutant duck after your idiot cousin. Here’s how you can name planets and animals you discover in No Man’s Sky.
Fix Your Analysis Visor
In order to register previously undiscovered fauna in No Man’s Sky, you have to analyze them for a few seconds through your Analysis Visor. On the downside, your visor is broken from the start. On the upside, it’s one of the easiest things to fix.
To fix your visor, you’ll have to mine just 25 iron collected from rocks scattered throughout the planet. Iron is extremely common on most planets, so you should have no problem collecting some as soon as you start the game.
After you’ve mined enough iron, go to the Inventories page and go to the Multi-Tool tab. You can then repair the Analysis Visor to tag and name animals.
How to Use the Analysis Visor
When you stumble upon an animal, press L2 (on the PlayStation controller) and target it for a few seconds. (Use R3 to zoom.) Once it’s analyzed, that creature’s species or type of plant is registered with the No Man’s Sky database.
From there, you may begin naming whatever you find. Remember: Once it’s named, it’s named that forever, so think twice about naming a gross lizard with eight eyes after your ex.
How to Actually Name Things
From the game’s pause menu (where the game actually pauses, unlike the Inventories screen), go to the Discoveries tab (it should be on that immediately). You’ll find everything you discovered, helpfully broken down by star systems and individual planets. This screen is a playground for naming anything and everything you stumble upon.
Simply select whatever it is — a waypoint, an animal or vegetation, a planet, or even a whole star system — and press the triangle button on the PlayStation controller. From there, you’re allowed to input a name (and no, curse words are not allowed). Don’t mess it up: Whatever you name it is its permanent name in all of No Man’s Sky forever.
At last, Rick James is immortalized in the stars.
Naming things is exciting, but also a prime opportunity for some weirdness. With 18 quintillion planets, feel free to be a little dumb and have fun. Located in the InverseDotCom star system, you may find Alaska 2. When and if you do, let me know.
