I see questions about traveling to galaxies fairly often, and have a standard, lengthy response I post. Thought I’d collect that info into one place to point people to. I’ll add tips and FAQ as people based on further comments/questions I see.
This post contains some spoilers about the Artemis Path mission, as well as certain aspects of galaxy travel.
Introduction
There are a few ways to initially travel to new galaxies beyond the starter galaxy of Euclid. These include:
Complete the Artemis Path storyline, where the option of traveling to a new galaxy is presented at the end.
Finding another player’s base listed in the Anomaly’s Teleporter Room that’s in a different galaxy
Hitchhiking with another player who can already travel to another galaxy.
Traveling to the center of the current galaxy, then selecting the core to jump to.
Option one can only be done once. Options 2 and 3 pretty much depend on luck or knowing another player willing to help. Options 2 and 3 also become less likely as the target galaxy becomes more remote (further down the list of galaxies: https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Galaxy )
This guide focuses on option 4, jumping from galaxy cores – forging your own way in the universe – without having to travel the full length of each galaxy. Perhaps you want to get to a Lush galaxy less populous than Eissentam, or just discover/conquer as many as you can.
Jumping from a Galaxy Core
To travel to the next galaxy, you need to be in an “edge system”.
While flying in space, when you bring up the Galactic Map and have Galactic Core selected as your destination, an edge system will not have a path to another system displayed, only a line to the center. On console, press your left stick until the core is selected, then press A to jump. This takes a couple of seconds longer than just selecting a regular system.
Sometimes an edge system won’t let you select the core. In this case, there are a couple of things you can do:
Make sure your ship’s hyperdrive is 100% charged
Use Free Explore on the Galactic Map and see if you can select the core that way
Use a black hole. You’ll stay close to the center, and can quickly jump to another edge system.
Getting Out of Euclid
The starter galaxy is the most difficult to get out of. It’s a few hundred thousand light years to the core from where you start to the game, which is a lot of time spent jumping system to system.
There is, however, a shortcut to the center of any galaxy.
Find a portal (https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Portal#Locating_a_Portal) and activate it.
Input the first symbol (looks like a sunset or jellyfish) all 12 times.
Step through the portal.
You’ll appear on a planet either at or very near the core, not more than a couple jumps away
Since the Origins update, portal travel no longer prevents you from leaving the system, so you can easily jump to an edge system now and travel to the next galaxy.
Core-to-Core Jumping
Finding portals can take time and resources. There is a way to make sure you end up already near the core of the next galaxy, eliminating the need to find a portal each time.
While in an edge system, summon the Anomaly and talk to Polo about black holes
Travel to one of said black holes and jump through
You’ll travel around the galaxy sideways, still only up a couple jumps from the core
Jump back to an edge system and then jump to the core
In the new galaxy, you’ll end up in a system which is also only a couple jumps from the core
Note this only works for the current game session. So if you don’t jump to the core after black hole travel before quitting the game, and then jump to the core when you log back in, you’ll end up the normal 700K light years away from the galaxy center. You can, however, black hole travel again at the start of a game session to reactivate this feature.
Pro Traveler Tips
TIP: When you travel to a new galaxy, you can always return to a previous one as long as:
You have a base in the other galaxy
You’ve visited a space station in the other galaxy and it’s still on the teleporter list
You use methods 2 or 3 from the list at the top of the post
The easiest way to return to a previous galaxy is to make sure you create a base, even a small one, in each galaxy when you first arrive.
TIP: When you core jump (or when selecting one from the Artemis Path), your exo-suit, your ship and your multi-tool will be trashed, just like at the start of the game.
Before jumping to your new galaxy, switch to a “junker” ship with no technology (not even thrusters) in the main slots. Move everything you can into the tech slots. Use that ship to jump. Once you arrive in the new galaxy, your ship is ready to fly, or you can summon and switch to your primary ship if you like.
Same thing for multi-tool… have a cheap one you don’t care about equipped before you jump, and switch to your main one on arrival.
You’ll still be fixing most of the tech in your suit that isn’t in a tech slot, so have a few hundred of the basic elements to repair. Sorry, Traveler.
NOTE: When jumping from the core of galaxies, you can only travel through the galaxies in order ( https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Galaxy )
