The dust has settled on the Holiday Expeditions 2025, and No Man's Sky is getting a necessary tune-up. Hello Games deployed Patch 6.17 to address specific stability issues and physics glitches that cropped up during the recent event, ensuring the post-expedition experience is smoother for everyone.
Stabilizing the Flight Deck
If you've recently attempted to dock your starship only to have it behave like a bouncy ball, you aren't alone. One of the headline fixes in Patch 6.17 addresses "erratic physics" during starship landings. For a game that relies so heavily on the seamless transition between flight and ground exploration, landing glitches are particularly jarring. This fix should restore the weight and precision needed to park your hauler without it flipping over.
The update also targets a specific frustration for fleet commanders: the corvette part retrieval error. Players previously unable to claim these parts should now find the process working as intended, removing a roadblock for those focused on frigate management.
Does this improve performance on consoles?
Yes, specifically regarding memory management. The patch notes highlight optimizations for graphics memory on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. In a procedural universe this dense, memory leaks or inefficiencies often lead to stuttering or crashes during long sessions, so these optimizations are vital for stability.
Xbox players get a critical fix as well. The update resolves a soft-lock issue where the game would hang in the pause menu. There are few things worse than losing progress because you paused the game to grab a drink, so this is a significant quality-of-life improvement for the Xbox community.
PC and Visual Improvements
On the PC side, Hello Games has implemented optimizations for Vulkan memory usage. Vulkan is the API that powers the game's graphics on PC, and better memory management here usually translates to fewer frame drops and smoother texture loading, especially on mid-range hardware.
Finally, the patch addresses a visual quirk involving "large fish rendering." While it sounds minor, No Man's Sky thrives on its alien biodiversity. Ensuring the aquatic megafauna renders correctly maintains the immersion when you're diving into deep oceans.