This is an interesting expedition, as you don’t end up leaving the starting planet they place you on. You get to use a Colossus truck and a Gravitino Coil gun for picking up industrial waste and hauling it around the planet.
Expedition 21 started last week, and it’s a full six-week one. So, it should be ending in late March unless they extend it a bit. I can only hope they end up doing like they did last year with shorter catch-up expedition events. As I feel this one would be great in a shorter format.
They seemed to enjoy playing around with physics in this one. As the cargo in the back of your Colossus truck, bounce right out over hitting a bump or turning sharply. Naturally, the landing spot I ended up in was on top of a massive mountain with endless bumps everywhere you look. Making for some edge-of-your-seat white-knuckle driving, hoping to bring back enough waste to turn in to finish off milestones.
Most of the milestones revolve around you getting the gun and truck. Then upgrade them with models and get to see the different uses they have. From running things over to tossing stuff up into the air. Along with a whole lot of hauling.
Like a standard Expedition, it starts off with interacting with the console on the anomaly. While in the past it was a good idea to load up with possibly needed minerals, you would need for the adventure. Since you are just staying on a single planet, that ended up being quite a waste. The good news is that at the end, you do get access to your ship to fly off and back to the anomaly to bring stuff back to your main save. If all my slots were not already filled with random stuff, I usually need one of these.
The processing plant refinery you end up next to is your main one throughout the expedition. While I did happen to find another one not that far away. This one would end up being the one I'd be hauling waste back from quite long distances away. So, I recommend only taking engine upgrades for the Colossus truck that increase your speed. As the last thing you want is a twenty-minute drive out and an even longer drive back, trying not to lose everything you are carrying anytime you drive over a bump or navigate around a mountain.
The good news is the Colossus truck can go up quite some massive inclines. I was even on some so steep I had to jump and use the jetpack to get back to my truck. I ended up having some waste fall out the back that I needed.
The first phase, like all expeditions, is the one I enjoy the most. You get to unlock the truck and the gun. Along with playing around with each a little bit. Nothing yet is overly repetitive.
I’ll also admit I ended up making a massive mistake. I hope no one else makes the one I did. At the end, you need to return to turn in five industrial wastes. What I did not know at the time is using the automated plant won’t give you credit for turning in the waste.
So not only did I not get credit. I went back to the checkpoint to pick up more waste, and there was not enough. Between what I wasted by doing the wrong kind of turn on. Along with what fell out of my truck on the way back. I ended up having to wasting hours finding extras to turn in.
Phase 2 of the expedition ended up showing off some cool things regarding the Colossus truck. As you can not only change the color scheme of it. You also unlock the Excavation Blade. This makes getting around a lot easier. As for anything you run into, for the most part, such as rocks, trees, and plants, you just crush. While you do get a small amount of resources from doing so. It’s best to just use the mining laser the truck has later on for farming minerals.
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun just running around things, crushing them with the truck. I might have also run over a few creatures as well. Between the cool blue smoke that shoots out of the truck and just how fun it is to drive around with it. I have to say they nailed the handling of the Colossus truck quite well. It would have been quite the make-or-break for this entire expedition. Many games out there have such bad driving experiences in them that it takes away from the game. While I'm not sure what kind of long-term use players will have once they can just fly around with ships again. It’s always nice to see them expanding the land vehicle options in No Man’s Sky.
By phase 3, I felt the game was kind of pushing its luck with how long to have this expedition. While you do end up unlocking the Cyclops scope for scanning things down. Going out to now the third waste heap and having to haul back with it, the trips are getting longe rand longer each time. I was kind of over it. After talking with some other players, it seems many felt this is where the expedition should have just ended. By now, you more or less have done most things with the Colossus truck, and the game is just trying to find things for you to do to fill out its usual expedition format.
As expected, one of the more “harder” milestones was not really hard; it was just a pain. The Petrology milestone is in phase four and requires you to find all the minerals on the planet. The last one, most seem to be struggling with, including myself, was finding the Atyorrhite mineral that only appears in the purple pathways going up and down large mountains.
In the last fifth phase of milestones, there is also one for finding wildlife. At least they were not as bad. The hardest had to be finding a flying creature and one in a cave. Everything else, like the other kinds of minerals are clumped together.
While you do end up unlocking a flamethrower that I suppose was for use in killing Sentinels. I ended up just doing it the old-fashioned way, using lasers and the bolt cutter. One of the more pointless feeling milestones of the entire expedition had to been Reoridentation Programme, where you had to grab and toss a Sentinel 32 times. I feel after the first ten, I as the player got the point.
I also, at this point, was rather dreading heading to Checkpoints 4 and 5 and then having to haul all the way back. At least most of the milestones in phase five were just turning in enough industrial waste of each kind. Naturally, I was missing a few, so after all was done, I went around my local area for a while looking for what I was missing.
Final Thoughts
While it was fun seeing the way the developers wanted us to play with the game physics, from using the gun to driving around. They could have just made this an hour-long expedition, and you would not have missed out on much. Many, including myself, wonder how or even if this will end up getting used by players once the new smell of it wears off. I don’t see myself using it long-term, even if you get nanites for turning in industrial waste. At least the first couple of hours of the expedition were a blast.
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Content created by @Enjar about No Man’s Sky