No Man’s Sky Atlas Rises Update 1.3 Releasing Soon With Story & Fast Travel Portals

No Man’s Sky update 1.3 has finally been revealed by Hello Games, and it’s called Atlas Rises. In an email correspondence to followers of the Waking Titan ARG, game programmer Sean Murray discussed portals, narrative and the game’s passionate community of fans.

There’s a lot to unpack in the message itself, but here’s the meaty part that most gamers will likely be interested in.

“Update 1.3 will release this week and will be available for free to all No Man’s Sky players. We're calling it Atlas Rises. It focuses on improving the central story of No Man’s Sky and adds the ability to quick travel between locations using portals. Patch notes will be made available shortly before the update goes live. What we do is much more important than what we say, but since launch we have sometimes focused too much on that.”

Beyond that brief tease of announcements to come, Murray also discussed the success of Waking Titan and why the ARG was created. Since the game began in June, over a quarter of a million players from 174 countries took part in a journey that involved intense puzzle solving, physical drops in major cities, and, most crucially for the Atlas Rises update, lots and lots of lore. This experimental endeavor was largely meant to honor the community of passionate fans that has maintained interest in this controversial game throughout its “exciting, intense and emotional” first year.

In the absence of official patch notes, what we know about Atlas Rises so far can largely be gleaned from the lore of Waking Titan. With regard to portals, several narrative beats have suggested they have a strong link to the passage of time and alternate continuities. While possessing a wonder-like quality, they’re also regarded as dangerous. In that sense, while a portal might be leveraged to make it closer to the center of the universe, that benefit may come with a price.

While Murray did not specifically mention it, there’s also the matter of the infamous fourth alien race to consider. Pictures from the ARG suggest these people may be robotic and somewhat manipulative. While they may appear friendly at first, transmissions from other characters within the ARG suggest they can’t be trusted.

These new features will likely be held together by the narrative of the Atlas Foundation and its sentient AI named Emily. Over the course of the eight-week experiment, Emily grew increasingly powerful to the point where she couldn’t be contained. She bid a tentative farewell to Waking Titan participants at the end of the ARG, but that almost assuredly tells us it’s not the last we’ve heard of her. After all, Emily is essentially what created No Man’s Sky.

While this is the first time we’re officially hearing of the Atlas Rises update, its origins trace back to December of last year. During that time, Hello Games was in the process of hiring a writer with a strong creative sense. That new team member likely played a major role in what’s to come.

No Man’s Sky is available now on PS4 and PC.

What are your early thoughts on the concepts of the Atlas Rises update? Is fast travel enough to get you back into No Man’s Sky? Tell us in the comments section!