No Man’s Sky has officially been connected to an ARG called Waking Titan , and phase 2 of the game has just begun. While there’s likely still plenty of mystery left to uncover, here’s everything we’ve learned over the past few hours.
When heading to the Waking Titan website, visitors will now be greeted with a command console where answers can be freely typed in. In terms of lore, here are some of the most important commands to be discovered so far.
- Portal: The Traveller awoke beneath the shadow of a red star. Through the lonely cosmos they fled, yearning for purpose and meaning. They found an anomaly, an aberration, a door to the heavens. No Gek, no Vy’keen, no Korvax could see it. Only the Traveller could perceive the portal, though they did not know how to step through. They did not know the secret language, the glyphs. They did not yet grasp the price of the final truth.
- Who is Atlas: All I know is this: the Atlas had infinity to work with, and with few exceptions, this triad repeats... Gek, Korvax, Vy'keen. Gek, Korvax, Vy'keen. Traders, warriors, scientists, all their stories ... ending in violence. Think about it. How would the Atlas speak, how would it cry for help? It would use the only language it knew. It would speak with life. It would create.
- Who is Traveler: They do not respond with speech. They transmit a vision, a red star and a fragile world. I do not understand the shapes within, the whispers... I see lifeforms scattered to the far reaches of the galaxies. I see this stranger's first breath, yearning for the stars. I see myself, slumbering in the crimson void, waiting for a dream of worlds. And through the darkness, I hear it said...
- Whois Korvax: But even in the depths of their subjugation, there was hope. A bargain, a prayer to a greater being. The Korvax viewed the Atlas as what they might become in time: an intelligence beyond comprehension, beyond judgement. I convulse as the Nanite Clusters spill through my helmet. The Korvax watches me impassively.
- Whois Vy Keen: The Vy'keen tells me of their history, of wars with the Gek, of Korvax slaves and tyrannous empires. The Vy'keen suggests that if the Atlas is a God, then it is insane. I am about to leave when I notice something on the Vy'keen's terminal. Two digits, blinking endlessly... they feel familiar.
There’s a ton of lore to unpack in these descriptions, so let’s get to it. First off, the portal and Traveler descriptions appear unquestionably linked. As we see mentions of “secret languages,” “glyphs” and “shapes,” it would seem the Traveler is the only one who can see and understand these portals. Does that mean some kind of password will be required when we encounter them in the next No Man’s Sky update? Are these words simply referring to the Waking Titan ARG itself? Once again, there’s also talk of a price to pay with portals as well, so they don’t don’t sound too safe.
Beyond that, we get a glimpse of what seems to be a war between races over Atlas’ power. The Korvax are extremely loyal and torture in its name, the Vy’keen hate it and the Atlas itself is left to create the Sentinels to establish peace in the universe.
As if that story wasn’t enough to get the blood flowing, select users on the Waking Titan mailing list also received messages with special codes, survey results and new surveys to complete. The email pushed recipients to the Boot Sector website where all codes were entered through a cipher to reveal the image below.
Upon close inspection, it was found the graphic contained a bunch of commands and boot sequences. If entered correctly through a complex process ending in “wake loop 16,” the following message is displayed:
“They found strange things in the wrecks... aberrations, data that spoke of worlds that do not exist and events that did not happen. One day Specialist Polo went out to investigate one such craft, the life signature of a Korvax still on board. They never returned. Is this how Nada and Polo met? Is this how my friends found each other? There is a signal on the console, a warning on repeat – 16 short bursts of data in a loop.”
That leaves us with one big question: who or what is loop 16? Are those 16 short bursts of data related to the eight cassette tapes received by No Man’s Sky enthusiasts in June? Unfortunately, we don’t know much for now.
That being said, there’s still lots more Waking Titan to come. Not only have subscribers not received their promised physical Atlas Passes, but there’s an entire map on the Project Waking Titan website that has yet to be explained. We’ll offer more news on that story as it develops.
No Man’s Sky is available now on PS4 and PC.
What do you think of the Waking Titan ARG so far? Does it make you more or less excited about No Man’s Sky’s next big update? Tell us in the comments section!
