No Man's Sky may have been heavily anticipated, but preorder bonuses made getting the game all the more sweeter. However, some players are finding that the supposed-to-be treat was actually a problem.
The Alpha Vector ship is a preorder bonus that players get for buying No Man's Sky from GameStop, Walmart, Amazon and Best Buy. It's fitted with upgraded lasers and comes with a hyperdrive, which is what allows players to jump from one region to another. Great, right? This included hyperdrive is actually part of the problem.
Like in any game, No Man's Sky starts out with a tutorial to help players familiarize themselves with how to move around a universe with 18 quintillion planets. By following some basic paths, a player will eventually get around to receiving a blueprint for a hyperdrive, as well as one for antimatter, which is needed for assembling new warp cells. Every warp consumes a cell so to keep warping using a hyperdrive, players will have to make new cells.
But since the Alpha Vector ship already fitted with a hyperdrive, some players who used it went ahead and warped to other places without going through the motions of the tutorial. This means they skipped receiving the blueprint not just for the hyperdrive but the antimatter as well, sidelining their progress because they've run out of warp cells and can't make new ones.
Players using the preorder ship are not notified that there is a crucial element to the game in the tutorial so they just go on with their adventure. It appears the game just sees that a hyperdrive has been obtained, but is not able to discern through what means so no warnings are provided.
Hello Games is already aware of the problem, but said that most players are actually able to continue without trouble even while using the Alpha Vector ship.
"The game already detects the player needs a hyperdrive and directs them to a nearby NPC who will give the player the hyperdrive they need. Some other players were able to resolve this issue by restarting their console," said the developer.
Haven't received your preorder bonus? Hello Games advises rechecking the ships' in-game names; Alpha Vector is known as Domanish S84 while the Rezosu AZ65 ship goes by Final Shadow XIV.
No Man's Sky comes out for PC on Aug. 12. Those who preordered the game on Steam will receive the Horizon Omega ship as a bonus.
