Welcome back to another guide for No Man’s Sky, this time, we are revisiting “Beachhead” the Second Expedition released and one with quite an amazing reward at the end. Now, as usual, we are in a hurry as there’s only a week left at the time of writing, so let’s jump right into the guide and get it done.
As always, I’ve made mistakes so you don’t have to, and this guide doesn’t have all the objectives in order. You can turn some difficulty options down, but I recommend leaving the combat settings in case it impacts your ability to complete some objectives.
Our first priority is repairing our Atmospheric Control Unit on our freighter. While it may be tempting to use one of your repair kits here, we want to save that for your matter beam. Instead, dismantle one of your mining beam upgrades to get a wiring loom and you will already have the rest of the components in your inventory. This will complete the All-hands-on-deck milestone.
Now, head to your hangar and get aboard your Starship, fly to the scorched planet in the system. If you come across an asteroid field, destroy 50 of them to complete the Stardust milestone, then proceed to land on the planet and get out for the Away Team milestone. Scan 3 creatures so you can achieve the First Contact Milestone. Start scanning every plant you come across for a later Milestone that we won’t be able to complete just yet and use the in-game photo mode to snap a photo that will come into use later. Despite the warm climate, we don’t want to leave the Scorched planet yet. Put on your visor and search for hidden buried mineral nodes, collect as much sodium as you can while you’re doing this. Your visor will point you in the right direction as long as you have the objective selected. Dig up three of these for the One Man’s Treasure milestone. Head back to your ship and head to the nearest space station. Buy Copper and Cobalt at the Space Station and refine it in your personal refiner on your exosuit. Walk around the space station and talk to the inhabitants to learn 6 alien words to achieve the Liguaphile milestone. While you are walking around the station, you may tick off The Pilgrim milestone for walking 2500 units. This will happen naturally through the expedition and will unlock the fishing rig for you. While you’re here you should have a few modules as rewards. If you want to achieve the Nanites Milestone more easily, sell off any modules you don’t think you’ll need at a technology vendor. You may not earn enough nanites yet, but now you’ll have a huge head start.
Before we head back to our freighter, let’s tick off an objective that can cause a headache if we forget about it. Head to the “life incompatible planet in the current system, jump out, and take a photo for the Grand Tour achievement. You should now have an inferno and airless planet photo, we will get a frozen one later. Let’s head back to the freighter. Go to the construction area of your freighter, it’s time to get building! Build a storage room to complete Supercargo, and an Orbital Exocraft Materialiser for Drop Protocol. You should also have enough materials to build a scanner room for the Farseer Milestone. Redeem these milestones and prepare for warp. You will rarely need your starship for this expedition, so feel free to sell the upgrade modules and hang on to your storage expansions to upgrade your main ships outside of the expedition. Repair your warp drive on your freighter, saving your repair kits. You will need to craft warp fuel, and your freighter should have a room full of plants that you can harvest carbon to refine into condensed carbon to craft anti-matter. Once you have fuel, warp by using the centre console in your freight towards the first rendezvous point which will complete Engage Warp. Once in the first rendezvous system, head to your starship and rendezvous one.
On the Rendezvous planet, we can do some work here. Firstly, you will most likely tick off the Aviator which is travelling in your starship. If it hasn’t already, this will be a natural object that will tick off. As soon as you land, take a photo to get your last pic and tick off The Grand Tour objective. Reach the first rendezvous to complete the objective and Phase One of the Expedition! Select the Nameless History milestone and deploy your signal booster. Scan for ruins and head to that marker. You can interact with the plaque and select “Seek knowledge of the past” which will then tick off the objective. You should have 5 Planetary charts in your inventory, use one to find a distress signal and head towards it. Talk to the downed pilot, then investigate the ship to make repairs. Craft the required ingredients and repair the ship, completing the Interstellar Rescue Milestone. Once you have completed this Milestone, feel free to use the rest of your charts to plot courses, and if a crashed frigate pops up, head to it and recover the freighter log from the wreckage to complete the Fallen Giants milestone. Select the Signs to Nowhere objective and find structures with checkpoint towers on them. Your charts will help here. Activate 5 of these towers to complete the milestone. You can also use your signal booster if you’re stuck. Once you have completed this objective, head back to your freighter.
I should note, that if you only have a couple of trees left to scan, quickly land on a planet in the system and tick off The Engine of Life Milestone. This will unlock some construction plans we need to continue the expedition. While you’re on a planet hunting trees, hunt some creatures too and refine the mordite dropped from them to get 25 Facium. Also, you will most likely tick off this objective but if you want to complete it earlier, head to the space station, and sell any upgrade modules you don’t need to unlock the Quantum Foam objective.
Aboard the freighter, we have some more construction to complete. Build a double cultivation chamber and complete The Air We Breathe milestone, and build a teleport chamber to complete the Across Infinity Milestone while you’re at it. Let’s head to Rendezvous 2. Once you get to the second rendezvous system, get in your Starship and head to Rendezvous 2. I purchase some frigates on the way, but we really don’t need to worry about that now if you’re strapped for cash. Land at Rendezvous 2 and complete the objective. Take off and head to the Arctic planet in the same system to do some fishing. Install your fishing rod on your multitool and start casting away! For this objective, I recommend crafting mealworms and casting them off the shore in shallow water. This will need patience! Once you complete this Milestone, you can tick off Phase 2 of the Expedition!
Now, it may feel like we’ve done a lot and only at Phase 2 but we are almost done as the rest of the phases are nearly complete. Head back to your freighter, we are going to Rendezvous 3. But first, let’s send out some frigates for expeditions. Build a fleet command station and then interact with it to get the blueprints for frigate fuel, then head to the centre console of your capital ship and craft some fuel, and send your ships on expeditions. If you build multiple command stations, you can send more frigates out. Simply send out 3 expeditions and wait for them to come back to achieve the Called by the Stars milestone (you can use the time skip glitch by taking your game offline.) Warp to Rendezvous 3.
Once you’re in Rendezvous 3‘s system, jump in your Starship and head to the Rendezvous point to complete the milestone, and Phase 3. Head back to your Freighter, and warp to Rendezvous 4. You know the drill, get in your starship, land at the Rendezvous point and complete the objective. Head to your Freighter and warp to Rendezvous 5! Land at Rendezvous 5 to complete the milestone and now we only have a few things left!
Head to the space station. You will need to purchase planetary charts to find artifact sites. Use the charts to find 3 alien artifact sites, interact with them, and complete Historiography Lesson milestone. Head into space and summon the Anomaly to get the Myth Beacon. This is much more confusing than it has to be. Head to the Quicksilver rewards vendor and select the option to “create exotic items from Quicksilver.” Tab to “Other Curiosities” and select the Myth Beacon recipe for 80 Quicksilver. This will complete the objective. Select the new objective in your Expedition tab called Echo Through The Ages. Head back to your Freighter for a final warping run. Warp to the new location. Once in the target system, jump in your Starship and head to the marker. Once there, locate the Myth Beacon in your inventory and deploy it. This will complete the current Milestone. Head back to your ship, the Normandy should be just above you. Communicate with the ship to add it to your fleet and complete the Historical Paragon Milestone and Phase 5.
We only have one more thing to do provided your expeditions have returned. Head back to your freighter and select the Uncharted milestone. Here, we just need to warp to 8 systems off the beaten path. Having the Milestone selected will allow you to track progress, and being disconnected from the net might make this go faster. I head in one general direction warping to planets close by and found that I got the objective marked off rather quickly, and with that, the Expedition is complete! Enjoy your Mass Effect Normandy Freighter, and don’t forget to turn the expedition in at the anomaly.
