No Man’s Sky NEXT: How to Find Ruins

Finding Ruins in No Man’s Sky NEXT

Ruins are alien structures that can be found on almost every planet available in No Man’s Sky. These will usually house a few knowledge stones that you can interact with to learn new alien words, and also increase your standing with that respective race. But with the recent NEXT update, ruins are also the best and most efficient way for you to make money, or units as they’re called in the game.

The bad news is, it’s not very easy to locate ruins if you’re flying across a planet on your ship. And even if you do find one, you won’t be able to see the treasure hidden underneath. The key here is to look for an alien plaque, which can be identified with your Analysis Visor. Alternatively, you can also go to observatories and solve the mini puzzle at the terminal to reveal a ruins location. If you have a signal booster and a Navigation Data item, choose the Artifact option to locate a plaque near you. Either way, once you reach the plaque or ruins, interact with the main alien stone and you’ll get the option to choose between learning a word or learning more about history. Choose the history option and you’ll be directed to another location.

Once there, use your Analysis Visor to locate a large artifact crate buried underground. Use your Terrain Manipulator to get to it, and you’ll see that the chest requires three Ancient Keys to open. Again, use the Analysis Visor to scan the area around you, and you should see three artifact fragments below ground. With the Terrain Manipulator, you can get to these fragments and obtain an Ancient Key. Once you have three of them, open up the crate and you’ll be rewarded with a treasure that can be sold for an extremely large amount of money at any trade station.

Be sure to check our wiki for more information on No Man’s Sky and the NEXT update.