No Man’s Sky Artifacts: What Monoliths, Knowledge Stones, and Plaques Are

No Man’s Sky Monoliths, Knowledge Stones, and Plaques – What they are and what they do

The universe of No Man’s Sky is a vast one full of fragments of information which, when pieced together, can help you communicate with alien species, and get a better understanding of what else is out there. Artifacts can be a great source of information, or just offer a benefit depending on which one you pick up. Here’s all of the artifacts and what they do.

Artifacts are monument-looking objects that will appear on planets and come in a number of different forms. Depending on which form you come across, its appearance and what it does exactly will be different. The best way to identify that a relic is nearby is by keeping an eye out for a blue and white symbol appearing on your HUD. It should look a little like an ‘h’, but with a bit of a sci-fi twist. When you’ve finally tracked a relic down, you’ll want to interact with it by pressing Square.

At this point, what exactly happens depends on what relic you’ve come across. We’ve identified all of them below as well as what happens when you interact with them.

Monoliths – These are like a rights of passage test. Once you interact with them, they will tell you a brief description of a series of events before leaving you to make a decision from a number of options. For example, in one that we came across, we were told we were surrounded by bright, violent lights. We could either fight the lights, ignore the lights, or accept the lights. What you decide will ultimately determine what happens to you. For us, we chose the correct answer and this led us to raise our standing with a particular alien race, and we were also given a rare alien artifact which could be sold for a lot of money.

Knowledge Stones – These are the most common artifacts that you’ll come across during your No Man’s Sky adventure. These will teach you one alien word. Which one will be determined by what planet you’re on and what aliens may inhabit it. Learning words an of alien language is incredibly important as each one helps you to decipher conversations with aliens as you play. The more words you know, the more of the conversation you’ll understand.

Plaques – These are very much like knowledge stones, though what they teach you is not solely limited to alien languages. While there is a possibility that you may learn another word, these can also teach you a blueprint for an upgrade or a new item.

That’s all of the different kinds of artifacts we’ve come across so far in No Man’s Sky. If more are discovered, we’ll be sure to update this page. If you need any more help with No Man’s Sky, check out our robust wiki full of guides and tips.