No Man’s Sky: How to Fix The Scanner and Use It

How to Fix Your Scanner and How to Scan – No Man’s Sky

As you may already know, exploration and discovery are the cornerstones of No Man’s Sky. As you travel between systems and visit new planets, you’ll come across tons of new life and environments that you can then upload for some much needed Units (the game’s currency). While some things are added to your Discoveries tab simply by seeing and/or destroying them, others need for the player to scan them.

To scan an item you’ll need to fix your Exosuit’s scanner first. This only requires 25 Iron, which you should find almost immediately after you first start No Man’s Sky. Once you do, head into your inventory by hitting the Touchpad on the DualShock 4 and hold X over your scanner to repair it. Now that it’s all fixed up, it’s ready for use.

Hold down L2/LT to bring up your scanner, which is a sort of high-tech pair of binoculars. You can zoom in by clicking R3, allowing you to scan items that are far away. Keep locked onto whatever it is that you want to scan and after a couple of seconds a small meter will start to fill. A few seconds more and you’ll find out if you discovered something new or if someone else beat you to the punch.

Scanning things in the No Man’s Sky universe adds them to your Discoveries tab. From there you can upload anything you discover and receive payment from the Galactic Library for your efforts. Also, scanning an animal is the only way that you can name it. So make sure to scan everything.

Need more help with No Man’s Sky? Check out our robust wiki full of guides and tips!