HD Clouds

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No Man's Sky is a visually impressive game as it stands, but one of the biggest drawbacks it currently faces is blurry and generic cloud formations on planets when you're approaching from space.

The HD Clouds mod improves out-of-atmo cloud textures remarkably, making them so much sharper, crisper, and more varied across the board.

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And with that, our list of top 10 No Man's Sky mods for 2020 is concluded! Be sure to stick around with GameSkinny for more No Man's Sky content. 

Exosolar's Beyond Base Building

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We're impressed by the base building that exists in vanilla No Man's Sky at this exact moment, but we certainly couldn't say no to 400 new base-building parts!

That's precisely what gets added in Exosolar's Beyond Base Building mod, which gives you all kinds of new ways to craft and design your second home amongst the stars.

Better Planet Generation Legacy

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If you want a much more dynamic, interesting planet generation system that greatly varies the layouts of planets without totally overhauling everything else, as in Fantasy Synthesis, then Better Planet Generation Legacy is the mod for you.

It's a major enhancement to the algorithm that determines how planets are shaped and formed as you travel across them, making them far more dynamic and distinguishable.

Fast Actions

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Frankly, we're sick of holding down a button every time we want to do anything in NMS!

The Fast Actions mod does exactly what it sounds like; it enables "fast" actions, where you only need to click a button (or hold it for a slightly shorter time, based on your preferences) to make the button do what you want it to do.

NMS Fantasy Synthesis

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The Fantasy Synthesis mod is a complete overhaul of No Man's Sky that comes with everything from visual upgrades and entirely new world types, to procedurally generated ancient cities and brand new fauna and flora that add a much larger collection of things to find and see.

There is a massive list of additions on the mod page, which we thoroughly recommend checking out in full!

Reduced Launch Cost

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Looking for starship fuel in No Man's Sky can be a drag. That's why you should check out the Reduced Launch Cost mod, which can dramatically reduce your starship launch costs down to 10%, 5%, or even 0% of your ship's total fuel capacity.

You'll still need to gather those blue dihydrogen fuel crystals for other things, but at least you won't need to worry about your ship failing to start!

Hover

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The Hover mod is as simple as it sounds. It allows you to use your starship to hover over planetary surfaces instead of being in forward thrust mode all the time.

By extension, that means you can finally use your starship to explore planetary surfaces with more surgical accuracy, or even fight sentinel Walkers from the comfort of your ship.

Fine LOD

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No Man's Sky caps your rendering distance pretty close to the belt. That said, what are you to do if you have a beefy gaming PC that can handle a tad more punishment?

That's where Fine LOD comes in! This mod lets you boost your draw distances while fixing most of the texture pop-in issues present in the vanilla version of the game.

Integrated Planets

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If you're bothered by how inconsistently colored planets, asteroid fields, and the general aura of a solar system are when compared to one another, then you'll appreciate Integrated Planets.

This mod keeps every planetary visual, well, integrated! When you gaze out over a planet's horizon, the light and color will remain consistent across your entire field of view, composing a much more believable and immersive picture.

Exosolar's Stratos

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Are you bored with the available sky flavors in No Man's Sky? Never fear! Exosolar's Stratos mod is here.

Toting about "15,417" new color palettes, the likelihood that you'll run into the same procedurally generated planet twice is much smaller than before. The new skies are also quite jaw-dropping to look at!

No Man's Sky is on our list of fantastic comeback games; one that didn't fare so well when it first launched but steadily made its way back into the good graces of its fans.

Likewise, NMS is also one of those games that just keeps getting more and more additions that absolutely nobody seemed to have expected but everybody needed regardless. Bipedal mecha suit? Check. Living space organism starships? Check. Customizable synthesizers? Triple check.

But even though we get a ton of stuff on a (rather irregular and abrupt) update schedule, Hello Games has left plenty of room for modders to come in and do things their own way! So here's our list of the top 10 No Man's Sky mods to check out in 2020.

Let's face it -- No Man's Sky, while fun, impressive, and beautiful, is not exactly what we were expecting. It's feature-light, still kind of buggy, and seems to be missing about six months worth of QA. While this is kind of frustrating for those of us who have been anxiously anticipating the game for years, it's not the end of the world. Luckily for PC players, modders are already on the scene, helping to smooth over some of No Man's Sky's rough edges until official patches, updates, and fixes can come out. Here are some mods that will help you get to the game you want.

Instagram Filter Remover

The Instagram Filter Remover is a great mod that removes the old-timey tint that surrounds everything in No Man's Sky. This is sort of an aesthetic choice, and maybe people like the Instagram look, but you can't deny that it's a lot clearer without it. If you want to feel more like you're actually exploring space and less like you're viewing it through a old TV, then this is a great place to start. 

A similar mod is the Chromatic Aberration mod, which removes a lot of extraneous effects from the game. Again, it's personal preference, but some players have reported that in addition to making the game look cleaner, it has improved their framerate. 

ShutUP

Are you tired of your exosuitOS screaming at you about your protection or resource levels? Well, you're not alone. ShutUP is a mod that lets you completely eliminate all the warnings, updates, and general chatter from your suit that begins to drive you crazy after a few hours of exploring. It's fully configurable, so you can leave some warnings in if you want to, but it easily lets you shut your suit up so you can enjoy wandering the universe in peace.

FastActions

Nothing fancy here, just a really excellent quality-of-life upgrade. Fast Actions removes the unnecessary time gating from all the little things you do in No Man's Sky. In addition to UI interactions and actions, this now works with item crafting and transferring stuff from your ship. It makes the game quicker and a lot less frustrating. This pairs well with Fast Intro Screen, which speeds up the startup sequence considerably. Less waiting, more fun!

NoHUD

Another small but much appreciated quality-of-life mod, NoHUD does exactly what it sounds like -- allows you to easily remove the HUD by pressing F5. This is great for taking screenshots, or for making your exploration experience a little bit more relaxing and less distracting. It works well when paired with ShutUP, so you can focus on wandering and enjoying the worlds you find. 

These are just the mods that are available in the first week! Once modders have more time to work and get more comfortable with the engine, we can no doubt expect some substantial content mods that will help flesh out and improve on the bones of a great game.

Do you have a mod you like that we missed? Have something else to say? Let us know in the comments, and happy exploring!