No Man's Sky Colossal Archives: How to Find Planetary Archives

The colossal archives of No Man's Sky can be found using planetary maps.

In addition to roaming the galaxy the hard way, players can access the location of a colossal archive (also known as a “planetary archive” in No Man's Sky) using a cartographer's planetary map. This individual can be found in the space stations next to the portal, and they will exchange a map for navigation data. They'll also sell you a random 15 nanite graphic, but we're looking to reduce the influence of RNG here, not expand it.

Navigation data can be found in several ways. Vendors and galactic malls in No Man's Sky sometimes have it for sale, and orbs and light cubes on tables often grant navigation data when interacting (or nanites if your luck isn't good. ). A more consistent way to retrieve navigation data is to interact with recorded waypoints on planets. You'll still get browsing data for doing this, and it's pretty easy to find. Simply lower your signal booster and look for buildings nearby. It won't always give you a location with a saved waypoint, but you will soon have enough navigation data to purchase a large stack of planetary maps.

Make sure you buy the planetary maps. These locate inhabited settlements in No Man's Sky, which is the colossal archive. Once you have 10-20 of these cards, head back into space and start spawning them. Don't use them one at a time, explore each village before moving on to the next graphic. I tried this: I haven't found a single colossal archive / planetary archive after doing this for 12 hours. Believe me; spam those cards in space and you will find an archive in 2 minutes.

No Man's Sky likes to take its time to announce every discovery, but keep going. After the prompts disappear, display another graph until “Planetary Archive” appears. This is the waypoint you want to follow, and it will even say "Colossal Archive" when you highlight it. Point your nose in that direction, quicken your pulse, and lo and behold you will come to one of these colossal new archives in No Man's Sky. See, much faster than using each chart one at a time. Duplicate this process whenever you want to learn more.