Freely Explore the Universe

Go wherever you want and (optionally) find your way to the center of the Galaxy. Since there are several quintillion stars and planets, this could take you a while to complete… After looking around for a while and building my base, I took a look at going to the Center. However, some math got in the way – if you look at the galactic map, you start off over 700,000 light years from the Center, and with a good Explorer class ship being able to make a bit over 2,000 light years in a single jump, you would have to take many hundreds of jumps to get there. However, there is another way, and this requires completing another story line.

The Atlas Path

This has you locate and interface with the Atlas, and for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I won’t say much more about it, but at the end of the path, among other things, you will be given the ability to ‘see’ black holes. When you enter one of these, two things happen; part of your ship’s equipment will be broken, and you will be transported many hundreds or thousands of light years – but not necessarily to the Center. I found that using the Black Holes brought me about 5-10,000 light years closer each time, and even with the ship repairs, it was faster than just continuously warping if you want to fly to the Galactic Center. To get around the problem of continuously having to repair my ship, I took the expediant of flying a 'junker' through the Black Hole, since it didn't have any good tech to ruin. I then switched it over to my primary exploration vehicle to get to the next Black Hole.

With the addition to the game of the Ship Salvage terminal, it is now possible to add starship slots. If you have enough 'Technical' slots, you can put any modifications there and they will be protected from damage and can then be moved back afterwards.

Alone Amidst the Stars

This is a story line where you try to find a ‘lost’ and frightened Traveler named 'Artemis'. Again, no spoilers here, but completing the quest takes a LOT of running around, meeting and greeting aliens and so on. At the end of the quest, you can go to the Center of the Galaxy, meet with the Atlas and can choose to continue as you are or to ‘rebuild’ the universe, somewhat more to your liking if you so choose.

MAJOR HINT: [Note: in 'Synthesis', against all logic, it seems you are simply creating another Universe, and you can still teleport back to the old one...] In the ‘new’ universe, you keep all of the stuff you haul with you, including all knowledge, but all of your equipment in your Exo-Tool and in the main section of your ship will be present but broken, so make sure you have filled up your cargo slots with everything you needed to rebuild, including a dozen (or more) Wiring Looms, because these will all be damaged.

The Anomaly in Space

This is the parallel story line mentioned before in 'Awakenings'. There are also ‘community’ quests in the 'Nexus' section of the Anomaly if you want some multiplayer action, but these are not mandatory.