Hello Games is bringing No Man’s Sky to Switch 2 later this week, but players across all platforms are also getting another free update at the same time. The next update is called Beacon, and it expands on players‘ ability to become Overseers of planetary settlements and introduces towns inhabited by sentient robots called Autophage.
The full rundown of Beacon’s features and the 5.7 update doesn’t explain how the Autophage came into being. It does say that every inhabited planet has Autophage settlements that are only detectable by specialized equipment. The Autophage are secretive by nature, but players can join their settlements as Overseer. And if players have already completed They Who Returned, then the Autophage may invite them to personally visit one of their settlements.
Players can control the destiny of up to four settlements at a time as Overseer, while dealing various issues of governance, dispute resolutions, and calculated choices about what to build for the good of the colony. However, both human and Autophage settlements are still threatened by Sentinel attacks as well as „the vile insect queen and her brood,“ which consists of large and deadly bugs.