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No Man's Sky

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How Mission Agents and Guild Envoys Work

By
Scott Peers

This page details how to complete Local Missions from Mission Envoys, including how to complete race-specific missions for Gek, Vy’keen, and Korvax, and how to complete guild-specific missions for Merchants, Mercenaries, and Explorers. We’ll also cover how to unlock missions from Guild Envoys.

How to Complete Local Missions in No Man’s Sky

Gek, Vy’keen, and Korvax Missions

There are two types of Local Missions available from Mission Agents, who can be found at any space station. These are missions which improve your standing with a specific race (Gek, Vy’keen, or Korvax), and missions which improve your standing with a specific guild (Merchants, Mercenaries, or Explorers). You will only find race missions available for the dominant race of the system that you’re in. For example, if you find a system which states that the race is Gek when you hover over it from the Galaxy Map (and expand the details), you’ll know that mission agents in the space station for that system will only provide missions which increase your standing with the Gek. If your standing with a specific race is low, you will find that most mission agents for that race will almost always provide missions which improve standing with that race initially, while missions which improve standing with Merchants, Mercenaries, or Explorers guilds are relatively rare. However, as you increase your standing with the race, more guild-specific missions will become available for each guild.

Aside from the general missions accepted for Gek, Vy’keen, and Korvax reputation increases, you’ll also find that your standing with these races increases whenever you do something beneficial for them in their system. For example, if you destroy a number of pirates which are harassing a settlement, outpost, or Freighter, complete tasks at Manufacturing Facilities and Operations Centres, or if you communicate with members of the race and provide them with gifts, your standing will often increase at the end of the encounter.

(1 of 4) You’ll find Mission Agents at every space station within inhabited systems.

On the other hand, you can lose reputation standing with a specific race of the system you’re in if you attack neutral ships and space stations, use threatening words when speaking with a member of the race (or simply say the wrong thing when practicing language skills, the outcome of which you have no control over), or even when you refuse to accept gifts from them. There are currently two types of gifts for each race which can be received or given. These can be found from many different encounters throughout the game, and will increase your standing by +1 when given.

Gek, Vy’keen, and Korvax Rank Standings

The Gek NMS_Gek.png Vy’keen NMS_VyKeen.png Korvax NMS_Korvax.png Standing
Rival Enemy Annoyance -5
Competitor Detractor Irritation -2
Customer Neutral Unstudied 0
Client Accomplice Point of Interest 3
Valued Customer Ally Test Subject 8
Colleague Close Ally Research Focus 14
Partner Comrade Trial Candidate 21
Friend Preceptor Significance 30
Best Friend Adjutant Saviour 40
Most Favoured Commandant Singularity 60
Trade Lord Templar Traveller of the Atlas 100

Merchants, Mercenaries, and Explorers Guild Missions

Once you have sufficient standing with a race (generally beyond rank 2 or 3), you’ll find that the rewards from mission agents become much more diverse, and a structured pattern will emerge for the types of missions on offer. There are always 5 missions available from each agent, with the first often being reserved for missions which increase standing for the specific dominant race of that system. The second, third, and fourth will often be low-level missions for each guild (Merchants, Mercenaries, and Explorers), and the fifth will be a much higher level guild-specific mission, which generally offer better rewards. As your standing increases with a specific guild, you’ll find that more higher level missions become available, sometimes without reputation gains as rewards. Instead, the rewards will offer increasingly rare items, or greater quantities of Units and Nanites.

Aside from completing missions for each of the three guilds, you can also complete guild-specific actions by doing things related to the guild interests and goals in the world. These will not increase your standing with a specific guild, but you can track your progress to earn in0game trophies for them from the Milestones menu. There are two different types of actions that you can complete for each guild, shown in the table below.

Guild Actions
Merchants NMS_Merchant_Guild.png Earn units and farm plants
Mercenaries NMS_MERCENARIES_Guild.png Destroy sentinels and kill pirates
Explorers NMS_Explorer_Guild.png Scan rare creatures and warp to new systems

Mission Types and the Fastest Way to Complete Them

There are currently 13 different types of missions available from Mission Agents, each with different names but all with the same objectives. You’ll find many of the same missions from different agents in different systems. This means that you can travel to numerous different systems and accept the exact same type of quest from different mission agents, then complete them all in one go to massively reduce the time invested, while increasing the reward. For example, if you accept 5 missions from different mission agents, each with the goal of feeding / culling 10 animals, taking photographs of animals or landscapes, or killing a number of sentinels, you can then visit just one planet and complete the task for each of them, thereby completing 5 missions while only doing the work for one.

(1 of 5) You can kill most types of creatures for the cull creature missions.

If you find that you’re only ever finding the same types of missions for each guild, try visiting systems with different dominant races. The specific types of missions on offer will differ depending on the race, with the Gek tending to offer more missions related to exploration, the Vy’keen offering more missions related to violence, and the Korvax offering more missions related to repairs. However, mission types are not necessarily specific to each race, so you may experience some overlap. In addition, not all missions acquired from an agent will need to be carried out in that system. Some missions will require you to travel to other systems, but you can identify these via icons on the Galaxy Map. You won’t have to travel back to the system where you acquired the mission, since you can hand in completed missions to any mission agent on space stations.

Mission Type Objectives
Scan Objects Scan flora, fauna, or geological objects on specific planets / any planet
Deliver an Item Deliver items (from common to rare based on mission level) to trade outposts in another system
Collect an Item Collect items and resources (common to rare based on mission level) and return them to the mission agent
Feed Creatures Feed any creature on a planet with Creature Pellets, mission generally requires 10 creatures to be fed
Cull Creatures Kill any creature on a planet, mission generally requires 10 creatures to be killed
Destroy Sentinels Destroy any sentinel type, generally between 4 - 11 for each mission
Hunt Pirates Hunt and kill pilots of various levels, from low-level pirates, regular pirates, and dangerous pilots (1-3 stars)
Take a Photo Enter photo mode via the quick access menu and take photos of the required flora, fauna, geological object or landscape
Raid a Facility Raid planetary structures such as Manufacturing Facilities and Operations Centres, and Harvesters
Assault a Freighter Launch an assault on any Freighter and loot its Cargo Pods
Defend a Freighter Defend a Freighter from attacking pirates by killing all the pilots
Repair a Damaged Item Repair damaged terminals at planetary structures, generally requires three material types to repair each component
Find Missing Person Find missing individuals such as pilots of crashed Starships, higher level variants require additional steps to locate pilots

You may sometimes find that you lose specific items which were required for a delivery quest, whether by accidentally selling or destroying them, or after dying. In these cases, you can still complete the quest if you can source the same materials, so it’s worth checking trade terminals and trade outposts if you can’t find the material yourself. In terms of sentinel missions, raiding facilities or waiting for your settlement sentinel threat level to reach 100% are both good ways to ensure encounters, but it’s worth acquiring a few missions which request the destruction of sentinels before you fight a group of them.

How to Obtain Gifts from Guild Envoys

The Guild Envoys which can be found to the right of any Mission Agent at space stations will initially ignore the player whenever you try to interact with them. This is because you haven’t yet gained any standing with the guilds. As your standing increases beyond rank 2, however, the envoys will begin to provide you with gifts whenever you speak with them. The higher your guild rank, the more valuable the gift. You can only obtain one gift from each envoy per day, but you can visit multiple envoys in different systems to acquire a great number of gifts within a relatively short period of time. The standing ranks for each guild are the same. The table below provides a brief overview of standing rank names and the required amount of standing points for each.

There isn’t a great deal that changes for each standing rank, other than access to higher level missions which provide better rewards. However, once you reach rank 2, you’ll be able to accept the gifts from envoys. At rank 3, you’ll begin to receive missions from guild envoys, which are the same type you can acquire from mission agents, but are usually exclusively high level missions. They offer better rewards and +5 standing upon completion.

(1 of 2) You can receive gifts from guild envoys once you reach rank 2+ for that guild.

You can receive gifts from guild envoys once you reach rank 2+ for that guild. (left), You’ll discover which guild the envoy belongs to when you speak with them, and by checking their insignia. (right)

Merchants, Mercenaries, and Explorers Guild Rank Standings

Rank Name Standing Required
Unknown 0
Initiate 3
Apprentice 8
Journeyman 14
Associate 21
Senior 30
Master 40
Elder 60
Exalted 100
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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Hello Games
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, XB One, XB X|S
  • Guide Release
    27 April 2022
  • Last Updated
    11 January 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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This ongoing guide for the amazing No Man’s Sky includes the following:

  • Tips and Tricks to get started
  • Technology Upgrades
  • Building a Base guides
  • Crafting Guides
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  • Encounters
    As well as this there is also information on the game’s numerous updates, as well as the forthcoming Nintendo Switch version of No Man’s Sky.

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