There are a myriad of quests in No Man’s Sky, each tasking the player with specific objectives and offering some powerful upgrades and rewards. “They Who Returned” is one of them that delves into the game’s lore.
They Who Returned was added with the Echoes update, and offers a glimpse at a new alien race called Autophages. Most importantly, players who complete this quest can wield a futuristic staff instead of a multi-tool.
Here is a full walkthrough of the They Who Returned quest in NMS.
How to start the They Who Returned quest in NMS
Since They Who Returned is an endgame quest, you can’t jump straight into the mission. You’ll have to complete two important objectives to unlock the quest:
- Find a Harmonic Camp, which spawns in Dissonant Systems on Corrupted Sentinel planets.
- Complete ‘The Purge’ quest. This is the final mission in the main NMS storyline, and it ends with the player making an important decision about their fate. Luckily, none of these choices have an impact on the They Who Returned quest.
Once you have completed both of these, warp to any system with your starship to begin the questline. When you have arrived at your destination, you’ll receive a cryptic message that activates the quest.
How to complete They Who Returned in NMS
The mission starts with the aforementioned message, which contains a lot of nonsensical exposition and many dialogue choices that do not affect the outcome. Once you complete this call, you’ll receive coordinates to a Harmonic Camp.
Meeting the Autophage
At the Harmonic Camp, you’ll find a damaged Autophage, a member of a rare and secretive alien race. When interacting with this Autophage, the player will have the choice to:
- Poke the head (correct answer)
- Scan the head (correct answer)
- Speak to the head (correct answer)
- Leave
Selecting any of the three choices that interact with the head advances the story. The player then has a chance to gift the Autophage one of three different materials:
- Nanites
- Pugneum
- Atlantideum (correct answer)
By gifting the alien Atlantideum, you’ll receive coordinates to a Korvax Monolith, your next destination.
The Korvax Monolith
In NMS, Monoliths are large ancient structures where aliens stored knowledge. This Korvax Monolith specifically spawns for the quest, and is filled with information surrounding Autophages.
After speaking with the Discordant Interface at the Monolith, you’ll learn the Autophage words for the numbers one through 16 and their corresponding glyphs. Once you have obtained this knowledge, it’s time to head back to the Harmonic Camp to speak with the Damaged Autophage.
Repairing the Damaged Autophage
When you return to the Damaged Autophage, you can start a Memory Repair on the alien by selecting the “Touch Head” dialogue option. Just before the repair begins, the Damaged Autophage will blurt out three numbers, which you must input as numeric glyphs.
For example, if the Autophage gives you the numbers one, two, and three, you’ll have to input glyphs one, two, and three in that order. The numbers are different for every player.
If you input the numeric glyphs correctly, the Autophage will begin to speak with you. Selecting any dialogue option causes the alien to gift you a Scan Harmoniser blueprint. The Scan Harmoniser is made with the following materials:
- One Radiant Shard
- One Microprocessor
- 100 Runaway Mould
After crafting this technology, press C on PC or L3 on consoles to activate the Scan Harmoniser. Using the scanner will reveal multiple Autophages who have cloaked themselves from your vision. Talking to one of these new Autophages will advance the mission.
Speak with Nada about the Autophages
Summon the Space Anomaly within the interaction menu, and board the space station to talk with the NPC Nada and the Assembled Construct. After speaking with Nada and presenting Atlantideum to the Assembled Construct, the robot will become corrupted and gift the Polyphonic Core blueprint.
This piece of technology allows you to scan for Harmonic Camps on any planet. To craft a Polyphonic Core, use these materials:
- 190 Atlantideum
- One Quantum Computer
- One Living Glass
After crafting the Polyphonic Core and returning for another discussion with Nada, they’ll ask the player to expand the investigation by completing two different side quests:
- Audience with the Autophage
- Prayers of the Machine
Audience with the Autophage
We suggest completing “Audience with the Autophage” first because it unlocks Voltaic Staff multi-tool Crafting. This quest tasks you with speaking to three Autophages across three different star systems.
Speaking with each Autophage will begin a randomized fetch quest, and when completed, you’ll earn one Voltaic Staff component per Autophage. To complete the mission, you must present your completed Voltaic Staff to an Autophage.
The Voltaic Staff functions just like a regular multi-tool, so you can always add the staff to your repertoire.
Prayers of the Machine
This side quest is slightly more time-consuming, as you’ll have to travel between a planet and the system’s space station multiple times. To begin this quest, interact with the Korvax Simulation Terminal, which is next to the portal on the Anomaly.
After this, you’ll have to deliver Atlantideum to an Electronic Heart within an Operations Centre. Luckily, the quest will automatically mark an Operations Centre for you, so jet over and then head back to the space station.
Now, talk with the Station Core, purposefully exposing the entire space station to Atlantideum. After this, you’ll have to fly into space and engage your pulse jets to uncover a Fragment of New Atlantid, which ends the quest.
The Hidden Galaxy
Once you complete these two sidequests, you’re in the home stretch. Use your scanner to reveal a Portal, and expose the wormhole to Atlantideum. After presenting the strange mineral, you can either hold out your staff or select the “Atlas” dialogue choice to teleport to an Atlas Station.
Once inside the station, speak with the Atlas Interface and reveal Atlantideum yet again. This will corrupt the Atlas, turning it purple and revealing some spoiler-heavy lore about both the Korvax and Autophages. Once this conversation is over, you’ll be teleported to a random planet alongside your starship.
To complete the entire questline, summon the Space Anomaly and speak with Nada one final time.
All They Who Returned quest rewards
On top of unlocking the ability to craft a staff, you’ll get some extra blueprints and lore unlocks throughout the quest. Here are all the They Who Returned quest rewards:
- Scan Harmoniser blueprint
- Polyphonic Core blueprint
- Three Voltaic Staff component blueprints
- Ability to meet the Assembled Construct and the Autophage on the Space Anomaly
- Autophage guide entry
All the technology you unlock throughout the quest will still be available, so you can use it at your leisure. Also, you can now speak with the Assembled Construct and the Autophage whenever you want, and access the Autophage’s lore in the guide menu.
