There’s no getting away from it, No Man’s Sky has you doing a lot of walking - certainly at the start when you are getting going. Now, this is, for some, part of the game’s appeal as it is pretty chill, however, it does mean things take longer to do. There is a little trick though that will see you buzzing around your planets a bit quicker than simply walking from A to B.

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Reach resource deposits much quicker using the handy Melee Boost tip that will help your traverse the landscape at speed.

What is Melee Boost?¶

Melee Boost has been in NMS for ages and has been changed as the game has developed. More recently though the devs appear to have embraced it as a legitimate movement tactic and made it easier to pull off as you can see in our video below.

How to Melee Boost in No Man’s Sky¶

If you pull the move off, and there’s no reason that you won’t after reading this, you will be able to get to your destinates much quicker as it involves a combination of running and your jetpack.

What you need to do is to start off in the direction you want to go and hit the sprint key. This will (obviously) pick up your pace but is limited in usefulness as it does not last very long. As you are sprinting hit your melee button (Q on the PC) to dip your shoulder like a footballer. As you do this tap your Jetpack button (space on the PC) and you should fire off at speed in your direction of travel as you can see above.

It’s a much quicker way of getting around town and will help you get to those milestones quicker. And, the devs approve so it is definitely not cheating!

Melee Boost controls¶

PC¶

Command	Control
Forward
Run
Melee
Jetpack

Xbox¶

Command	Control
Forward
Run
Melee
Jetpack

PlayStation¶

Command	Control
Forward
Run
Melee
Jetpack

History of Melee Boost in No Man’s Sky¶

There is probably no doubting that Melee Boost was just one of those cheeses that gamers find and devs were unaware of. So much so that in the earlier days of the game the facility to Melee Boost was removed entirely. No Man’s Sky is supposed to be a game about exploration, not a speedrunning contest7. But there is just so much to explore the devs decided to add it back in, albeit in a slightly different manner and it is now accepted as a legitimate mechanic to get around the game’s infinite number of locations.