[ Update: It is worth noting up-front that the weekend following the publication of this blog post brought the “Mud Huts” discussed here as a buildable item that can be purchased in the Anomaly from the Quicksilver merchant. As such, searching for the ideal hut is (perhaps sadly) no longer a requirement for those seeking such a base shelter. In a recent video, Mac Foraday demonstrates the building of such huts. ]

The first few weeks after No Man’s Sky Origins landed, I spent a great many hours in the game traveling from system to system, exploring the entirely new worlds added to the universe, as well as the dramatically expanded diversity found on the planets that have been there all along. Almost immediately I discovered a fiery hellscape of a world that was so unlike anything I’d encountered in the game before, I had to setup a base from which to explore it in detail. After several weeks’ journey, I paused to share some of the amazing sights I encountered.

Aside from the aforementioned hellish volcano worlds, another new type of world is a swampy sort marked by dramatically rooted trees, glowing fungi, and a sort of organic pod dwelling that players have taken to calling “Yoda huts,” given their similarity to the well known Degobah homestead of the aged Jedi master. Not long after installing the update, I encountered my first world of this sort, but I didn’t immediately notice these little organic huts situated at the base of certain trees. But, as soon as I came across my first, the possibilities got me quite excited given my fondness for “tiny home” bases.

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The unfortunate thing about these organic pods is that surrounding flora is heavily clipped into almost all of them, cluttering their interior space with leaves and brambles. Finding a hut that is both nicely situated and free (or nearly so) of intruding plants is a time-consuming process, I’ve learned. They can often be found in small groups close together or even growing in and amongst one another in an overlapping sort of way. Some are inaccessible, the main opening being entirely in the ground or in the trunk of a tree. But, if you want to find just the right pod-home on these new swampy worlds, with a little patience you can.

The photos and video shared here start off with the first pod I found enough to my liking to put down a base computer and settle. The encampment is a series of three huts located on a hilly world that’s more misty than swampy, really. The main hut is the “cleanest” of the lot, the other two being rather overgrown, internally. I was still able to utilize them though, placing my base teleporter just inside the entrance of one, and using the other to conceal power storage and host a bouncing blob terrarium.

The second of these huts I settled really does feel like a place you might find Yoda hobbling about with his cane. Located on the bank of a swampy lake, the landscape is marked with occasional giant spires rising impossibly high into the sky. The dwelling features a two-story design of sorts, with the bed on a raised platform, within. While the weather is mild, local meteor showers are frequent and getting caught too far from base or ship is something I have found to be unwise.

The third and final of these bases is located on a mountainous swamp world with planetary geography on a truly gargantuan scale. The pod I occupied is situated on a hillside with a striking view of the neighboring planet and its small moon floating over the distant hills. For this base, I built out an “attached” front porch to admire the aforementioned view. (“Attaching” any building materials to these huts is a trick of appearance; for the porch, A distance out from the hut I placed a few vertical walls and then approached the hut with floor panels, and when one appeared to be attached to the hut, all previous construction parts were deleted.) Lightning storms are frequent on this world, with electrical anomalies besieging the dwelling violently, as can be seen in the video tour.

While it seems true that there is only so much that one can do with these identical little dwellings, it has been fun trying different approaches to make them proper bases. I’m sure the three bases shown here won’t be my only foray into making like Yoda and calling a swamp hut a home.