How to find a scorched world in No Man’s Sky

In No Man’s Sky, you’ll come across a lot of planets and moons that look pretty undesirable as new homes. While some have environmental factors that you can cope with by putting a roof over your head, others aren’t even worth landing on. In this guide, we’re looking at one of those latter types of world, Scorched worlds. We’ll cover how to find them and why you might want to in your next session.

What are scorched worlds?

If the name hadn’t given it away, scorched worlds are planets and moons that have been savaged by its system’s sun. They’re too close to it to become a habitable or lush world, and there are no environmental factors at play to make them anything other than incredibly hot. Think of Mercury from our own Solar System and how it’s constantly bombarded by the sun’s heat year after year.

How to find scorched worlds

Once you’ve warped to a system, check the Discoveries menu to see if any planets or moons have the “scorched” descriptor attached to them. If you’re in an undiscovered system, you’ll have to land on a planet before discovering if it’s scorched. The descriptor should appear as soon as you leave your ship. Red systems have a slightly higher chance of containing scorched worlds.

Scorched worlds aren’t difficult to find. Most systems have at least one, certainly early on in a campaign. They’re characterized by their barren landscape, which is often rocky and cracked like cooled lava. Occasionally, you’ll see what appears to be molten rock or boiling liquids flowing in rivers, though this is rare since these worlds are often too hot to have any liquids on the surface. The local fauna may contain the same fluid, so attacking them should be avoided.

All scorched world planet descriptors

Scorched worlds all fall under the following descriptors, landing on any one of them counts as a scorched world.

• Scorched
• Boiling
• Arid
• High Temperature
• Hot
• Torrid
• Fiery
• Scalding
• Incandescent

Why should you find scorched worlds?

Scorched worlds host Solanium, Phosphorus, and Sulphurine. All of these can be important for constructing bases or exocraft, so it’s worth knowing where your nearest one is just in case you need these resources. In Expedition Beachhead, landing on a scorched world was one of the milestones for Phase Three, and there’s a good chance that future expeditions will have similar milestones. Knowing how to spot them will pay off when you’re trying to complete the next Expedition as quickly as possible.

There’s no reason to build a base on a scorched world unless you want to make life particularly hard for yourself. They have a red hue to their atmosphere that might be good for photo mode shots, but otherwise they’re barren and useless.