Since various aspects of NSPs tend to come up regularly, and seemingly a bit more often these days, I thought I'd write up some information on them. Answers to the most frequently asked questions, information on how to find them, and so on. Click the spoiler buttons to see the answers and explanations on various stuff.
Note that this is about NSPs and thus, space-borne life, not surface biological signals! There is useful information for those too though, especially how they spawn.
Let's begin with the two most frequent observations:
"Ever since I left the Inner Orion Spur, I travelled a long way and I haven't seen any NSPs, where is everything?"
and, often brought up in response:
"I'm in Dryman's Point or Sagittarius-Carina Arm or Tenebrae, and drowning in so many NSPs!"
The reasons for these are simple. NSPs are containers for space-based lifeforms, and all of them have their requirements for spawning listed in the Codex, except a "hidden" requirement:
with only a few exceptions, NSPs spawn only in relatively small areas, and not everywhere in the region. In a bit more detail:
Here are the requirements for lifeforms, and thus, NSPs to appear in a given system:
As a handy example, let's see the albulum gourd molluscs and the peduncle trees.
After the above, if you're looking for the specific requirements of each NSP (and bios), take a look at the spreadsheet in the Compendium of Codex requirements thread.
Now, about Lagrange clouds, storm clouds and nebulae.
Maybe I should have mentioned this sooner, but NSPs can be dangerous in surprising ways and even kill you in a few ways:
A bit about the contents of NSPs. The most important is to note that all of them contain more than just metallic crystals and other static stuff:
Finally, about the possible rewards associated with NSPs:
And this is all that comes to my mind right now, but I'll update this later if other things come up.
Finally, some handy related resources:
Compendium of Codex requirements, listing all the NSP and bio requirements known
NSP category in the Galactic Exploration Catalog, not all of them have entries submitted (yet) though
Galactic regions and life types, to see what has been found so far in which regions
A list of Codex bugs, to see where it might lead you astray
EDAstro-rendered nebula map with regions, in case you're looking for the big and colourful stuff
EDAstro's maps of Codex discoveries, quite handy if you're looking for more than one system
Note that this is about NSPs and thus, space-borne life, not surface biological signals! There is useful information for those too though, especially how they spawn.
Let's begin with the two most frequent observations:
"Ever since I left the Inner Orion Spur, I travelled a long way and I haven't seen any NSPs, where is everything?"
and, often brought up in response:
"I'm in Dryman's Point or Sagittarius-Carina Arm or Tenebrae, and drowning in so many NSPs!"
The reasons for these are simple. NSPs are containers for space-based lifeforms, and all of them have their requirements for spawning listed in the Codex, except a "hidden" requirement:
with only a few exceptions, NSPs spawn only in relatively small areas, and not everywhere in the region. In a bit more detail:
Those few exceptions are the reason why the Inner Orion Spur has a decent amount of NSPs, and Dryman's Point, Sagittarius-Carina Arm and Tenebrae a lot: they have lifeforms which can spawn anywhere in the region. The reason that the Dryman's Point and Sagittarius-Carina Arm regions are full of NSPs while the Inner Orion Spur has a healthy amount of them is simple as well: the peduncle trees that are found out East have much more relaxed spawning requirements than the albulum gourd molluscs all around the bubble's region.
Compare those peduncle trees with the ones found in Hawking's Gap and Temple: in those regions, they only spawn close to specific nebulae - and thus, nobody complains that the two regions are full of them. All the other criteria are exactly the same, so the area can matter this much.
Compare those peduncle trees with the ones found in Hawking's Gap and Temple: in those regions, they only spawn close to specific nebulae - and thus, nobody complains that the two regions are full of them. All the other criteria are exactly the same, so the area can matter this much.
Here are the requirements for lifeforms, and thus, NSPs to appear in a given system:
1. you have to be in the right region: not everything is present everywhere. In fact, the only things that appear in every region are anemones and many Odyssey species - but that's surface life.
2. you have to be in the right area in the region: these areas are generally confined to specific nebulae, but not always. In the cases mentioned above, it's just handy that the "right area" actually covers the entire region.
3. the system has to have the right contents: these are listed in the Codex, although it does have wrong or missing information here.
If all these are met, then it appears the spawn rate is either 100%, or very near to it. To date, I haven't seen a system that met all the criteria and didn't have the NSP.
2. you have to be in the right area in the region: these areas are generally confined to specific nebulae, but not always. In the cases mentioned above, it's just handy that the "right area" actually covers the entire region.
3. the system has to have the right contents: these are listed in the Codex, although it does have wrong or missing information here.
If all these are met, then it appears the spawn rate is either 100%, or very near to it. To date, I haven't seen a system that met all the criteria and didn't have the NSP.
As a handy example, let's see the albulum gourd molluscs and the peduncle trees.
The requirements for Albulum Gourd Molluscs: the system has to have a class T dwarf star present, and at least one of the following bodies present: ELW / WW / GGWL / WG / CII GG. That last part is a fairly common requirement, which could also be translated as "a body with water-based life". It also requires that no Wolf-Rayet stars are present, which is an extremely common requirement as well.
Now, systems with class T main dwarf stars have these planets incredibly rarely, so your best chances of finding a correct system is to find one where the T dwarf star either orbits a larger star directly, or is in a shared orbit with more luminous stars.
In my opinion, this one works out perfectly when it comes to frequency: if you're looking specifically for NSPs, you have good chances of finding them, but not all over the place. If you're just travelling, you still have a decent chance of stumbling across at least one NSP-bearing system on your way.
The only problem is that only Albulum Gourd Molluscs spawn all over the region: all the other gourd molluscs, and all the other lifeforms, spawn only inside much smaller areas.
Let's see the Peduncle trees and pods then. They have the same body requirements (ELW / WW / GGWL / WG / CII GG), but their star requirements is not T, but F / G / K / M instead. Meaning the majority of main sequence star systems. So practically, as long as you stick to scoopable stars (which the majority of explorers already do), then you'll see NSPs every time a system has any sort of planet with any form of water-based life present. All over the entire region.
As such, it's no wonder that people complain there are too many peduncles there.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned above, Peduncle trees and their pods also appear in the Hawking's Gap and Temple regions, with exactly the same criteria... but not the same size of area: only in the vicinity of specific nebulae, not all over the entire region. I haven't heard anybody complain about them in those places either.
Now, systems with class T main dwarf stars have these planets incredibly rarely, so your best chances of finding a correct system is to find one where the T dwarf star either orbits a larger star directly, or is in a shared orbit with more luminous stars.
In my opinion, this one works out perfectly when it comes to frequency: if you're looking specifically for NSPs, you have good chances of finding them, but not all over the place. If you're just travelling, you still have a decent chance of stumbling across at least one NSP-bearing system on your way.
The only problem is that only Albulum Gourd Molluscs spawn all over the region: all the other gourd molluscs, and all the other lifeforms, spawn only inside much smaller areas.
Let's see the Peduncle trees and pods then. They have the same body requirements (ELW / WW / GGWL / WG / CII GG), but their star requirements is not T, but F / G / K / M instead. Meaning the majority of main sequence star systems. So practically, as long as you stick to scoopable stars (which the majority of explorers already do), then you'll see NSPs every time a system has any sort of planet with any form of water-based life present. All over the entire region.
As such, it's no wonder that people complain there are too many peduncles there.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned above, Peduncle trees and their pods also appear in the Hawking's Gap and Temple regions, with exactly the same criteria... but not the same size of area: only in the vicinity of specific nebulae, not all over the entire region. I haven't heard anybody complain about them in those places either.
After the above, if you're looking for the specific requirements of each NSP (and bios), take a look at the spreadsheet in the Compendium of Codex requirements thread.
Now, about Lagrange clouds, storm clouds and nebulae.
Lagrange clouds are not independent of space-borne life; rather, they act as containers for it. If you're looking for clouds, you'll find them where the life is meant to show up. If you're looking for the colourful clouds, you'll only find them around nebulae. This also means systems around planetary nebulae, not just inside them. Proto-Lagrange Clouds can appear anywhere where NSPs appear, they aren't restricted. Although do note that there are a few lifeforms which only appear inside rings!
In other words, you'll never find an empty NSP that contains nothing but the cloud.
Lagrange storm clouds are famous for how good they look, and sound - and for how rare they are. Only a dozen of them are known to date, and it's highly unlikely that more will be found - especially because they might be bugged. As they look right now, they can only spawn inside nebulae, which would mean planetary nebulae. Even then, it's not a guaranteed spawn, as some "regular" coloured clouds appear to have priority. Given these, the only places where there might be undiscovered storm clouds (as of 2024. December) would be planetary nebulae with green gas giants, in the Galactic Centre and Ryker's Hope regions, and um, well, good luck with those.
In other words, you'll never find an empty NSP that contains nothing but the cloud.
Lagrange storm clouds are famous for how good they look, and sound - and for how rare they are. Only a dozen of them are known to date, and it's highly unlikely that more will be found - especially because they might be bugged. As they look right now, they can only spawn inside nebulae, which would mean planetary nebulae. Even then, it's not a guaranteed spawn, as some "regular" coloured clouds appear to have priority. Given these, the only places where there might be undiscovered storm clouds (as of 2024. December) would be planetary nebulae with green gas giants, in the Galactic Centre and Ryker's Hope regions, and um, well, good luck with those.
Maybe I should have mentioned this sooner, but NSPs can be dangerous in surprising ways and even kill you in a few ways:
As a general rule of the thumb, the contents of NSPs are indestructible, but your ship is not. Be careful when you get up close and personal with various lifeforms, as you can get some surprises:
If you want to be as safe as can be while you're poking NSPs, I recommend carrying decontamination limpets at least - they do double as repair limpets too! - and if you want to be safer still, you might use ship-launched fighters to get close, and leave your ship at a safe distance.
- Collision damage is probably the number one killer. Maybe you accidentally fly too fast into those metallic crystals, or maybe a little pod decides to jump in front of you right as you start boosting. People have been sent to the rebuy screen in both ways. Fly slowly!
- Caustic clouds: not a very nice surprise to see your hull start to burn away when you are hundreds or thousands of jumps from the nearest station. To get rid of this, you either have to use decontamination limpets (which very few people carry), caustic sinks (even fewer), or you have to heat up your ship by quite a lot. At some point between 180-300% heat, the caustic damage will burn away, and you'll be safe... after having sustained quite a lot of module and hull damage. After all, by that level, the heat will be damaging your hull too.
- Energy attacks: mostly from anomalies, technically from storms too. The HUD scrambling might seem scary, but these strikes don't do a lot of damage to neither shields nor hulls. As long as you're not flying a shieldless DBX or smaller ship, you should be able to get away with minimal damage, so I just listed this for the sake of completeness. Still, if you spend a lot of time trying to get those perfect screenshots, don't forget about these.
- Overheating: some anomalies will use heat attacks, rapidly overheating your ship. Heat sinks are useful for exploration anyway, and don't weigh a lot: in this case, they can save you from some serious hull and module damage.
If you want to be as safe as can be while you're poking NSPs, I recommend carrying decontamination limpets at least - they do double as repair limpets too! - and if you want to be safer still, you might use ship-launched fighters to get close, and leave your ship at a safe distance.
A bit about the contents of NSPs. The most important is to note that all of them contain more than just metallic crystals and other static stuff:
They will contain one "dynamic" lifeform, and 0-2 static or "filler" lifeforms. The former are the ones that exhibit various sorts of behaviour, and have traits associated with them on the Codex, and are often specific to single or only a few regions. The latter are static objects that float around, not doing anything... except killing pilots who fly too fast into them.
If you've found an NSP but all you see are crystals, mineral spheres and other filler content, then chances are the dynamic life in there is tiny, like the small molluscs or anomalies. You can spot these by keeping an eye on your scanner: if you see a cluster of uncertain contacts there, fly towards them. Such lifeforms only resolve to specific contacts quite close by. Once they do, you can target them and scan them with your composition scanner... provided you didn't fly by them too fast.
If you've found an NSP but all you see are crystals, mineral spheres and other filler content, then chances are the dynamic life in there is tiny, like the small molluscs or anomalies. You can spot these by keeping an eye on your scanner: if you see a cluster of uncertain contacts there, fly towards them. Such lifeforms only resolve to specific contacts quite close by. Once they do, you can target them and scan them with your composition scanner... provided you didn't fly by them too fast.
Finally, about the possible rewards associated with NSPs:
They are tiny. The amount of credits you get for discovering stuff for the Codex is very small, even for entirely new finds. You can scrape some lifeforms with research limpets to obtain various samples as cargo. These fetch tiny amounts of credits as well, and are not known to have any BGS effects, despite repeated experiments with lots of samples. However, there has been one CG (community goal) so far that did involve gathering such samples, so there's that. Also, none of these give you any Exobiology rank progress, the Odyssey stuff is separate. If you still wish to gather these samples for whatever reason, read on for what you need to know.
Two kinds of life can be sampled: large molluscs and pods. The small molluscs and the "Anomalies" are too small for the research limpets to dock with. Large molluscs tend to be found around nebulae, and their Codex pictures have backgrounds of various colours. The small molluscs can be found elsewhere, too, and all have very similar blue backdrops. They also have rather similar tentacles.
Each variant of pods or molluscs will yield three kinds of samples, and not with an equal drop rate. (However, currently there's no known difference between the various samples.) Also, bringing multiple research limpet controllers is a good idea: although you can only have one limpet docked on one lifeform, you can still use multiple limpets on multiple lifeforms. This will speed up your gathering significantly.
Lastly, bear in mind that the samples are cargo and will attract NPC pirates to you! This is only a concern when you're returning to inhabited space, of course. Fleet carriers can safely store, buy and sell the samples.
Two kinds of life can be sampled: large molluscs and pods. The small molluscs and the "Anomalies" are too small for the research limpets to dock with. Large molluscs tend to be found around nebulae, and their Codex pictures have backgrounds of various colours. The small molluscs can be found elsewhere, too, and all have very similar blue backdrops. They also have rather similar tentacles.
Each variant of pods or molluscs will yield three kinds of samples, and not with an equal drop rate. (However, currently there's no known difference between the various samples.) Also, bringing multiple research limpet controllers is a good idea: although you can only have one limpet docked on one lifeform, you can still use multiple limpets on multiple lifeforms. This will speed up your gathering significantly.
Lastly, bear in mind that the samples are cargo and will attract NPC pirates to you! This is only a concern when you're returning to inhabited space, of course. Fleet carriers can safely store, buy and sell the samples.
And this is all that comes to my mind right now, but I'll update this later if other things come up.
Finally, some handy related resources:
Compendium of Codex requirements, listing all the NSP and bio requirements known
NSP category in the Galactic Exploration Catalog, not all of them have entries submitted (yet) though
Galactic regions and life types, to see what has been found so far in which regions
A list of Codex bugs, to see where it might lead you astray
EDAstro-rendered nebula map with regions, in case you're looking for the big and colourful stuff
EDAstro's maps of Codex discoveries, quite handy if you're looking for more than one system
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