No Man’s Sky now has its own Death Star with a laser so big it can ‘destroy space station sized objects’

Who says you need a mouth-breathing psychopath in black armor and a gross, pale old ghoul in a hood to have a Death Star? No Man’s Sky continues its seemingly endless parade of free updates today with The Swarm, which introduces a new threat to the universe: a massive space station called the Hive of Glass that controls an army of angry drones.

And yeah, like the Death Star, the Hive’s got a really big laser, too. Here, I’ll let Sean Murray tell you about it:

“The Hive of Glass protects itself by releasing swarms of robotic drones, creating an awesome spectacle of battles with hundreds of ships,” Murray says. “The Hive itself is a weapon too, with the iris opening to release the largest weapon we’ve ever seen in No Man’s Sky. A laser capable of destroying freighter fleets and perhaps even something as large as a space station…”

Don’t expect to take on the Hive all by yourself like some kind of friendless Luke Skywalker: travellers will have to work together to neutralize the threat.

“Players are going to need a combined community effort to figure out what is going on,” Murray says. “A war effort is being launched from the Nexus, with defenses rapidly being constructed, and a new bulletin page tracking progress. Your contribution to the face-off with the Hive is being logged for all to see in both the Anomaly and the Galactic Atlas. Travellers will want to keep a constant eye on which squad is contributing the most to the war effort.”

If huge space battles aren’t your thang, no problem. There’s plenty to do on the ground too, like salvaging and researching the drones that have been shot down—and the gravity gun Hello Games added to No Man’s Sky a few updates ago will come in handy there.

“There are miniature planetary swarms to defeat, and research efforts to sabotage the swarm’s network. The secrets of the Hive’s origins and weaknesses can be uncovered and shared with your fellow rebels,” Murray says. “We can’t wait to see how this plays out.”

There’s a whole lot more in the free update, like a new armor set, a fancy new jetpack, a sick-looking rifle, a bunch of bugfixes, and some stability and optimization improvements. The update is live now.