How do I place a Base Computer in No Man's Sky?

Craft it — 40 chromatic metal and 80 pure ferrite — and place it on almost any planet or moon surface from the build menu's technology section. Interact with it to begin initialization, wait for the claim to register, and name the base. That sphere of terrain is yours until you delete the computer.

How far can you build from a Base Computer?

Roughly 300 units in every direction — a sphere, not a circle, so it extends down into caves and up into towers. Parts refuse to place outside it. Plan big builds around the computer's position, or place a second computer as a new base rather than fighting the edge.

Can I move my Base Computer to a new spot?

No. There is no relocate option — the only way to move a base is to delete it at the Base Computer and rebuild elsewhere, which refunds nothing and leaves the old terrain editable only via restore point. This is why the placement decision deserves a survey first.

What does the Base Computer restore point do?

It stores a snapshot of the terrain you edited while building. From the computer's menu you can restore the site's terrain to an earlier state — the fix for over-enthusiastic excavation, half-buried foundations, and dig projects that went wrong. Structures may need attention after a rollback, but the land itself is recoverable.

How do I delete a base in No Man's Sky?

Interact with the Base Computer and choose the delete option for the base. Deletion is permanent, refunds no materials, and clears the claim so the site can be used again — by you or anyone else. Take what you want out of storage first; the containers and their contents go with the base.

How many bases can I have?

Many, simultaneously, across different planets and systems, plus a base aboard your freighter. Build limits are per base, not per save, so multiple bases are the intended way to scale — a home, a farm, a power outpost, a dissonance camp — rather than one structure that does everything.

Base Computer Placement in No Man's Sky: Claiming, Radius, and Restore Points

Every part in a No Man’s Sky base is negotiable — walls move, rooms delete, power lines reroute. One part is not: the Base Computer. Where it stands is where the base is, forever, because the game’s only answer to “wrong spot” is deletion without refund. It is a small pylon with outsized consequences, and it runs more systems than its size suggests: claiming, the build radius, terrain restore points, deletion, and the save-point behavior that makes a base home. This is the complete guide to the part every base hangs from.

Last updated: August 22, 2026, current through patch 6.50. For what to build once the claim registers, start with the base building guide.

Placing and Claiming

The Base Computer is crafted from 40 Chromatic Metal and 80 Pure Ferrite — a starting-game budget of common materials — and placed from the build menu’s technology section. Placement rules:

Any planet or moon surface works: lush, frozen, irradiated, underwater, in a cave mouth, on a floating island.
Not on other players’ claims — an existing base’s sphere refuses your computer.
Not in restricted or instanced areas — certain mission and station environments decline the placement outright.

Place it, interact, and the computer initializes — a short, deliberate wait while the claim registers. Then you name the base, and the name enters your teleporter lists at every space station and aboard your freighter. A name you recognize beats a clever one.

The Build Radius

A claimed base projects a sphere of roughly 300 units around the computer. Inside it: building, terrain editing, part placement. Outside it: nothing, and the build menu tells you so by refusing. Three consequences worth internalizing:

The computer anchors the middle, not the edge. A computer placed at the cliff edge wastes half its sphere in the void. Site the computer where the structure will grow from, not where you happened to land.
The sphere is three-dimensional. Deep cave bases and tall towers use the same claim — the radius extends down and up as far as sideways.
The edge is a wall, not a gradient. There is no creep of permissions; when a planned wing crosses the boundary, the honest options are re-centering the build around the computer or claiming a second computer as a separate base — which the game happily allows, and which is often the better answer anyway.

Full mechanics of what fills the sphere — and how much of it — are in the building guide and tips.

Restore Points: The Terrain Undo

Every terrain edit you make inside a base — the foundation trench, the buried power line, the hill you removed — is tracked by the Base Computer, which keeps a restore point: a snapshot of the site’s terrain that you can roll back to from the computer’s menu.

What it is for:

Reversing excavation mistakes. The over-deep foundation dig, the half-mountain removed for a view — restore rolls the land back.
Un-burying what you buried. Terrain added over machinery and cables can be cleared the same way.
Site etiquette on deletion. Leaving a claim? Restoring the terrain before you go is the polite close-out.

The honest caveat: a restore affects terrain, not structures — buildings are dismantled separately — and edits made after a snapshot are the ones a rollback erases. It is an undo button with a memory, not a time machine for the whole base.

Deleting a Base

Deletion lives in the Base Computer’s own menu. Choose it deliberately, because it is final:

The base and everything in it — containers, contents, parts — is gone.
No materials are refunded. The recycled value of deleted parts during normal building does not apply to base deletion.
The claim clears, freeing the site for a future computer.
The terrain remains editable through the restore point only if the base data persists; treat deletion as the end of the site’s history.

The checklist before deleting: empty the storage containers (their contents do not survive), strip any parts you would rebuild elsewhere by deleting them individually first for partial refunds, and restore the terrain if you care what the site looks like after you.

How Veterans Pick the Spot

Because the computer is immovable, the placement ritual earns its minutes:

Survey before claiming. Power and mineral hotspots, terrain, sightlines — the best base planets checklist, applied to the specific site, before the computer goes down.
Center on the build, not the landing. Walk the site first; place the computer where the structure’s center will be, with the sphere covering the whole plan plus slack.
Mind the neighbors. Other structures, portal sites, and crash sites near your claim edge will collide with your build radius later.
Flat beats beautiful at the anchor. The computer’s immediate ground should be level; drama can happen at the edges where terrain tools manage it.

The Computer as Home

Two last systems the computer quietly carries: it is the registration point that puts your base on the galaxy’s map — visible to you and, at your choosing, to other travelers through the portal network — and in multiplayer its claim is what makes the site yours: your parts, your storage, your restore points, with visitors as guests. From a one-pylon teleporter shack to a hundred-hour starport, every base in the game is the same object at heart: a claim, a sphere, and a name. Place it like it matters, because it is the one piece that does.