Check out latest Anomaly Fanzine now!
The Distance and Route Calculator (DaRC) is used by Travellers who want to experience a long distance travel experience. This type of travel is also known as Coordinate-and-Warp-Engine-Based Travel.
Many Travellers find it to be the most rewarding way to play. If you love a challenge. and want the experience, our AGT Founders took the in the early eras, then this is way to learn the fundamentals of the simulation.
When No Man’s Sky was first released, and for quite some time after, this was the only option for navigation. Although its popularity faded after the introduction of player-assisted and Portal travel, some travelers still choose to travel this way.
The general concept is that you will make use of galactic coordinates, which represent your current location and your destination location. You will place these two coordinate into a third-party tool website, and then you will manually navigate through the voids of uninhabited space and make your own way to the destination using the hyperdrive.
The third-party tool we recommend is the Distance and Route Calculator (DaRC) Tool, developed by the Black Hole Suns (BHS). This tool is similar to a legacy tool, the Pilgrim Star Path (PSP), except BHS improved it by adding data on the inputs and outputs of black holes. DaRC will give you directions, routing you through black holes to provide the most direct route to your destination. However, Black Holes are useless near the Center. In that case, DaRC will function almost identically to Pilgrim Star Path.
Open DARC: https://db.blackholesuns.com/darc.html.
Once you have DaRC, enter the galactic coordinates for your current location. These can be obtained by building a Signal Booster, that can be placed anywhere on a planet. If you look Signal Booster you will notice a 5-part sequence. It could look something like CDFQ:043D:0072:0D44:005F. Ignore the first part of this sequence which is normally 4-5 letters and no numbers, leaving 043D:0072:0D44:005F in this example. Every star system will have different galactic coordinates that are unique in a galaxy (not unique in a universe however). You also have the option to input your location in the form of Portal Glyphs, which can be found most easily in Photo Mode. Then, similarly, enter a destination sequence in either coordinates or glyphs.
Study the “Results” section, which is easier to understand than the 3D map. This provides a guide for the route to your destination, routing you through black holes, instructing you on which direction to warp towards. If warping for extended distances, you stop every so often - every 5-10 jumps - and check your coordinates. This will help you determine if you’re accurately correctly estimating the trajectory for your warps.
Note that once you reach a destination region, galactic coordinates are not useful for intra-region travel. For example, traveling from would not be possible using coordinates 043D:0072:0D44:005F to 043D:0072:0D44:01AF. In the earliest era, Travellers would share images or short video of directions to help with intra-region navigation, but this has become uncommon since the introduction of Portal travel and player-assisted travel.