pretty sure you need to accept the atlas path to get the pass. i dont know if you can start the atlas path later if you dont take it in the beginning.

the way the game works though, i would think you would get more opportunities later but im not sure.

have you never come across an anomaly in space? i think you can pick it up there.

I accepted the Atlas path and I do recall seeing a message along the lines of "Seek me, Find me." but never found anything.

Nope, never seen an anomaly at all. When I'm ready to change systems I always hit tab to scan but have never found anything.

I'd really hate to have to restart but considering how many systems I've been to so far you'd think I'd have run across something.

I got the V1, after like 10 hrs, but right now, after like 60hrs, I have never come across V2 or V3 and plenty of other upgrades, that others claim, that in the game. Every discovery I made is "already known". This can't be a game feature, no matter what.
Even in a randomized universe after hundreds of outposts and shelters and all buildings visited, not one offers anything new, while my gear is lacking.

On the bright side, at least you have a Atlas Pass V1. I haven't received anything new in many, many hours of play and I'm somewhere around 60+ hours by now.

im also well over 70 hours by now (nmse mod makes it so i cant track how long im playing) and ive never seen a v2 pass either...i think it might have something to do with which achievements youve reached? maybe???

i also havent seen any new blueprint or anything in ages. this is a mechanic that bothers me...the game knows enough to tell me if ive already learned something...why cant it just not give that to me in the first place? obviously there is a limit as to how many blueprints you can learn...but then give out other things, like rare or exotic materials...or just give me credits...whatever.

its super annoying to have an alien showering me with gifts...only to have that gift be both something i already had...and also not that good in the first place. how many times is someone going to give the blueprint for a carite sheet?

im at the point where theres no reason to talk to any of the aliens at all....or even go inside the buildings. the absolutely only things i look for now are creatures and crashed ships. i couldnt care less about anything else. ill stop at monoliths but i wont go looking for them.

For the record, I have an Atlas Pass V2. I found it in an Operations Centre, which as far as I know is the only place you can find one. The same goes for the V3 supposedly, but I haven't found one of those yet. I do believe the rewards from the Operations Centres are randomized, and the chances of the V2 dropping are very low, while I assume the chances for a V3 is somewhere around "a snowball's chance in Hell".

according to this...you just need to grind out operations centers.

http://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-atlas-pass-guide/


::edit::

wishbone beat me to it as i was typing this out.

I got V2 and V3. Like he said grind operations centers. About 20 to get V2. Don't remember V3.The Q they give you was simple. Do a good deed and its given to you.

Does the V3 make the V2 superfluous? Because I thought the V2 would make the V1 superfluous, but it didn't. I have to carry both of them around.

I'd love to have a V2 or V3 Atlas Pass but at this point I'll be happy if I can just get a V1 without having to start over .. again.

Yeah, having a higher grade pass makes the other ones obsolete.

You can either grind and get them randomly. Or get them at a much higher chance while visiting the Atlas sanctuaries, or completing Polo quests.

There is a way to sort of break the atlas path, while also not getting the space-anomalies. If you accept the Atlas' guidance early on, but leave the monoliths behind. If you do, the location of the first Atlas orbital station won't be given to you. But it will turn up again as a waypoint when you relaunch the game somehow.

Don't think that's what happens most of the time, though - you're apparently supposed to find one of the ruins or monoliths through a beacon or any of the other observatories, and so on after you have the atlas quest active (or you've accepted the Atlas' guidance). And then that should lead you to the next atlas-monolith, and give you the first orbital station.

Once you get there, you can then reject the Atlas' guidance and go on your way if you want, and the space-anomalies start popping up. These two paths sort of wave into each other that way - complete tasks for Polo, and you get higher ranking you can submit to the Atlas as well.

But think the quickest way to get a v3 or v2 atlas pass is finding the Atlas stations. Not that.. you really get all that much useful out of it. Specially if you've already maxed out the suit. Blueprints as well are of course easily available since you get one every time you stumble over a rock almost.

You might want to extend your Atlas vocabulary instead, and then visit the orbital stations afterwards.

Uhm, no. At least not the V2. I can't open V1 canisters with only a V2 pass. Trust me, I tried discarding the V1 pass once I got the V2, and had to craft it again.
How? The only things I've ever gotten at an Atlas Interface are Atlas Stones. And Polo never indicated he had any quests for me. Come to think of it, I've never seen anything in the game I would call a quest other than the grand "follow the path of the Atlas" one.
I'm getting both the anomalies and the Atlas waypoints, and I never rejected the Atlas' guidance.
Locating Atlas Interfaces isn't hard, but again, I've never gotten anything but Atlas Stones out of them. Oh, and words from the three factions as well. I don't remember if I ever got any Atlas words from there.
Any special trick to extending your Atlas vocabulary? I've gotten the odd word from a monolith here and there, and occasionally one from an alien (for some reason), but I'm finding far fewer Atlas words than words from any of the three factions.

Here is a short video showing step by step how it's done. In this case it's a v3 pass which is good for everything.
https://youtu.be/aG0USI35vbU

Really? Guess it's possible I only tried it with the doors.. Was sure I opened v1 canisters with a v2 pass, though.

edit: you're right - need a v1 pass for the canisters. The v1 doors open with a v3 pass, though.

I assumed you would get a pass in addition to the reward, because that's how I got the v1 pass when I started. But.. could maybe have been changed in a later patch or something, or have been a random reward. Maybe the Nada/Polo or Atlas quest thing has been changed to.

Still, Polo should be having new "quests" when you reach such and such higher level on any of the journey milestones (9 or 10 total). Or, I think that after you reach a certain level on any of the milestones, you then unlock a potential drop. That then maybe seems like a guaranteed drop if it's a "guaranteed new tech" drop rather than a random one. But then the v3 pass might turn up from any of the random advanced tech-blueprint drops as well (like operations centers).

But I got my v3 pass on the last of those Polo quests.. then again, I think I had every single other tech-blueprint at that point.
That's weird. I got one or the other early on.

Think that's why you don't get the Polo rewards, though? That his quests don't turn up while the atlas path is active?

Yeah, same here. I think the ruins and the monoliths with some interaction or other give you atlas words. It sort of seems to depend on the story, even if you sort of assume you should be gaining atlas words at about 1/3rd of the rate of the other languages.

I sort of wondered for a while if you got extra Atlas words if you spited the first Gek and the Vy'keen ancestors (in the same way that you got more atlas words when sympatizing with the Korvax). But that probably doesn't check out.