Portal Guide
Glyphs, Monoliths, addresses, and portal bases
No Man's Sky Portal Guide
Portals are one of the most useful systems in No Man's Sky. Once you understand glyphs, Monoliths, portal addresses, and galaxy limits, you can visit shared ships, multi-tools, planets, farms, bases, and community discoveries much faster.
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Portal Glyphs Very Fast in 2025
Quick Portal Tips
The important portal rules before the full guide.
Portals let you enter 12-glyph addresses and travel to specific locations within the same galaxy.
You need glyphs before you can fully use shared portal addresses.
Portal addresses are galaxy-specific. A Euclid address must be used from a Euclid portal.
The normal portal route is Alien chart → Monolith → race item → portal marker.
If you have Exocraft scanning unlocked, scanning for Alien Structures can find Monoliths faster.
Always create a restore point before answering a Monolith interaction.
Bring a Gek Relic, Korvax Casing, or Vy'keen Dagger depending on the system race.
Build a Base Computer at your first portal so you can return whenever you need coordinates.
Portal basics
What Are Portals?
Portals are special planetary structures that let you enter glyph addresses and travel to shared locations.
Portals
Travel structure
Large planetary structures used to enter glyph addresses and travel to specific locations.
Glyphs
Portal symbols
The 16 symbols used to dial portal addresses. Once learned, glyphs are permanent.
Addresses
Coordinates
A 12-glyph sequence shared by players to visit ships, tools, bases, farms, planets, and more.
Think of portals like a galaxy-wide address system. A shared glyph address can lead to a specific planet, ship system, multi-tool cabinet, player base, farm, or community discovery — but only if you are using a portal in the correct galaxy.
Portal flow
What Do You Need?
There are three separate problems: unlocking glyphs, finding a portal, and knowing the address you want to dial.
Need glyphs?
Find Traveller NPCs, ask where they came from, and visit their graves to learn glyphs.
Need a portal?
Find a Monolith with Alien charts or Exocraft scanning, then request a portal location.
Need coordinates?
Use shared coordinates from guides and community posts once you have the right galaxy and glyphs.
Portal Glyphs Explained
Glyphs are the symbols used to dial portal addresses.
There are 16 portal glyphs. A portal address uses 12 glyphs, and glyphs are learned permanently. Once you learn a glyph, you can use it in any portal address from then on.
How to get your first glyphs
- 1Visit space stations and look for Traveller NPCs.
- 2Talk to the Traveller once and finish the first dialogue.
- 3Talk to them again and choose the option asking where they came from.
- 4Pay the Nanite cost to reveal a grave marker.
- 5Fly to the grave and interact with it to learn a glyph.
- 6Repeat until you have the glyphs you need.
Important Traveller Tip
Travellers are easiest to check in space stations. They look different from Gek, Korvax, and Vy'keen NPCs. Talk to them once, then talk to them again for the grave-location option. If you only talk once, you may miss the glyph step.
Portal Addresses Are Galaxy-Specific
This is one of the most important portal rules.
A portal address only works correctly inside the galaxy it belongs to. If a player shares a Euclid address, use a portal in Euclid. If the address is for Eissentam, you need to reach Eissentam first and use a portal there. That is why it is useful to build portal bases in each galaxy you regularly use.
Find a portal
How to Find a Portal Fast
The fastest normal route is through a Monolith. You can find the Monolith with Alien charts or with Exocraft scanning.
Method 1: Alien Charts
Best for new players
The classic method is to buy Alien Cartographic charts from a space station Cartographer, use them until you find a Monolith, then use the Monolith to locate the portal.
- 1Gather Navigation Data.
- 2Buy Alien Cartographic Data / Alien Planetary Charts from the Cartographer.
- 3Buy a few charts because they may locate ruins instead of a Monolith.
- 4Use the charts while on or near the planet where you want a portal.
- 5Follow the marker if it locates an Alien Monolith.
- 6If it marks the wrong structure, try another chart or move systems.
Method 2: Exocraft Scanner
Best once progressed
If you have Exocraft scanning unlocked, you can scan for Alien Structures directly and skip the repeated chart process.
- 1Summon an Exocraft with radar upgrades installed.
- 2Open the Exocraft radar menu.
- 3Choose the Alien Structure scan option.
- 4Follow the marker to the Monolith.
- 5If the scan does not give a Monolith, scan again or try another location.
- 6Use your ship to travel to the marker faster.
Monolith item
Bring the Correct Race Item
After passing the Monolith interaction, you need the correct race item to request a portal location.
Gek system
Gek Relic
Used in Gek-dominant systems when requesting a portal from a Monolith.
Korvax system
Korvax Casing
Used in Korvax-dominant systems when requesting a portal from a Monolith.
Vy'keen system
Vy'keen Dagger
Used in Vy'keen-dominant systems when requesting a portal from a Monolith.
You can usually buy these items from landed pilots at Trading Posts or space stations. Buying the item before visiting the Monolith saves time.
At the Monolith
This is where most portal-finding mistakes happen.
- 1Land at the Monolith and hop out of your ship to create a restore point.
- 2Interact with the Monolith and answer the scenario.
- 3If the answer fails, reload your restore point and try a different answer.
- 4After passing, interact with the Monolith again.
- 5Choose the option to locate a portal.
- 6Offer the correct race item for that system.
- 7Follow the portal marker and land at the portal.
Activate it
How to Charge a Portal
Before dialing an address, the portal interface needs to be charged with basic resources.
Earth elements
Cobalt, Dioxite, Salt, Di-hydrogen, Ionized Cobalt
Fuel elements
Carbon, Condensed Carbon, Oxygen
Catalyst elements
Sodium, Sodium Nitrate
Stellar elements
Copper, Cadmium, Emeril, Indium, activated metals
A simple travel stack of Carbon, Sodium, Cobalt, Di-hydrogen, Copper, and Oxygen usually prevents the annoying situation where you find a portal but cannot activate every glyph slot.
Build a Portal Base
This is the best long-term portal tip.
After finding a portal, place a Base Computer nearby and name the base clearly, such as Euclid Portal or Eissentam Portal. You do not need a huge base. Even a simple Base Computer gives you a permanent teleport point for future portal-address trips.
Fast glyph route
Fast Glyphs 3–16 Method
Community glyph routes can be much faster than finding every Traveller manually, but they depend on uploaded player bases being available.
Community Base Glyph Route
After getting your first glyphs and finding a portal, some community routes let you travel to a system with uploaded bases placed near Traveller graves. You then teleport through bases named in order, collecting glyphs one by one.
Keep this flexible
Because this relies on uploaded player bases, availability can vary. The normal Traveller grave method still works if the community route does not appear in your teleporter list.
- 1Get the first required glyphs normally from Travellers.
- 2Find and activate a portal.
- 3Dial the shared community glyph-route address.
- 4Travel through and find a teleporter.
- 5Open Other Bases and look for the numbered glyph bases.
- 6Visit each base and interact with the Traveller grave nearby.
Why portals matter
What Portals Are Useful For
Once you understand portals, a huge amount of shared No Man's Sky content becomes easier to use.
Rare ships
Use shared addresses to visit systems with specific crashed ships, exotic ships, Sentinel ships, or solar ships.
S-Class multi-tools
Many community finds include glyphs for specific multi-tools and cabinet locations.
Paradise planets
Portal coordinates make it much easier to visit beautiful planets, rare biomes, and community discoveries.
Player bases and farms
Use portals to visit farms, resource bases, glyph routes, community hubs, and other player-built locations.
Rare creatures
Coordinates can lead to rare fauna, companions, and planets with unusual creature spawns.
Galaxy center travel
Some addresses place you near the galactic core, helping with galaxy progression.
Useful links
Portal Coordinate Communities
These communities are useful once you understand portal addresses and want to visit shared discoveries.
Galaxy Center Travel Note
Portals can help with galaxy progression, but prepare first.
Some shared portal addresses place you close to the galactic core. Before jumping galaxies, switch to a ship and multi-tool you do not mind repairing, because galaxy jumps can damage technology. This is better treated as a progression trick than something every beginner needs immediately.
Common Portal Mistakes
Avoid these and portals become much less confusing.
Using the wrong galaxy
Portal addresses are galaxy-specific. A Euclid address will not work correctly from an Eissentam portal.
Not having glyphs unlocked
You need to learn glyphs before you can enter addresses that use those symbols.
Talking to Travellers only once
Talk once for the dialogue, then talk again to ask where they came from.
Forgetting the race item
Bring a Gek Relic, Korvax Casing, or Vy'keen Dagger before requesting the portal location.
Failing the Monolith and leaving
Create a restore point first. If the answer fails, reload and choose differently.
Not building a portal base
A Base Computer at a portal saves a ton of time for future coordinate trips.
Keep going
Next No Man’s Sky Guides
Portals connect naturally into ships, Nanites, money, and Expeditions.
Ships Guide
Use portals to visit shared ship coordinates, then learn what ships are worth keeping.
Nanites Guide
Farm Nanites for upgrades, class upgrades, and module buying before chasing perfect finds.
Money Guide
Build your Unit income so you can afford ships, freighters, upgrades, and supplies.
Expeditions Guide
Learn how Expeditions work and how rewards transfer back to your main saves.