You're pulsing through warp speed. Everything is a blur of neon lines and cosmic static. Suddenly, your ship's computer screams at you to drop out of pulse drive. An "Anomalous Broadcast" is detected. You expect a trader, maybe a pirate, or a derelict freighter. Instead, you see a glowing, translucent jellyfish the size of a skyscraper drifting through the absolute void. This is the No Man's Sky Child of Helios, and honestly, it’s one of the most hauntingly beautiful things Hello Games has ever put into the engine.
It doesn't attack you. It doesn't ask for carbon. It just... exists.
Finding these things isn't just a matter of luck anymore, though it used to feel that way. If you’ve spent any time in the Living Ship questline—specifically the "Starborn" or "Void Egg" missions—you’ve likely run into this spectral invertebrate. It’s a Space Encounter, a specialized category of random events added way back in the Living Ship update. But what most players miss is that the Child of Helios isn't just eye candy. It’s a lore bridge. It represents the "Living" aspect of the universe, a precursor to the organic technology we now fly across the Euclid galaxy.
What the No Man's Sky Child of Helios Actually Does
Most people see it, take a screenshot for their Steam profile, and warp away. Don't do that. When you encounter the Child of Helios, you should actually try to communicate. If you fly close enough, you’ll often receive a message. It isn't a dialogue tree like you get with a Korvax scientist. It's more like a telepathic impression.
The "Starborn" mission actually requires you to interact with one to progress. It gives you a Living Slime or sometimes a Message Module depending on the context of your save. If you're just finding it randomly in the wild, you can shoot it. Yeah, I know, it feels like a war crime. If you do, it usually drops some chromatic metal or other basic resources, but the real value is the "Encounter" itself. It adds to your discovery log and, frankly, provides one of the few moments of genuine "alien" feeling in a game that can sometimes feel a bit repetitive with its proc-gen outposts.
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How to trigger the encounter without waiting forever
Sitting in pulse drive for twenty minutes hoping for a random spawn is a sucker’s game. If you really want to see the Child of Helios, you need an Anomaly Detector. You can get these by blasting asteroids. It's a low drop rate, but it's better than nothing. Once you activate the detector and jump into pulse, watch the notification in the bottom right. If it says "Rare Deep Space Object," you're in business.
The Child of Helios is categorized as a "Benevolent" encounter. Unlike the Abyssal Horror or the Emergency Containment Device, this thing won't try to rip your hull apart. It’s peaceful. It’s a ghost of the stars.
The Lore Behind the Jellyfish
There’s a lot of debate on the NMS subreddits about what these things are. Some players think they are the "larval" stage of something much bigger. Others, pointing to the name "Helios," link them directly to Iteration Helios on the Space Anomaly. You know, the big tree-headed guy who gives you nanites for your discovery data? There is a subtle implication that Helios—who is ancient even by Traveler standards—has a connection to these spectral beings.
The Child of Helios shares a visual language with the Living Ships. Look at the translucency. Look at the way the "tentacles" pulse with a rhythmic, bioluminescent glow. When the Abyss update dropped, we got a lot of underwater content, but the Child of Helios suggests that the "ocean" isn't just on planets. The vacuum of space is its own kind of sea.
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Basically, the game is telling you that the Atlas isn't just simulating rock and gas. It’s simulating a biological consciousness that doesn't need an atmosphere.
Why does it look like a jellyfish?
Design-wise, Hello Games took heavy inspiration from 1970s sci-fi art. Think Roger Dean or Chris Foss. The idea was to move away from the "Star Wars" aesthetic of gray metal ships and toward something more psychedelic. The Child of Helios is a tribute to that era of "weird" science fiction. It's supposed to make you feel small. It succeeds.
Technical Quirks and Glitches
Let's get real for a second. No Man's Sky is a massive game, and it has bugs. Sometimes, the Child of Helios will spawn inside your freighter if you happen to summon it at the wrong time. It’s terrifying. You’ll see a giant glowing tentacle clipping through your command deck. If this happens, don't panic. It won't break your save. Just pulse away and it'll despawn.
Also, for the VR players out there: seeing this thing in a headset is a totally different experience. The scale is hard to grasp on a flat monitor. In VR, the Child of Helios feels like a mountain. It’s genuinely overwhelming to fly underneath it and see the light refracting through its "skin."
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Actionable Steps for your Next Session
If you want to track down a No Man's Sky Child of Helios today, follow this exact sequence to maximize your chances and actually get something out of it:
- Farm Asteroids First: Spend 10 minutes in a high-density asteroid belt. You're looking for at least two Anomaly Detectors.
- Move to an Uncharted System: While they can spawn anywhere, I've had better luck in Red or Blue star systems (Cadmium/Indium) that don't have a space station. The "noise" of other encounters seems lower there.
- Activate and Pulse: Don't stop for "Trader Request" or "Standard Signal." Wait until the UI specifically mentions a "Large Object" or "Anomalous Broadcast."
- The Communication Trick: If you are on the Living Ship quest, make sure your Void Egg is in your ship's inventory, not your storage container. The Child of Helios will often trigger the next stage of the "Starborn" questline if you've reached the point where you need to collect "the souls of the fallen."
- Photo Mode Tip: Turn the "Fog" settings up in Photo Mode when you find one. It catches the bioluminescence of the Child and creates a god-ray effect that looks incredible.
Finding the Child of Helios is a reminder that even after hundreds of hours, No Man's Sky still has "The Weird." It’s a break from the grind of base building and fleet management. It's just you, your ship, and a giant glowing jellyfish from the dawn of time.
Keep your scanners open. The void is more crowded than it looks.