Getting NMS Flying Creatures via Save Editor: What Actually Works

You've seen them. Those massive, majestic High-Flying creatures—the giant eagles, the beetles, the screaming dragons—cruising through the upper atmosphere of No Man's Sky. You try to feed them. You try to throw a creature pellet. Nothing happens. They don’t land. They just mock you from the clouds.

Honestly, it’s frustrating. Hello Games gave us the Frontiers and Prismatic updates to tame almost anything, but these specific "ambient" flyers remained off-limits. That’s where the community stepped in. If you want to ride a dragon or a giant moth, you’re basically going to have to get your hands dirty with some JSON data. Specifically, we're talking about NMS flying creatures via save editor, a method that has become the gold standard for players who want to break the game’s arbitrary taming rules.

It isn't just about "cheating" for the sake of it. It’s about accessibility. Some of these creature models are in the game files but aren't naturally interactable. If you want that experience, you have to bypass the standard "Square" or "X" button prompt.

The Reality of the NomNom and GoatFungus Tools

Look, if you're on PC, you probably already know about the two big titans in this space: the GoatFungus NMS Save Editor and NomNom.

GoatFungus is the old reliable. It’s a Java-based tool that lets you poke around in the raw JSON of your save file. NomNom is sleek, more modern-looking, but sometimes lags behind on the latest experimental branches. To get those high-altitude flyers, you aren't just clicking a "Give Me Dragon" button. You’re swapping out the "PetID" or the "Rig" of an existing companion you already own.

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You start by catching a regular, boring pet. A blob. A crab. Whatever. Then, you open your save file in the editor. You find your "Pet Storage" section. This is where the magic (and the potential for corrupted saves) happens. You replace the creature’s seed and its "Species" descriptor with the internal code for the flying fauna. For instance, the giant beetles are usually under the FLYINGBEETLE or BUTTERFLY archetypes, while the big birds use FLYINGLIZARD or FLYINGSNAKE rigs depending on their animation style.

Why This Isn't Just "Cosmetic"

Changing your pet into a flyer via a save editor changes the gameplay loop. These aren't just skins. When you force a "High-Flyer" into your companion slots, the game has to figure out how to handle the physics.

Usually, these creatures don't have "walking" animations. When you summon them on a planet, they might hover awkwardly or clip through the ground. But when you mount them? It’s a totally different game. You’re not just jumping; you’re gaining altitude. It’s faster than an Exocraft and arguably more scenic than a starship for low-orbit exploration.

People often think this will get them banned. It won’t. No Man's Sky is fundamentally a sandbox game. Hello Games has historically been incredibly chill about save editing, provided you aren't using it to ruin the multiplayer experience for others in the Anomaly. In fact, many players who use NMS flying creatures via save editor actually end up gifting eggs to other players. Since the "edited" creature can still lay eggs, the "modded" DNA becomes a legitimate, tradable item in the NMS economy.

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The Problem With Xbox and PlayStation Saves

If you're on a console, I have some bad news and some "it's complicated" news.

You can't just plug a USB into a PS5 and edit a save anymore; Sony’s encryption is too tight. Xbox players have a workaround because of the "Play Anywhere" ecosystem. You sync your Xbox save to the PC version via the Xbox App, edit it there with GoatFungus, let it cloud sync, and then hop back onto your console.

For PS4 players, Save Wizard exists, but it’s a paid service and a bit of a headache. PS5 players? You’re basically stuck unless you can transfer a PS4 save upward. This is why the "Egg Trade" is so massive. If you can’t use a save editor yourself, you find someone on the NMS Creative & Sharing Hub or the official Discord who has already done the work. They give you the egg, and boom—you have a dragon on your console save without ever touching a line of code.

The Secret Sauce: Creature Seeds

If you’re going to do this, you need the seeds. A "seed" is basically a long string of numbers and letters that tells the game’s procedural engine exactly how to render that specific animal.

• The "Dragon" types: These are often found in the game files as FLYINGSNAKE.
• The "Griffin" or Giant Birds: These are listed under FLYINGLIZARD.
• The "Beetles": These are FLYINGBEETLE.

If you just swap the ID but use a random seed, you might end up with a horrific glitch-monster that looks like a vibrating pile of textures. It’s best to use "verified" seeds from community spreadsheets.

Does it Break the Game?

Sometimes. Yes.

If you summon a massive flying creature inside a freighter or a space station, things get weird. The collision boxes for these animals weren't designed for indoor use. You might get stuck in a wall. You might fall through the floor of the world.

Also, the "Flight Height" is a variable you can actually edit in the JSON. If you set it too high, you’ll find yourself soaring into the vacuum of space where your life support starts draining rapidly. It’s exhilarating, but it’s definitely not how Sean Murray intended the game to be played back in 2016.

Real Talk on the JSON Structure

When you open the editor, you're looking for PetSlots. Each slot has a MonsterSeed and a SpeciesDescriptor.

To get NMS flying creatures via save editor working correctly, you have to ensure the CreatureType matches the rig. If you try to put a flying creature seed into a "Ground" creature descriptor without changing the underlying type, the animal will try to pathfind on the ground like a dog, which results in a very sad-looking dragon dragging its belly through the dirt.

You also want to look at the Scale variable. Default flyers are often small. If you want that "Avatar" movie feel, you can bump that scale up to 3.0 or 5.0. Just be warned: at a certain size, the camera starts to bug out because it doesn't know where to position the player character on the creature's back.

Actionable Steps for the Aspiring Dragon Rider

If you're ready to try this, don't just dive in blindly. You'll lose your 400-hour save file if you aren't careful.

1. Backup your save. This isn't optional. Go to your AppData/Roaming/HelloGames/NMS folder and copy that folder somewhere safe. If the editor crashes or the JSON formatting breaks, you’ll be glad you did.
2. Download the GoatFungus Editor. It’s the most robust for pet editing. Make sure your Java is updated, or the .jar file won't even open.
3. Tame a "placeholder" pet. Go to any planet, find a local animal, and make it your companion. This creates the "Slot" in your save file that you will overwrite.
4. Find a Seed Gallery. Use sites like the NMS Discovery Queue or specific subreddits to find the hex code for the bird or dragon you want.
5. Edit the 'PetStats' directly. Don't just change the appearance. You can also edit the "Trust" and "Affection" levels to 100% so your new flying friend actually listens to you and doesn't just fly away the moment you whistle.
6. The Egg Trick. Once you have your creature, let it lay an egg. You can then use the in-game Egg Sequencer at the Anomaly to further tweak its color or size without having to go back into the save editor. This is the "cleanest" way to finalize your pet.

The world of No Man's Sky is vast, but it's even bigger when you aren't tethered to the ground. Using a save editor to unlock these forbidden flyers is a rite of passage for many veteran Interlopers. It bridges the gap between the game's procedural potential and its restrictive taming mechanics. Just remember to keep your backups handy and maybe don't summon a 50-foot bird in the middle of a crowded Nexus hub unless you want to cause some serious frame-rate lag for everyone else.