No Man's Sky Glyphs Names
Every portal in No Man's Sky carries 16 inscribed symbols. Dial twelve of them and you step out on one exact planet - that sequence is a portal address, and each glyph is really a hexadecimal digit. The game names them in the catalogue; the community uses its own shorthand.
Reading a code: addresses like 1157CE589C1E are the same twelve glyphs written as hex. So "Sunset Bird Bird Balloon Bug Rocket..." = 01157D... - once you can read both forms, every coordinate a player posts is usable.
All 16 glyphs and their names
| Hex | Position | Common name | In-game catalogue name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 / 16 | Sunset | Star Over Water |
| 1 | 2 / 16 | Bird | Hunter |
| 2 | 3 / 16 | Face | Reflection |
| 3 | 4 / 16 | Diplo | Ancient Giant |
| 4 | 5 / 16 | Eclipse | Obscured Companion |
| 5 | 6 / 16 | Balloon | Ascending Orb |
| 6 | 7 / 16 | Boat | Sailor |
| 7 | 8 / 16 | Bug | Lowly Insect |
| 8 | 9 / 16 | Dragonfly | - |
| 9 | 10 / 16 | Galaxy | Spiral of Reality |
| A | 11 / 16 | Voxel | Anomaly |
| B | 12 / 16 | Fish | Ocean King |
| C | 13 / 16 | Tent | - |
| D | 14 / 16 | Rocket | Vessel To Beyond |
| E | 15 / 16 | Tree | - |
| F | 16 / 16 | Atlas | - |
The in-game names live in Menu > Catalogue & Guide > The Atlas > Portal Glyphs. Community names (sunset, bird, diplo...) are what you'll hear on Discord and Reddit - learn both, since shared addresses mix them.
How to unlock all 16 glyphs
| Method | Detail |
|---|---|
| Artemis Path | The "A Leap in the Dark" quest teaches portal activation and grants glyphs through the story. |
| Traveller Graves | Each grave found on planets yields one glyph - the main route to 16/16 outside the story. |
| Finding graves faster | Buy alien cartographic data charts from the space station cartographer to mark graves on your map. |
Until you own all 16, most posted addresses stay unreachable - you can only dial glyphs you've collected.
FAQ
How many glyphs are there in No Man's Sky?
16 - each maps to a hex digit 0-F. A portal address is 12 glyphs long.
What is the diplo glyph?
Glyph 3 (hex 3) - the long-neck dinosaur-looking symbol. The community calls it diplo; the game calls it Ancient Giant.
Do portal addresses work across galaxies?
No - addresses only work inside your current galaxy. Jump to the core or through a black hole and your destination network starts over, though you keep the glyphs themselves.
Why won't my screenshot show the glyphs?
The in-game photo mode strips them - use your PC or console's own screenshot button to capture glyph codes.