Yeah, you crush the juicy grub and it makes the Vile Queen attack. Supposedly the queen drops the different helms but I have killed SO many and gotten nothing with my expedition save.

I am never going to complain about a NMS update, but if it's planet generation overhaul, you had better take pictures of your favorite bases now.

You can find it at -22.81, +111.53. I have a Communications Station there as well.

Oh good... I felt bad that I couldn't move the dumpster for Brendan in my latest playthrough.

I finished today as well. Overall, I thought it was fine. It's clear it was meant to show new players different parts of the game. I was actually glad it was so succinct without much grinding. Almost everything you need was within the confines of the expedition, either as a reward or available somewhere along the path.

While I always like the cosmetic rewards, it annoys me that the colors and textures never quite match the existing customizations. I wish they would go back and make everything a little more consistent.

I often keep playing my expedition saves and get them into an end-game state. I haven't decided if I will this time.

Unfortunately I think there's a decent chance this will be the last major update or Expedition as they shift their focus to Light No Fire. I hope that's not the case.

If I had to speculate, I think there could be a couple things at play...

1. They have been focusing on bug fixes and stability lately as seen in the experimental branches on Steam instead of new features. They added support for MacOS and iPadOS earlier this year, which I'm sure complicates ongoing development.
2. There have been many game releases lately that may have pulled people away from NMS, like Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, etc. It may not be worth it for them to invest resources in re-running the expeditions if people are currently focused elsewhere.

Personally, I am on a NMS hiatus until the next expedition or major update.

Atari 2600 followed by NES

They say, "Patience is a virtue," but that doesn't make it fun.

A maxed Positron Ejector used to be the way to go. You could actually kill pirates as they were warping into the system by shooting at the general area. Fights were over before they even started. Then with one of the major updates, they "re-balanced" the weapons and a maxed out Infra Knife now shreds everything in no time. I keep Rockets around as a finishing blow or a strong opening to weaken enemy shields.

Once my original save got to the endgame, I spent a lot of time maxing out my money, freighter, bases, etc. and contributing to the glyph exchange subreddits. After a while I stopped playing but would check back in after a major update. I didn't really play again seriously until the expeditions started. It's the game I often go back to when I don't have something else to play.

The possible class of the freighter is tied to the system's economy. Same goes for the class of the ships you'll find in the system.

https://nomanssky.fandom.com/wiki/Economy

If you want an S-Class freighter (or ship), you need to be in a T3 or Black Market economy.

I'd recommend reading this guide on finding Capital Freighters: https://www.reddit.com/r/NMSGlyphExchange/comments/zmpc8w/how_to_acquire_capital_freighters_from_member/

System Freighters are easier to find since they're just flying around the system. They are also generally smaller than Capital Freighters when you get them, but they can be upgraded with Bulkheads just the same.