The No Man’s Sky Multi-Tool is basically the crux of everything you do in the game. You mine with it, fight with it, scan with it, and much more as you progress. One problem with this, however, is knowing what to do when you lose your Multi-Tool. NMS just doesn’t make it extremely clear.
As such, this extremely simple question can confuse a lot of players early in their game (especially after buying a new tool for the very first time). So let’s take a very brief look at how to access your Multi-Tool collection in NMS!
If you “lose” your Multi-Tool, don’t worry. You can access your collection at basically any time by using the quick menu. Just press down on the D-pad (if you’re using a controller) or the X key if you’re using a keyboard and mouse. This is how you access things like the Space Anomaly, your freighter, and more.
From here, scroll all the way over to the left-most option. You should see a small gear icon. This is basically the generic “other” category of NMS options and it’s where you can find the “Swap Multi-Tool” option. Select the gear symbol to continue.
Just don’t confuse it with the “Change Secondary Weapon.” This is basically just a way to manually select from multiple secondary fire options on your Multi-Tool — which otherwise requires you to cycle through every available option to get the one you want.
“Swap Multi-Tool” instead shows you a list of every tool in your entire NMS collection. The maximum number of Multi-Tools is currently six, as of the Sentinel Update back in February 2022. It was previously just three. Six still isn’t a ton, of course, but realistically you shouldn’t need that many specialized weapons and mining tools.
One reason this whole collection system can be confusing (and even mildly scary) is because of the way “Add to Collection” works in NMS. You can, at times, choose to add cheap or even free Multi-Tools to your collection. The wording on this sounds like you will keep your old item equipped while you do that. Not so. Instead, the new Multi-Tool automatically equips — seemingly replacing your old one.
This is a minor problem for various reasons. Some tools might have more slots than your current pick, for example, but may come with damage components that will take time to repair. Other times you might have a very specific upgrade that you want to keep handy (such as the Analysis Visor modules that boost how much money scanning makes). Basically, you don’t want to accidentally lose your Multi-Tool. Don’t worry, though, because you really can’t! Not that easily anyway.
If you find yourself unable to locate your original Multi-Tool, this might be the issue. Check that collection!
As a final note: it’s probably worth mentioning that you can only access your Multi-Tool collection while on-foot. This includes space stations, planets, and the Space Anomaly. However, it doesn’t include the inside of your starship. Just keep that in mind!
And that’s it for our guide on how to access your Multi-Tool collection in No Man’s Sky. It’s a bit of a short one, obviously, but it covers an important topic. Best of luck finding (and upgrading) the right weapons and mining tools for you out there in the stars!
