There’s no more stressful sound in No Man’s Sky than the high-pitched beep of your life support system dropping below 10%. I’ve been there dozens of times: halfway up a mountain hunting for rare ancient ruins, stranded after my ship’s launch thrusters broke on a toxic planet, or just distracted by a cute creature and wandered too far from my base. No matter how many hours you’ve logged, running out of oxygen can end your run fast if you don’t know where to look. This guide breaks down every reliable method for how to get oxygen in No Man's Sky, from early-game foraging tricks to end-game unlimited farming setups that work no matter where you are in the galaxy.
How to Get Oxygen in No Man’s Sky: Early-Game Methods for New Players
If you just spawned on your first planet and have no upgrades, no base, and barely 100 units to your name, you don’t need fancy gear to stay alive. The game gives you all the tools you need to find oxygen right out of the gate, and you won’t have to spend any resources to access these sources.
First, look for the small, glowing green flora scattered across almost every planet with an atmosphere. Your default multitool scanner will automatically mark these plants with a green leaf icon, even if you’re 500 meters away. Each plant gives you 10 oxygen when you pick it, and you can grab dozens of them in just a few minutes of walking. I still stop to grab these if I’m running low even after 200 hours of play, because they’re free and require no extra work.
You can also find oxygen in almost every small crate and storage container scattered across planet surfaces. Most crates give 20 to 30 oxygen on top of other useful resources like ferrite dust or regular carbon, so it’s always worth stopping to open them if you’re passing by. If you’re near a trading post or space station, you can buy oxygen for just 12 units per piece, which is cheap enough even for brand new players who only earned a few thousand units from their first few missions.
One pro tip for new players: Don’t ignore the portable refiner you get in the first hour of play. If you have extra carbon, you can turn it into condensed carbon, and 1 condensed carbon crafts into 50 oxygen instantly. It’s a great backup if you can’t find any wild oxygen plants nearby.
Mid-Game Farming Setups for Unlimited Oxygen
Once you’ve unlocked your first base computer and have a few thousand units saved up, you can set up a permanent oxygen farm that will give you unlimited supply with almost no ongoing work. You don’t need to complete any long quest lines to unlock the blueprints for these setups, either — they unlock automatically once you place your first base computer.
The easiest setup is a group of Oxygen Harvester modules placed on a planet with a dense atmosphere. Each harvester only costs 2 metal plating, 30 ferrite dust, and 10 carbon to build, and you can power them with cheap solar panels and batteries if you don’t want to run wiring to a main base generator. A single harvester collects 250 oxygen per hour passively, even if you’re off exploring other planets. If you place 4 harvesters on a lush planet with high flora density, you’ll get an extra 30% output, which adds up to 1,300 oxygen per hour with no effort from you.
If you have a freighter base or a base on a dead planet with no atmosphere, you can grow Oxygen Root plants in hydroponic trays instead. Each Oxygen Root plant produces 50 oxygen every 30 minutes, and they don’t require any atmosphere or external power source as long as they’re placed indoors. The best part of hydroponic Oxygen Root farms is you can build them on your freighter, so you can take your oxygen supply with you anywhere you travel across the galaxy.
There are small tradeoffs for both setups, of course. Surface harvesters are cheaper to build, but you have to travel back to the planet to collect the oxygen. Hydroponic farms are portable if you build them on a freighter, but they cost more upfront to build the trays and unlock the Oxygen Root seed blueprint. I use both: a large surface farm on my home lush planet for bulk oxygen, and 10 hydroponic trays on my freighter for emergency supply when I’m far from home.
Emergency Oxygen Sources When You’re Stranded
Even with the best planning, you will get stranded with low oxygen at some point. I once wandered 20 minutes away from my ship on a radioactive planet chasing a rare S-class multitool, only to realize my life support was at 5% and there were no oxygen plants in sight. I survived thanks to these emergency tricks, and they’ll save you too:
One extra tip for multiplayer players: If you’re in a group, you can ask a teammate to send you oxygen directly if they’re nearby, no trading required. I’ve saved three of my friends from certain death this way when they wandered too far from our group during a planetary exploration run.
Whatever you do, don’t use your jetpack when you’re low on oxygen. Jetpack use drains your life support 3x faster than walking, so you’ll burn through your last few percent of oxygen in seconds if you try to fly back to your ship. Walk slowly, stick to flat ground, and keep your scanner open to find the closest oxygen source first.
Oxygen Crafting Uses You Might Be Missing
Most new players only use oxygen to refill their life support, but it’s one of the most versatile crafting resources in the game, and having a large surplus can save you a ton of time and make you millions of units if you know how to use it.
First, you can use oxygen to craft Life Support Gel, which is one of the most useful items for long exploration runs. One Life Support Gel gives you a full 100% life support recharge, and it only takes up one inventory slot, compared to 100 individual oxygen units for the same amount of charge. I keep 5 of these in my exosuit at all times for long trips to dead planets with no oxygen flora, and they’ve saved me more times than I can count.
Oxygen is also a key ingredient for Thermic Condensate, a high-value trade good that sells for 12,000 units per piece at most space stations. You only need 100 oxygen and 20 sulfur to make one Thermic Condensate, so if you have a large oxygen farm, you can make hundreds of these per hour and earn millions of units without doing any missions or hunting for rare resources. I used my first oxygen farm to earn enough units to buy my first S-class freighter in less than a week of casual play.
You can also use oxygen to recharge your exosuit’s hazard protection on extreme temperature or radiation planets, if you run out of the specific recharge resource for that hazard. It’s not as efficient as using the correct resource, but it works in a pinch when you’re far from base. Don’t waste oxygen on this if you have other options, but it’s good to know the option exists.
I recommend keeping at least two full stacks of 250 oxygen in your ship inventory at all times, even if you have a large farm. You never know when you’ll need to craft emergency Life Support Gel, trade for a rare resource at a remote outpost, or help a teammate who’s stranded with no supply.
No matter if you’re a new player still learning the basics of survival, or a veteran exploring the farthest corners of the galaxy, knowing how to get oxygen in No Man's Sky is the foundation of every successful run. You don’t need expensive upgrades or rare resources to keep your supply full — just a little planning, knowledge of where to look, and a few emergency backups for when things go wrong. Next time you land on a new uncharted planet, take 30 seconds to scan for oxygen sources first before you run off chasing that weird creature or ancient ruin. It’ll save you a lot of panic, and a lot of lost progress, down the line.
