If you’ve ever wandered past the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion at the Space Anomaly and stared at the glowing holographic ships, custom emotes, and rare base decorations you can’t afford, you already know how valuable this rare currency is. I’ve spent dozens of hours testing every possible method to figure out how to get quicksilver in No Man’s Sky without wasting time on glitches that get patched or grind that feels like a chore. Quicksilver isn’t like units or nanites, which you can farm easily with a few basic upgrades. It’s tied to specific in-game activities, and picking the right ones can cut your farming time in half. I’ve pulled together all the methods that still work, along with their pros and cons, so you can pick the one that fits your playstyle best.
How to Get Quicksilver in No Man’s Sky With Nexus Missions
The Nexus terminal at the core of the Space Anomaly is the most consistent source of quicksilver for most players, especially if you log in regularly. The terminal refreshes with one daily mission every 24 hours, and three weekly missions every seven days, all with guaranteed quicksilver payouts. Daily missions give 250 quicksilver each, while weekly missions reward 1200 quicksilver for slightly more complex objectives. Always pick group missions if you can join a public lobby, because they’re faster to complete, and you get the same reward even if other players do most of the work. I once joined a group mission to kill 20 corrupted sentinels, and I didn’t even fire a single shot before the rest of the group finished the objective. I still got the full 250 quicksilver reward for 2 minutes of my time, that’s the kind of win you can get if you play with others.
The biggest upside of Nexus missions is that they require zero setup. You don’t need any special upgrades or a fully stacked base to participate, and you can do them even if you’re only a few hours into a new playthrough. The only downside is that you’re limited by the reset timer, so you can’t farm infinite quicksilver this way in a single day. If you don’t like the mission offered, you can reload your save to refresh the list, but that only works before you accept any mission that day. I usually only do this if the daily mission requires traveling to a system 10+ jumps away, because the time spent traveling isn’t worth the small reward.
Farm Derelict Freighter Caches for Bonus Quicksilver
If you want to farm quicksilver on your own schedule with no reset timers, derelict freighters are your best bet. These abandoned cargo ships drift in random star systems, and you can board them to search for loot, including small quicksilver caches hidden in lockers, storage crates, and secret rooms. You can farm up to 500 quicksilver per derelict freighter run if you check every container, and you’ll also walk away with thousands of nanites, rare upgrade modules, and sometimes even free S-class freighter upgrades. If you’re lucky, you might also find a quicksilver cluster in the captain’s quarters, which gives 1000 quicksilver all at once. I’ve found two of these in the last 6 months, and it always feels like hitting a mini jackpot.
You will need a freighter scanner upgrade to find derelicts easily, and it costs 5 million units to activate the emergency broadcast receiver each time you board one, but that’s a small cost compared to the rewards you get. The only real risk is that derelicts can be dangerous for new players. You’ll have to navigate low-oxygen environments, fight biological horrors, and avoid corrupted sentinels that spawn if you trigger too many alarms. Bring a multitool with a scanner upgrade so you can see all containers on your HUD, that cuts down the time you spend searching each room by half. I usually run two derelict freighters a week when I’m in the mood for exploration, and I earn enough quicksilver from them to cover any small purchases I want between weekly Nexus resets.
Earn Massive Quicksilver Rewards From Limited-Time Expeditions
Expeditions are seasonal events that run for 4 to 6 weeks at a time, and they’re by far the fastest way to get large amounts of quicksilver. Each expedition has a series of tiered challenges that you complete on a special temporary save file, and every tier comes with quicksilver payouts plus exclusive rewards you can’t get anywhere else. Most expeditions give between 10,000 and 15,000 quicksilver for completing all tiers of challenges, plus custom ships, emotes, base parts, and companion skins. The last expedition I did took me about 8 hours total to complete, and I walked away with 12,000 quicksilver, a custom sentinel ship, and a set of glowing base lights that I still use on every base I build. That’s way more reward than I could get from 8 hours of running Nexus missions.
The only catch is that expeditions are only available for a limited time, so you have to participate while the event is active to earn the rewards. You don’t have to finish all challenges in one go, and you can switch back to your main save any time you want without losing progress on the expedition. If you’re new to the game, look up community shortcuts for the current expedition, most players share easy routes to complete challenges faster. Once you finish all expedition tiers, you can transfer all the quicksilver and exclusive rewards to your main save by visiting the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion at the Space Anomaly. I make a point to play every expedition even if I don’t have a lot of free time, because the quicksilver payout is too good to pass up.
Avoid These Common Mistakes When Farming Quicksilver
Even if you pick the best farming method, small mistakes can slow you down a lot. I’ve made all of these at some point, so I’m saving you the frustration of wasting hours for no reward. These are the most common missteps I see new players make when they start farming quicksilver:
- Don’t waste quicksilver on temporary items: The Quicksilver Synthesis Companion sells consumable items like storm crystals and upgrade modules, but these are never worth the cost. You can find all of these items for free while exploring, so save your quicksilver for permanent cosmetics, ships, and base parts that you can keep forever.
- Don’t use exploits or glitches to farm quicksilver: Hello Games patches exploits every few updates, and they’ve been known to wipe quicksilver earned from glitches from player accounts. It’s not worth losing all your hard work for a quick payout, and all the legitimate methods listed here are fast enough that you don’t need to cheat.
- Don’t skip daily Nexus missions if you play regularly: Even 250 quicksilver a day adds up fast. If you log in for 10 minutes a day to complete the daily mission, you’ll have 7,500 quicksilver in a month, enough for most high-tier rewards like custom ships or large base decoration sets.
- Don’t forget to claim expedition rewards on your main save: Once you finish an expedition challenge, you have to go to the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion on your main save to claim the quicksilver and other rewards. They won’t transfer automatically, and you’ll lose access to them if you delete the expedition save before claiming everything.
A lot of new players also make the mistake of thinking they need to grind for hours every day to get enough quicksilver for the items they want. That’s not true at all. If you combine daily Nexus missions with the occasional derelict freighter run and participate in every expedition, you’ll have more quicksilver than you know what to do with in a few months. I stopped grinding specifically for quicksilver a year ago, and I still have over 20,000 saved up from just doing these activities as part of my normal playthrough. You don’t have to bend your playstyle to farm this currency, just pick the activities you already enjoy that happen to reward quicksilver.
At the end of the day, figuring out how to get quicksilver in No Man’s Sky doesn’t have to be a frustrating grind. Pick the methods that fit how you like to play: if you love exploring alone, run derelict freighters, if you like playing with others, stick to group Nexus missions, and never miss an expedition if you can help it. You don’t have to follow any strict schedule, and you don’t have to use exploits to get the rewards you want. I’ve used all these methods to unlock every limited-time ship and base part released in the last two years, and I’ve never spent more than a couple hours a week farming. Take it slow, pick the activities you enjoy, and you’ll be able to buy every item in the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion before you know it.
