When I first booted up No Man’s Sky three years ago, I spent my first full play session bumbling around a toxic planet mining copper, selling it for pocket change, and wondering how other players had fleets of S-class starships and fully upgraded freighters. It took me weeks to stumble on the most efficient strategies, and I’m still kicking myself for wasting so much time on low-value grind. If you’re tired of scraping by and want to build up your intergalactic fortune fast, this guide breaks down exactly how to make gold in No Man’s Sky with methods that work for every play style and progression level. You don’t need endgame gear, a full squad of friends, or hundreds of hours of playtime to pull in millions of units an hour with these tricks.
Low-Early Game Gold Farming: No Advanced Gear Required
If you’re still rocking the starter ship and haven’t built your first base computer yet, you don’t have to grind low-value minerals to make ends meet. I still use these methods when I start a new save file to get enough units for my first S-class hauler within 5 hours of play. None of these require blueprints you can’t get in your first hour of gameplay, and you won’t have to fight any sentinels or pirates to pull them off.
- Scan every undiscovered flora, fauna, and mineral on every planet you visit. Uploading a full set of discoveries for a single planet can net you 200,000 to 1.2 million units depending on the planet’s rarity, and you get extra units for discovering new star systems.
- Pick up gravitational balls and albumen pearls whenever you spot them on planetary surfaces. These rare organic resources spawn randomly on most temperate and frozen planets, and each sells for 25,000 to 75,000 units with zero refining required.
- Salvage damaged technology from crashed freighter sites. You can find these sites by scanning for distress signals with your starship communicator, and each site has 5 to 10 salvageable tech items that sell for 15,000 to 50,000 units each.
But don’t waste time selling these resources at the first space station you visit. Wait until you find a system with a high economy rating (marked with three stars next to the system name on your galaxy map) to sell all your goods, and you’ll get a 20% to 30% bonus on every sale. That adds up fast when you’re hauling a full inventory of high-value discoveries and rare resources. You can usually find three-star systems within 10 jumps of your starting location, so it’s worth taking a quick detour to sell for maximum profit.
Mid-Game Passive Gold: Base Farming That Makes Units While You Explore
Once you’ve unlocked the base computer and hired an agricultural specialist for your base, you can set up low-maintenance farms that generate high-value resources while you’re off exploring new planets or completing quests. I set up my first passive farm when I had about 10 hours of play time, and it paid for itself in less than two days of casual play. You don’t need a huge plot of land or dozens of complex machines to make this work, either.
The easiest mid-game farm to set up is for living glass, a crafted good that sells for 300,000 units per piece. All you need are 10 hydroponic trays for frost crystals (grown on frozen planets or in temperature-controlled hydroponics) and 10 trays for gamma root (grown on radioactive planets or with gamma ray lamps). My first farm only had 20 trays total, and it generated enough resources to make 8 living glass every 4 hours, for 2.4 million units per harvest with zero extra work. If you want to scale up, you can add more trays or branch out to crafting liquid explosive or circuit boards, both of which have similarly strong profit margins for minimal setup.
Activated indium mining is another great passive option for mid-game players. Find a rich activated indium deposit on a radioactive planet, clear out any nearby sentinels, and set up 5 to 10 mineral extractors connected to a power source. The extractors will pull in 1,000+ units of activated indium every hour, and each unit sells for roughly 800 units at a three-star economy system. That’s 800,000 units an hour just for leaving the extractors running while you do other things. The only catch is you’ll need to visit the deposit every few hours to empty the storage containers, but that takes less than five minutes per trip.
How to Make Gold in No Man’s Sky Fast for Endgame Players
Once you’ve completed the main quest line, unlocked all crafting blueprints, and have a fully upgraded starship and freighter, you can pull in tens of millions of units an hour with very little effort. I usually spend an hour a week on these methods when I’m saving up for a new freighter upgrade or a rare S-class explorer ship, and I rarely make less than 60 million units in that time.
S-class ship flipping is my go-to endgame method for fast cash. Jump to a three-star economy system, use your communicator to scan for crashed ship signals, and head to any crashed S-class ship you find. You only need to repair the launch thrusters and pulse engine to fly it, which costs less than 100,000 units in common materials. Fly the ship to the local space station and sell it for 10 to 30 million units, depending on its size and class. I once found a 38-slot S-class hauler that sold for 32 million units, and the whole process took less than 20 minutes from start to finish.
If you prefer crafting, stasis devices are the highest-profit good in the game right now, with each one selling for roughly 18 million units. You will need a fairly large farm with multiple crop types to make them consistently, but once your farm is set up, you can craft 5 to 10 stasis devices an hour for 90 to 180 million units of profit. If you don’t want to mess with large-scale farming, you can also hunt for S-class multi-tools on high-tier planets. Every S-class multi-tool comes with 3 to 5 high-end upgrades installed, and each upgrade sells for 500,000 to 2 million units at the space station. You can keep the multi-tool for yourself and sell the extra upgrades, or sell the whole tool if you don’t need it.
Common Gold Farming Mistakes to Avoid
I made almost all of these mistakes when I first started playing, and they cost me dozens of hours of wasted grind. Avoiding these small errors will double or even triple your hourly gold income with almost no extra effort, no matter what progression level you’re at.
Don’t sell resources at low-economy systems for any reason. Selling at a one-star system instead of a three-star system means you’re losing 30% of your potential profit for no good reason. It only takes a few extra jumps to find a high-economy system, and the extra units add up incredibly fast. I once sold a full inventory of activated indium at a one-star system by accident, and I lost out on nearly 300,000 units of profit.
Don’t waste time refining low-value resources into higher tiers for profit. The profit margin for refining copper into chromatic metal or iron into ferrite dust is tiny compared to just farming higher-value resources directly. I once spent three hours refining copper I mined into chromatic metal thinking I’d make a killing, and I only made 100,000 units total, which is less than I’d make from scanning a single mid-sized planet.
Don’t hoard resources you don’t actually need. A lot of new players hold onto every mineral and organic resource they pick up thinking they’ll need it later, but 90% of common resources are easy to find whenever you need them. Selling the extra resources you have sitting in your freighter storage will give you a quick cash boost to buy better gear faster, so you don’t have to grind for extra units later.
Don’t ignore sentinel drones when you’re farming high-value resources. If a sentinel scans you while you’re holding gravitational balls or activated indium, they’ll go hostile and you’ll have to either fight them off or run, which wastes time you could spend farming. Just hop in your ship and fly a few hundred meters away if you see a sentinel scanning you, and they’ll lose interest immediately.
At the end of the day, the best method for making gold in No Man’s Sky is the one that fits your play style. If you love exploring, scanning discoveries and salvaging crashed ships will feel like a fun side activity instead of a grind. If you prefer building and base management, passive farming will let you make units while you work on your perfect intergalactic home. You don’t have to follow any of these methods to the letter, either; mix and match to find a routine that feels fun for you. Now that you know how to make gold in No Man’s Sky without endless grinding, you can spend less time worrying about units and more time exploring the 18 quintillion planets the game has to offer.
