I still remember my first 10 hours in No Man’s Sky, wandering around a barren radioactive planet with barely enough units to fix my broken launch thruster, let alone buy a fancy new freighter or expand my tiny exosuit inventory. I spent hours mining copper and selling it for pennies, convinced I’d never be able to afford the upgrades I wanted to explore further out in the galaxy. If you’re stuck in the same spot, constantly running short on units for the upgrades, ships, or bases you’ve had your eye on, you’re in the right place. We’re breaking down exactly how to make lots of money in No Man’s Sky without the mind-numbing grind that so many players resort to. These methods work for brand new players who haven’t even left their first system, and scale up perfectly for veteran travelers looking to stockpile billions of units fast.
How to Make Lots of Money in No Man’s Sky as a Total Beginner
You don’t need fancy upgrades or a fully kitted out ship to start raking in units within your first few hours of play. The easiest method is to pull out your scanner every time you land on a new planet, and scan every unique flora, fauna, and mineral you find. Fully scanning a planet’s entire ecosystem can net you a payout of up to 1 million units from the Exploration Guild, plus extra bonuses for scanning rare creatures on extreme weather or toxic worlds. If you run into a planet with frequent storms, keep an eye out for Storm Crystals that pop up during the worst of the weather. Each one sells for over 200,000 units, and you can grab 5 or 6 in a single storm if you have even basic hazard protection upgrades. This method is 100% free to start, and you don’t have to fight a single enemy to make 10+ million units in your first 10 hours of play.
Farm High-Value Crafted Goods for Passive Income
If you prefer a more low-key playstyle that doesn’t require running around planets for hours, setting up a small farm to craft high-value goods is one of the best choices you can make. You don’t need a huge base to start, either; even a small outpost with 10-20 crop plots can generate enough materials to make millions of units a week. The key is to pick crafted goods that have a high sale value and don’t require dozens of rare materials to make. Some of the best options for new and mid-game players include:
- Living Glass: Sells for ~750,000 units each, only requires Frost Crystal and Gamma Root, both easy to farm in small bases on cold and radioactive planets
- Circuit Board: Sells for ~1.2 million units each, uses Copper and Poly Fibre, great for mid-game players who have a medium base set up and access to more blueprints
- Stasis Device: Sells for ~18 million units each, end-game option that gives massive returns for minimal ongoing work once you unlock the blueprint and set up all required crop farms
So you can start with Living Glass first, then move up to more valuable items as you unlock more blueprints and expand your base. The biggest perk of this method is that it’s completely passive; you just harvest your crops every few hours, craft your goods, and sell them at the nearest space station. You can even boost your profits by 20% or more if you sell your goods in a system where that item is in high demand, marked by a green percentage next to the sale price.
Flip Crashed Ships and Freighters for Massive Payouts
If you love exploring and hunting for hidden secrets, flipping crashed ships and freighters is one of the fastest ways to make hundreds of millions of units in a short amount of time. All you need is a signal booster, some basic repair materials for launch thrusters and pulse engines, and a little patience to find high-quality crashed vessels. S-class fighters and haulers can sell for 100+ million units each, even after you spend a few hundred thousand units fixing the minimum required parts to fly them. I once stumbled on an S-class hauler on a random icy planet my second week of playing, sold it for 126 million units, and that single payout funded all my base upgrades, exosuit slots, and freighter purchase for the rest of my playthrough. You can also get free freighters by answering the distress call you get after warping to a new system; if the freighter is A or S class, you can claim it for free and sell it immediately for 50 to 300 million units, no repairs needed. The only downside is that you have to be careful with your inventory space, as you’ll need to carry enough repair materials to fix any crashed ship you want to take.
Run High-Risk, High-Reward Pirate Bounty Missions
If you’re the type of player who loves dogfighting and doesn’t mind a little risk, running pirate bounty missions in outlaw systems is an incredibly fun and profitable way to make units. You can find these missions on the mission board at any outlaw space station, and higher tier missions pay out drastically more than standard guild missions. Level 3 bounty missions regularly pay 10 to 20 million units each, plus you get to loot all the pirate ships you destroy for extra resources, rare upgrades, and contraband you can sell for even more cash. You do need a well-upgraded fighter ship with strong shields and weapons to take on these missions, though; if you’re still flying a starter ship, you’ll get blown out of the sky in seconds. You can also team up with friends in multiplayer to take down higher level bounties faster, and split the rewards so everyone walks away with a huge payout. As you gain reputation with the outlaw factions, you’ll unlock even higher paying missions that can net you 50+ million units per run, making this one of the highest profit per hour methods in the game for players who enjoy combat.
At the end of the day, there’s no right or wrong way to earn units in No Man’s Sky, and you can mix and match these methods to fit whatever playstyle you enjoy most. If you hate combat, stick to scanning planets or farming crops for passive income. If you hate sitting around waiting for crops to grow, go hunt crashed ships or run bounty missions for fast, exciting payouts. No matter what you pick, you’ll have no trouble figuring out how to make lots of money in No Man’s Sky to afford every upgrade, ship, and freighter you’ve ever wanted. The galaxy is huge, and there’s more than enough wealth out there for every traveler to take their share of it.
