If you’ve ever landed on a gorgeous new planet only to realize you can’t afford the S-class starship docked at the nearby space station, you know how frustrating it is to grind for units in No Man’s Sky. I’ve spent hundreds of hours hopping across galaxies, and I’ve tested every trick under the sun to skip the tedious grind, so I know exactly which methods actually deliver when you want to learn how to make money fast no man's sky players of all skill levels can pull off. The best part? None of these tricks rely on broken glitches that will get you flagged in multiplayer or break your save file, so you can use them safely no matter how you play the game.
How to Make Money Fast in No Man’s Sky for Total New Players
When you first spawn, you only have a basic multitool and beat-up starter ship, so you don’t want to waste time on complex crafting or building projects right off the bat. First, head to the nearest space station and pick up the ancient bone scanning upgrade from the tech merchant for a few thousand units, it’s super cheap even for players who only have a handful of resources to their name. Then, use your galaxy map to find a dead or barren planet with no hostile fauna and low storm risk, these planets are packed with ancient bone deposits that require no special tools to harvest.
Land, turn on your scanner, and follow the glowing bone markers scattered across the surface. Each stack of 99 ancient bones sells for over 200,000 units, and you can fill your entire inventory in under 15 minutes. I did this my first playthrough and bought my first upgraded C-class ship in less than an hour of playing, no boring resource grinding required. Just don’t waste time selling bones at local trading posts, always go to a space station to get 10-15% higher payout for all your goods.
Mid-Game High-Yield Methods for Consistent Passive Payouts
Once you have a small base set up, a medium refiner, and a few basic upgrades to your multitool and ship, you can start building passive income streams that earn you units even when you’re not actively playing. The most reliable mid-game method I’ve found is activated indium farming, which requires minimal upfront work and delivers massive returns over time. First, warp to a radioactive star system and scan for planets with large activated indium deposits, these are marked with a blue icon on your surface scanner once you’re in orbit.
Set up 3-4 mineral extractors directly on the deposit, hook them up to 10 small storage containers, and connect everything to a solar panel and battery array to keep them running 24/7. You can leave the game running in the background for 2 hours, or log off and come back the next day, either way you’ll return to 10 full stacks of activated indium that sell for over 4 million units total. If you don’t want to leave your game running, you can also process regular indium with chromatic metal in a refiner to make activated indium, it just takes a little extra hands-on time.
Late-Game Methods to Earn Hundreds of Millions in an Hour
Once you have an S-class multitool, maxed out scanning upgrades, and a freighter with a large storage bay, you can pull in huge amounts of units in almost no time. These methods require a bit more upfront investment, but they deliver far higher returns than early or mid-game options. My go-to late game methods include:
- S-class ship and multitool flipping: Hang around trading posts in wealthy Vy’keen systems, and wait for S-class ships to land. Buy them for 10-15 million units, then resell them at space stations for 25-30 million, netting 10+ million per sale. You can do the same with S-class multitools found at planetary settlements.
- Stasis device crafting: Each stasis device sells for 18 million units, and if you set up a fully automated base farm with all the required ingredients (frost crystal, gamma root, solanium, etc.), you can make 10 of these per hour for 180 million units total. It takes a few hours to set up the farm, but it’s completely passive after that.
- Exotic fauna egg farming: Find a planet with exotic fauna, use creature pellets to tame them, and harvest their eggs every 24 hours. A single stack of exotic eggs sells for over 15 million units, and you can have up to 10 tamed creatures per base to harvest from.
I’ve used all three of these methods, and my favorite by far is stasis device farming, because I don’t have to actively play to earn units. I just check in once a day, collect all the harvested materials, craft the stasis devices, and sell them at the nearest space station in 10 minutes flat. The only downside to these late game methods is they require a lot of upfront investment in base building and upgrades, so they’re not ideal for new players.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Trying to Earn Units Fast
Even with the best methods, it’s easy to waste time on tasks that don’t deliver the payout you expect. First, stop wasting time selling low-value resources like iron or carbon – these sell for pennies compared to the higher value goods we talked about earlier, so you’re better off storing them for crafting instead of selling them. You’ll burn through stacks of these resources for base building and repairs later anyway, so selling them early just creates more work for yourself down the line.
Don’t use glitches to duplicate items, even if you see people online recommending them. Hello Games has been cracking down on glitch users in multiplayer, and you could get your account restricted or lose all your progress if you’re caught. It’s just not worth the risk when there are so many legitimate methods that work just as well. Also don’t skip upgrading your scanning tools early on – even a basic scanning upgrade increases the value of all scanned flora, fauna, and minerals by 50%, which adds up to hundreds of thousands of extra units over time. I made this mistake my first playthrough, and I wasted so much time grinding for units before I realized how much extra cash I was missing out on by not upgrading my scanner first.
At the end of the day, you don’t have to spend 10 hours grinding boring repetitive tasks to get the units you need for your dream ship or base. Whether you’re a brand new player who just spawned on their first planet or a veteran explorer with multiple galaxies under your belt, there’s a method that fits your playstyle when you want to figure out how to make money fast no man's sky has to offer. Try out a few of the methods we talked about, see which one fits your schedule and playstyle best, and you’ll be rolling in units before you know it.
