How to Make Money in No Man’s Sky: 5 Best Ways to Get Units Fast

Whether you just started playing or you’ve been exploring for a while, making units (the in-game money) can feel slow.

This guide breaks down the five best ways to earn units fast — from easy methods for beginners to big money moves for experienced players.

Quick Look: How Much Can You Make?

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1. Planet Scanning — Best for Beginners

This is the easiest way to earn units, and it works even if you’re brand new.

How it works:

1. Buy scanner upgrades for your multitool at any space station
2. Land on a planet that has lots of life — rocks, plants, and animals
3. Scan everything using your Analysis Visor
4. Go to a trade terminal and sell your discovered data

What you can earn:

• Plants: around 90,000 units each
• Animals: 120,000 to 500,000 units each
• A full planet scan: 2 to 5 million units total

Pro tip: Buy nav data at space stations. Trade it for Exosuit Upgrade Charts at the cartographer. Then sell those charts to NPC pilots — you’ll make 40 times what you paid.

ALSO READ: Dirty Ways to Make Money

2. Crashed Ship Salvage — Quick Cash Without Combat

Great for new players who want decent money without fighting anyone.

How it works:

1. Buy a Planetary Chart from a space station (costs about 15,000 units)
2. Fly to the location it marks on the planet
3. Collect nearby resources to repair the crashed ship
4. Fly the repaired ship to a space station and sell it

What you can earn: 5 to 15 million units per ship

This is simple, repeatable, and doesn’t require any combat skills.

3. Trade Routes — Play the Economy

If you like thinking strategically, this method rewards patience and planning.

How it works:

Prices for goods change depending on the type of economy in each star system. Buy cheap in one system, sell high in another. Here are two loops that work well:

• Trading → Advanced Materials → Scientific → back to Trading
• Mining → Manufacturing → Technology → Power Generation → back to Mining

What you need:

• An Economy Scanner installed in your ship
• Access to the Galaxy Map to check economy types

Pro tip: Use S-class or X-class scanner upgrades to spot the best trade opportunities faster.

4. Pirate Freighters — High Risk, Big Reward

This one is more dangerous but pays very well per run.

How it works:

1. Warp into a star system and wait for a freighter to appear
2. Attack the freighter’s cargo pods — not the freighter itself
3. Collect the loot that drops
4. Escape into the nearest space station before the fighter ships catch you (they cannot follow you inside)

What you can earn: 20 to 30 million units per system

Best ships for this:

• Fighter ships: more cargo space for loot
• Exotic ships: better shields for staying alive

You can repeat this in different systems as many times as you want.

5. Sentinel Interceptors — The Biggest Money Farm

This is the hardest method but also the most profitable. Only try this once you have good gear.

Method A — For experienced fighters (Dreadnought method):

1. Start a fight with Sentinels on any planet
2. Survive all five waves of Sentinel Interceptors
3. At wanted level 5, a Sentinel Dreadnought will appear — destroy it
4. Pick up the AI Fragment it drops
5. Use the AI Fragment on a Corrupted Planet to locate a crashed Sentinel Interceptor
6. Repair it and sell it

Method B — For newer players (Harmonic Camps method):

1. Fly low over a Corrupted Planet to spot Harmonic Camps
2. Or destroy Corrupted Sentinels until one drops an Echo Locator
3. The Echo Locator will point you to the nearest camp and a crashed Interceptor

Repair materials needed:

• 3 Radiant Shards
• 1 Inverted Mirror
• 1 Harmonic Brain

What you can earn: 30 to 80 million units in about 30 minutes

Bonus Methods Worth Trying

Mission Board Jobs Visit the Mission Board at any space station. Pick a job, complete it, collect units. Simple and steady.

Farming Grow crops at your base, craft them into valuable items, and sell the finished goods. Takes time to set up but pays well long-term.

Asteroid Mining Mine precious metals from asteroids in space. Use your Analysis Visor to find the richest deposits.

What No Longer Works

Avoid wasting time on these — they used to work but have been patched out:

• Finding and selling ancient bones (no longer profitable)
• Shooting water (no longer gives units)

Final Tips to Make More Money Faster

• Upgrade your scanner first. It’s the single biggest multiplier for early earnings.
• Learn two or three trade routes. Consistent loops beat random exploring for units.
• Join the community. Other players often share Sentinel Interceptor locations, saving you hours.
• Craft at the Space Anomaly. Some crafted goods sell for far more than their raw materials.

Where to Start

If you’re new: start with planet scanning. It’s free, safe, and teaches you the game.

Once you have better gear: move to pirate freighters or Sentinel Interceptors for the big unit paydays.

The fastest overall path is simple — upgrade your scanner, learn a trade loop, and scale up from there.