No Man's Sky is about getting to traverse across unknown universes in order to seek out undiscovered planets, minerals, and even entire species. But guess what? You can't do that with an empty wallet. Yes, even in the coldest, darkest, deepest reaches of space, you got to have cash in order to survive.
There's a lot of people either playing for the first time, or coming back to the game since the Beyond update, and chances are you're going to want to know the fastest way to become filthy space rich. Luckily for you, we've managed to figure out a few methods to pad out your galactic bank account, so you can go splurge it all on fancy ships, guns, and other luxury space goods. After all, if you're going to explore uncharted solar systems, why not do it in style? Here's just a few ways you can rake in the cash, to make your life among the stars a little more financially secure.
Grab Yourself Some Monster Eggs
So there's a slight chance that you may have accidentally stumbled across some creatures known as Biological Horrors. As their name suggests, they're not a fun bunch to deal with. Killing them isn't easy, and they can kill you pretty quickly, so it's a bit of an one sided battle.
However, they happen to lay some eggs that are pretty dang valuable. They're called Whispering Eggs, and if you happen to find some in your travels, it may be worth your time to break them open, and gather the ooey-gooey Larval Cores inside. Now this will definitely spawn some of the aforementioned Horrors, which makes sense since most animals tend to get a little cross when you bust open their eggs. But these cores are worth quite a pretty penny on the old space marketplace, so the risk may be great, but the rewards are greater.
In terms of survival, rather than fight these guys, it's probably best to just run like hell, and once they've mostly forgotten about your egg pilfering misdeeds, head on back and do it all over again. You could also hide in your ship, build some walls around yourself, or maybe get to some high ground if there's a building or some kind of structure around. Do this a few times, and you should gather up a bunch of Larval Cores worth about 60,000 credits each. Hopefully the money will be enough to make you forget about being a degenerate egg murderer.
Upgrade That Scanner
This one's pretty obvious if you're been playing the game for a while, as you've likely noticed that your scanner is a pretty reliable way to earn some credits on the side. Each time you scan a new lifeform, plant, or mineral, you get a little bit of cash for essentially taking some tourist photos. However, you can actually increase the amount you get back substantially, which will make all your snapshots even more valuable.
You're probably seen these little space stations hovering around the various galaxies, and inside there's various merchants selling their wares. Well one of these merchants will sell upgrades for your Multi-Tool, which will increase the value of your pretty pictures. But these guys don't want your dirty egg murder money, they want Nanite Clusters, which is one of the other forms of currency in the game. You can get that pretty easily by just uploading all the discoveries you've made, so make sure to scan just about every weird thing you come across in your travels.
Once you got enough of those Nanites, go to the merchant, and look for a Scanner Module upgrade that's at least an A-Class level, but be on the lookout for an S-Class level upgrade. Buy that, install it in one of your Scanner's technology slots, and suddenly every weird lizard-dog you photograph will be worth a lot more units. You can also stack these upgrades as well, so buying a whole bunch of them, and installing them all will increase the amount you make even further. So if you want to be a wildlife photographer, this is the best way to earn a living doing it.
Do Some Archaeology
Another way to make some money is to basically turn yourself into a combination of Indiana Jones and Han Solo, and do some space archaeology.
When snooping around a planet you might come across things on your Scanner called Artifact Fragments. Once you have a Terrain Manipulator, do some digging, and inside you should find items called Ancient Keys. Usually around the area there should also be something known as a Large Artifact Crate. Three keys should usually be enough to open this up, and inside you should find an artifact that's worth a hefty sum.
Alternatively, there are also things known as Natural Burial Sites, and if you do discover one, you should definitely dig in. After some serious terrain manipulation, you should find some Ancient Bones. These can be worth hundreds of thousands of units, and are worth excavating. If anything in this universe belonged in a space museum, it's probably these underground treasures.
Just Be A Pirate!
No Man's Sky is primarily a game of exploring, learning about new cultures and civilizations, being awed by things you've never seen before, and generally just living in a universe full of infinite possibilities and wonders.
Or you can just be a jerk.
If you really just want to make some mad money, and skip all that lovey-dovey nature crap, you can just be a full-on space pirate. It's not the most honest way to make a living, but this about getting rich quick, not getting rich morally, so plunder and pillage to your heart's content. It's actually pretty easy to do, as long as you don't mind an entire galaxy hating your guts.
As you fly around a system, you'll probably come across a fleet of ships hovering around a planet. Surrounding these ships will be containers that will be chock full of valuable materials and loot. You're going to want to shoot these things. After that, you will be able to fill up your inventory with a ton of pilfered goods that should fetch you a ton of money on the market.
Just keep in mind that doing this will cost you a lot of your reputation, and probably make you the enemy of an entire race of aliens, so you may want to be careful before you go around robbing from the rich. This will also get you into a hell of a space battle, so you might want to make sure to bring some friends along, and have a good ship to do some dog-fighting. You can also rob from other players if you really want to be a monster, however you won't be lose any reputation with any of the races, so that could be the way to go if you're feeling frisky.
These are just a few of the ways that you can become a regular space magnate as fast as possible. Follow these methods, and you should soon be able to afford the S-Class space freighter that you've been dreaming about.