Money is an important commodity in No Man's Sky because you need it to pay for better items to upgrade your gear or even get a new spaceship. Here are ways you can earn it.
One of the best ways to earn money in No Man's Sky is to sell off valuable items. Valuable items are usually highlighted with a green color in your inventory. You could get up to 10,000 credits or more for just one item. You can sell your junk at Space Stations.
How do you get valuable items? Well I usually found them in the green crates you see above. All you have to do is press square to open them. Make sure your inventory is not full as you cannot carry lots of junk. You will see these crates lying around near waypoints. Waypoints are usually marked on your radar as a small blue question mark. Just look for the ? .
Another simple way to earn money is to simply use the Analysis Visor . If you press the L2 button, you will see through the visor. If you look at a plant or animal long enough, it will be logged in your inventory as a discovery . Press the start button and press triangle to name the animal or plant you just discovered. After you do that, you could earn yourself around a few thousands credits.
To scan animals, you must be at a pretty close distance or it won't work. The fastest way I earned money in this game is just be scanning plants. Literally I just scanned anything on the ground and it works! I scanned insignificant looking rocks and they were counted as discoveries . I got quite a bit of money doing this for several hours on lots of planets just looking at plants/rocks and naming them.
Visiting and naming waypoints and other landmarks are another way you can earn money. Again, waypoints are marked as a question mark. If you press square near the waypoint, you will have discovered a new area on the planet. Just name and upload it and you will get money for it.
Some other ways of earning money in No Man's Sky are a little harder do to. You can find something called Vortex Cubes and some are on the ground or are in caves. You can sell them off if at Space Stations if you find them, although they're not as easy to find. Atlas Stations are also in this game where you can get Atlas Stones. Again, Atlas Stones are worth lots of money, but aren't as easy to find.
If you find other ways to earn money, you can let us know. I recommended the plant discovery method the best because plants are EVERYWHERE and it's easy to do.
