Although there's quite the range of options for making money in No Man's Sky, we found one which really stood out: trade.
Despite being made out to be something of a complex beast, the economy in No Man's Sky, we found, was rather simple to crack. Of all the methods we tested, simply buying low and selling high was by far the fastest route to some frankly enormous monetary success. To get straight into it, here's the process:
- Head to your system's space station and interact with the Galactic Trade Network terminal in the upper right room (as you enter the hangar). Take a look at what items they're willing to buy (even if they're currently greyed out), and find which item has the golden star next to it. Importantly, take note of the specific price they'll buy one unit of the item for. Head back to to the hangar, and start interacting with the NPC's ships which frequently fly in and out of the room. If they're willing to sell the same item which the Galactic Trade terminal has starred for below the average price (meaning it will have a green, minus number next to it when you try to buy some), and that price is lower than the price the Galactic Network will buy for, then buy it all up. Rinse and repeat as many times as you can, until your inventory is full, then sell that item back at the terminal in the nearby room.
With the process above, we swiftly made more than a million Units in around fifteen minutes. There are, however, a few more points to bear in mind for getting the very most out of the process:
- The gold star means that item is in demand - The terminal in question will sell it for double the average selling price, and buy it for roughly double the average buying price. That means you should not buy this item from the terminal in question unless it is, for some reason, an absolute emergency. The buying and selling averages are different numbers - A terminal will almost always buy items for a lower price than they sell it. That's why you should not only check to see if they buy it from you at above the average price, but also check that the price at which you can buy the item is not just below the average, but also below the actual raw number the terminal will buy it from you for. Some items are better for this than others - From our experience, Dynamic Resonators gave the best profit, with us able to buy them at around 30,000 Units, and sell at around 55,000, offering us a near 100% return on investment (meaning we almost doubled our money each time) - it's worth the time hopping between a few system to find a space station which has Dynamic Resonators in demand, because that RoI is pretty much unrivalled.
Make it rain!
