Welcome to the Complete No Man’s Sky Beyond Guide! Whether you are a new or experienced player, this guide will show you step by step how to have one of the best starts in the game, which includes unlocking all your slots and making more than 1 BILLION credits and 15,000 nanites in under 12 hours of gameplay; and this is just to prepare you for playing the rest of the game!

November 29, 2019 Update! Synthesis is live! It appears Hello Games changed some market mechanics since this guide was originally written. It now takes roughly twice the looms to crash the market, which means we need to have roughly $15M vs. the $8.5 defined in the guide. You can use the techniques defined herein to make the $15M just like you would for the $8.5M. It will just take a bit longer. Once you purchase the looms with the $15M, everything proceeds as defined; as a matter of fact, we make the Billion faster now (after just 60 or so jumps). There have also been changes to the respawn time of Whispering Eggs for farming nanites. We can no longer fly up and back down to reset them. While the new exact respawn time isn’t known (we do know it’s 24 hours or less), this new change means we need to locate and jump between multiple facilities to reasonably farm them. I haven’t updated the guide to reflect this, but will do so as soon as I get the final details of the new respawn time.

One of the key reasons I built this written guide is while there are numerous videos online that are solid guides, most of them skip key parts, leaving many viewers wondering what happened or what they were supposed to do. This guide includes every single step required to get from starting the game to becoming a full-slotted Billionaire. There a lot of content, but if followed in order, I believe readers will quickly find the steps to be clear, highly efficient and effective.

This guide works for ALL DIFFICULTIES! Whether you’re playing NORMAL, SURVIVAL or PERMADEATH; I’ve updated the relevant sections to address the inventory stack size differences between NORMAL and the other modes.

If you are playing Survival or Permadeath, I assume you are an experienced player, and the parts of this guide we use or bypass are properly annotated. With the stack limitations (250/500 vs. 9999) of Survival and Permadeath, we can’t use the Cobalt mining approach to make our initial $10M to start the Loom process. Instead, we have to pursue farming either Ancient Bones or Salvaged Technology; but the availability of these resources is variable. Sometimes you’ll find them in the first few systems you visit, but sometimes you won’t. I’ll address this below. Also, make sure you get the CARGO exosuit slots before the base slots.

An interesting point about this guide is we will make over a billion credits and unlock all of our slots without upgrading our Multitool or starting Ship. I found it’s just not necessary, and we can progress (while raking in the cash) without having to pick up the mid-tier replacements. This way we go straight from our starting gear into an S-Class end-game Multitool and Ship.

Part I and II of this guide are written using a detailed step-by-step approach to help new players. Part III and VI are more verbose and contain a combination of conceptual steps with selective sections of steps. I hope this approach makes the content herein not only extremely useful, but easy to understand. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please leave a comment at the bottom of the guide. Also note I will continue to manage and update this guide based on feedback from the community, so it will evolve over the next few weeks as I tweak/enhance/adjust any parts that need to be adjusted.

For Experienced Players: There is content within this guide that will be very useful to those who aren’t starting a new game. Check out the below Table of Contents and browse the materials to see if anything jumps out at you. Part IV has detailed information on end-game play and farming techniques.

For New Players: NMS is a very large and complex sandbox universe exploration game. Even with this guide, the game may seem overwhelming because there is so much to do and understand. Don’t worry; everyone goes through this process. It takes a few days to really start understanding the mechanics, interface and overall breadth of what the game has to offer. It’ll all be worth it in the end. If you find yourself stuck, you can always look at the in-game Guide (press P and select the Guide tab) and select the section you want to review.

Quick Note: some players have wondered why we don’t call the Anomaly in each system to pursue the extra exosuit slot, or why we don’t get Cargo slots before the base exosuit slots. The time it takes to visit the Anomaly and get the extra slot is better spent moving to the next system to flip our Cobalt, and we’ll have 80 wealthy systems we can hop between once we’re a billionaire vs. just 40 (we revisit many of the systems for Travelers and Modules). I don’t pursue Cargo slots in the Exosuit at the beginning just because it’s unnecessary (we’re a billionaire at the end regardless) and to keep things simple and focused for new players.

PART I – The Beginning

What we’ll accomplish: Starting out, Building our first base & Mining, Visiting the Space Station and Anomaly, and finally farming some Eggs for Nanites!

Total combined time to complete this part usually takes between 2.5 hours and 3.5 hours, depending on experience and other factors.

Phase I – Starting Out (15-20m)

Start a new NORMAL game, hold down E to Initialize and let’s do this thing!

Your mining laser will mine more the hotter it gets (above 50%). As you hold it down you’ll see the bar (in the upper right corner) starting to fill. Try to keep the bar at 80% or higher while mining to get more resources. You’ll also see the damage number shooting up as well (100 is max at start). Make sure you don’t keep it at 100% more than a second or two or it’ll shut down from overheating. Repair Scanner – Use Mining Beam to gather Ferrite Dust One technique of quick movement is that of Super Flight! While holding W, hit then Q and SPACE. Your character will take a very fast flying leap. Scan for Sodium (C). Charge Exosuit. Make your way towards the signal. While doing this mine everything you see: Ferrite, Carbon, Di-Hydrogen, and any Living Plants (they give Oxygen). Also pick up any yellow (Sodium) or red (Oxygen) plants you come across. Focus on Carbon, Ferrite Dust and Sodium. We do NOT mine Cobalt until later when we have our Advanced Mining Laser (which is 15% increased mining speed). Note we need to mine 1000 Cobalt between now and Phase II. You can find this in caves. If you come across any caves, go ahead and mine the Cobalt (1000 only takes 4 minutes or so). Also keep an eye open for any Vortex Cubes, which provide TetraCobalt (which is VERY valuable – do NOT sell these). Go to Distress Beacon and Broadcast. Investigate Ship. Repair Pulse Engine and Launch Thrusters. Craft Metal Plate from Ferrite Dust and repair Pulse Engines. Take Planetary Chart from Distress Beacon and use it. Start heading to the waypoint! Make sure you have Sodium/Oxygen to survive. Go to destination. Farm on your way, also using C to identify Sodium (grab it when you see it). Use Sodium if your resistance drops. Take Hermetic Seal. Install Visor (1x Carbon Nanotube). START SCANNING EVERYTHING. Don’t forget to look into the sky to scan any flying creatures. Locate your ship icon and make your way back to your ship. One method of scanning is to simply watch the left panel for ??? while spinning around at a slower pace. You can also right-click to zoom in on flying creatures that are more than 100 units away! While running back to ship look for caves. Mine Cobalt and CARBON because you need it to replenish your mining laser. Repair Pulse Engine (Hermetic Seal). Craft Portable Refiner (1x Metal Plate, 40 Ferrite Dust). Refine Ferrite Dust to 50 Pure Ferrite. Craft Di-Hydrogen Jelly. Repair Launch Thruster. Make sure you pick up the portable refiner with middle-mouse button! Open any Geodes you have in your inventory (with E).

Phase II – Build First Base (30-45m w/mining)

Launch! Fly to space, test controls. I recommend switching to 3rd person Starship view (X then left most entry) for better visibility. Answer communication. Fly to Signal Source. Land on planet. Get out and SCAN EVERYTHING. Use Distress Beacon. Decoding Acquire Base Module and Geological Tool. Build Geological Tool (2x Carbon Nanotubes and 1x Di-Hydrogen Jelly). Scan for Copper; use E to select. If it’s more than 300u away, get in ship and fly to it. If it’s <300 just run to it. Mine at least 200 Copper; activate geological mine tool by pressing G and use it on it vein. Depending on the size of the vein, you might need to find another. While your geological tool is active, press R to make the mining sphere smaller; you’ll get more! Remember to scan all new minerals, flora and critters around your mining site! If you run out of launch fuel, just craft some (1x Metal Plate, 40 Di-Hydrogen). Deploy your Portable Refiner and refine the Copper (all of it) into Chromatic Metal. While it’s working away, continue to Scan and Mine. Focus on Ferrite and Carbon. Put the Chromatic Metal into your exosuit and PICK UP the refiner! Minor Settlements are often within areal visual range of your landing spot for the signal source. When you take off, circle around a bit to make sure one isn’t over the hill! Jump in your ship and fly in a straight line until you find a Minor Settlement. It’s very important you select a Minor Settlement, and not another structure. Minor Settlements are single buildings with a single landing pad attached to it (which will glow green as you approach). You can press “C” while flying to help locate a Settlement. If you are having difficulty locating a Minor Settlement you can land at a large beacon tower, which will direct you to a Settlement. When you land at the Minor Settlement, we’re going to start crafting our base! Build Base right by the landing pad (on the ground). Use the computer for the first time and claim your base. Use the Base Computer again to claim Blueprints. Build 1x1x1 Shelter. One Floor, Three Walls, One Door, and one Ceiling tile (200 Carbon, 10 Ferrite Dust). If you don’t have enough, just farm it from the flora and minerals around your base. Go to base computer. Extract Plans (Construction Research Unit). Put down the Portable Refiner to make 40 Magnetized Ferrite (80 Pure Ferrite). If you don’t have enough pure ferrite, just throw a stack of ferrite dust in the refiner until you have 80 Pure Ferrite, and then refine that to 40 Magnetized. Make sure you have 30 condensed carbon. If you don’t refine carbon until you have enough. Craft one Carbon Nanotube. Build Construction Research Unit. VERY IMPORTANT! When you name your SYSTEMS, adopt a naming convention so you can easily find them later. I recommend the format: RaceEconomySentinels Special OriginalName. So for example, if you came across a system named Xytrol-Iuya IV that’s Korvax, has a Prosperous economy and Peaceful sentinels, the proper renaming would be: “KorProsperPeace Xytrol-Iuya”. And if that same system had a Paradise planet in it, the name would be: “KorProsperPeace Paradise Xytrol-Iuya”. Another example would be: “GekBoomHostile Nubaha III”. I can’t stress how important proper naming is since you’ll end up with hundreds of systems you’ll need to page through when you want to use the portal. Also, if you see a S-Class Multitool in the space station, you can put “MultiTool” in the special section of the name so you can go back and get it later (or if you want to share it with the community). Note PLANET naming is not as important; I only custom name Paradise planets. The rest I keep as default. Time to get our Advanced Mining Laser Blueprint (but we’re not going to craft it just yet because we don’t have the looms). To get the Nanites to buy this, we need to turn in our discoveries. Press P and go to the Discoveries Tab. Start by naming the System (with X) whatever works for you (I use “Moogy’s Starting System”). Then name the planet(s) you’ve been to. Now, click on each planet and “check in” every plant, mineral and animal you’ve scanned. When you’re done you should be rewarded with at least 75 nanites. Before going inside the outpost check outside and see if there are two small “trailer sized” buildings. If so, go in them; one will have a cluster of nanites on the wall. Grab ’em. Go inside the outpost and first check the walls to see if there’s any nanite clusters available on the wall. If so, grab them. Check the center desk for navigational data items (which can also reward nanites). Ignore the Multi-tool cabinet (we’re sticking with the starter for awhile and will get a S-Class later). Go to the Vendor (the little alien, not the Terminal) and select Purchase Blueprints. Buy the advanced mining laser blueprint. Go to the Galactic Trade Terminal, select Sell and get rid of the materials you DO NOT need. This includes: Sulpherine, Mordite, Radon, Solanium, Salt, Dioxite, Nitrogen, Ammonia, Faecium, Nav Data, Vortex Cubes, Fungal Mold and Uranium. DO NOT SELL: Any type of Cobalt (including TetraCobalt) or Ferrite or Carbon, Di-Hydrogen, Oxygen, Sodium, Copper, or Chromatic Metal. Time to get the Technology Modules. Exit the outpost and scan the horizon. We want to dig up 2 Buried Technology Modules (this will give you 4x units). If you can’t see any buried technology modules on the scanner from your location, just run about 200 units away and scan again. There’s a LOT out there. Shouldn’t take long! You’ll dig them up with your Geological Digging Tool, just like digging up copper. Do not confuse SALVAGE CONTAINERS with BURIED TECHNOLOGY MODULES. Salvage Containers are the rare resource yellow icons that provide modules you sell for profit. They are not what we’re looking for right now. You want the standard colored buried technology modules. As you run to and fron the modules, make sure you scan any ??? objects, including animals. Farm Carbon, Ferrite, Di-Hydrogen, Sodium, and Oxygen while you’re out there! If you did not mine your Cobalt yet, now is the time to do it. Locate a cave and mine 1,000 Cobalt. As mentioned if you can see yellow subterranian relics (Vortex Cubes) focus on those as a single stack of TetraCobalt can be refined to 750 Ionized Cobalt. Return to base! When you get back to base, refine whatever you found (Cobalt or TetraCobalt) to 500 Ionized Cobalt. Do NOT sell it to the outpost! (we’re going to sell it at the station) Go to your Construction Research Unit. Select research Buildable Technology. Under Core Habitation Tech, learn Base Teleporter, Biofuel Reactor, Wiring, and Save Beacon. Build Base Teleporter (4x Metal Plate and 2x Carbon Nanotubes, 40 Sodium). Build Biofuel Reactor (1x Metal Plating, 40 Oxygen) next to Teleporter. Wire Reactor to Teleporter. If you run out of inventory space, open Geodes and Crystals and/or run into the outpost and sell the same junk items we did before. Also, if you don’t have the Sodium or Oxygen, just purchase it from the Galactic Trade Terminal in the outpost. Once the Teleporter and Biofuel Reactor are built (and wired), put CONDENSED CARBON in the Biofuel reactor – if you put carbon, it will take your entire stack. Just use Condensed for now (the reactor will take all of it). If you don’t have any Condensed Carbon, just throw your carbon into the portable refiner and refine it to 50 condensed. Interact with Base Computer. Name and then Upload your base. Upload any new discoveries (plants, minerals, animals) to get nanites. Pick up Portable Refiner. Go to Base Computer, get quest to go to Space Station.

Phase III – Space Station & Mining (45m – 1.5h)

Note for Survival and Permadeath players: Skip Steps 11-23. Scan each planet in your starting system to see if any of them have Ancient Bones or Salvaged Technology. If any do, land and farm and sell until you’ve made $10M. Whether or not the starting system has these resources, continue the guide at step 24.

Take off and fly into the sky, look for the orange and white Hexagon marker. When you leave the atmosphere, use the Pulse Engine (Space) to fly to and dock with the station. Exit your ship and get your first Exosuit expanded slot. This is to your upper right (when you first get out of your ship) and is the first bay on the left. Walk up to it to activate the Exosuit hologram, and press E to accept the Exosuit Upgrade (click on the green button at the bottom). If you run out of Pulse Fuel, just shoot (mine) the asteroids to get Tritium, which you can put directly into your pulse engines to refuel them! Pick up any Nav data you see – check back rooms for nanites on the walls. DO NOT BUY A MULTITOOL. Roam the station and find the Alien who says 16…16…16… Keep talking to aliens until you get the one that starts the next quest requiring you to go through the portal (the 3rd one). Go to the Galactic Trade Terminal and SELL your Ionized Cobalt. Also sell any extra fodder you have, such as: Sulpherine, Mordite, Radon, Solanium, Salt, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Marrow Bulbs, Nitrogen, Vortex Cubes, etc. Buy 2 Wiring Looms and 5 Microprocessors. Make sure you have 250 Chromatic Metal. If not, check to see if the station sells it and buy enough to meet the 250 requirement. If not don’t worry, we’ll get it. Go to the Teleport Terminus and select your base to teleport back. Once back at your base, complete crafting your Advanced mining laser (2 Wiring Looms, 1 Hermetic Seal, 1 Carbon Nanotube). If you don’t have the condensed carbon for the seal, just toss your refiner down and make it. Don’t forget to pick up the refiner if you do! TIME TO MINE 15,000 COBALT! Here’s the breakdown. 10,000 Cobalt is for 5,000 Ionized Cobalt, and the other 5,000 is to start crashing the market. Mining will now go 15% faster now that you have the Advanced Mining Laser (this is why we waited). To prepare for mining, MAKE SURE you have at least 1200 carbon. Time to find your cave(s). There may be one around your base, or you may need to take off in your ship and go find one. A single cave can often provide more than 10,000 Cobalt, depending on the density. If you run out in a cave, find another. Also make sure you scan all of the formations as well. Make sure you farm all Oxygen Hazardous Flora you come across. Don’t forget to scan everything! Also if your inventory fills up, dump things like Nitrogen, Platinum, Gold and Silver. Every 1,000 or so Cobalt you mine, make sure you open any Geodes in your inventory! They can contain Cobalt, Ionized Cobalt, and TetraCobalt! You can also speed this process up with Vortex Cubes (Subterranean Relics) because they can give TetraCobalt when you pick them up, and each stack of 5 TetraCobalt gives 750 Ionized Cobalt. So do the math; if you find a bunch of cubes and refine the TetraCobalt on the fly (just dropping the harvester down as you mine), you can drastically cut down on the amount you need. For example, if you find 3,500 worth of Ionized Cobalt, you now only have to farm 8,000 cobalt total. The final goal needs to be 5,000 Ionized Cobalt (which is 2:1 ratio Cobalt) and 5,000 Cobalt. See Underground Relics off in the distance, but your cave doesn’t appear to connect? Pull out your Geological tool and start tunneling to them! I do this for any relics that are 120 units or closer (and I’ve confirmed I can’t get there with my cave network). Also, when you’re done farming, if you’re deep in a cave and lost, just start tunneling at an upward angle – you’ll pop out above! If your inventory gets full of Vortex Cubes just destroy them. You don’t need them because you get the TetraCobalt when you pick them up, not by having them in your inventory. GET TO MINING! Takes from 20m (with lots of cubes) to 45m. Once you’re done mining, it’s time to go back to your base. We aren’t going to sell yet! Hold your horses! BUT if you have any extra items like Vortex Cubes or Nav Data, you can sell them at the Settlement terminal to clean up your inventory. DO NOT SELL YOUR COBALT. The reason we are waiting is to see if either of the 2 other systems we’re going to jump to have Ionized Cobalt on the market. If they do, we make a ton more money playing the market. Make a NOTE as to whether or not you can BUY Ionized Cobalt at the Outpost Galactic Trade Terminal. Only note it – don’t do anything. REFINE THE COBALT! First refine your TetraCobalt stacks to see how much Cobalt you have to refine. If you have more than 2000 Cobalt, use 2 refiners. If you have more than 5000 cobalt, use 3 refiners. You can break the stacks of Cobalt by moving your mouse over the stack, pressing W and then spinning your mouse wheel. Refine all but 5000 Cobalt to Ionized Cobalt. Also refine TetraCobalt stacks. When done refining, make sure your Exosuit has at least 8 open slots. If need be go inside the outpost and sell any extra junk. If you don’t have 275 Chromatic Metal, check the Galactic Trade Terminal at the station and buy it there. Make sure you have at least 30 Oxygen. If not, buy it from the Trade Terminal. If you don’t have 275 Chromatic Metal, you need to run out and mine 550 copper. Return and refine it. PICK UP YOUR REFINERS! You can sell any extras (keep 1 at least) at the Galactic Trade Terminal.

Phase IV – Awakenings, Eggs & Nanites and Anomaly (1h)

Note for Survival and Permadeath players: you can skip steps 10-13 because of how dangerous it is to farm eggs at this point.

Access your base computer to start the next quest… Decode the signal. Begin the Encoded Signal Quest – Fly to Distress Signal (usually on another planet) Land at Freighter. Use Distress Beacon. Receive Hyperdrive Blueprint. Install Hyperdrive. Enter Ship. Take off and enter space. Scan for Antimatter. Go to Antimatter Trace. Land at Abandoned Station. Interact with Terminal. Remove slime with middle mouse button (discard). Read log and accept Antimatter. If it’s a new planet, SCAN EVERYTHING then UPLOAD! Craft Antimatter Housing. Craft Warp Cell. Fuel Hyperdrive. Make sure you have 6 open slots for the next part. Save the game. Enter your ship and Exit. Do not take off. Now it’s time to get some quick Nanites! We’re going EGG HUNTING! See all the eggs around the abandoned outpost you just got the blueprints from? We’re going to steal those and convert them to nanites – but to do this, we have to dig under the ground. Because it’s a bit difficult to explain, I’m including a link to a video on how to do this. If you’re new, definitely watch this video. Note the swarms will not go away as long as you’re underground, so when you’re done, you’ll need to fly up and on the roof of the building. The horrors can spit at you but it doesn’t do much damage. This is when I pop my refiner down and start refining those delicious larval cores. I usually get 5-6 stacks of 5. Each stack provides 250 nanites, so you should have made 1,000 or more nanites. If you only get two stacks of eggs, we need to run it again (you want at least 4 full stacks). First, we need to set up a custom marker so you can fly back to it from space; to do this activate your Visor with F and press E (around the building). The waypoint should appear. Now, per the video, to reset the eggs, we get in our ship and fly straight up into space and use your pulse drive to go through the first 2-3 asteroid fields, then turn right around and fly back to the waypoint. Farm the eggs again. But only to get 4-6 full stacks. Make sure you refine those Larval Cores! When you’re done, launch into Space. Bring up Galaxy Map (with X Key). Right click to deselect system, and move mouse so you can left-click on the system the line connects to. Once selected, hold down the left mouse button to warp there. If you get a Hostile Scan from Pirates, fly into the Space Station and they’ll disappear. Remember to hold down shift to fly as fast as possible. Once you’re in the new system, wait until the quest pops up an Anomalous Signal has appeared (if it doesn’t, press P and make sure the Awakenings quest is selected). If you are playing Survival or Permadeath and haven’t made your $10M farming bones or tech yet, make sure you scan each system to see if either of the resources are present; if so, go and farm $10M before the next step! Press C to scan. Fly to Anomalous Signal Source. Land at Trading Post. Talk to Alien and take Antimatter Blueprint. Craft Antimatter. If you don’t have the materials, either buy them off the Galactic Trade Terminal at the outpost, or find them around the Trading Post and use your Portable Refiner. Craft Antimatter Housing, and finally, Warp Cell. SCAN Everything in sight! Fuel Hyperdrive in Ship. Launch into space. DOCK at station! Very important. Get Exosuit upgrade, grab Nav data and check for Nanites. Check Galactic Trade Terminal to see if you can buy Ionized Cobalt and/or Chromactic Metal. Make a NOTE of this, but don’t buy any. Leave Station. Bring up Galaxy Map and Warp to the next system connected by the bold line (make sure you don’t go backwards!). When you enter the system, the mission will prompt you to accept guidance for a Fuel Source. Use your Pulse Engine to fly to the Fuel Source (do not dock at the station). If you are playing Survival or Permadeath and haven’t made your $10M farming bones or tech yet, make sure you scan each system to see if either of the resources are present; if so, go and farm $10M before the next step! Land and interact with Monolith. Receive Warp Cell. SCAN Everything in sight! Launch into space. Fuel Hyperdrive. Accept incoming transmission. Receive next quest. Fly to Stranger’s Coordinates and land next to crashed ship. Repair Distress Beacon (5 sodium nitrate, 25 chromatic metal) and extract records. Receive Personal Forcefield Blueprint. Ignore crashed ship. Fly into space. Accept Communication. Anomaly will appear. Fly to it and dock! Press P and go to the Discovery Tab and make sure everything you’ve scanned is turned in and uploaded (to ensure you have all the nanites you can get). Go to Priest Entity Nada and talk to him. Ask about everyone. Turn around and talk to Polo. Go to Helios (there is a marker on your map) and talk to him; get Nanites. Go to Selene and just talk to them. Browse, but don’t buy anything. Turn around and select the Construction Research Station. Browse, but do not buy. Now, talk to the Research Vendor (Hyperion, who is right next to the Construction Station) and purchase the Teleport Receiver for 150 nanites, Economy Scanner for 150 Nanites and the Cadmium Drive Upgrade for 80 nanites. Press P, go to the Log tab and select “The Space Anomaly” quest. Return to Nada. Can ask for whatever you would like. Leave Anomaly.

PART II – The Middle

What we’ll accomplish: Obtain our seed capital, play the Wiring Loom Market, Visit 80 star systems, get a Freighter, acquire all 110 Exosuit Slots, make over $1 BILLION in cash, and acquire more than 10,000 nanites.

Note for Survival and Permadeath players: Skip Phase I after step 2 (below) and move directly to Phase II.

Total combined time to complete this part usually takes between 5.5 hours and 7.5 hours, depending on experience and other factors.

Phase I – Cobalt Fundraising (20-40m)

After exiting the Anomaly, press X when the comms begins to blink (it won’t stop until we answer it). Complete the communication. Press P and select Log and select Build Cadmium Drive (don’t worry we aren’t building it yet). Fly to the Space Station. Get your Exosuit upgrade, look for Nav data and Nanites, then go to the Terminal. VERIFY you can buy Cobalt. Now check to see if you can buy Ionized Cobalt. If you can buy Ionized Cobalt here (don’t buy, just check to see if you can), you’re set. If not, but you saw it at the last station, or your first station, take the Terminus to that station. If none of the stations sold Ionized Cobalt, it’s going to take longer to make the money we need. Go to the Station Terminal and SELL ALL COBALT AND IONIZED COBALT (if you have it). For confirmation, if none of the 3 station terminals you checked allow you to buy Ionized Cobalt, you can only sell it once and can’t crash and make extra money. Also check to see if you can buy Ionized Cobalt (just make a note). SELL all Cobalt and Ionized Cobalt. Remember to sell the entire stack at once, not in chunks! Go to Flight Deck, face outward towards Space, and wait for NPCs to fly in and land! Buy ALL Cobalt from them until you have at least 20,000. Also, if you crashed the price on Ionized Cobalt (e.g. -78%) and the NPC is selling that, you can buy it up as well. Do NOT buy Ionized Cobalt if the station did not sell it. Pro Buying Tip: When buying large quantities of anything (in this case Cobalt) just “spin up” the buy amount to 400 or so and then buy that multiple times. It’s faster than spinning up to >1000+. If you notice the Ship NPCs don’t have much (or any) Cobalt, just jump into your ship, and exit to force an Autosave. Then Reload the Autosave, which will restart the NPC docking process (and reset their sales) but still give you the awesome price. If you were able to buy Ionized Cobalt from the Ship NPCs, once you have 10K that’s plenty (because you’ll have 20K or more Cobalt). If you weren’t able to buy Ionized Cobalt, you need to buy 40k of Cobalt. Before you leave the station, go back to the Galactic Trade terminal and BUY BACK all your Cobalt. And if you sold Ionized Cobalt to crash the market, buy all of that back, too! Go to the portal and teleport to the bottom SYSTEM terminal (the name will always be different). It will have the hexagon orange/white icon. Go to the Galactic Trade Terminal and sell all Cobalt (and if you have it, Ionized Cobalt). You should have between $9M and $20M depending on how much you sold. You will need roughly $8.5M to start the wiring loom sale process! (11.20.2019 UPDATE – This value is now $15M as stated in the update at the beginning of the guide)

Phase II – Hyperdrive Fuel (15-35m)

We have to prepare for our 80-system jump sojourn, and we do this by making sure we have enough fuel to complete the journey.

We are now going to Craft 25 Warp Cells, our Economy Scanner and Cadmium Drive. This will take: 750 Oxygen, 1250 Ferrite Dust, 875 Chromatic Metal and 500 Condensed Carbon. We waited to do this because we now have the money to buy the materials from the Galactic Trade Terminal. Check your inventory and buy enough Oxygen and Ferrite Dust to meet the above 750/1250 requirements. If you saw Chromatic Metal for sale on the market and can buy it while staying about $9M in cash, take the portal to the station and buy it (or the difference of what you have in your inventory to meet the 875 amount). We must craft the Condensed Carbon since no terminals sell it. Take the terminal and go to your base and either gather 1,000 Carbon, or 500 Condensed Carbon (depending on whether or not the red crystals are there). If you get the non-condensed Carbon, refine it to Condensed. If you need the Chromatic Metal, we’ll have to farm a 2:1 ratio of Copper. Assuming we have none, we’ll need 875 total, or 1750 copper. Time to go mining! Remember when using your Geo tool to press R to have the smallest diameter when mining; you’ll get more that way (it just takes longer). When you have at least 1750 copper (or enough craft the difference to have 875 total Chromatic Metal), throw it in the Portable Refiner (using Carbon as fuel) and let ‘er rip. Takes about 5 minutes to craft 875. Make sure you clear your inventory of junk you don’t need (Mordite, Silver, Solanium, etc.) before you start crafting. You can sell this stuff at the Galactic Trade Terminal. All you need to keep right now is: Oxygen, Ferrite Dust, Chromatic Metal and Condensed Carbon. Time to craft! Make 25 Anti-matter Housing Units, 25 Anti-matter, then 25 Warp Cell units. I recommend doing them in batches of 5; stacking the Warp Cells, and then moving the stack of 5 to your Ship’s Inventory. Empty every slot of your ship’s inventory as well. Also, refill your Launch Thruster. Discard any additional fuel (we won’t have room in our inventory). When you’re done, toss 5 into your Hyperdrive. Before we start the next phase, craft a Save Beacon and SAVE THE GAME! Leave the beacon at your base. Pick up your refiner and go to the Space Station! You can either use Carbon to activate your Portal or fly there.

This is enough fuel to make you over a Billion credits and obtain every exosuit slot available.

Phase III – Making a BILLION (5h-7h)

We are going to be visiting 77 systems. This is going to take hours. A station visit can be completed in under 3 minutes, but it can often take a minute the locate and warp to a new system, pushing the average time of loading, flight, location, and running to round 4-5 minutes per system. By the time you’re done doing this, you will have all 96 inventory slots for your Exosuit and all 14 technology slots; but more importantly more than 1 BILLION credits. You will be able to buy anything in the game.

If you are playing Survival or Permadeath and haven’t found planets with Ancient Bones or Salvaged Technology to farm and make your initial $10M, you’ll need to start the below system jumping process without your looms – your goal will be to find these rare resources to farm. You should find them after a few jumps; just scan every planet for every new system you jump into while still following the below steps (i.e. making sure you have Hyperdrive support modules).

My last run, I had 1.2 Billion, 5316 Nanites and 54 missions (of scan or kill for nanites). My save file said 5:42 playtime hours right after completing Phase III, but I know it was more than that since it took me roughly 5.5 hours to do this Part III run alone. Below is a breakdown of the average earnings for each 10 systems, estimating 4 minutes to process each system on average:

System 10: $20M (40m)

System 20: $64M (1.3h)

System 30: $150M (2h)

System 40: $277M (2.6h)

System 50: $451M (3.3h)

System 60: $659M (4h)

System 70: $910M (4.6h)

System 80: $1.2B (5.5h)

Note we are going to ignore Travelers for this run because we’ll get jumped by Pirates nearly every time we leave the station (with so much valuable cargo). Don’t worry, we’ll quickly get our Glyphs after we obtain all of our slots and units. We are also not going to talk to aliens on this run. We’ll learn their languages later on.

Before we head out, we want to get 3 Hyperdrive modules. This is very important because it increases our jump range and lowers fuel costs (if we can get B or better). But first, remove any materials or items from your Ship’s Inventory (just toss them in your Exosuit). We’re going to buy the highest rated one at each station. If C is the best, get that. Do not buy a S-Class. Only go as far as A class. With the 4 stacks of Warp Cells, we should have 3 open cells in our ship. If you have an extra single cell or two and your hyperdrive is full but you only have 2 open inventory slots in your ship, just destroy the small stack. Make sure you install all of the modules side by side. (details on going from station to station) Once the Hyperdrive modules are installed, go to the Galactic Terminal and buy 5 Microprocessors and 4 wiring looms. INSTALL Economy Scanner and Cadmium Drive in your ship. Your ship slots should now be completely full. CLEAR OUT ENTIRE EXOSUIT INVENTORY – Sell EVERYTHING to the Galactic Trade.

You should have all but 3 slots open. 24 slots in total. Go back to the Galactic Terminal and buy at least 200 Wiring looms. There’s a good chance the station won’t have 200 for sale. That’s OK. Buy them all then use the portal to go to the 2nd system. Buy those up. If you still don’t have 200 take the portal again to the 1st system and buy the remainder. You have now either spent all money you have on looms, or your ship inventory is completely full of Looms. As long as you spent around $15M or your ship inventory is full, you should be good to go! Exit the station and bring up the Galactic map. It’ll rotate around for about 10 seconds – ignore that. Once the automated rotation is done, right click to free the camera and then left click on any system and press “R” to open the expanded window. This will let us see the economy of the systems. Right-click and now SEARCH for one of the following economies: Advanced, Affluent, Booming, Flourishing, High Supply, Opulent, Prosperous or Wealthy. Use the ASDW keys to rotate, and try to go in a direction where there’s a LOT of stars. When you warp to a new system, the station will always be behind you. BEGIN LOOP Land on station. Get Exosuit Upgrade. Once you get 48 general slots, get Cargo slots, then Technology slots. If you don’t have at least A-class Hyperdrive modules, check the Starship Vendor, and if he has A (at this point ignore B), and you have B or C installed, purchase the A and replace an old B or C with it. DO NOT PURCHASE A S (too expensive and not what we need). The goal is to have 3 A modules. Make rounds to pick up any Nav Data/Nanites. Check the Multi-tool cabinet just to make sure there’s not a S-Class in there (just visually check, no need to click on it unless it looks awesome – to check if it’s a S-Class). Develop this habit, because in an hour or two you’ll have all the money you need to buy any class multi-tool, and if you come across a 24-slot S-Class, you’ll want to buy it. If you come across a S-Class Multitool with 24 slots (Only max slots) and have enough money (prior to selling your Looms), BUY IT! But if you don’t have the money, make note of the system so you can come back later. If you picked up any Nav data and have a Freighter, transfer it to the Freighter inventory BEFORE you sell/buy your looms. If you don’t have a Freighter or the Freighter inventory is full, SELL the nav data at the Galactic Terminal before you sell and buy your looms back. Go to terminal. Sell All Wiring Looms (initially 120). Now that you have an extra slot, now buy 125 back. As you progress this becomes 130…135…140…145…so on and so forth. When you get your first Cargo slot, you will now start increasing the count by +10 rather than +5! (16th jump) Visit the mission vendor and accept any missions that are KILL or SCAN that reward NANITES. Ignore all other missions (do not accept kill or scan that gives credits). The only Kill to ignore is Kill Monstrosities, since those are location specific. All other kill missions (sentinels, quads, etc.) are fine. Register the system in Discoveries (P) and name it properly (e.g. GekOpulentHostile Xyveros II). Use the Station Portal to activate the registration. This is VERY important, and do this right after you name the system. This will ensure the proper system name is in the portal list when you access it! Exit the space station. Bring up Galaxy map, and find your next wealthy system. Go to your base and save every 20 jumps to manually save! Portaling back is easy – move a stack of looms to your ship (you’ll have at least 1 open slot now) and farm carbon to use portal to get back. To find the last system you were in, press P and look at the top of discoveries. Now look for that system in the portal network and teleport back. END LOOP – 80 SYSTEMS! If you make any mistakes on a loop just reload your autosave – it’ll pop you back to the last time you got out of your ship! If you find you need slots for anything during this process but are full of Looms, transfer 3-4 of them to your FREIGHTER (you can do this from anywhere). It’s a great ad-hoc storage place! If you have to destroy anything to make room, destroy Nav Data on your freighter to make room for looms. All you need to do is land on your freighter to take any items back. You’ll come across a mission to engage the ships attacking a Freighter. DO THIS MISSION and make sure you do NOT shoot the frigate or its fighters. When you’re done, the captain will invite you on board. Go on board, run to the bridge, and accept the FREE FREIGHTER. You are going to use this to store your Nav Data! Once you get your Frigate, you can move Nav Data you find on the station to the Frigate inventory from the station. (can move to freighter from anywhere, but can’t take off without landing). Now head to the station and continue the loop. Take note of any Paradise Planets . If you see one, don’t fly to it – instead annotate it in the system name (e.g. GekAdvPeace Paradise Xyander IV). You can often quickly identify if there is a paradise planet in a system you just arrived at by pressing P and looking at the planets (and their colors) in the system overview under Discovery. Paradise planets are usually blue and green. You can then find the planet in your HUD (while flying to the space station) and pressing C to quickly scan and identify it. See an awesome S-Class ship you want and you have enough to buy it (NOT using the money you make selling Looms), you can buy it, but be prepared you’ll need to take a break from the Loom mission to craft the Scanner and Cadmium Drive; you’ll also need to buy new Hyperdrive support modules. Halfway through visit your base and do a MANUAL save! MARK LAST SYSTEM in case you want to continue the loom trade!

And there we go!

PART III – Wrapping Up (Time is Variable)

Congratulations! You’ve completed the starting steps that allow you to dive headfirst into the game. While there’s a number of things we need to do, we now have enough money to buy anything we come across and enough exosuit slots to pretty much store anything we want. This is a big deal as it often takes average players days or weeks to accomplish this goal. You did it in under 12 hours.

What we’ll accomplish in this section: Acquire some core blueprints, get a A or S-Class Multitool (if we don’t already have one), Get our first S-Class Ship (if we don’t already have one), Construct a New Base (optional), purchase Upgrades, Complete and turn in Missions, and acquire additional blueprints and modules.

Note the following guide information is going to be much more verbose than the above step-by step approach. This is to share more conceptual information so you are able to decide what you want to pursue, and in what way.

Phase I – Anomaly Blueprints

Exit the station and summon the Anomaly. Dock and go the vendor section. Below is a list of the Blueprints you want to buy with your Nanites from each Vendor:

Eos (Multitool): Pulse Spitter, Amplified Cartridges, Optical Drill Selene (Exosuit): Hazmat Glove, Shield Lattice, Neural Stimulator, Rocket Boots Hyperion (Starship Vendor): Efficient Thrusters, Nonlinear Optics, Ablative Armor

I consider these to be the “core starting” purchases that we’ll want to use.

Quick Note – Get some core Materials!

Now that you are filthy rich, it’s time to get some of those base materials back! Just do this as you complete the below phases – go to every Galactic Trade Terminal and make sure you have:

Ferrite Dust (1000), Oxygen(250), Nitrogen (250), Pure Ferrite (2000), Magnetized Ferrite (1000), Chromatic Metal (3000-5000), Gold (500), Starship Launch Fuel (5)

Phase II – Multitool

Let’s talk about the Multitool. Since we don’t have the Portal glyphs, unless we saw a 24-slot S-Class, chances are we won’t be getting one at this point. However a 24-slot A is pretty easy to find (we probably saw more than one during our journey). If you didn’t pick a 24-slot A-class up while you were system hopping, you can use the Station Portal and go through every system again. It should be easy to get a 24-slot A-class if you didn’t see a S-class. Just note that any modules we spend nanites on for it will end up being lost when we upgrade in the future from an A-Class to a S-Class. Good thing we know how to farm nanites!

If you want to spend some time hunting for a S-Class Multitool, here’s how you do it. We have 80 Wealthy systems to visit! Start going through your list and look at the systems that don’t have hostile sentinels. Take the portal to the station, leave the station, and start visiting planets and looking for Minor Settlements (just like the one you built your first base at). Each of these has a landing pad (so there will be no fuel consumption on takeoff) and a Multitool cabinet. Since you’re in a wealthy system, you have a small chance of finding a S-Class multitool, but SHOULD at least find a 24-slot A-class in probably less than an hour or two. Remember, at this point, ONLY accept a 24-slot S-Class. Since we’ll replace the A-Class later on, we don’t need a max slot version for that, but I’d try to get at least 16 slots since we will toss many things in it.

If you only get an A-Class at this point, don’t worry – once we get the Portal Glyphs you can easily acquire an end-game S-Class of your choice!

When you do get a new multi-tool, don’t forget to rebuild your Advanced Mining Laser and Geological Digging tools!

Phase III – S-Class Ship

Finding a S-Class ship is actually pretty easy. While our first S-Class won’t necessarily be the best looking ship we want to fly in forever, it will be solid for what we need to do until we get our Portal Glyphs and are able to hunt down the exact make and model we want. First you must decide what kind of ship you’re looking for. Fighter, Hauler or Explorer? Below is a breakdown of the max slots and best race for each ship type:

Fighter (38+12) Vy’keen

Hauler (48+8) Gek

Explorer (38+8) Korvax

Shuttle (28+8) Any

Exotics (20+6) Any

At this point, it doesn’t make sense to get an A-Class. Get an S-Class. As mentioned, we have 80 Wealthy systems on our list. It shouldn’t take long to find something that works well.

S-Class Ship Hunting Technique

The most efficient S-Class hunting, without question, is the Trading Post Save/Reload technique. Here’s how you do it. In a wealthy economy, the chance of a ship being S-Class is 2%. 1% in medium economy and 0% in low economy. When you’re S-Class hunting ALWAYS TURN MULTIPLAYER OFF, especially when you go to a publicly shared location through a portal.

Dock with Station. Go to Station Portal. Press P and bring up Discoveries. Browse Named Systems for the Race that has the Ship you want (e.g. Vy’keen for Fighter). When you click on the system, look for planets that look like they support good life; tropical, humid, etc. Granted you won’t know until you actually scan the planet. When you find the system that looks right, take the portal to the system station. Depart the system and fly to the planet. Gone are the days of the guessing game. You have an Economy Scanner! Press X and go to the far left menu and select the option “Scan for Trading Post”. Voila! Fly to the waypoint and you’re good! Make sure you check the terminal for any goodies like Chromatic Metal, etc. (to replenish your stock). Fly to the very top of the center building and build a Save Beacon. Use it. Quit to Options, and reload your Manual Save. Here’s your loop. When you reload, you’re going to find the ships generally all fly in from one direction. Once you get this down, you can use your visor to identify them as they approach (to see if they are S-Class, slots, etc). This “first wave” is all you want to review before you reload and do it again. Once you’ve reviewed all the ships in the first wave, quit to options, and reload your manual save. You’ll notice there are generally 5 different variations of each ship: Fighter, Hauler, Explorer and Shuttle. 3 of those variations can never be max slot (e.g. you’ll see fighters that max out at 20 slots), but 2 of them can be max slot. Quickly identify which ones have the potential of being max slot because even if a S-class variation of one of the first 3 appears, it can never have max slots (e.g. you’d be stuck with a S-Class Fighter with 20+8 vs. 38+12. A HUGE difference). Using this technique you should have your first S-Class in under 30 minutes. Now, be sure to check the slot size – you ALWAYS want max slots for a S-Class. The only exception MIGHT be an exotic (e.g. 18+5 vs. 20+6) but it’s really up to you. Note it can take hours to get the ship you want. But do NOT get a ship you think is ugly or do not like – you’ll regret it! Be patient. And if you don’t see ANY ships you like after 15-20 minutes, you need to find a new planet with different ships. Happy hunting!

It can take hours to find the ship you’re looking for.

Phase IV – New Base

This is optional. There’s a reasonable chance you may have come across a Paradise planet while you were doing your Loom Sale jumping. If so, you might want to go back and build a new base there. This is what I did on my most recent playthrough, and it turned out to be one of the best planets and bases yet! Just make sure you get a Teleporter installed so you can quickly visit at any time.

Phase V – Core Upgrades & Missions

First a quick note on Inventory. You now have all the slots available in the game, and your Exosuit Cargo slots carry 2x the amount of your base Exosuit slots. I recommend using your cargo slots to store all materials (Tritium, Cobalt, Ferrite, etc.). You can quickly transfer and stack any items from your main Exosuit inventory to your Cargo by moving your mouse over the material and Pressing X and selecting “Exosuit High Capacity Inventory”.

We need to get our missions turned in so we can enjoy those 10,000+ nanites that we should get. To do that we need a multitool that allows us to hunt creatures and sentinels efficiently enough to complete the missions without risk to ourselves.

The weapon modifier we’ll be using to complete our missions (namely the Sentinel killing) is a Pulse Spitter, which shoots devastating projectiles that melt sentinels. Yes, we could use our mining laser, but honestly, it’s terrible against sentinels, and will take longer – besides, we need to unlock the Pulse Spitter and other blueprints anyway, so we’re going to focus on that. To build the Pulse Spitter, we need 200 Deuterium, which can only be manufactured in a medium or large-sized refiner. It just so happens the game won’t let you place a Medium Refiner in a custom build area (e.g. wood floor) – but only in a prefab unit (why this is the case is beyond me). However, a large refiner can be placed anywhere. For simplicity sake, we’re going with the Medium Prefab route. But we want to get a bit more than just the refiner; we want a few new base components that we can use anywhere. Below is an overview of the Blueprints we need to get our hands on, and each costs Salvage Modules, which we must dig up.

Below is the order (and cost) of each Blueprint Purchase (in Salvaged Modules) to be able to construct our Pulse Spitter:

Medium Refiner (10) Solar Panel (8) Battery (3) Large Prefab Cylindrical Room (3) & Door (1)

So we’ll need 25 Technology Modules. Get to it! Go to your base, and start scanning the horizon for those Buried Technology symbols. Get those guys dug up!

While you are searching for Technology Modules, kill 20 critters.

Once you have the 25x Salvaged Technology, fly to the Anomaly and purchase the above blueprints from the Construction vendor. Then go back to your base and build a Cylindrical Room (on the ground) and a door in it’s side. Now is also the time you need to replace your Biofuel power supply with a Solar Panel and Battery. Now your portal will always be active and you don’t need to throw Biofuel away anymore.

Once you construct the Medium Refiner in the middle of your Prefab and run power to it, toss in 200x Tritium and Di-Hydrogen to create 200 Deuterium. Time to craft the Pulse Spitter on your Multitool! Next, craft 4x stacks of Projectile Ammunition (each stack takes 50 Ferrite Dust).

You are now a killing machine. Make sure you have Amplifed Cartridges crafted next to your Pulse Spitter in your Multitool, and any S-Class Pulse Spitter modules you purchased installed and connected. To try it out press G to cycle to the Pulse Spitter and blast something. Note how quickly it drains ammo, and you must press R to reload.

We’re almost ready to complete our missions! The final step of preparation is to get our Secure Planetary Charts.

Getting Planetary Charts & Space Station Hopping

We acquired a LOT of Navigational Data during our Loom haul. Our freighter should have well over 100 units. If for some reason you don’t have Nav Data, you can purchase it off the market.

If the Nav Data is on our Freighter, we need to go and pick it up, OR you can buy it from the Trade Terminal (if the station you’re at sells it). To get it from the Freighter, fly out, summon your freighter and dock. While on the landing pad, pull up the inventory and make sure you have at least 30 Navigational data. Head back to the station.

First, we need to understand Planetary Charts. Each station has a Cartographer (first vendor to the right as soon as you come out of the station portal). This cartographer provides Planetary Charts that are used to find specific structures. The catch is each station provides only one type of chart, and you can’t find out what kind it is until you’ve purchased one (which costs 1 Navigational Data). So, we’ll need to hope Space Stations and buy 1 chart from the vendor until we get a Planetary Chart that says “a secure site of interest”. This is one big problem with NMS, we are unable to attach notes to systems (which is why we have to name the systems in the way we have). This also means we can’t annotate (in-game) the type of maps a system sells, so we need to keep track of this on the side on our own (writing it on paper or creating a simple notepad .txt file). You want to do this while you station hop; make note of the stations that sell each map category. There are 4 map types currently available: Secure Site, Inhabited Outpost, Distress Signal, and Ancient Artifact Site.

Efficient Station Hopping is easy. Just go to the station portal, make sure the filter is set to Space Stations, and select the LAST station entry. This will be the oldest station you’ve visited, ensuring when you select the last in the list, it’s not a station you’ve visited recently. Go to the station, go to the cartographer, and note what map type it provides. Keep track of your map stacks, because if you already (for example) have 3 Ancient Artifact Site maps, the Cartographer will simply increase the count to 4.

For those who want to know how to identify the station you are in, press P, go to Discoveries, and page through the systems until you see the white and black marker on the right side of the system name. That’s where you are.

Once you find a station that sells Secure Site Maps, buy 25 of them (we’re going to use them for more than just sentinel hunting). Yes, it’s tedious because you can only buy one at a time and you have to click through a ton of Dialogue. And remember, WRITE DOWN the name of this system. You’ll need it to buy more maps Secure Site maps later on! My Secure maps are on the GekBoomAlarm Orsfiel system! See? I wrote it down!

Completing the Sentinel Kill Missions

Remember! Make sure you have 4x stacks of Projectile Ammunition in your inventory before doing this! Now that you have the charts, head back to your main base and use one of the Secure Site Planetary Charts. It should point you to a manufacturing facility. Each one should have a landing pad. Take off and head there! When you arrive, you need to use your Pulse Spitter to shoot down the door. Now you can start blasting the Sentinels from inside the facility! You can use this for cover since they won’t attack you while in the facility. Have at it! You might need to run out to kite some of them to the door, but it works just fine. Remember to blast the little cylinders they drop when you kill them! Get the rhythm down for reloading your pulse spitter. Be careful of the Quads – their laser does a lot of damage, and you don’t have the shields to take more than a few hits – use the base walls to run around, dodge and hide. When the giant walker appears, you need to shoot off the armor on its legs and then it’s torso – then you focus on the torso. Once the armor is gone, you can completely avoid the walker’s projectile damage by side-running in circles around it as you shoot and reload.

To ensure you complete all missions, you want to kill 18 Sentinels and 4 Quads. When you’re done, either jump in your ship and hover in the atmosphere (do NOT go into space while Sentinels are active or Sentinel ships will come after you) or stay in the structure until the Sentinels deactivate.

To verify you’ve completed the missions, Press P, look at Logs and click through the missions to ensure all of them say return to agent. If you missed anything (e.g. scanning minerals, killing critters) once the sentinels have deactivated, take care of anything left over.

Quick Note on the Terminal: check out the “Language & Secure Facility Blueprint Farming” section of this guide under Part IV if you want to learn more about secure facilities and solving the terminal puzzle. We aren’t doing that here, but hunting down these types of facilities and extracting their blueprints is part of the end-game process.

Once you’ve completed all of your missions, head back to the station and turn them in! But note due to some sort of irritating bug, it takes roughly 15-20 seconds to turn in each mission. If you have 50+ missions, you could be looking at nearly 20 minutes time to turn them in. So put on some music and get to it!

Depending on the number and rewards of the missions, you should have between 8,000 and 12,000 nanites. Now it’s time to get some REAL upgrades for our Exosuit and S-Class ship so we can start really playing the game, which includes a lot of farming!

Phase VI – Additional Upgrade Blueprints and Modules

Now that we have between 8-12k nanites, it’s time to start upgrading our gear.

Section I – Blueprint Upgrades

Fly to the Anomaly and purchase the below equipment:

Exosuit Blueprint Upgrades (Combined Cost 880 Nanites)

The 4 Element Shields (160 each) Oxygen Rerouter (240)

Starship Upgrades ( Combined Cost 850 Nanites)

Emeril Drive (120) Launch System Recharger (460) Phase Beam (150) Fortier De-Limiter (120)

Multitool Upgrades ( Combined Cost 440 Nanites)

Waveform Recycler (120) Survey Device (320)

Exocraft Upgrades ( Combined Cost 180 Nanites)

Exocraft Acceleration Module (180)

Total Nanite Cost: 2350.

And there we go! This is enough to get us started. You can purchase the other upgrades as you see fit.

Section II – Installing the Upgrades

We need to get all of this installed, but all of this requires a lot of materials. We’re also going to get the materials for the Pilgrim and its installed technology. Note I am going to omit the costs of the Oxygen Rerouter (for underwater exploration) and Emeril Drive (for going to Green star systems) . You can pursue those when you are ready. Note we’ll need to station hop to buy everything.

Here’s your shopping list. Remember to first check and see what you have (and need) and toss all of this in your Exosuit Expanded Cargo space!

Oxygen (60) Phosphorous (150) Dioxite (200) Ammonia (150) Uranium (150) Silver (240) Copper (300) Salt Refractor (1) Wiring Loom (7) Magnetized Ferrite (250) Sodium Diode (3) Cobalt Mirror (1) Metal Plates (5) Paraffinium (150) Tritium (40)

Note I found Ammonia the most difficult to find – but you can easily craft it in your medium refiner with Ferrite Dust and Paraffinium. Once you have all of this, install each of the above purchased craftable technologies (using E) for your Exosuit, Starship and Multi-tool. You’ll also do the same when you finally have your Pilgrim.

Section III – Buying our Modules

Now it’s time to talk Modules. FROM HERE ON OUT WE ONLY BUY S-CLASS MODULES. Ignore the rest.

I’ve put together the below list to give you an idea of what you should strive for. Just to ensure you are aware, we can only have 3 support modules per “item”. This means only 3x S-Class Life modules, 3x S-Class Shield modules, etc. The only exception is we can also put 3x S-Class modules in the Technology tab of the objects that support it (such as Exosuit, Starship). This allows us to “double down” on S-Class module support. So when you see 6x vs 3x what that means is you want to first put 3x S-Class modules in the “base” and then 3x S-Class modules in the Technology support tab.

Note that the Nanite cost of S-Class Modules varies depending on the module. For Exosuit, Starship and Multitool, the price can be as high as 612 Nanites, or as low as 536. I’m averaging out the projected costs to be 585 per module.

Exosuit Module List

6x Life Modules (Main & Tech) 3x Shield Modules 6x Movement Modules (Main & Tech) 4x Hazard Modules (one per hazard type) Estimated Total: 9360 Nanites

Starship Module List

6x Hyperdrive Modules (Main & Tech) 6x Shield Modules (Main & Tech) 6x (594) 3x Pulse Engine Modules 3x Photon Cannon Modules 3x Phase Beam Modules Estimated Total: 12,285 Nanites

Multitool module List

3x Scanner Modules 3x Mining Support Modules 3x Pulse Spitter Support Modules Estimated Total: 5,265 Nanites

Exocraft module list

3x Engine Modules 3x Boost Modules Estimated Total: 3,510 Nanites

So we’re looking at a cost of more than 30,000 nanites to get everything solid at the base. The good news is once you put S-Modules in your Exosuit or Exocraft, you never lost them. The bad news is if you get a new Multitool or Ship, you’ll have to replace all of the modules. You may be wondering about the Engine Modules for the Exocraft – well, when we start farming (below) the first thing we’ll do it unlock the Pilgrim and use it as our main tool for gathering Salvaged Technology so we can unlock all the Base Blueprints!

Recommended order of acquiring modules:

Hyperdrive for Ship (makes exploring easier) Movement Modules for Exosuit (run faster) Mining Modules for Multitool (get more quicker) Engine Modules for Exocraft (go faster in your Pilgrim) Life Modules for Exosuit (better survival) Hazard Modules for Exosuit (survive any climate – don’t forget Ion Batteries to charge!)

The rest depends on what you want to do. If you farm sentinels then you want to focus on shields and pulse spitter damage. If you want to kill pirates, upgrade the ship shields and weapons. Scanner modules are nice for enhancing the unit reward for each scan, but we have so much money, the upgrades really only benefit us with extended scan distance.

Part IV – Playing and Farming

By making over a billion units, getting a solid ship and multitool, core blueprints and components, we are more than ready to take on what the universe has to throw at us.

This is where players can decide to play the way they want, take breaks from one thing, work on another, and jump around to whatever suits them. This is the order I pursue the farming:

Nanite Farming to get max Exocraft modules (for speed). Usually just 3 runs of eggs. Technology Modules and Blueprints (half). Base Building. More Nanite Farming to get modules for Multitool, Ship and Exosuit (half). Portal Glyph Completion. S-Class Ship/Multitool hunting (through portal). Language & Secure Facility farming. Technology Modules and Blueprints for Construction (second half/complete). Industrial Base Building. More Missions. Storyline. Jump between all of the above.

Every player will have a different approach to what they prefer and want to focus on. Some players may want to build out their Freighter Fleet, base, and send their ships on missions. I don’t even cover that here – but it’s really the only feature that I chose to not include. Regardless, there is always something to do, with exploration being the key part that goes on forever.

Technology Module & Base Blueprint Farming

The first thing I recommend a player does at this point is to unlock the Pilgrim Geobay. The Pilgrim is a land vehicle that’s fun, moves fast, and makes gathering Salvaged Technology modules a breeze. Here’s how you do it.

Gather 30 Salvaged Technology Modules Go to Anomaly and purchase the Roamer Geobay, then the Nomad Geobay, and then the Pilgrim Geobay. Go back to your base. Build the Pilgrim Geobay (5 Metal Places, 4 Ion Batteries, 100 Paraffiunium) at the base you want to use as your center of operations for farming Salvaged Technology. Install the Blueprint technologies (Drift Suspension, Grip Boost Suspension, Hi-Slide Suspension), and any S-Class Pilgrim Modules. RIDE, BABY, RIDE!

Once you start really using this thing, you’re going to long for more speed – get those 3 engine S-Class mods installed as soon as possible, and then finalize the 3 boost modules. The speed difference is awesome.

Unlocking all of the construction blueprints costs around 650 technology modules in total.

Get 3 S-Class Engine and Boost modules for your Pilgrim as soon as possible!

It appears the best technology module planets in the game are in Wealthy Korvax systems, so when you’re ready to go farming, focus on this system type! Having an Alchemical material economy may also provide a bonus.

A word about Technology Module hunting. Not all planets are equal when it comes to density. Some planets have very few and other planets have a ton of them. Planet hop until you find a rich source of the modules. You’ll know you’re on the right planet when there’s almost always at least one module in visor scanner range. Module-dense planets will often have 3-4 in view prior to digging them out. When you find the right planet packed full of modules, make sure you build a base with a portal so you can return to farm them anytime in the future.

Using every Knowledge Stone you come across as you move between modules is a great way to learn alien languages!

Nanite Farming

Farming Abandoned Facilites is the best way to obtain nanites. We already farmed with this method back in Part II and we can do this again and again. It’s easy. Go to the Anomaly, run to the Nexus (it’s the large hologram computer console at the docking level in the middle). Start the Biological Horror Mission. select ready, and you’re good to go. Hop in your ship, and fly to the waypoint. We’re not actually going to complete the mission, we’re just getting a quick waypoint to guaranteed eggs.

We can also use Distress Signal navigational charts, but the Nexus Biological horror mission is the quickest and easiest way to get a waypoint to the eggs.

An experienced player can farm on average 1,250 nanites every 5 minutes (including harvest and flight reset time), which means 15,000 nanites per hour.

You get 225 nanites for refining a stack of x15 technology modules (the ones you dig up). While it’s not nearly as efficient as eggs, it’s a fun alternative if you like to race around and dig things up!

Not all facilities are equal! You always want a facility with at least two sections – one section won’t have enough eggs. If you take the Nexus mission and it points you to a facility with too few eggs, go to another system, call the Anomaly, leave the mission and restart it. You will receive a new waypoint in the new system, and hopefully to a larger facility.

To reset the eggs, we just jump in our ship and fly into space, pulse past a few asteroid fields, turn around, and fly back to the facility. The eggs will have respawned.

If you find an awesome facility with a ton of eggs, I recommend building a base there with a teleporter so you can easily come back anytime to farm them. To make things even better, build a landing pad for your ship as well as you’ll be flying up and down a lot.

Even though it was included above in Part I, Phase IV, here’s a link to the video showing you How to farm Whispering Eggs for Nanites.

Language & Secure Facility Blueprint Farming

Infiltrating and fixing Secure Facilities is the only way to obtain “Components & Devices” blueprints, which include the Atlas Passes and creation of combined materials (such as Salt Refractors, Starship Batteries, and Warp Hypercores). While you can play and enjoy most of what the game has to offer without ever unlocking these blueprints, those of us who are compulsive to have access to all content are drawn to gather these blueprints.

To obtain these blueprints, we break into secure facilities and solve the puzzles at the stations. However these puzzles require you to be semi-fluent in the alien language for the system in order to get enough information to figure them out (at least on the first try). Solving these puzzles can reward you with blueprints or Factory Override Units, which can be used to purchase specific blueprints (if you select Learn Blueprints from the terminal after successfully solving the puzzle). If you put in the wrong answer at the terminal, you won’t get anything and it will lock you out. The workaround is to save the game at your ship (Autosave) before going inside to solve the terminal puzzle, and if you don’t get it, just reload and try it again.

To find these buildings, we need to acquire numerous “Secure Site of Interest” Planetary Charts from a station Cartographer (in exchange for Nav Data). Each station sells a different type of chart, so once you find one that sells the secure map charts, make note of it (a station Cartographer always sells the same type of maps). All you need to do is use these charts and they will direct you to the facilities you need to infiltrate (occasionally sending you to a Storage Depot, which you can ignore). I usually purchase 4 stacks of 5 (x20) to start the process, then go back and refill based on how many more I need to pursue. If you use a chart and it says “Nothing Found” it’s time to go to another planet or system.

If you don’t want to shoot the door down with your pulse spitter, you can shoot the doors with your ship before you land, but it requires some solid piloting skills. I personally just land and blast the doors with a single magazine of my pulse spitter and run inside (the sentries deactivate at that point).

As mentioned, this is where being able to speak an alien language is important. I recommend learning at least 100 words before you start this process; or you can install the new translator modules. The choice is yours.

Below is a great video on how this process works:

Glyph Farming & Unlocking the Portal

Remember the Travelers we ignored when selling our looms? It’s time to go back and look through the portal side of each station we went to previously. Always select the last station in the list since the list is in the ordered by the most recently visited locations.

When we see a Traveler, talk to them, and in the second dialogue with them, ask where they are from for Nanites (100). Go to the grave and extract the Glyph. Once you unlock all 16, you can now use the portal!

To find a portal, use Ancient Alien Navigation Maps, and when you locate a Monolith, you’ll need to answer the first question correctly so you can initiate the second dialogue and provide one of the racial faction items (Gek Relic, Korvax Casing, or Vy’keen Dagger) depending on the dominant race in the system. Select Portal Location and you’ll receive the waypoint. Note the portal needs to be charged with a number of materials, but you should have all of them. There is a portal in every single system. You just have to find it. Also note you can also use the Exocraft Scanner to locate Alien Structures.

Mission and Racial Faction Farming

We can re-run the “mission loop” that we did while selling the looms; it’s ultra easy – just revisit each station and pick up every scan/kill mission that rewards nanites. You can also visit the Guild Merchant (next to the Mission vendor) and receive rewards for each faction increase you’ve achieved.

When you’re exploring, make sure you pick up all scan/kill missions from your new stations – they quickly add up!

At this point, it doesn’t appear racial factions provide anything of value. Prior to Beyond and the new Blueprint system the Anomaly provides, certain blueprints were locked behind certain racial faction levels. That doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. I’ll update this guide if I learn differently, or when Hello Games makes Racial Faction Farming a “thing to do” again.

Industrial Mining

With the Beyond Update, players can build industrial mining and gas extraction facilities, making well over $100M per hour. This system also unlocked the Hotspot mechanic, which allows players to place electromagnetic energy collectors, and the mining/gas harvesters themselves. In order to unlock this system, the player must install the Survey Device Visor Upgrade in their Multitool (purchasable from the Anomaly Multitool Vendor for 320 nanites). Once you have the upgrade, you can use your visor to track down and mark hotspots, which come in C, B, A and S classifications. The most productive facilities are S in production, but having a B or A power source nearby works just fine. The trick is finding a S or A mining field next to a B or better power field. And even then, the mine you find may not be the material you want (e.g. you could get Copper vs. Indium). This can be quite challenging to find and takes time.

Most players are ignoring gas harvesting and focusing solely on Activated Indium, since it produces the most profit. At this time there’s only a handful of guides available, but it’s pretty easy to set up and configure once you find the hot spots. Below is a link to a video that explains the process of setting up the mine and raking in the money (Activated Indium Mines can make over $100M per hour):

Exploration & Base Building

This is the heart of NMS. It’s really not about making billions of credits or getting all of the technology – the game is really about exploring every planet you can, continually looking for that perfect match (Paradise for some, Irradiated for others!), and then building an amazing base to make your mark.

Paradise planets are usually the most sought after types of planets, with green fields, lush forests, calm weather, peaceful sentinels, and tons of animals. But they are ultra, ultra rare. But when you find one, it’s an amazing experience, and you’ll quickly know if it’s your new home.

This brings us to building your base. Within this guide, I’ve shown you how to get all the Technology Modules you need to unlock all of the construction blueprints. It really doesn’t take that long (just a few hours at most). Once you are able to build everything, the sky is the limit. And not just the sky and ground, but you can create massive underwater bases as well. Underground? No problem! There’s a ton of Video Guides online to help players with this process, but with the recent release of Beyond and the addition of electrical wiring and connections, nobody has yet created a comprehensive “Base Building in Beyond” guide as of yet. I’ll post it here once one is available.

Here’s some very important base building facts:

ALWAYS build a portal at your base so you can easily return. A portal does not have to be powered to return to. You can build up to 300 units away from your base computer. You can extend this distance by roughly 200 units by building something far away to “pull out” the radius. This method is used when setting up industrial mining arrays to nearby electrical hotspots. Each Base is limited to 3,000 components. You can only have a total of 20,000 components between all of your bases. Storage Containers will share their contents with all bases that have them built.

So if you find yourself a bit numb to running the same planets, start jumping to some new systems and keep an eye open for that rare paradise! You may also find that you prefer dry desert-like planets, or even irradiated environments. Every system is different, and every paradise planet is different. One thing is certain, when you find a planet that amazes you, build a monumental base that will stand the test of time – remember, other players can visit it!

Below are a few resources you might want to look at including links to some collections of bases to provide inspiration:

Portal-based S-Class Ship and Multitool Hunting

Here is the website you want to use to decode the below coordinates to the glyphs: https://nmsportals.github.io/

Always turn off Multiplayer (under Network Options) when farming a S-Class ship using publicly shared portal coordinates! This is to ensure you don’t get stuck in shared instancing with other players; that would prevent the resetting of the ships upon reload!

Time to embrace the awesome NMS community! Let’s first talk about ships. Players post very cool looking Fighters, Haulers, Explorers, Shuttles and Exotics on a daily basis, complete with Portal Codes so players can go to the system and farm a specific ship. I believe the best and most active resource for ships is the NMSCoordianteExchange subreddit. Start browsing the subreddit to find a ship you want, then dial those portal coordinates and happy hunting! I’ve also put together a collection of coordinates for some of my favorite ships. Note some of the systems aren’t wealthy (only mid-tier, which halves the chance a S-Class/Exotic will appear).

Remember: S-Class spawns are “system wide”. Trading posts (as covered In Part III – Phase III) are the best method for hunting them.

Below is a collection of ships I recommend; note they are all in the Euclid galaxy.

White and Gold Stinger Exotic: 0251:007E:0612:01F6 (My Favorite Exotic)

Black Bird Fighter: 00C9:008E:08A9:0036 (My Favorite Fighter)

Red Hawk-wing Hauler: 044C:0082:0D55:00D0 (My Favorite Hauler)

Red Needler Fighter: 0CA5:0060:0766:0018

Orange Bird Fighter: 044C:0083:0D55:00BA

Tall Orange Exotic: 044C:0082:0D55:00D0

Bug Stinger Exotic: 044D:0082:0D56:004A

White Squid Ship: 044C:0082:0D55:0068

Single location with two great spawns!

Here’s another great location for Red and Yellow 48+8 S-Class Haulers

For those of you who want a white variation.

Itchin’ for a Squid Ship?

Red Long-Nosed T3 Fighter in Wealthy system

Another great ship to hunt!

An excellent S-Class explorer!

Now let’s talk Multitools, which are now very easy to get since they have static spawns.

Here’s the portal addresses of three 24-slot S-Class Multitools (including one I found):

24-slot S-Class I found: 0BE0:008C:0D7C:01FE (100% Station Spawn) (08.24.2019)

Black Experimental Multitool: 0DF2:0085:0B70:0189 (Outpost Spawn on Bergha Prime – Moon – Coordinates -24, -110)

Generic S-Class Experimental Multitool (Hawkes): 0E00:0087:0B43:0032 (Space Station 100% spawn)

Below are helpful links for those looking to secure a great ship, or take the portal for the first time to get a black alien experimental!

Transmitting Milestone Data on Anomaly

As you explore the universe, don’t forget to occasionally visit the Anomaly and transmit milestone data to Helios and Ares, who reward you with Nanites.

Milestones (Achievements)

NMS has three categories of “Milestones”, which also includes Faction standings with Races and Guilds. At this time, I’m not aware of any rewards tied to completing the milestones (other than feeling good about it), but lifeform standing will impact whether freighter fleets of specific races help you with pirates, and merchant guild standing will impact the missions you can choose. You increase both Racial and Guild standing by completing missions. You can also complete racial standing by turning in racial relics (note you can turn in an unlimited amount to the same NPC). If you want to find a ton of relics, just park your freighter in a system run by the race you want to process, dock with your freighter, and each NPC ship that lands on your freighter will sell the relics. 10 stacks of 5 should be enough to reach maximum rank.

Main Storyline

The main storyline of NMS is actually quite good, and takes on average more than 30 hours to complete. If you need a break from generic farming, just jump back into the story, and if you want a break from the story, you can do one of the many other activities covered herein.

If you do make it to the center of the galaxy, give careful consideration to leaving Euclid (the starting galaxy) as Euclid portal codes will no longer work (which is where 95% of all portal codes for ship and multitool hunting are located).

Freighters

I didn’t forget about Freighters, or the mechanics behind him. I just decided to avoid using them in this guide because I personally don’t use (or need) them. However, those who love space battles and sending ships on missions, the Freighter system is for you! If you want more information on using Freighters, I just wanted to mention Freighters, which are a mechanic all on their own. I’m going to keep that out of this guide because I don’t really do much with Freighters (I honestly never had a need), but there are a ton of great guides on Youtube.

Part V – Conclusion & Resources

I hope the NMS community finds this guide helpful, and it empowers new (and experienced) players to enjoy everything the game has to offer. As mentioned at the beginning of this guide, if you have any feedback, questions or recommended changes/enhancements, please leave a comment below!

Here’s a few additional resource references along with dedicated Youtube Content providers I highly recommend. Khraze is my favorite.

Thanks to Hello Games for making such an amazing game, and the NMS community for being awesome!

External Resource List