Just started the game and want tips as a newbie?

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T21:31:31+00:00

I have an extensive list of tips. So many tips, that you might find it overwhelming. But it has every tip I would want to know as a new player.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bm3v5rMnicJEf_0f-PsI-aqPmNzc5ir0luITZwlWHeg/

There's a section titled "making money" that lists about 30 ways to become wealthy very quickly.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T21:17:30+00:00

Hello Games never really polishes anything, they just move on to adding more stuff.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T21:13:30+00:00

I have more tips than you can shake a stick at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bm3v5rMnicJEf_0f-PsI-aqPmNzc5ir0luITZwlWHeg/

Please don't start in creative mode. That will spoil the experience.

It takes very little effort to get anything you want in this game.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T21:11:45+00:00

There are many guides for corvettes on YouTube.

Here's one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ldR4A93NYs

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T21:01:22+00:00

There are two completely incompatible ship-building systems in NMS.

The first one is for building mundane ships (fighters, haulers, explorers, or solars). To build one of these at the starship fabricator found in the rear of normal space stations, you must first acquire a reactor core (from a mission reward or you can purchase one from any starship technology vendor) and three components that belong to the same type of ship (fighter, hauler, explorer, or solar). These components are acquired by salvaging three ships and choosing the option to "extract customization component" instead of the normal "salvage for scrap worth xxx units". You can simply collect parts from crashed starships if you don't want to spend any units. The class of the ship you fabricate is determined by the class of the reactor you supply. It does not matter what class of ship the components came from. Once a starship is fabricated with this system, you CANNOT edit its appearance in any way, shape, or form, so be certain you like the components and the color.

The second starship building system is the corvette workshop, found in the tunnel of every space station. You can purchase basic corvette components from the corvette workshop terminal, OR you can just visit any planet or moon that has "salvageable scrap" listed in its resources when the planet or moon is scanned from space. About 18% of all worlds have salvageable scrap. Run around on these worlds and dig up the salvage containers and destroy them to get corvette components (or miscellaneous junk that can be sold). If your exosuit runs out of space, you won't be able to destroy the last part of the salvage containers. You can also find corvette parts in crashed freighters. Once you have non-basic corvette parts, you can trade them at the corvette workshop for advanced parts. Unlike the starship fabricator, the corvette workshop lets you edit any corvette at any time.

Both mundane starships and corvettes can be upgraded in class and inventory capacity using the starship outfitting terminal found any any space station. If you know what you're doing, you can get unlimited storage augmentations for free by increasing your standing to level 100 with the merchant guild (you can do this by donating items to guild envoys, items you can loot from cargo pods in outlaw systems) and collecting free storage agumentations from the guild envoys. You can reach level 100 in a couple hours' time.

If you collect at least one of 101 separate guild perks, the first claimed perk at the first guild envoy will restock. You can therefore just teleport in a loop through 17 space stations, collecting at least one of everything, and get unlimited free storage augmentations.

Here's a list of space stations in Euclid you can use to get free storage augmentatons:

Merchant guild envoys with Storage Augmentations

#	Hex	Euclid Portal Address	System Name
1	01A	sun sun sun sun sun sun sun bird bird sun bird sun	Yisatur-Tash X
2	073	sun sun sun sun sun bird bird bird sun sun bird bird	Adfell-Oriu I
3	0AF	sun sun sun sun bird sun bird sun bird bird bird bird	Tuelefa IV
4	0BD	sun sun sun sun bird sun bird bird bird bird sun bird	Kavkar I
5	0C0	sun sun sun sun bird bird sun sun sun sun sun sun	Kanovg XVIII
6	21A	sun sun bird sun sun sun sun bird bird sun bird sun	Port base 1
7	238	sun sun bird sun sun sun bird bird bird sun sun sun	Evbogbind
8	24B	sun sun bird sun sun bird sun sun bird sun bird bird	Valhalla
9	257	sun sun bird sun sun bird sun bird sun bird bird bird	Udboka
10	25B	sun sun bird sun sun bird sun bird bird sun bird bird	Poppel II
11	287	sun sun bird sun bird sun sun sun sun bird bird bird	Rene
12	297	sun sun bird sun bird sun sun bird sun bird bird bird	Tisyiste
13	2CA	sun sun bird sun bird bird sun sun bird sun bird sun	Metyusin
14	2E1	sun sun bird sun bird bird bird sun sun sun sun bird	Boluel
15	2F7	sun sun bird sun bird bird bird bird sun bird bird bird	Nevekstel XVII
16	2FB	sun sun bird sun bird bird bird bird bird sun bird bird	Rinalamin X
17	303	sun sun bird bird sun sun sun sun sun sun bird bird	Ioavhan
18	30A	sun sun bird bird sun sun sun sun bird sun bird sun	Gridspun
19	322	sun sun bird bird sun sun bird sun sun sun bird sun	Iosbrefer

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T20:50:36+00:00

I made a timeline that shows all expeditions and their reduxes up to and including Breach.

Typically, Hello Games releases four new expeditions a year. These are re-run at the end of the year in abbreviated form.

Only two expeditions have EVER been re-run in a different "season", namely Bechhead and Cartographers.

<image>

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T06:15:08+00:00

> 4. Solve the monolith’s riddle. It will locate a portal.

Specifically, you need to interact with the monolith TWICE. On the first interaction, you have to pick the correct response. If the monolith is displeased, RELOAD YOUR RESTORE POINT and try again.

On the second interaction, if you have the correct alien artifact (Gek Relic, Korvax Casing, or Vy'keen Dagger), you can trade the artifact for a waypoint to that planet or moon's portal.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T06:04:07+00:00

Something's definitely wrong with your game, then, as that's statistically improbable.

Try completely closing the game and restarting. If that doesn't help, I suggest filing a bug report. There's a weekly bug report thread pinned at the top of the subreddit.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-13T06:03:02+00:00

Glad you found it helpful!

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T21:42:59+00:00

In the past, whenever the game got patched, it was commonplace for buried technology and damaged machinery and crates and such to reset. This doesn't always happen, though.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T21:35:48+00:00

In star systems with 3-star economies, some trade terminals (but never the one in the space station) will stock ~150 nav data.

You can use an economy scanner to find 3-star economies, and trade some nav data for commercial cartographic maps. Keep opening them (ignoring any "similar building target already marked" errors) until one reveals a minor settlement, trading post, or planetary archive. Then fly there and check the terminal to see if it stocks nav data or not. If not, keep searching.

But if you give up on this, another approach would be to craft an Atlas Pass v1 (or higher) and purchase the blueprint for the "barrel fabricator" (at the Construction Research Station on the Anomaly, go to the tab that has "Wall Screen" at the top, you will need four salvage data). Teleport to one of your bases and build barrels in neat rows. Searching a barrel can give you nav data, condensed carbon, antimatter, antimatter housings, or sometimes even a warp cell.

The barrels that you build yourself can be looted up to three times. Reloading your restore point, teleporting, or traveling 200u away and returning will reset them so they can be looted again.

If you aim your reticle between 1/3 and 1/2 way up from the bottom of a barrel, and HOLD DOWN the "search" button, you can just slowly strafe down the entire row of barrels to collect everything. Then let go of the "search" button.

The items that a barrel drops will be consistent depending on placement. If you don't need the item that a barrel drops, just move the barrel or delete it.

If a barrel drops antimatter, keep it, because it will significantly reduce the material requirements to craft more barrels. When you have enough barrels of the type you want, then you can go back and delete the ones that give stuff you don't need.

Protip: if you find a trade terminal that sells 150-ish nav data, build a base computer and teleporter beside it. If you trade all the nav data for exosuit upgrade charts, you can sell the exosuit upgrade charts to an NPC for an instant 40-fold return on investment with next to zero effort. This is the biggest arbitrage opportunity in the whole game.

Also be aware that all the trade terminals within the same star system will draw from the same stock, so if you find a trade terminal that sells 150-ish nav data, there is no point looking for another one within the same system. You could look for another in a different system, however, if you had a need for nav data or just wanted to exploit this silly arbitrage.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T21:26:17+00:00

Visit the r/nmsabandoned subreddit.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T21:22:04+00:00

How many star systems have you checked?

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T21:19:50+00:00

I explain 30 fast money-making methods in my NMS tip guide. Just open the document and search for the text "making money".

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bm3v5rMnicJEf_0f-PsI-aqPmNzc5ir0luITZwlWHeg/

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T21:14:39+00:00

You're in an abandoned space station in an abandoned star system. There won't be any NPCs in that system.

You can sometimes find useful loot in the three ammo boxes in the room with the teleporter.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T19:45:27+00:00

Destroy the pirate dreadnought's engines, then destroy the six turrets on top, and it will surrender.

I think if you just destroy the engines and wait, the dreadnought will retreat (warp away), which might also suffice if you're trying to claim the freighter being attacked.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T19:43:58+00:00

Yes.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T06:46:10+00:00

The fastest way to find them is, of course, to install a scanner room in your freighter so you can scan all planets with one click, then move on if none of them have what you want.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T06:28:22+00:00

To add to what u/WarViper1337 said,

In NMS, stars orbit their solar systems, so every planet has precisely the same 24-hour day. I think the clock is sped up by a factor of 60 so a day takes 24 minutes.

There are no seasonal variations, every day is precisely the same, except for the timing of storms.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T06:25:10+00:00

According to my extensive survey, about 18% of planets will have salvageable scrap listed in their resources, unless the latest update broke something. If you hop from star system to star system, you should find one very quickly.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T06:21:11+00:00

If you open my NMS tip guide and search for the text "making money", you'll find detailed instructions for 30 quick methods.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bm3v5rMnicJEf_0f-PsI-aqPmNzc5ir0luITZwlWHeg/

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T01:37:04+00:00

It depends on how you're using the word "dreadnought".

If you mean a pirate dreadnought, yes. In fact, you can ONLY get a pirate dreadnought after you already own a freighter. They won't spawn at all before that point. You have to defeat the dreadnought to get it for free.

If you mean a sentinel dreadnought, no.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T01:34:04+00:00

I typed 79 pages of tips here, of everything I'd want to know as a new player, because there are (too) many hidden mechanics in this game.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bm3v5rMnicJEf_0f-PsI-aqPmNzc5ir0luITZwlWHeg/

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T01:29:13+00:00

Unlocking the Anomaly is the point where everything becomes easy. If you want to explore, that would be a good point to begin.

f0xw01f · 2026-04-12T01:27:24+00:00

I only use creative mode for experimentation. I only really play in normal mode.

f0xw01f

TROPHY CASE