Scan, Scan, Scan
In the early game, scanning is by far the most lucrative activity to accumulate units. Yet, as the game progresses the returns pale in comparison to other money making ventures. However, if you visit your local space station and purchase an S Class Scanner Module (or two or three, they stack), you can up your returns by as much as the RNG will allow. It isn’t unheard of to get 10000% bonuses, where scanning a single creature is worth 50,000 units if not more.
Treasure Hunting
A brand new feature in NEXT, treasure hunting isn’t only enjoyable, it’s straight up lucrative. Build a signal booster and search for an ancient ruin. Fly over and scan the ground. The scanner will pick up several keys and a main chest. Gather the keys first using the terrain manipulator, then dig up the chest to acquire the treasure. The value of each treasure is randomly generated so luck plays a part here, but you can quite easily find loot worth multiple millions. The returns are big for pretty minimal effort.
Trade
As the adage goes, buy low, sell high. If you find a system will notably low prices at galactic terminals, stock up on the highest value items at the space station and at outposts. Having lots of ship slots is beneficial, but not crucial. Then fly around until you find a system where the prices are significantly higher. The process is slower than other methods, but you get to role play as a space faring merchant. We recommend the Gek skin for this one.
Farming
If you’ve progressed far enough to begin farming then by all means get involved. A circuit board or living glass farm can yield millions per harvest though you do have to invest some time getting gathering sufficient amounts of the required plants to get things going. Once everything is established though, simply return every once in a while to reap the rewards and see your bank balance take on a steep upwards trajectory. Going for the highest value items like the fusion ignitor and stasis device nets an incredible 18 million units per item.
Damsel In Distress
When warping into a new system, an occasional prompt asks you to get involved in a space battle to help out a freighter that’s under attack. Dive in and defeat the pirates, then visit the freighter’s captain to net a nice reward. Usually, the amount is around 100,000 units so this isn’t necessarily the most lucrative, but it sure is fun downing those enemy ships. Achieving the Legend milestone for ships destroyed becomes a dawdle as well.
