Units buy ships, freighters, and the bulk resources that make everything else faster. Here are the methods that actually work, from what you can start today to the farms that print hundreds of millions passively.
Method Overview
| Method | Income/Hour | Setup Required |
|---|---|---|
| Stasis Device crafting | 50M+ | Extensive base infrastructure |
| Activated Indium farm | 20-50M | Medium (build on blue star planet) |
| Nav data exploit | 10-15M per run | Minimal |
| Chlorine loop | 5-10M | Minimal |
| Ship scrapping | 5-10M | Some units to start |
| Scanning | 1-5M | Scanner upgrades |
The Chlorine Loop (Best Early and Mid-Game)
The recipe:
1x Chlorine + 2x Oxygen → 6x Chlorine
Every refiner cycle multiplies your Chlorine by 6 (net +5 after replacing your input). Run it again with the output. A full stack of 9,999 Chlorine sells for a few million units at any Galactic Trade Terminal.
To start the loop, you need a small amount of Chlorine:
| Method | Output |
|---|---|
| Buy from pilots at space stations | Variable |
| 2x Salt → 1x Chlorine | Direct refine |
| 1x Kelp Sac + 1x Salt → 2x Chlorine | Better yield |
Oxygen is the catalyst. Build Gas Extractors near Oxygen hotspots on a planet and let them fill your supply automatically. With a steady Oxygen supply, the Chlorine loop costs almost nothing to run.
The same multiplication trick works on Ionised Cobalt (1 Ionised Cobalt + 2 Oxygen → 6 Ionised Cobalt). Chlorine sells for more per unit, but Ionised Cobalt is easier to find in the early game. Either works.
Activated Indium Farm (Best Passive Income)
Takes a few hours to set up. Once it’s running, it produces hundreds of millions with almost no effort.
What you need first:
- Indium Drive installed on your ship (blueprint from Iteration: Hyperion at the Space Anomaly)
- Survey Device on your Multi-Tool
- Mineral Extractors, Supply Depots, Storage Containers, Electromagnetic Generator (all from the Space Anomaly for nanites)
Setup steps:
- Open the Galaxy Map and filter for blue star systems — Activated Indium only spawns there
- Fly to a blue system and scan planets until you find one with Activated Indium deposits
- Land and use your Survey Device to find the hotspot
- Target S-class hotspots if possible — higher class means more output per extractor
- Drop a Base Computer and build your extraction setup
Farm layout: Place up to 3 Mineral Extractors per deposit. Beyond 3 you get diminishing returns. Chain Supply Depots from the extractors into a Storage Container. Power everything with an Electromagnetic Generator, which runs indefinitely without fuel.
A farm with 30+ extractors on S-class deposits can produce 100M+ units per collection run. Come back every few hours, collect, and sell. Activated Indium sells well in any economy.
Nav Data to Exosuit Upgrade Charts (Best ROI)
This is underused. The return is roughly 40x on your investment.
The loop:
- Find a space station in a 3-star economy where the cartographer sells Navigation Data in bulk (150+ in stock)
- Build a Base Computer and Teleporter near that terminal
- Buy all the Nav Data (around 297 costs about 297,000 units)
- Teleport to a normal space station
- Trade the Nav Data for Exosuit Upgrade Charts at the cartographer
- Sell the Upgrade Charts to the Technology Merchant
The numbers: 297 Navigation Data (~297k units worth) trades into 99 Exosuit Upgrade Charts worth 12 to 13 million units. That’s a 40x return.
Note: space station economies are system-wide. Buying all the Nav Data from one terminal drains the whole system. Rotate between multiple 3-star systems to keep stock refreshing.
Ship Scrapping
Find crashed ships on planets, repair just the launch thruster and pulse engine, fly to a space station and scrap them. Each scrapped ship gives:
- Trade goods you can sell for units
- Upgrade modules (sell to Technology Merchants for nanites)
- Storage Augmentations for your ship inventory
Finding crashed ships: Buy Planetary Charts (Distress Signal type) from station cartographers, or use your ship’s scanner when flying low over planets.
S-class crashed ships are rare but give much better returns. An A or S-class scrapped ship can yield multiple upgrade modules worth 300-1,100 nanites each, plus trade goods that add up to a few million units per scrap.
Ancient Bones
Some planets have Ancient Bone deposits that you can dig up with the Terrain Manipulator. These sell well to traveling ship captains and some station traders. No setup, no recipes needed — just find the right planet type and dig.
The per-hour yield varies by planet, but this is one of the few good methods that requires zero resources to start. Useful in the early game before you have refiners or farms running.
Stasis Devices (End-Game)
Stasis Devices are the highest-value craftable item in the game. A stack sells for hundreds of millions of units. The recipe chain involves gas farming, plant farming, and multiple refining steps. Once you have robust base infrastructure, nothing beats it for unit income.
The crafting chain is complex enough for its own guide. Focus on Activated Indium first. Stasis Devices pay off once you’ve already built the supply lines that feed into them.
Where to Sell
Always sell to traveling ship captains (the NPCs that land at space stations) rather than the station’s trade terminal. Captains pay full price without crashing the local economy. If you sell bulk amounts to a trade terminal, that resource’s price drops in that system and you’ll get less for subsequent stacks.
For the full recipe list covering the Chlorine loop and other multiplication recipes, check the refining page.
Sources
- Extracted game data
- All refiner recipes
- Activated Indium
- Chlorine
- Crafting calculator