No Man’s Sky – How to Get Lots of Nanites

To get S class upgrades for your ship or other items, you need many nanites. This guide will show you how to get these upgrades easily. The steps are simple and work well.

What are Nanites?

Nanites are a secondary currency in the No mans sky universe. Mainly spent on upgrade modules They are not as easy to get as you might think. But that’s why i’m here to show you how to get them. Including my own personal experiences on each method.

Refining

This section covers what you can do in a refiner of almost any size to make nanites. I recommend a large refiner for maximum potential outcomes (And less time wasted!). 

• 5 Runaway mold -> 1 Nanite every 1.5 sec output.
• 5 Platinum -> 1 Nanite every .6 sec output (Expensive).
• 1 Hexite + 1 Coprite -> 1 Nanite every .5 sec output (Both come from animal droppings).
• 10 Pugneum -> 1 Nanite (Inefficient, 25 for a whole stack of Pg).
• 1 Larval core -> 50 Nanites (Efficient but can be dangerous).
• 1 Hadal core -> 50 Nanites (Less common, But still efficient and dangerous).
• 1 Salvaged Technology -> 15 Nanites (Not a bad way, but not that great either. Average).

• Pros: Can make nanites just using your everyday materials.
• Cons: Some refiner inputs can be dangerous to acquire for the user.

Fighting

An Arguably funner way to collect nanites, This way requires A battle ready starship or a Grenade launcher multitool. Don’t forget about shields!

Robbing freighters of their goods is a good way to start on this one, Because some of the pods can contain a fair amount of nanites. and the rest can be sold or used in refining new things.

• Pros: Good way to get nanites and bonus materials for bases and refiners.
• Cons: Good weapons cost a lot of nanites to upgrade. Destroys lifeform reputation.

Note: I recommend upgraded cyclotron ballista. It makes things easier

The next method is Killing sentinels, this is the tactic i mainly use because they just keep on coming for the most part and that grenade launcher upgraded or not f**ks up sentinel armor. I recommend strong exosuit shields for this as you need it for taking hits.

• Pros: Each wanted level 5 wave of sentinels can give you around 90 – 200 nanites.
• Cons: Have to wait (or be very fast) when leaving the planet or sentinel starships will come after you. Can also blow up yourself with the grenades. Be careful!

Opinions

Warning: Contains opinions. 

This section is to note down what i think is the most profitable way to get nanites. as well as some other methods not listed.

Refining: Larval cores.

This is my favorite refining method of getting nanites. It has a really high core to nanite ratio. (1:50) And it isn’t that hard to get a lot of cores.

Fighting: Killing sentinels.

I did this method for a long time and i can definitely say it works. They drop a high amount of nanites and you don’t really have to move too much for this one.

These were not listed due to not giving a lot of nanites at once, but can still be done.

• Fixing damaged machinery (Doesnt give too much and costs materials). 
• Opening abandoned terminals (Gives an okay amount of nanites, About 60).
• Selling upgrades to nanite vendors (Not worth selling high class upgrades). 
• Completing missions (Pretty good on nanites, It can just be difficult). 
• Exploring crashed freighters (They can be found here. Amount unknown). 
• Feeding animals (I never tested this but they can be found this way). 
• Uploading discoveries (I have done this. Only effective in large amounts though. Also expensive warp cell wise).

More Methods for Nanites

Cooking (Feeding Cronus):

Use the Nutrient Processor to make foods for Cronus in the Anomaly.There are plenty of good and easy recipes for this, Delicious Vegetable Stew is popular and requires 1 base ingredient (Fungal Mould or Gamma Root). It’s recommended to save often and disable multiplayer while feeding Cronus (accidental player invites can cause crashes).

Salvaged Glass:

Destroying planetary sentinels drops containers that often give Salvaged Glass and Pugneum. Analyzing the Salvaged Glass can drop Sentinel Upgrades that can sell for around 400 nanites each.

Outlaw Station Vendors:

The contraband agent at Outlaw stations often sells Larval/Hadal Cores which refine to 50 nanites each. They also sell Suspicious packets for weapons (arms) and tech. Unpacking these can drop upgrade modules which sell for 336-384 nanites for utilities and weapons, and 720 nanites for exosuit hazard protection modules.

Chewy Wire Farm:

Feeding robotic fauna allows you to harvest Chewy Wires from them. Eating Chewy Wires returns 15 nanites each. The robot fauna can be fed with the Automated Feeder and harvested automatically with a Livestock Unit to increase efficiency. Disable the “Hold to Confirm”option in Options menu to speed up the eating process.

Ship Scrapping:

Scrapping any ship yields upgrade modules you can sell for nanites. The value of the module depends on the class of the ship, with S being the most valuable. You will lose 20% of the purchase price on each exchange. You can use crashed ships to bypass this “fee.”

Refining for Nanites

Submerged Relics/Hadal Cores:

Submerged Relics can be found underwater, marked by two stars using your visor. Interacting with them will provide a Hadal Core, which can be refined to 50 nanites. An Advanced Mining Laser may be required to reach the Relic. Hadal Cores may also be purchased on Outlaw Stations.

Note: Alluring Specimens (red symbol) are not recommended as a source of Hadal Cores.

Larval Cores:

Larval Cores can be obtained from Whispering Eggs which can be found at abandoned buildings or on airless/infested planets. Once shot at, they will reveal a larval core. The cores must be grabbed quickly, or they will despawn. You will also have to evade the Biological Horrors that come from the eggs. A great way to find buildings with a lot of these eggs is using emergency planetary charts, Exocrafts with the Radar Amplifier or the Minotaur with the Radar Array tech installed. Each core can be refined into 50 nanites. Larval Cores may also be purchased on Outlaw Stations.

Curious Deposits/Runaway Mould:

Curious Deposits look like oversized meatballs marked with a three yellow star symbol and can be found on some planets in large groups. Use your mining beam to harvest them for Runaway Mould, which refines to nanites 5:1. It is highly recommended you build a base around them before harvesting so you can “catch” them before they “runaway.” They tend to respawn if you leave the immediate vicinity (roughly 600u distance) or if you reload your save. Each Curious Deposit gives around 600 or so Runaway Mould, so expect around 120 nanites per ball. As a best practice, babysit multiple Medium Refiners to ensure ease of nanite production.

Fleshy Ropes/Vile Spawn:

Fleshy Ropes and Vile Spawn refine to 50 nanites each. These are dropped by Titan Worms, which can be found on infested planets. Look for red icons with a white crescent shape in the HUD to mark worm burrows. As you approach, giant worms will partially burst out from the ground and you can shoot them to collect the Fleshy Ropes and Vile Spawn. Beware the biological horrors that will also spawn. The Nexus sometimes gives missions to destroy these burrows.

Derelict Freighters:

In addition to Tainted Metal (which refines to nanites, 1:2), Derelict Freighters also return Larval/Hadal Cores (refine to 50 nanites each), upgrade modules (~40-500 nanites each), and, if infested, a lot of living slime (refines to runaway mould and then nanites, 5:1). A typical derelict freighter can return anywhere from 3k – 4.5k nanites after all refining/selling is done. Stay next to the refiners during this time. Any Hypnotic Eyes found can be mixed with Frost Crystal in the Nutrient Processor for Cooking.

Platinum/Pugneum:

Platinum can be found in asteroids, some trade terminals and pilots, and can be refined by using silver and gold. Platinum refines to nanites at a 35:1 ratio.

Pugneum can be found in some trade terminals, from pilots and containers, as well as by destroying sentinels. Pugneum refines to nanites at a 35:1 ratio.

Corrupted Sentinel Planets:

• Hyaline Brain – 1:230 ratio.
• Inverted Mirror – 1:95 ratio.
• Radiant Shards – 1:50 ratio.

Radiant Shards can be found in abundance on Corrupted Sentinel planets. Inverted Mirrors can be harvested from Dissonance Resonators. A Hyaline Brain can be extracted from crashed interceptor ships.

I hope the above information was helpful. Happy gaming!