The Fundamentals Of Space Piracy
The opening moments of No Man's Sky can be particularly daunting. With no indication of who, or where you are, you're asked to simply explore and gather materials to repair your broken ship. You will start with a mining tool and scanner on your weapon, and an Exo suit desperately lacking in inventory slots. This is the tutorial section, but there is a whole lot that No Man's Sky doesn't divulge about its systems. Below, I'll be detailing some basic steps to ensure safe and lucrative travels towards the center of the galaxy. These are the fundamentals to space piracy.
Survey Your Surroundings
The easiest way to generate money in the early parts of the game are to identify and name the planets, animals, and plants you come in contact with. Everything you come in contact with will likely be uniquely yours, and thus can be named whatever you choose (excluding profanity). My favorite system thus far is my current one, which I named "Carl". It consists of planets like Cold Carl, Tropical Carl, and Aquatic Moon of Carl. My name isn't Carl, but my systems name is. Doing this will help generate some credits and get you started towards building your wealth and acquiring upgrades to your personal adventurer.
These Crystals Are 100% Pure
Pure necessity, I mean, and the crystals in question are that of Plutonium. This isotope provides fuel for your take-off thrusters, and without it, you'll constantly find yourself unable to take off, and continue exploring planets. It's best to have a plurality of tiles for the Plutonium, focusing on gathering these red crystals. They are found on every planet you explore, though sometimes they will be in far less abundance. This isotope can also be used to power your basic life support and Exo suit, as well as your mining and weapon fire. Its versatility makes it a necessity for space travel.
Don't Bypass Bypass Chips
I know my jokes are bad, my mother has made that abundantly clear. What isn't clear (great segue) are the usefulness of Bypass Chips. For 10 Iron and 10 Plutonium (those crystals again) you can unlock Signal Scanners as well as locked items. Generally, I only use them for the Signal Scanners, but you will eventually be applying these to a variety of situations.
Suit Up
During your travels. you will inevitably run into small contraptions that emit orange light towards the sky. These are signal scanners and by using a Bypass Chip (See above) you can unlock them for a single use. They offer four options, each of which will add a waypoint to your map. Choosing the shelter will lead you to a drop pod, and inside the drop pod is an upgrade to your suit's inventory capabilities. The first one is free, but every drop pod thereafter will offer an upgrade at the cost of 10,000 per additional pod. This means at your 5th pod, you will need to pay 40,000 to secure this upgrade.
Rosetta Ruins
Searching for Ruins, Monoliths, and Knowledge stones is paramount to your gaining understanding of the ever-expanding universe. Your communication with aliens will be a gibberish infused foray into nonsensical blabbering if you haven't been acquiring knowledge of the language before then. There will also be times when you encounter a Monolith, and you will answer incorrectly simply because you don't know the language. That's okay, simply move on, and keep searching for ways to learn the language. Knowing the language will help you converse properly with aliens, and provide them with exactly what they need, which will, in turn, allow you to receive better items from them. Learning the language of an alien species will also raise your level of familiarity with them, which will unlock newer avenues of conversation (and potential rewards) in a conversation you will not likely understand.
Blueprints Are Always Welcome
As you progress through the first couple hours of No Man's Sky, you will eventually be given a blueprint to create a mining tool upgrade. Blueprints are the backbone of creation here, and you can find numerous blueprints that offer variations on your tool. Everything from improving the mining speed of your main mining tool to creating a grenade launcher attachment. Hoard these. Seek these. Every compound you find will have one on a wall, suspended and ready to be taken. The blueprints also don't require any inventory space, so you can gather them without hesitation. Currently, my tool has a high rate of fire bolt variation for sentinel destruction, as well as a terraform capable grenade launcher. These sentinels don't stand a chance.
Run Away From The Sentinels.
But only in the beginning. Collecting materials from the environment isn't kosher to these mysterious floating bolt-buckets, and because of this consistent mining may lead to a firefight. When you are first setting out, try to avoid sentinel detection until you can equip a weapon modification to your mining tool. From that point forward, you can personally take on sentinels without much issue. If you encounter a situation where your health bar is dwindling and you're surrounded by sentinels, seek shelter. They will eventually give up, as their small stature and limited technological capacity, doesn't offer the programming of an attention span.
Visit The Space Stations
There are a wealth of reasons to visit a space station first when exploring a new section of the galaxy, the most important of which pertains to wealth. Space stations are hubs where you'll come across other alien explorers looking to trade, and a galaxy terminal. This is where you'll be selling the majority of your items, and potentially, buying ships. The first thing you want to do is find a ship and sell to them. Look at the materials that are the most expensive to buy, and focus on hoarding those on your planetary excursions. For instance, I was able to generate 300,000 in profit by mining iridium on an iridium-rich planet. Within an hour I had enough money to purchase a new class of starship, which unfortunately for me, was pink.
Hopefully, these tips will help you start your journey through No Man's Sky, and if I can think of any other useful tips for beginning players, I'll add them. Happy exploring, and hopefully you'll get to visit Tropical Carl. It's nice all year-round, save for the toxic gas that fills the air.