Making money fast in this game is not about finding one big haul. It is about how many times per day you can complete a trip.
The quota is a daily target, and a day has a fixed number of hours. That single fact decides the whole strategy.
What to grab
Sort by credits per pound, not by price.
The best items in the game by that measure are almost comically light. Toilet paper runs 14.6 credits per pound, an easter egg 12.3, a hairdryer 11.3, an old phone 11, a coffee mug 9, red soda 7.6, and an egg 6.3.
A single gold bar is worth 155 credits, which is more than any of them. It also weighs 77 pounds, so it fills your hands and halves your walking speed for the whole trip back.
Three or four light items of the same value fit in the space one bar takes, and they let you keep a light and a weapon in your other hand. That is why the top of the ratio table beats the top of the value table.
Rule: fill your hands with ratio, not with price.
What to leave
- Anything that fills both hands for a small amount. The yield sign is the clearest trap: 27 credits for 42 pounds, the worst ratio in the game.
- Anything you have to walk back for twice. One heavy item and three trips is worse than four light items and one trip.
- Anything that is not on the way out. Time spent going back into a facility for one more item is time you spend not selling what you are already holding.
Where to go
Cheap moons, close travel, short routes.
A trip on a nearby free moon costs almost nothing in fuel and finishes in a few minutes. A trip to a distant expensive moon costs credits before you have looted anything, and the walk back is long enough that one mistake ends the whole day.
The crews that earn fastest are the ones on a boring moon they have already memorised, doing the same trip over and over until the quota clears.
How the day should run
Trip one: buy the basics. Shovel, lights, walkie-talkies if you are a crew. This is the day you earn least.
Trip two and three: fill and sell. Grab the high-ratio items on the way in, take the exit on the way out, sell everything, go again. Do not extend a trip to chase one more item.
Last trip: only if the quota needs it. The final run is the one where you push slightly deeper than you wanted to. Keep it short, because a death on the last trip of the day costs you tomorrow as well.
What actually slows crews down
It is rarely monsters. It is the four habits below.
- Staying too long. Every extra minute inside is a minute with loot you can lose.
- Carrying heavy things. Weight slows the walk out, which extends every minute you spend inside.
- Splitting up to cover more ground. Two half-crews find more and also die more, and a death costs the whole day.
- Chasing one big item. The single most expensive habit in the game.
What this looks like in numbers
A crew that lands on a free moon, takes the rooms nearest the entrance, and leaves with four light high-ratio items will usually clear a modest quota inside two or three trips.
That crew is earning more per day than one that pushed deep, found a gold bar, and died on the way out with it.
Bank, don’t flood: the overtime bonus
Fast money is about completed trips, but what you do with the scrap between trips matters too. The buy rate rises through the week — roughly 30% with three days left, up to 100% on the deadline day — so selling everything the moment you land locks in the lowest price.
A steadier play: sell only what you need to clear the current quota and keep the rest for your next return. The stockpile builds until you can skip the weak moons and run only the highest-value ones. If your held scrap pushes total sales past the quota, the company pays an overtime bonus of (total sold − current quota) ÷ 5 on the excess.
Run your numbers through the quota calculator before you sell, so you know whether cashing in now or holding for the full-price day clears the target faster.
Related guides
- Best value scrap early — the ratio table this strategy is built on.
- How to carry heavy scrap — the maths on why heavy items cost more than they pay.
- Best moons for beginners — which moons make short trips easy.