A guide to making money in The Last Starship. Puts all the ways of making money on a tier list so you can easily see what is the best. (Spoilers: it's Assembly Table manufacturing) It's a bit of a text wall, but there's a lot of info here. Assembly Table Manufacturing (S tier) Income rate: Very high Scalability: High Investment: Moderate Hands down the most effective and consistent way to make big money throughout the game. Needs to be fueled with raw resources, and at large scale you are going to need mining ships to fuel your industry. At large scale this will outpace any other means of making money and you will be rolling in so much money that you can buy whatever ridiculous frame rate destroying monstrosities you want. List of the best things to make: Water Purifiers Sell price: $40k Manufacturing Cost: 2 frame, 2 motor = 14 metal ingot, 2 copper ingot Input Cost: $900 Input Profit Markup: 4344% Time: 30 seconds Full speed profit rate: $78.2k / minute. Requires Waste Processing Research The most lucrative thing that I've found, and it's easy to make. You never want to be selling metal or copper if making these this an option. Deflectors Sell price: $120k Manufacturing Cost: 6 frame, 6 energy coil, 6 lens = 42 metal ingot, 12 copper ingot, 12 precious metal Input Cost: $8400 Input Profit Markup: 867% Time: 60 seconds Full speed profit rate: $111.6k / minute. Requires Deflector Beams Research You can't buy Deflectors, so making them can be useful as well as profitable. This used to be the best before they added Water Purifiers as a recipe. It has the highest profit rate, but requires 3 inputs and much lower profit markup. Accessibility to precious metals can also be a problem. Batteries Sell price: $20k Manufacturing Cost: 3 frame, 2 energy coil, 1 precious metal = 19 metal ingot, 2 copper ingot, 1 precious metal Input Cost: $1300 Input Profit Markup: 1438% Time: 30 seconds Full speed profit rate: $37.4k / minute. No research required - available at start Useful to start, but you want to move on to Water Purifiers when you get the tech unlocked. Note that profit rate will be lower than the reported value due to the need to load material into the Assembly Table. This affects the Deflectors the most. Automation will reduce this delay. Stargate Manufacturing (A Tier - Boldly Go Only) Income Rate: Very Good Scalability: Good Investment: Moderate Manufacturing stargate components is extremely lucrative income. If you have AJE story mission (Deep Space Industrialists) active, he will take 50% of your stargate revenue. Even with this penalty it's still incredibly lucrative and progresses the story. I put in A tier because it's not as consistent as standard manufacturing. You are limited in what you can sell and need to keep changing the production line to meet new requirements. But it is still very lucrative and outpaces most other ways of making money. You can over manufacture a part and make enormous money. This means making much more than the stargate requires and selling them all at once. You can only do this once for each item though. Check the stargate window to see what you need to make and how to make it. If you don't want to do the Deep Space Industrialists mission, you can do the stargate project by researching the phases in the tech tree. Story Contracts (A Tier - Boldy Go and Survival) Income Rate: Good Scalability: Bad Investment: Low I'm including both Boldly Go story missions and Survival missions in this. Both are much more lucrative than regular contracts. They should be a priority. These contracts will often not only give money, but also provide equipment or even a ship. Boldly Go missions will progress the story, which opens up more opportunities. They also act as tutorials for different parts of the game. In survival mode, the data collection contract is very easy to do and is extremely scalable. It's not too hard to earn a full $1B from getting 10 million data. This dwarfs most other ways of making money, but you need to have consistent income to be able to reach this point. Early Boldly Go missions and their rewards (spoilers obviously): Black Hole Sun Easy to do. First part requires a little bit of investment into a hyperspace scoop, tank and loader. Cheaper than a drone port though. At the start of the 2nd part he provides you with mining equipment for free. Last part is most lucrative if you ignore the data collection and only rescue the brother. Trouble With Tiddlets A little time consuming with all the jumps. Pays decently well for how easy it is. The final part will reward a small ship most suitable for rescue missions (or you can just sell it). Final part requires Black Hole Sun to be completed first. Only requires a drone port and some drones to pick up Tiddlets in order to start. At the end you get 2 Tiddlets on your ship as a reward. They do nothing. Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Will introduce combat mechanics as well as rescue missions. Will reward a ship on completion of all parts. Money rewards are good, and the early parts take the player to derilict ships with can be salvaged. Requires a drone port and drones to pick up salvage. One part will require you to pay money, and another to go salvage in an meteor shower. The final part will require you to survive a combat encounter with your new ship (which is fairly easy, you just need to survive for a fixed time before allied ships will jump in and kill the enemy for you). Deep Space Industrialists Requires another story mission part to be completed before starting. This mission is a big tradeoff: AJE will give you money and a space station at the start to get you going. You will also get a gas collection ship in the 2nd part of the mission, as well as even more money to scale up your manufacturing. It's a pretty big boost early on. But he will take 50% of your stargate project revenue for the early phases, which will very quickly be a lot of money. In the long term, doing this mission will cost you much more than what he gives you. I would recommend doing it for new players as it serves as a tutorial and walks you through the early parts of the stargate project. But many other players skip it. You can ignore this mission and do the stargate project yourself by researching it in the research tree. Mining (B tier) Income Rate: Good Scalability: Moderate (will eventually run out) Investment: Moderate Mining mostly is for providing raw materials for manufacturing, but mining and selling precious metals is very lucrative on it's own. The order of the most valuable basic ores is as follows: Precious Metals = $8k per stack of 20 ingots Tillium Crystals = $2k per stack of 30 crystals Copper Ingots = $1k per stack of 20 ingots Metal Ingots = $80 per stack of 20 ingots - don't sell this. Use it to manufacture stuff. Always smelt the resources you mine. This is easiest done on the mining ship. It adds a lot more value, even if you just sell the ingots, and it opens up manufacturing options. Smelting research will make this more lucative. If you run out of deposits to mine, you can use cannons to crack the mineral asteroids to unlock more deposits. This is expensive, time consuming and has diminishing returns. It's certainly worth it if you using the resources for high value added manufacturing though. You can also do sector scanning to find more asteroid belts to mine. In Boldly Go campaign, sector scanning will only work on the other side of stargate. Mining lasers can be mounted on scaffolds outside the ship (along with many other things like reactors, batteries and tanks). Mining lasers will require 100MW of power to recharge each shot. You will need logistics drones along with drone ports in order to pick up the raw resources. Mining laser research increases asteroid yield by a lot. Prioritise this if you intend to do a lot of mining. Logistics drone research makes pick up resources much faster. Hyperspace Scoop (B Tier) Income rate: Moderate Scalability: Excellent Investment: High Deuterium manufacturing, through harvesting hyperspace isotopes, can be very lucrative on ships that need to frequently jump. Good for transport ships doing contracts, as well as ships automatically jumping with interstellar logistics. Best when used to supplement other forms of income. Scoops have a high investment required because they use a lot of power while active. In order to make Deuterium you will need a lot of chemical labs, and those are expensive. I would have rated this only C tier before interstellar logistics was added. Interstellar logistics allows for automating this, and so it becomes incredibly scalable and is an infinite source of money. Deuterium will sell for $10k per stack of 1000 (more in survival mode due to panic). It is the best way to make money with hyperspace isotopes. You can also use it as a fuel in fusion reactors. You can sell stable isotopes by themselves, and this greatly reduces investment required at the cost of less profit. Stable isotopes sell for 25% of the price you could get if you processed them into Deuterium, but don't require the expensive chemical labs to process them. Hyperspace Isotopes: $100 per stack of 100 Stable Isotopes: $500 per stack of 100 - will be $375 per 100 Hyperspace Isotopes Deuterium: $10k per stack of 1000 - will be $1500 per 100 Hyperspace Isotopes Contracts (C Tier) Income Rate: Decent Scalability: Bad Investment: Very low Contracts are a great way to make money in the early game. But they don't scale very well. Contracts are a great way to get started in Boldly Go because they require very low investment. Some combat or rescue contracts can be very lucrative, but require more investment and risk. The main problem is that they usually take a lot of player attention to do for not enough money. They are also limited in number. In survival mode they can be very lucrative if you stack a lot of them. But they tend to be supplementing income rather than the main source, which is usually manufacturing. List of contract types: Passenger and cargo transport are the easiest to do and make decent money. They require basically no investment and pay fairly well if you stack them up. They also require minimal effort, and you can easily do them while you are doing other things. I avoid taking the timed cargo transport missions. Instead you want to bundle as many missions together as possible. Rescue missions can be lucrative, but they will require a lot of player attention. Especially the ones where the ship will explode, as this will also give you free salvage, but also puts you on a timer. Missions with enemy ships in the area can be dangerous. Avoid if you aren't familiar with combat. Note that enemy ships in the sector will target the crippled ships, and can often kill them before you can stop them. This will cause the mission to fail. You can get salvage though. Missions in meteor storms also can be dangerous. Make sure you have a decently manouverable ship with good thrusters, especially if the rescue ship is moving or spinning. Having docking ports on both sides of your ship helps too. Combat missions should only be taken if you are using combat to make money. Doing several of them at once at the same location can be very dangerous. Very lucrative though, as they pay very well and you get their salvage too. These will require high investment into a combat ship. Mining contracts will spawn new tillium deposits at an asteroid belt. This can make them quite lucrative, as you can do the contract as well as mine the new tillium. You don't actually have to go mine the resource if you happen to have it in your cargo hold. If you aren't used to combat, avoid the ones where it spawns enemy ships. Manufacturing contracts can be very easy if you are already making the thing or if it's something you already have. You don't need to make the thing if you already have it to complete the contract. Partial completion is also possible, you will get paid less though. Gas Harvesting (C Tier) Income Rate: Decent Scalability: Good Investment: Moderate Harvesting Gas is decent way of making money. The main advantage is that is a very passive way to make money. Denser gas clouds are more productive, increasing harvesting rate. Fly around until you find the most dense area with the highest harvesing rate. Do note that gas clouds do deplete, which limits scalability. There is a minimum though, so it's technically infinite. The main options for money making are: Fuel $6k per stack of 1000. $4.5k per 1000 Metreon Gas. You can also use it fuel your ships, making a good resupply ship/station. This is especially useful in survival mode. Note that fuel price will increase in survival due to panic, making this option more lucrative in that game mode. Explosives $1.2k per stack of 30. $6k per 1000 Metreon Gas. Good for ammo manufacturing. Highest markup for the gas outside of survival mode. Explosives can be stored in crates for more space efficient storage. Refined Metreon $4k per stack of 1000. $3k per 1000 Metreon Gas. No need to use chemical labs, which means more concentration of harvesters and refineries. It's a lot cheaper and easier, and I'm not sure if it's more lucrative. Combat (C Tier) Income Rate: High Scalability: Moderate Investment: Very High Combat can be extremely lucrative if you know what you are doing. Especially if you find a DrX Anvil (big loot pinata). I rank it low because it requires heavy investment to get going, carries high risk and can be expensive in ammo and repairs. It's not recommended to new players as an income source. Combat is unavoidable in Survival mode, so you'll need to invest in it anyway. For Boldly Go, it's only necessary for some story missions, especially later ones. Enemies will scale based on your fleet's combat strength. Which improves scalability. But it requires a lot of player attention and time, so that limites scalability. Combat risks losing your ships if a battle goes poorly. This can make it very expensive, potentially making you lose progress, as well as your favourite ships. Ammo and repairs can also become very expensive. Any lost armour plating has to be replaced at a price. But if it's done well, combat can be very lucrative. In Boldly Go the hostile sectors will constantly regenerate enemy ships, making it a source of infinite resources and income. You will need ships with logistics drones to clean up the salvage. You'll need a lot of storage to be able to store the salvage. In Boldly Go hostile sectors, you are on a time limit to be able to salvage the enemy and perform repairs before the next wave jumps in. In that instance, dedicated salvage vessels are recommended. Combat is only recommended as an income source if you are good at it. Blowing up enemy ships is fun though :) Ammunition Manufacturing (D Tier) Income Rate: Modest Scalability: Modest Investment: Modest Making ammo at the munitions bench can used as an income source. The income isn't great, and it can be a bit fiddly with needing explosives and metal ingot. It's not as lucrative as other sources of manufacturing. The main reason you make ammo is to use it in combat. Selling the surplus for a little profit is just a bonus. Ammo will increase in value from panic in Survival mode, making more profitable. Here is the list: Railgun slugs $200 for a stack of 10. 20 metal ingot to produce a stack = $80. +150% profit. By far the easiest to make as no explosives required. Cannon Shells $500 for a stack of 5. 5 metal ingot and 5 explosives to produce a stack = $220 +127% profit. Most in demand for you own use. Cannon based ships tend to be the most common. Bullets $900 for a stack of 300. 6 metal ingot and 6 explosives to produce a stack = $264 +240% profit. Best profit. Best value storage of the output too. Component Manufacturing (D Tier) Income Rate: Modest Scalability: Modest Investment: Modest You can make money by making components at a Fabricator with ingots and selling them. I rated it so low on the list because you shouldn't be selling components. Instead you are better off using them to make things at the Assembly Table for really big profit. The main exception is lenses, which are an effective way to get some more sale value out of precious metals. All components will require more storage space than their ingots. They are also slower to haul due to being individual instead of a stack like ingots. It's a lot easier to sell huge amounts of ingots. This is especially true for precious metals, where you can get literally 1000s of stacks from combat and it's just not worth it to turn that many of them into lenses. Lens Sale value: $1000 each Input: 2 precious metal = $800 Profit markup = 25% Good for increasing value of precious metals. Used to make Deflectors and logistics drones. Also energy Transmitters in Boldly Go. Energy Coil Sale value: $300 each Input: 2 copper ingot, 2 metal ingot = $108 Profit markup = 177% Used to make Batteries and Deflectors. Motor Sale value: $200 each Input: 2 copper ingot, 2 metal ingot = $108 Profit markup = 85% Used to make Water Purifiers. Frame Sale value: $100 each Input: 5 metal ingot = $20 Profit markup = 400% Used to make loads of things. Salvaging Derelicts (E Tier) Income Rate: Low Scalability: Very Bad Investment: Low You can salvage derelict ships and sell what you pick up. You can often find some equipment that can be used or sold, as well as resources that can be used in manufacturing. Consumables are often found too. You only need a drone port and some logistics drones, making it very accessible. It's a decent source of income at the start of the game, but it's ranked so low because it is so limited. Finding derelicts through surveying can unlock special repeatable tech boosts. This is both in survival mode as well as in the new sector through the stargate in Boldly Go. Ship Flipping (E Tier - Boldly Go Only) Income Rate: Very High Scalability: Terrible - can only do once Investment: Decent This one is very niche, but can be extremely profitable at the start of a Boldly Go game. During the Boldly Go tutorial, all the ships available for purchase will have their hull prices greatly reduced. Once you complete the tutorial, which is after you complete the first passenger contract that it gives you, the price will go back up to the standard price. JMC mining station is always available in your starting sector for $160k. If you buy it, you can sell the equipment inside it for about $130k or so to recoup much of the purchase price. You can also take out all the scrap metal and use it for manufacturing. Once you complete the tutorial, the empty hull will sell for roughtly $1.1M, giving you nice starting boost. You can do this for any other ships you find available to purchase as well. This is a one off thing and only for Boldly Go. It also might get patched out at some point. You will need a means of making money before finishing the tutorial as well, in order to be able to afford buying ships. JMC on it's own should be able to be afforded just with the start amount, and you can sell off it's equipment to be able to still afford the FTL drive. Civilians (E Tier - Survival mode only) Income Rate: Very low Scalability: Very low Investment: Very low In survival mode, buying civilians will make the player money. The problem is that they are limited in number early on, and don't generate enough income to be meaningful. Civilians are more about score than income. Civilians have been recently changed to generate income per sector jump rather than at point of sale. This makes them better, but it's still not enough to be significant income. Smelting Ore (E Tier) Income Rate: Poor Scalability: Moderate Investment: Low This is referring to buying ores at trader and smelting them for markup. It's not horrible in some cases, but it is slow. Tillium crystals are the most lucrative, followed by copper (precious ore isn't available for purchase). Don't even bother with metal ingots, they only sell for $80. It's main advantage is the low cost of the smelter. This makes it easy to get going, and smelting Tillium can be a modest supplementary income in the early game. I ranked this so low because generally you want to be using your ingots for manufacturing to get the really big bucks. Selling ingots directly is quick and easy, but it's leaving a lot of potential money on the table. Just doing the smelting alone doesn't make a lot of money. It's improved by smelter output research. Food Production (F Tier) Income Rate: Terrible Scalability: Low Investment: Low You can make money by selling food your farms produce. This is a terrible way to make income. It's slow and food doesn't sell for very much. It also requires a lot of water that you will need to obtain, which limits scalability a lot. Don't bother. Ice Harvesting (F Tier) Income Rate: Bad Scalability: Terrible Investment: Moderate You can make money by mining ice from comets. This is very limited and time consuming. Don't bother with it. Ice mining is mainly for survival when you need to get water to keep your population alive, but colonies aren't selling much and it's also very expensive. Oxygen Manufacturing (F Tier) Income Rate: Terrible Scalability: Bad Investment: Low You can make money by buying water and processing it into oxygen to sell. This will double your money. It also extremely slow and limited by water availability. Don't bother.