No Man's Sky has grown massively since its disappointing launch, and the Outlaws update was one of the biggest so far. The update introduced a seedy underbelly to the otherwise clean and law-abiding No Man's Sky universe, including pirates, smugglers, and illegal goods.
Making money as a smuggler is a risky venture in No Man's Sky Outlaws, but it can also be highly profitable. The end goal of smuggling is selling lucrative illegal goods in law-abiding stations, where they'll fetch much more than conventional wares. However, players will have to run the gauntlet of law enforcement before they can offload their illicit cargo.
How To Get Started Smuggling In No Man's Sky
Before players can start their smuggling career in No Man's Sky, they'll first need to find an Outlaw System. This can be done by using an Economy Scanner to search nearby stars in the Galaxy Map. An Outlaw System will be marked by a skull among the symbols beneath the system's name and basic details.
Outlaw Systems are centered around No Man's Sky's Outlaw Stations, where players can find Contraband Agents to buy the Illegal Black Market Goods they'll be smuggling. Once players have stocked up, it's as simple as carrying those goods to a regulated system and selling them to any trading outpost or station. The safest way to smuggle goods is to use teleportation gates to carry the cargo directly from the Outlaw System to a trading outpost. Players who instead fly their goods to regulated space stations can carry more, but may be scanned by local law enforcement, forcing them to either jettison or fight to keep their cargo.
How To Get Rich Smuggling In No Man's Sky
Despite their massive profit margins, players still need to spend money to buy their illegal goods for smuggling. However, there is a method that will allow players with good No Man's Sky combat skills to make a fortune smuggling without having to put any money down.
Pirate Freighters in Outlaw Systems are often well stocked with illegal goods, and raiding these Freighters will allow players to accumulate substantial hauls without having to visit Contraband Agents This is particularly lucrative because the vendors often have quite limited stocks, and raiding Freighters will allow players to pick up much larger amounts of illegal goods. This leads to greater profits with each trip to a regulated system, tilting the risk/reward ratio further in the player's favor.
No Man's Sky is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, with a Switch version also in development.