💰 Starminer Money Making: How to Earn Credits Fast

1. How Credits Work in Starminer

Credits are the universal currency. You need them for everything:

• Colonists — 100 credits each, auto-generated in habitats
• Research unlocks — every tech tree node costs credits on top of RP
• Module purchases — some advanced modules require direct credit payment
• Debt repayment — you start with a debt to the Governance. Pay it off slowly or fast.
• Emergency supplies — when things go wrong, credits buy you out of trouble

The primary way to earn credits is selling refined resources at Reclamation 9. There's no auction house, no player trading — just you, your ore, and the Governance's buy orders.

2. Resource Sell Prices: What's Worth Selling

Not all resources are created equal. Here's the definitive ranking:

3. Early Game Money Strategy (First 5 Hours)

Your early income depends on Cobalt. Here's the step-by-step:

1. Build a T1 Refinery immediately — you can't sell unrefined ore. Refining is step one.
2. Target debris fields — scattered small fragments almost always contain Cobalt. Much easier than hunting Cobalt asteroids.
3. Mine → Refine → Sell at Reclamation 9 — complete the loop. One debris field run nets 500–1,500 credits.
4. Rush T2 Refinery — triples your processing speed AND unlocks Thorium. This is your income multiplier.
5. Invest in G2 Solar (5,000 credits) — more power = more modules = more mining = more credits. It pays for itself.
6. Buy colonists strategically — each costs 100 credits. Only buy when you have habitats and jobs for them.

4. Mid Game Money: Thorium Farming

Once you have a T2 Refinery, Thorium becomes your economic engine:

• C-class asteroids are your primary target. Learn to identify them — large, dark, heavily cratered.
• One C-class asteroid typically yields 5–15 Thorium chunks. At 360 credits each, that's 1,800–5,400 credits per asteroid.
• Build a dedicated mining ship — specialized for speed and cargo capacity, not combat. You want to mine fast and move on.
• Set up Drill Nodes on known C-class fields — passive income while you do other things.
• Multiple T2 Refineries — one refinery becomes a bottleneck. Two or three running in parallel dramatically increases throughput.

5. Late Game Economy: Eonite & Automation

Late-game wealth comes from scale, not price per unit:

• Eonite sells for massive amounts but is exceedingly rare. Found only in deep-space rare asteroids with glowing veins.
• Automated mining fleets — multiple Drill Nodes across multiple asteroid fields, feeding a central processing hub via hauler networks.
• Link Gates unlock interstellar travel, giving access to richer systems with more valuable resources.
• T3 Refinery processes 5 chunks simultaneously — essential for late-game volume.
• By this stage, credits should be self-sustaining. Your operation generates more than you can spend.

6. Debt Management: Should You Pay It Off Early?

You start the game with a debt to the Governance. It's displayed in the top-left menu. Here's the strategy:

Bottom line: Don't prioritize debt in the first few hours. Expand first, pay later. The ROI on a T2 Refinery far exceeds the interest cost.

7. Hidden Money-Making Methods

• Mission rewards — Campaign missions give significant credit payouts. Don't ignore them — they're essentially free money for doing what you'd do anyway.
• Disassembling captured ships — if you defeat enemy ships, their wreckage can be salvaged and refined. Free resources = free credits.
• Sell before you log off — resources sitting in storage earn nothing. Make a selling run before ending your session.
• Overproduce colonists — once you have excess water and habitats, extra colonists cost nothing and increase productivity across all modules.
• Heat-efficient builds save credits — less heat = fewer enemies = less combat damage = fewer repairs = more credits in your pocket.

8. Common Money Mistakes to Avoid

Next: Survival Mode Guide → | Mining & Resources →