TLDR – The best cooking food for nanites is a delicious vegetable stew.
This is a guide on how to cook food for nanites. This applies to normal mode. Let me first explain my use of the word “lazy.” I hate mining. I have set up automated industrial mining farms for every item, metal or gas in the game. I also hate getting together. When I see hexaberry roots or pulposes, I don’t want to pick them. You have to mine or gather initially to set everything up. But once everything is set up, you won’t have to mine or gather. With the exception of exploits; I think cooked food is the best way to earn nanites legitimately, if playing legitimately matters to you. It has been my experience that if you play legitimately, the game will have more meaning for you. I have tried to do missions, shipbreaking, larval nuclei; Nothing has attracted me. This appeals to me. Cooking mechanics are exactly the same mechanics as metal refining. Some foods can be made in one step, some require multiple steps. You want to make food in multiple steps. These will give you the most nanites. In fact, I’ve taken the time to review every product, step, or cooking process on the No Man’s Sky wiki. Most of them require hexaberry, pulpy roots, etc; which, of course, I do not want to pick up. Since there is no way to grow hexaberry or pulpy roots, you are limited to the plants you can grow.
I’ll start with the simplest farm. All you need for this farm is a biodome filled only with mushroom plants and 4 food processors; That’s it, not much. A biodome filled with a door will have 13 mold fungus plants. Each plant produces 81 fungal molds approximately every 4 hours. So 13 x 81 = 1053 fungal molds in a single harvest. If you wish, of course, you can have more than one biodome full of mold fungal plants.
When you use the food processor, the most food you can make is 50. Build 4 food processors. Put 50 fungal mold on the first processor, put 50 fungal mold on the second processor, put 50 fungal mold on the third processor, and put 50 fungal mold on the fourth processor. Now just follow the top flowchart. He has now used a total of 200 fungal molds to make 50 delicious vegetable stews. You can speed up the process using 8, 12, 16, 20, etc. food processors. Certain steps require exactly the same element that you need to place in two separate entrances, so keep an eye out for that. Their harvest of 1053 fungal molds will produce 250 delicious vegetable stews with 53 leftover mushrooms. Now grab the 250 delicious vegetable stews, head to the Nexus and give them to Cronos (the food critic). You can only send 1 delicious vegetable stew at a time. This part will be tedious. On average, you will get 98 nanites per delicious vegetable stew. So this harvest alone will give you about 24,500 nanites. It takes 50,000 nanites to upgrade an “A” class ship to an “S” ship. You can make 50,000 nanites in 3 crops if you only use 1 biodome; All this can be done in less than a day. So this is it, this is the simplest farm you can make. And it really is the best multi-step dish you can do without mining or harvesting. 50 Delicious Vegetable Stew can also be made with only 200 Gamma Root (4 hours of growth time) or only 200 Solanium (16 hours of growth), the processes are exactly the same. This is useful if you haven’t been to a planet with fungal mold yet.
There are two more multi-step dishes you can do that don’t involve mining or harvesting and that’s herb-encrusted bread and meat. Bread is less complicated than delicious vegetable stew, so you consequently get fewer nanites. You can make herb-encrusted meat if you use bite for meat ingredients, but it’s also less nanites compared to delicious vegetable stew. You can sell the delicious vegetable stew by units, the amount you get is not bad if you are an early game player. And selling is just 1 mouse click or press a button. Here’s a comparison:
50 delicious vegetable stew – 4900 nanites or 940,000 units 50 herb-encrusted meat – 4600 nanites or 940,000 units
50 bread – 2050 nanites or 260,000
units
Now let’s add animals. Most animals provide milk; Some provide honey or eggs, but it is mainly milk. Your farm should be in an area with lots of animals, of course. Set up automated feeders and milkers. Most animals that provide milk will want enzymatic liquid, fermented fruit, or scented herbs. These can be made with arable crops.
Hecio + fungal mold = fate enzyme liquid +
cactus pulp
= fermented fruit stool +
solanium
= scented herbs Hecio + (enzymatic liquid or fermented fruit or scented herbs) =
sweetened compost bitten + (scented herbs or enzymatic liquid) =
pheromone sac
This farm now needs more biodomes: 1 hecia biodome (required), 1 frost crystal (required), 1
fungal mold
(not really necessary, but if you don’t feel like milking, you can make delirious vegetable stew instead), and optionally 1 cactus meat or 1 solanium or 1 bite if your animal needs it.
I have carefully determined what you can do with milk that does not involve mining or harvesting and you can make some cakes, cakes and donuts. They are all made similarly, meaning that all cakes, treats, and pastries require a cake case; All donuts require a lumpen doughnut, etc. Meat dishes can be made with bite. Here’s what you can do with milk that doesn’t require mining or harvesting along with your numbers:
50 cream vegetable soup – 5050 nanites or 1,300,000 units 50 spicy vegetable stew – 4950 nanites or 1,800,000 units 50 coarse meat stew – 4750 nanites or 1,300,000 units 50 cheese and meat stew – 4650 nanites or 1,800,000 units 50 pointed cake – 5200 nanites or 2,000,000 units
50 jam cake – 4650 nanites or 2,200,000
units 50
fungal cake – 4800
nanites or 2,000,000 units 50 creamy treats – 5150 nanites or 3,100,000 units 50 high fiber cakes – 3200 nanites or 2,000,000 units 50 fruity pudding – 5150 nanites or 2,000,000 units 50 jam donuts – 4650 nanites or 2,200,000 units
50 honey butter donuts – 4400 nanites or 5,250,000 units
The best item to make with milk seems to be the
cake
with
spikes
. You need 50 frost crystals, 50 milk and 50 cactus meat to make 50 pointed pies. This item requires 3 food processors. Place 50 frost crystals in the first processor, place 50 milk in the second processor, and place 50 cactus meat in the third processor. Now just follow the second flowchart.
Let’s compare the delicious vegetable stew with the spiked cake. Sending 50 delicious vegetable stews will give you an average of 4900 nanites, sending 50 spiked cakes will give you 5200 nanites. Keep in mind that your farm also needs animals to provide milk if you want to make spiked cake. You cannot get adequate amounts of milk if you milk your animals passively; Which means you simply set up the feeders and milkers, go do something else, and then come back an hour later. Actually, you need to set aside time for active milking. So whether or not you want to do this is up to you. Another annoying factor about the pointed pie is that it requires cactus meat, which takes 16 hours to grow. Fungal mold only takes 4 hours to grow. Considering the 16-hour growth time for cactus meat, I would say the best item to make with milk is fruity pudding (a flowchart is provided) or a creamy treat (a flowchart is provided). Fruity pudding requires additional cultivation, creamy candy requires more milk. Since the creamy treat requires more milk, this means that longer milking sessions are necessary.
Here is how to actively milk your animals. You want 4 feeders, 3 milkers and 4 food processors; and a way to power them, use solar panels or an energy access point. You will most likely have to use solar panels, as many animals near an energy hotspot are somewhat rare. Space milkers and feeders in a straight line. Ask for them like this; feeder, milker, feeder, milker, feeder, milker, feeder. Place food processors at a reasonable distance. Fill the 4 feeders with bait. Nearby animals must now run towards them. Animals have a milking timer. They are first domesticated and then milked. Once they are milked, they cannot be milked again until about 40 seconds have passed. But as soon as those 40 seconds are over, they are milked again. As long as they are domesticated, they will not leave the area. Now here’s the catch, walk up to each feeder one at a time and fill it again with bait as soon as it runs out. If you have a lot of animals, the bait is quickly exhausted. Just stay in the area and go through each feeder and keep it constantly full. There will be nearby animals that are out of reach of the feeders, attract them with bait. In about 30 to 45 minutes you should have about 500 milk. When milking an animal, bright white particles will flow from the animal to the milker. It’s pretty amazing to see when you have 20 animals around you. As soon as one is milked, another nearby is milked right after it. And there are all these shiny particles everywhere. Just keep the feeders full of bait for about 30 minutes and it should be fine. Try to attract as many animals as you can, the more animals you have in your milking session, the busier you will keep it. Again, this is amazing to see when you’ve drawn a lot of animals. Apparently you can do this for as long as you want.
I was surprised by the asking price of 50 donuts of honey butter. Donuts seem to be the most complicated food to make. To make 50 honey butter doughnuts; You need 150 milk, 100 cactus meat, 50 frost crystals, 50 feces and 7 food processors. I have provided the flowchart. Cooking food for money is good if you are an early game player. Advanced players with billions of units wouldn’t bother. If you want to cook for money; I advise you to make 100 creamy treats instead of 50 honey butter doughnuts. 100 creamy treats require fewer resources than 50 honey butter doughnuts. And you can do it in less time if you use 6 food processors to make your creamy treat by running 2 parallel batches. And also, honey butter doughnut requires cactus meat that takes 16 hours to grow. If your animals provide eggs, this opens up more cooking options for you. With eggs, you can now make things that have “dough.” I didn’t research this in detail because I rarely get eggs. Foods that require BOTH milk and eggs may have very high selling prices. Of course, you don’t have to use animals or bite in the game if you don’t want to for whatever reason.
Conclusion – If you strictly want nanites and want the least hassle, the least material and the least amount of work, I would say that the best thing you can do is a delicious vegetable stew. Making items with milk is not worth the extra effort to do milking sessions and will only attract finalists or cooking enthusiasts.
