Galaxy has many ways to make money, each with advantages and disadvantages. Knowing when and how to work for credits will greatly help you progress in Galaxy. Each dropdown tab details a specific strategy for making money. Individual pages are also dedicated to Mining, Trading, and Pirating.

Mining

Mining is the root of the economy in Galaxy. Without mining, trading cannot be done. Mining involves using a miner to mine asteroids before dumping the ore to a starbase (including Mega Base). Dumping ore is a miner's way of selling the ore it has collected, and ore in your hold cannot be used for anything else. Mining is slower than trading, but also much safer (assuming that you mine around your own base). Miners fuel the economy and help to keep it alive. Because miners are not armed well; they can be a big target; so it's best to keep your miner around your own base - this also helps reduce travel time.

When mining, every small mining laser mines 2.5 mass of ore per second, and every medium mining laser mines 5 mass of ore per second. The number of credits paid by your base for ores is worked out using the following formula:
(1.29+Loyalty*.8) * Mass

For instance, if you have 10% loyalty and a hold with 5000 mass of ore inside, you do (1.29+.10*.8)*5000, which gives you 6850 credits

Tips and Tricks

When mining in larger miners that can mine multiple asteroids in a single run, it's best to assign a mining laser to several ores, instead of focusing them all on the same one - this reduces the number of times you need to reassign your mining lasers, as each individual asteroid will last longer.
It is heavily advised to go home immediately after your faction either declares or has war declared on them, as the 90 seconds of peacetime is likely your only chance of getting back to your base alive - miners don't have much health and are very slow and easy to hit, in addition to being expensive. This makes them very big targets for enemy pirates.
A Rorqual or Orca will assume slightly larger prices at the cost of some extra mining time. Always mine at high loyalties if you can spare the time.
If you're in a private server with 2-3 people, you can dump into one NPC base and keep dumping into it until you can't. Then, when you feel the time is right, you can blow up the base to collect the 10% of ore you put in. This is called Boom Mining (It's only worth doing when your base has a TON of materials).
Shutdown mining, a variation of this strategy, can be a viable way of gaining Credits if no bases can afford or will allow you to sell there and/or just want Credits rather than materials. It requires a VIP Server that the player owns. Steps are to get to a full ore hold then shut down the server through server configuring. Each run can make up to 15,000 Credits in a Galaxy. This is due to the refund system that, when the player is either kicked or the server shuts down, will reimburse the player for what was in their cargo or ore hold at the time. The player must own the server, as simply leaving will not give the refund.

Advantages

The payment is consistent and doesn't rely on the economy being good.
Ores can often be found very close to the base, especially in newer factions, meaning mining is fairly risk-free.
The ores generated through mining can be sold for considerably more than the base paid for them, meaning if you then sell them to another faction (or the Mega Base), you can make a lot of money for your faction - this is the primary source of income for most factions, and the main way of getting a strong faction started.
Mining is the best way to accumulate lots of a specific ore inside a starbase to lower the price of that ore for trading.
Is a great way to get some quick cash if you ever need a boost.

Disadvantages

Ores can sometimes be very far from the base, especially in older factions, or if you're exclusively mining a single ore in order to try to lower its price.
When mining far from the base, it can sometimes not be possible to get back to your base within the 90 second grace period before a war begins.
Miners will have a harder time dealing with enemies such as aliens, as they have little firepower to deal with them.
Pirates may declare war on you wanting to destroy your miner.
Uranium is rather rare or nonexistent in some public servers, so it cannot be consistently mined.
Bases can't have negative credits anymore, so you need to wait for your base to gain enough credits before you can sell your ore. Until then it is better to transfer your ore into your warehouse.
!!! Ores no longer spawn if there are only 2 teams left on the server during endgame.

Trading

Trading can be one of the most effective ways to make money. It involves buying Material from Starbases and selling it to other Starbases (including the Mega Base). Freighters are the primary ships for trading due to the ships' massive cargo holds. Leaders sometimes avoid having their base bankrupted by putting selling restrictions on their Starbase. The restrictions on selling and buying can be viewed in the Economy tab. These restrictions usually don't last after the base has been upgraded to level 3 or 4. The most common way to trade is to buy the cheapest ore available in the economy (ideally at your own base) and sell it to Mega Base. Trading can be much faster than mining but is also harder to set up. Also, without using ships with large cargo holds, trading can bring lower profits than the average mining run.

Tips and Tricks

The best way to lower a price in the economy is to mine a lot of that ore and dump it at your station. In order to prevent players from buying the ore before you've gotten the price as low as you want it to be, it is important to lock the purchase of that ore.
Silicate is always the best ore to try and lower the price of, since all prices decrease at the same rate, but the profit made on silicate increases faster in comparison to the other ores, as more can be carried in a single cargo hold, and more is mined by miners.
An important fact to remember is that the economy updates at a rate of 0.1 every 5 minutes, which means changing the price of an item by 1 will take a minimum of 50 minutes. Naturally, this makes planning important, and if you intend on reducing a price for trading then it's important to start early.
If you can access them, planets (Frion I, Aqueous II, and Myriad III) are a very powerful way to get low prices as it has lowered ore prices by default, which bypasses a lot of the waiting required to get a good price. This is especially true on Galaxy VIP Servers, as you can make several factions until you get one that is close to one of them, meaning the process of capturing the planet is much easier.
If the Mega Base doesn't have enough credits, you can buy ores from the Mega Base into your warehouse, and then swap servers to sell them again to a different Mega Base. This can be used to transfer vast amounts of credits from one server's Mega Base to another at almost no cost to the player. This tactic does not work that well anymore due to an update where ores sold from your warehouse are cut down in price.
Uranium is great for trading since the difference in the Starbase price and the Mega Base price is larger than any other material.
Keep in mind that ship holds are based on weight rather than on ore amount. This may make certain ores more profitable to trade than others.

Advantages

Credits can be made very quickly with good prices.
It can increase your faction's power (and therefore territory), and supply the faction with credits to buy base upgrades. This may become vital in a server where other factions have already leaned towards hostility.

Disadvantages

A good economy that allows trading to be used efficiently can be very difficult to come across.
If you are at war, or if war is declared whilst you are in the middle of a run, you can lose your ship, as freighters are often flimsy and have no weaponry. This is very expensive, as freighters are expensive, and losing your freighter with a full hold will add a lot more money to your losses. This problem can be avoided entirely through the use of Galaxy VIP Servers if you have access to one.
If war is declared, trade becomes extremely dangerous and almost impossible, and any good prices in your base are impossible to make use of. This problem can also be avoided if you have a VIP server.
When trading, you need to have enough credits to fill your hold, which can be problematic for particularly poor players.

Profit Calculation

This section is designed to help understand how much money you will make by trading.
Profit is calculated using this formula: (Selling Destination Price - Buying Destination Price) * (quantity of item held)
- Example: Silicate E-Class: (4.5 - 3.5) * (10000) = 10000 Profit.

"Priming" The Economy

Starting an eco-server is often done by putting money into a base that you plan to make an active trade hub. This is so people can buy and sell certain quantities of material without the base losing too much money.
This can be accomplished by buying a considerable amount of materials from a base and selling to Mega Base at a net loss. While this is not ideal initially, it allows you to start trading earlier. You can easily make your money back later.

Combat Rewards

Tips and Tricks

This is the most dangerous way to make money and is NOT recommended for newer players
If you are new and want to dip your toes into making money through combat rewards, starting off with killing alien swarmers and alien bruisers is a good way to learn basic combat, just be sure not to lose your ship!
Be in a team with a sizable fleet, that way you and your teammates can take down large ships with much more ease. Teamwork is key.
If sieging, stay close to your team's fleet or the enemy may target you for being alone.
Follow your fleet commander's orders, if he's telling you to retreat, you should probably retreat.
Don't take on larger ships by yourself unless you are in a ship of the same class. Even then, check the minimap frequently in case there are other sneaky teammates waiting to strike you when you're low.
War is much more common in larger servers
Joining war servers that are in endgame will boost the rate you gain loyalty by 1.5x, so it's better to join those kinds of servers for some kills.

Advantages

Gets you more familiarized with the game's unique ships and current meta.
Teaches you how to properly fight against another player, which is amazing knowledge to have in this game.
Unlike mining or trading, combat rewards aren't grindy and are a fun way to make credits.
Being in lots of fleets will teach you which players to avoid.
Can be a great complement to what loot enemies may have, especially for bosses such as the Kodiak, which can reward up to 200k Credits in rewards.

Disadvantages

If not experienced enough, you might lose large amounts of credits through ship destruction.
Requires lots of skill and knowledge in the game.
Players may hold a grudge towards you and target you if you were responsible for killing one of their valued ships.
A lot of players will run away once they're hulled, making you miss out on potential combat rewards.
If your ship is destroyed, the potential rewards will not carry over.
Loyalty takes time to gain.

Pirating

Pirating is a more dangerous way of making money, involving the destruction (and looting) of freighters and miners for money, and occasionally including claiming the bounty if the target had one. Pirates usually use small fast ships that can kill miners and freighters quickly without taking heavy damage from the base lasers. Common ships for pirating include the Cobra, Sixfold and Gideon, and wealthy pirates may use an Ampharos for some tasks. Pirates normally attack miners and freighters due to the fact that these ships are unarmed and are expensive, with freighters usually carrying a lot of additional loot in their cargo hold. Most pirates have a decent-sized bounty, making them fairly easy to spot.

Late game pirates who are more wealthy and familiar with the game often pick up common behaviors from certain players. Using all of this to their advantage they are able to pick out armed capital ships to pirate to gain even more wealth from the large wrecks Dreadnoughts and Carriers can leave behind. These pirates also can lay out a trap and specifically target something they lay eyes on to secure their goal and profit from it with the least casualty.

Many pirates will switch factions frequently in order to pick on the weakest targets, making them poor faction members as they're very likely to backstab their allies (this used to be a major threat but this has died down since the loyalty update)

Tips and Tricks

Ships as big as carriers and dreadnoughts can be targeted by pirates if the pirates are in a group, or if the dreadnoughts have just left a large battle, such as a base siege.
Occasionally it can be profitable to lose a ship whilst pirating if you manage to kill your target, especially when the target has a bounty. (Using your own ship explosion can be a last resort in finishing off a low target)
As miners and freighters are often big and slow, spinal-based ships like the Cobra are good at killing them.
Cruisers like the Nidhogg can slowly use its spinals to pick off the miner or freighter's shields and use its flak cannons to easily finish off the ship.
Taking the time to familiarize yourself with the common behaviors of certain players and new players can allow you to create better decisions and predict what you can do.
Stealth ships can be excellent for this purpose, as they can sneak up on unsuspecting players, but be aware that due to their low durability that chasing a fleeing target may not be possible.

Advantages

Pirating can be fairly easy, especially when targeting miners far from their base.
The enemy ships are normally unarmed.
Pirating can bring in a lot of money very fast if it goes well.
Pirating is fairly cheap to start, as strong pirate ships are very cheap in comparison to miners and freighters (such as the Cobra or Gideon).
When using a small ship with warp, it is usually easy to escape if a large ship comes along, making it fairly risk-free if you're careful.
If you want to gain a high bounty, pirating is a great way to increase it, as most of your targets will not have a bounty of their own.

Disadvantages

Pirates can sometimes be easy to spot due to decent bounty, losing you the element of surprise.
Pirating requires a lot of patience.
Players may remember you and may announce the fact that you're a pirate to others.
Many players will look down on pirates with distaste.
Some players may hold a grudge and want revenge.
If failed miserably, you can lose large amounts of money from ship destruction.
Many players escape to their starbase as soon as a war is declared, making it difficult to get to them.
It can be difficult to hurt other players while they are warping away.
It takes a while to gain enough loyalty.

Credits to threshhold101 & BloxEman01.

Server Jumping

Server Jumping is very similar to trading. Players try to buy the cheapest ore they can find before transferring it to their warehouse. From there, the player jumps around servers until they find the highest price for that ore. It's best if you have a Freighter and a large warehouse for this strategy. Another way players may use this is by selling to the Mega Base in another server instead of going to another faction.

Advantages

Because the prices extend multiple servers, HUGE amounts of money can be made.
Very little pirating can be done to you because you're spending little time on each server.
Because you're checking multiple servers, you're almost guaranteed to have the best prices at the current time.
You have the ability to find the ores needed to build capital ships.
You can save your entire server economy

Disadvantages

The one trading must already have enough money to buy ore from a base.
Pirates may destroy your ship. (Assuming that you are at war with another faction.)
Factions may have selling restrictions.
Your ship will likely be unarmed (assuming that you are using a freighter), unless you are using the Constellation
A good economy that allows trading to be used efficiently can be difficult to come across.
Wars can end trading quickly.
You can bankrupt and destroy other server economies (especially if you manage to bankrupt the Mega Base )
It can take insane amounts of time, possibly more than simply trading.
The Credits reset to 7500 every time you get back on Galaxy Arcade

Buying Credits

Buying credits is the easiest and fastest way to make money in-game. Nothing rivals how much money can be gained in a single click. Hundreds of thousands of credits can be made in just seconds.

Advantages

The fastest and easiest way to make money in-game.
You can be anywhere in-game and still be able to buy credits.

Disadvantage

It costs Robux.
The price for credits costs an exorbitant amount of Robux.

Patched Unintended Money Making Methods

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Battery Duping

When certain NPCs are killed (e.g. Galleon, Decimator, Punisher, etc.), they will drop Plasma Batteries. Each one takes up 1000 units of cargo, so an Argonaut is a minimum requirement to start. Once a Plasma Battery is looted, the player has to travel to Mega Base, where they can transfer it to their warehouse, then head to Terminal D of Mega Base. There will be stairs leading up to the old Advanced Ship Shipyard, and there are 3 quests, each exchanging batteries for uranium. Completing the quest will remove the battery from the warehouse and deposit uranium of various quantities (100, 300, or 1250 depending on the quest). Afterward, the player can sell the uranium to a base in exchange for credits

Galleon

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