No Man's Sky Multi-Tool Tier List

A Multi-Tool is three jobs glued to one model: scan for units, mine for resources, and fight Sentinels, fauna, and derelict interiors. Hello Games has shipped eight specialisations — Pistol, Rifle, Experimental, Alien, Royal, Sentinel, Atlantid, and Autophage staffs (Voltaic Staff) — each with C/B/A/S class bonuses. Cosmos 7.0 did not replace that grid. It just made you more likely to spacewalk into a fight with the wrong tool still equipped.

The single best early decision in No Man’s Sky is still this: put S-class scanner modules on whatever gun you are holding, then worry about the silhouette. Scanning flora and fauna prints the units that buy ships. Nanite priorities sit in units and nanites. Staffs and Atlantid tools come later, after Autophage camps and Korvax monoliths.

Specialisation ranking by job

Scanning (early economy)

S — Experimental and Royal. Highest scanner bonuses. A Royal or Experimental with three S-class scanner upgrades is a money printer on any planet, including the ugly one you spawned on.

A — Alien and Voltaic Staff. Respectable scan numbers plus combat stats. A staff you built at an Autophage camp can be a daily driver if the class roll is not a joke.

B — Sentinel and Atlantid. You pick these for damage or mining. Scan income is fine, not the point.

C — Pistol. Mining-leaning, modest scan. Acceptable until you find a cabinet you like.

D — Rifle. Damage specialisation with the weakest scan identity. Do not farm nanites for rifle scanners first.

Mining

S — Atlantid. Mining specialisation with the Runic Lens stack. Found through discordant interfaces on monoliths in Korvax systems. Best late-game rock deletion, not a starter pickup.

A — Pistol. The classic miner. Light, common, easy to slot Optical Drill and Advanced Mining Laser.

B — Experimental / Royal. You came for scans; the beam still works.

C — Sentinel. Some unique mining tech exists on Sentinel tools. Combat is why you carried it.

D — Rifle and staff. Wrong bonuses. Mine with a second tool.

Combat

S — Sentinel and Voltaic Staff. Damage ceilings live here. Sentinel tools drop from harmonic camps on dissonant worlds and arrive earlier than a story-gated staff. Staffs need Autophage progress and three parts (head, core, pole) at a synthesis terminal.

A — Alien and Rifle. Solid damage specialisations you can buy from cabinets and space station vendors.

B — Experimental and Royal. Fight if you must; they would rather scan.

C — Atlantid and Pistol. You can stun a sentinel with a mining beam. You should not plan on it.

You may own several Multi-Tools. Carry a scan king, a miner, and a fighter. Swapping on the quick menu is cheaper than forcing one S-class rifle to be a geology degree.

Weapon ranking (the stack you install)

Specialisation is the chassis. Weapons are the engine. Supercharged slots on the tool matter as much as they do on starships — cluster the modules you actually fire.

S — Neutron Cannon. Charged cone or tap-fire, no projectile ammo, excellent against groups and walkers when upgraded. The default “I do not want to think about crates of bullets” pick.

A — Scatter Blaster. Shotgun. Devours ammo. Deletes close rooms, derelict corridors, and anything that jumped your face. Pair with a companion if you insist on fighting fauna in melee range.

A — Pulse Spitter. High fire rate, ammo hungry, easy to use at mid range. Impact Igniter and ricochet modules turn it into a spray that still respects aim.

B — Blaze Javelin. Charge, dump, wait. Huge hits on Walkers and other slow armour. Awkward when five drones strafe you. Carbon-fed, so it does not compete for projectile crates.

C — Boltcaster. The assault-rifle starter. Fine until a better stack exists. Do not supercharge it if Neutron Cannon is unlocked.

D — Mining Beam as a weapon. Emergency only. Use it on rocks, not on a Sentinel Capital chase.

Plasma Launcher and geology cannons are tools with splash. Fun in open air. A way to down yourself in a cave. We leave them off the S-board on purpose.

Where to find the good ones

• Cabinets in space stations, minor settlements, and the Anomaly rotate stock. Look at type and class before the paint.
• Sentinel tools come from harmonic camps: dissonant planets, inverted mirrors, camp puzzles.
• Staffs come from Autophage camps after They Who Returned. Class can roll poorly and slots can spawn damaged. Reroll parts; do not soul-bind the first pole.
• Atlantid tools hide on Korvax monoliths via discordant interfaces. Bring standing and patience.
• Royal tools are expedition and Quicksilver cousins of Experimental scanners — hunt them when you want scan S without a cabinet drought.

Vy’keen systems lean into Multi-Tool vendors and armourer missions. Gek systems will happily sell you something shiny that scans like wet cardboard. Read the bonuses.

Supercharged slots, again

An S-class badge on a Rifle with scattered supercharged squares is worse than an A-class Sentinel with a 2x2 under Neutron Cannon. Upgrade class at the Multi-Tool station if the layout is already good. Do not pay nanites to promote a tool whose four lights sit on opposite corners. The same reroll patience you use on Corvettes applies here, just with cabinets and camp recipes instead of hab pieces.

Controls for swapping fire modes are in the controls guide. Story timing for staffs is on the Autophage page. None of that replaces looking at the grid before you fall in love with a skin.

A finished Traveller after Cosmos does not own “the best Multi-Tool.” They own a scan Experimental that funds warps, an Atlantid that eats quartzite in purple systems, and a staff or Sentinel gun for when a hulk’s interior grows teeth. Rank the job you are doing in the next ten minutes. Leave the cabinet beauty contest for the Anomaly after the scanner modules are bought.