Experimental Multitool in No Man's Sky: Scanner Bonuses and How to Find One

There are many ways to make units in No Man’s Sky — trade routes, activating indium farms, freighter loops — but only one that pays you for walking around a pretty planet pointing at birds. The experimental multitool is that career. Its scanner stat bonuses are the best in the multitool pool, and stacked with scanner upgrade modules they turn every undiscovered world into a six-figure scan streak. If you have ever wondered how veterans fund a fleet while “just exploring,” this is usually the answer.

Last updated: August 22, 2026, current through patch 6.50. This guide covers what experimentals are, where they spawn, how to hunt an S-class, and the build that turns them into a money printer. For the general upgrade system, see multitool upgrades.

Why Scanner Bonuses Matter So Much

Every multitool pays units for first scans of undiscovered flora, fauna, and minerals. The payout scales with the tool’s scanner stat and the scanner modules installed — and the experimental body type rolls the highest scanner stat ceiling in the pool. The compounding works like this:

Layer	What it does
Experimental body type	Highest base scanner stat ceiling of any tool type
Scanner core technology	The base scanning hardware every tool installs
Scanner upgrade modules (up to 3)	Multiplicative payout boosts, S-class strongest
Adjacency bonus	Modules grouped around the scanner core perform better
Supercharged slots	Slot a scanner module into one for a further boost

The result: a well-built experimental pays tens to hundreds of thousands of units per fresh scan, where a stock tool pays a few thousand. A single new planet’s worth of creatures, plants, and rocks routinely clears a million units — before you have mined a gram of anything.

Where Experimentals Spawn

Experimentals are rare but conventional — they draw from the same station-and-settlement pool as everything except quest- and dissonance-gated tools:

• Space station cabinets. The multitool offered behind each station’s counter is generated from that system’s economy-tiered pool. Wealthy three-star economies draw the best tool types and class grades — the same rule that governs S-class ship hunting.
• Minor settlements. The planetside trading post terminal offers another draw from the same pool. Two checks per system.
• Rarity. Expect experimentals to show up noticeably less often than standard rifles — more often than royals, less often than pistols. The black-and-orange housing is unmistakable when it appears.

Hunting an S-Class Experimental

1. Route wealthy systems. Galaxy map → economy filter → wealthy three-star economies only. Chart a loop of six to ten.
2. Check station and settlement in each. Dock, cabinet, inspect; land at a minor settlement, terminal, inspect. You are reading body type, class, slots, and price.
3. Save before checking promising systems. The offered tool rerolls on save-reload, so a save parked outside a rich station is a rerollable draw — same technique as the royal hunt, and legal in every way the game cares about.
4. Judge the class honestly. The scanner specialty is worth an A-class minimum; S-class is the target but the statline matters — compare scanner stats between candidates, not just the letter grade.
5. Buy, and keep your old tool. Multitools are a collection, not a replacement — you keep every tool you buy and switch freely at any station cabinet.

While routing, remember that wealthy systems are also where you find exotic ships and first-wave freighter checks. A tool hunt and a ship hunt are the same route.

The Money Printer Build

An experimental with no modules is a good scanner. Built correctly, it is an economy:

1. Install the scanner core tech if it is not already present (it ships with most tools).
2. Buy three S-class scanner upgrade modules from technology merchants — station merchants stock per-system inventory, so check several systems; the Space Anomaly’s multitool merchant is the guaranteed fallback and takes nanites.
3. Group them adjacent to the scanner core. Same-family adjacency is free performance.
4. Drop the strongest module into a supercharged slot if your tool has one free after weapon needs.
5. Add the Analysis Visor upgrades that further lift scan value where available.

Then the loop: jump to an undiscovered system (systems you have never visited pay full first-scan rates — the galaxy map marks unexplored systems), land, and visor everything that moves and most of what doesn’t. Repeat until the fleet is paid for.

Combat and Mining on an Experimental

Balanced, competent, unremarkable — that is the honest verdict. With good boltcaster or neutron cannon modules an experimental fights through pirates and Sentinel waves fine (see weapon modes), and its mining stats keep up with the mining beam builds that fuel crafting. Players who refuse to carry two tools build it as a scanner-first hybrid; players who optimize keep a dedicated combat tool — often a sentinel multitool or a good alien roll from outlaw space.

Is the Hunt Worth It?

Yes, and it is not close. Among all the rare-tool hunts in the game, the experimental has the best payoff-per-hour because the reward is not cosmetic — it is a permanent multiplier on all future exploration income. Hunt it early, build it properly, and every later money goal in the game gets easier. The full ranking of where it sits among tools is in our best multitools guide.