Getting more inventory slots for your Exosuit is not only much easier than buying a new ship but it’s far more affordable. You don’t need to amass a ton of money, you don’t need to dig through every outpost you find. Instead you need to look for a particular structure, and signal scanners do point this structure out to you.
What you need to keep an eye out for are drop pods. Drop pods are relatively small and can be difficult to find if you’re just flying around a planet, but they can be sniffed out by the ever-useful signal scanner.
You need to craft a bypass chip to use a signal scanner. You can make one of these in your inventory using 10 iron and 10 plutonium, and it’s generally recommended you make (and use) four of them per signal scanner to show four structures on the planet. And if you’re lucky, one of them will be a drop pod. (Note: I’ve gotten it to show drop pods when searching for shelters.)
Once you find and make your way to a drop pod there is only one more step to take care of: hop into it, interact with the holographic suit, and cough up a meager sum of credits to get an extra inventory slot. It really is that easy.
In a game with relatively slow progression overall it’s nice that inventory expansion isn’t much of a headache, though the same can’t be said for inventory management itself.
Inventory management in No Man’s Sky is a bit cumbersome and lacking in space early on makes the game a bit less enjoyable – but if you’re lucky enough to find a few drop pods early, you’ll be able to spend more time exploring and less time moving items around.