Part of the handbook:

No Man's Sky Beginner's Guide (2026): Start here if you're new to the game.

No Man's Sky Technology & Upgrades Guide: Turn crafted materials into powerful modules.

Quick Answer

Resources in No Man's Sky fall into four broad groups: raw planetary materials, refined processed goods, crafted products, and harvested organics.
Your Mining Beam harvests rocks and plants; the Analysis Visor identifies creatures, flora, and minerals for Units and discovery data.
The Portable Refiner turns Ferrite Dust into Pure Ferrite, Condensed Carbon from Carbon, and other basic conversions essential for repairs and crafting.
Chromatic Metal is the gateway alloy for starship hyperdrives and many base technologies: refine Copper, Cadmium, Emeril, or Indium to make it.
Automated mining bases and farms turn resource gathering into passive income once you have the blueprints.
Cooking with the Nutrient Processor creates edible products that restore life support and can be sold for Units.

Overview

Every piece of technology, every repaired starship component, and every profitable trade run in No Man's Sky starts with a resource. Understanding where materials come from and how they convert into more valuable products is the difference between wandering the galaxy broke and building an empire of bases, ships, and upgrades.

This hub covers the resource ecosystem from the ground up: what to gather in your first hour, how refining multiplies value, which products sell well, and how to scale into automated production. The linked guides below go deeper on specific materials and crafting loops, but the principles here apply to every stage of the game.

Core Resource Categories

Raw Planetary Materials

Planets are the primary source of basic resources. Rocks yield ferrite-based minerals, plants provide carbon and oxygen, and crystals or deposits contain rarer elements.

Resource	Common Source	Primary Use
Ferrite Dust	Rocks	Metal Plating, Pure Ferrite
Pure Ferrite	Refined Ferrite Dust	Starship repairs, base parts
Carbon	Plants, trees	Fuel, organic crafting
Condensed Carbon	Refined Carbon	Advanced crafting, fuel
Sodium	Yellow plants	Hazard Protection recharge
Sodium Nitrate	Refined Sodium	Stronger Hazard Protection recharge
Oxygen	Red plants	Life Support recharge, crafting
Di-Hydrogen	Blue crystals	Starship launch fuel, Di-Hydrogen Jelly
Tritium	Asteroids	Frigate fuel, Pulse Engine recharge
Copper / Cadmium / Emeril / Indium	Planetary deposits	Chromatic Metal for hyperdrives

Most raw materials are easy to find, so your early inventory should always include a stack of Carbon, Sodium, Oxygen, and Ferrite Dust before leaving a planet.

Refined and Processed Materials

Refining is how low-value raw materials become high-value crafting ingredients. The crafting and refining basics guide covers recipes in detail, but these conversions are the most important to memorize:

Ferrite Dust → Pure Ferrite
Carbon → Condensed Carbon
Sodium → Sodium Nitrate
Copper / Cadmium / Emeril / Indium → Chromatic Metal
Di-Hydrogen → Di-Hydrogen Jelly

A Medium or Large Refiner unlocks two-input recipes that can duplicate or transform materials far more efficiently than the Portable Refiner. Chlorine expansion, for example, is a well-known mid-game money loop built entirely on refining.

Crafted Products and Trade Goods

Once you have refined materials, you can craft products like Metal Plating, Microprocessors, Wiring Looms, and Glass. These feed into starship repairs, base technology, and trade goods.

High-end crafted products such as Stasis Devices and Fusion Igniters require many intermediate ingredients farmed across multiple biomes. The Stasis Device & Fusion Igniter guide breaks down the full supply chain.

Harvested Organics and Cooking

Creatures and plants provide organic ingredients. Feeding creatures lets you harvest materials from them, and the Nutrient Processor turns those ingredients into cooked products. Cooked food restores life support and sells for more than raw ingredients. Some recipes require fish caught with the Fishing Rig added in the Aquarius update.

Where to Find Specific Resources

Ferrite, Carbon, and Sodium Families

These are the bread-and-butter resources. Ferrite Dust comes from almost every rock. Carbon comes from every plant. Sodium comes from glowing yellow flora on most planets. Carry a healthy stock at all times; running out of Sodium on a hostile world is a common early death.

Chromatic Metal and Stellar Metals

Copper appears on planets in yellow-star systems. Cadmium is found in red-star systems, Emeril in green-star systems, and Indium in blue-star systems. You need an appropriately colored hyperdrive upgrade to reach these systems. Refining any of these metals produces Chromatic Metal, which is used in hyperdrive crafting, base technologies, and many advanced recipes.

Activated Variants and High-Value Mining

Activated Copper, Cadmium, Emeril, and Indium appear on extreme planets and sell for far more than their normal counterparts. An Activated Indium mining base is among the most reliable late-game passive income sources.

Gas and Electromagnetic Hotspots

With a Survey Device installed on your Analysis Visor, you can locate hotspots for gas and electromagnetic power. These enable large-scale mining operations and power generation. Hotspot farming pairs naturally with automated mining and supply depots.

Crafting Workflows for Beginners

Repair Your Ship

Your first crafting loop is repairing the crashed ship: Ferrite Dust → Pure Ferrite for the Launch Thruster, plus Di-Hydrogen Jelly for the Pulse Engine. This loop introduces the Portable Refiner and basic resource conversion.

Build a Base Teleporter

A Teleporter requires Metal Plating, Ion Batteries, and a Carbon Nanotube. The ingredients come directly from the resource categories above and teach you that base building is just crafting at a larger scale.

Make Frigate Fuel

Once you own a freighter, frigate expeditions consume fuel. Di-Hydrogen Jelly and Tritium are the core ingredients, so keeping a stockpile lets you send fleets continuously.

Scaling Into Automated Production

Manual gathering stops being efficient once you need thousands of units of a material. The solution is base-based automation:

Find a hotspot with a Survey Device.
Build Mineral Extractors or Gas Extractors on the hotspot.
Connect extractors to Supply Depots with pipes.
Add Solar Panels and Batteries, or tap an electromagnetic hotspot for power.
Visit periodically to collect the stored resources.

For a full walkthrough, see the automated mining and supply depots guide.

Cooking & Food Products

Raw ingredients are not only for refining. The Nutrient Processor turns creature products, fish, and harvested crops into cooked dishes worth Units and Nanites, and the Space Anomaly's food NPC pays well for specific recipes. See the cooking and Nutrient Processor guide for recipe tables and ingredient sources.

Resource & Item Index

If you are looking up a single element or item, the resources and items index lists where each one comes from and what it is used for.

Refiner Recipe Reference

For input-to-output ratios in one place, including the multiplier chains and the Nanite conversions, use the refiner recipes reference.

FAQ

What is the most important resource for new players?

Sodium, Oxygen, Carbon, and Ferrite Dust. These four keep you alive, fuel your equipment, and feed almost every early crafting recipe. Prioritize them before exotic materials.

Should I sell raw materials or refine them first?

Almost always refine or craft first. A stack of Chromatic Metal is worth far more than the raw Copper it came from, and crafted trade goods multiply value even further.

How do I get more inventory space for resources?

Expand your Exosuit with Drop Pods and space station upgrades. Move bulk materials to your starship or exocraft. Later, build storage containers at your base or use your freighter's massive cargo hold.

What is the fastest way to find a specific resource?

Use your Analysis Visor to scan for resource icons. For buried or underwater resources, install a Survey Device. For purchased goods, every space station Galactic Trade Terminal sells a rotating selection of materials.

Is cooking worth the effort?

Yes, once you have a Nutrient Processor and a reliable source of ingredients. Cooked products restore more life support than raw food and many sell for a solid profit. Fishing and creature byproducts provide high-value recipe ingredients.

Key Takeaways

Carry Sodium, Oxygen, Carbon, and Ferrite Dust at all times. They solve most early survival and crafting problems.
Refining is the fastest way to multiply resource value; memorize the basic one-input conversions first.
Chromatic Metal unlocks interstellar travel and advanced technology; refine Copper or higher stellar metals to make it.
Hotspot mining turns resource gathering into passive income with the right base setup.
Cooking and automated farming scale your resource economy into the late game.
Use the child guides below to dive deeper on specific materials and crafting loops.

No Man's Sky Resources & Crafting Guide (2026): Where to Find Everything