No Man's Sky: Mining

Finding Resources and How to Mine on Land and in Space

Gathering resources is a big part of No Man's Sky, and key to that is using your mining beam on the multi-tool. You need some precious metals for much of the game's crafting, so will often find yourself waiting to stumble across the gold, emeril, iridium, or aluminum that you need for that next multi-tool upgrade or hyperdrive. This guide to mining aims at teach you to do it efficiently, taking advantages of bonuses on your multi-tool, and the benefits of mining on planets and farming asteroids in your spaceship. No one can tell you where to find specific things in No Man's Sky, though it's certain that we can increase the odds of finding them by being methodical in our search.

Distance to the Center of the Galaxy Doesn't Matter

Some rumors floated around early on that things get more interesting and/or there is more loot to be found with proximity to the center. This is flat untrue. Star type matters more than anything, and as in reality every star is different and has different things orbiting it. The odds of a resource-rich planet get no better just by flying toward the center. Plus, it's a long journey, meaning you pass up many interesting planets along the way. You can do that later, when you've found the crafting ingredients you need to get a better ship.

Selecting a Star System for Mining Purposes

First, realize that your ability to travel to different star systems matters to the topic of mining and is governed by your Warp Drive. Certain types of stars require a better warp drive to visit. You start out capable of visiting class F stars, expanding to M (orange/red stars) with warp reactor Sigma installed. This also increases your range. Later Tau will let you visit green stars, and Theta the white stars. You want all the types of warp drives installed eventually, as it greatly increases your maximum warp range.

While players may argue differently, it seems that higher-ranked stars have a better chance of having higher-grade metals like iridium, copper, and chrysonite. They're meant for players who have progressed further in the game, and I've experienced this quite a lot myself particularly with the rarest metals such as omegon and calium. These stars also harbor more interesting planets, with there being a greater likelihood of life on these stars. That's not to say you can't find a rare metal on your first or second planet, it's just not very likely.

I prefer to travel to star systems with more than 1, preferably 2-3 planets (or at least a planet and moon), so that there is a greater chance for something interesting to be found there after expending the warp fuel. All of this is likely to require you to get OFF the Path of the Atlas, which you can return to at any time, and warp to stars you find interesting. You can always use waypoint mode (selected at the top of the travel screen) and go to the next atlas interface.

While the concept of star systems requires its own guide, know that the star's class is the first letter under Analysis on the travel screen. The second letter is how hot the star is, any additional letters means that it has interesting features. Especially 'p' or 'f'. If you see one with 'm', definitely visit it as they are rumored to have more metals. I thought I saw one, but now cannot find one for the life of me, so they're rare if they are out there.

Mining on Planets

When you first visit a planet, fly around. Look for the large deposits that make meaningful contributions to your inventory. Fly low and slow, give the game time to draw them, and you can even spot large areas with plutonium on the ground and other crystallized materials (like Chrysonite, which looks like Plutonium but is black). Titanium is a yellow crystal. The others stand out quite well, with large gold, copper, and aluminum deposits being possible. Land nearby, harvest everything and any nearby plutonium. Also take a moment to use your scanner and chase down any zinc/platinum flowers that may be nearby. Sometimes you will also find monuments doing this, as well as damaged machinery. They all have icons on your HUD, which you'll learn to identify.

Learn to land very close to ore deposits, then take off once you've mined everything it has to offer - this is one of the best money-making tactics in the game. When you're doing the actual mining, trace the mining beam over the outside edge in an up or down or back and forth pattern and work your way the opposite direction. This will leave less waste behind, since it's annoying to aim at dozens of little blocks that were left behind. Note that some deposits appear larger than they are. Only the area with a grid around it will actually provide the rare metals you see. You'll know you've gathered everything when you don't see any more of the rectangular boxes outlining ore. Mining targets come in four varieties - crystals, ore deposits, smaller rocks for rare elements and floating rocks such as these copper deposits.

Carbon, plutonium, zinc, and platinum are literally everywhere on planets (the latter two in flower form). You've just to to keep an eye out and use your scanner to find them in ample quantity. When you need metals like aluminum though, it becomes harder. These metals are rarely found, so no one can tell you exactly where to find them. There's a chance they will spawn on any world, so fly around and get an idea what that planet has - if it's got lots of copper and heridium, move on if you don't need them. Odds are, that is the best it can offer.

Resist the urge to walk everywhere - When you've been on a planet for a time, you've seen the majority of what that planet has to offer. Gather plutonium at each landing and ensure you can fuel launch thrusters. Fly to the next planet in the system after a time, and be sure to have a look further down for extra measures you can take to speed up the mining process and make yourself more likely to locate the metals you need.

Mining List and Resource Values

This is copied off my making money page, though I've taken the time to sort it from alphabetical to list the metals instead by rarity and by type. As you can see, Isotopes are most common (and thamium9/plutonium counted as rare are lies given their abundance. If what you need is very rare, consider checking stores and of course expect to not see it right away. Thankfully you should at least find valuable metals that can fund you and improve your ability to harvest and explore.

Improving the Multi-Tool for Faster Mining

Placing more than one type of upgrade next to one another - whether in your exosuit, ship, or multi-tool- will stack bonuses for those objects. The bonus is not huge, but it's worth clumping similar upgrades together for that reason. It doesn't need to be mining speed and mining speed. You can have a line with one each of mining speed, cooldown, and land destruction. It is even better if you make a 3x3 or so block of all available upgrades and place all the +3s in the center, so that they will have links all around from the less powerful upgrades.

You can get by without any upgrades to the boltcaster (or even that module at all) if you use the railshot adapter, though it makes the beam heat up very quickly. Even without that, you can use grenades to break down doors. Use the damage upgrades for the mining tool to handle sentinels and ignore the underwhelming boltcaster entirely. The more links, the bigger the bonus! This works once you have a multi-tool with plenty of slots (over 20). Early on the best you can do is put upgrades in a line. So stick all of your mining upgrades together (with the mining beam itself on the multi-tool if possible) but at least group similar types to maximize your bonuses.

Mining in Space

You can certainly make good early-game money by mining in space, and it's fairly low risk if you do it near a planet so that you can escape if an overwhelming force of pirates attacks. They're more likely to the more rare resources you're carrying. Realize that asteroids aren't out there waiting for you, they spawn around you. This distinction matters, so there's no point going too far away from safety. While you won't ever find yourself lacking in Thamium9 due to the sheer volume of it floating in every other asteroid, keep an eye out for the giant space potatoes. These are heavier metals such as nickle and iron (quite common), gold (Ooh!) and aluminum (great!). Fly about, use your booster to get to a new area and look around. Repeat, and hunt down the large asteroids.

Use your photo cannon for this. Improving its cooldown is more important than firing rate, as you already break a part off with a single shot. You simply need to be able to spray around the shape of the asteroid and don't want too many interruptions waiting on the cannon to cool. The laser can be useful to 'sample' an asteroid to determine what type of metal is inside, as its range is longer and it's highly accurate. When you get closer, spray that asteroid with as a pattern as you would an ore deposit on a planet.

Buying Elements

Sometimes you have no choice but to buy a metal if you want an upgrade now. Not every space station sells every metal. If you DO find aluminum or gold for sale, it is likely the traders coming into the station will also be selling it. If you don't find any, expect no one to have that element, and move on. It doesn't mean it can't be found in the system, it just means there's no one trading it in that star system or it's very rare there. Given you only need 200 or so of most metals for upgrades, you can get the minimum required in 4-5 purchases and it won't break the bank.

• Walkthrough Part 1: Leaving First Planet
• Walkthrough Part 2: Getting First Warp Drive
• Discovering Plants an Animals (Scanning)
• Making Antimatter for Warp Fuel
• AtlasPass V1 & Anomalies
• Finding AtlasPass V2 and V3
• Adding Inventory Slots
• How to Buy Better Ships
• Signal Scanners, Monoliths, Outposts, and Crashed Ships
• Best Elements to Recharge Gear
• Multi-tool and its Functions
• Where to Find Better Warp Reactors