Part of the Base Building series:
- Base Building Guide Hub: Start here.
- Base Power & Wiring Guide: Wiring, switches, and power basics.
Quick Answer
- Power is produced and consumed in kPs (kiloPower per second). Batteries store a flat pool measured in kP.
- Solar Panels generate 50 kPs during daylight only, so every solar array needs Batteries sized to cover the night half of the cycle.
- Electromagnetic Generators placed on an electromagnetic power hotspot run at full output permanently, no fuel and no day/night gap. Output scales with hotspot class, roughly 130 kPs at C-class up to around 315 kPs at S-class.
- The Survey Device, a Multi-Tool upgrade installed alongside the Analysis Visor, is the only way to locate power, gas, and mineral hotspots. Without it, hotspots are invisible.
- Gas Extractors tap gas hotspots for Sulphurine, Radon, or Nitrogen, feeding the Fusion Accelerant and Cryo-Pump crafting chains that end in Stasis Devices and Fusion Ignitors.
- Supply Depots buffer extractor output at 1,000 units per depot, connected by Supply Pipes so production doesn't stall while you're away.
- Budget power before you build: add every device's draw, then confirm generation exceeds it with headroom, or the whole grid browns out at once.
Overview
Industrial bases live or die on two invisible things: the hotspots buried under the terrain, and the arithmetic between what your grid produces and what it consumes. A base with a beautiful layout and 40 kPs of headroom will keep working right up until you add one more extractor, and then every light, refiner, and teleporter in the build goes dark simultaneously.
Hotspots come in three flavors: electromagnetic (power), gas, and mineral. Each is graded C, B, A, or S, and each has a density percentage on top of that grade. The dream site is a location where an S-class electromagnetic hotspot sits close enough to a gas or mineral hotspot that a single base radius covers both. Those sites exist, but you find them by surveying, not by hoping.
Power Sources Compared
| Power source | Output characteristics | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Solar Panel | 50 kPs, daylight hours only, zero output at night | Cheap and unlimited in placement count. Useless alone: always paired with Batteries. |
| Battery | Stores roughly 45,000 kP, charges from surplus, discharges to cover deficits | Not a generator. It smooths the day/night curve and buys you time during a shortfall. |
| Biofuel Reactor | Modest constant output while fueled, then nothing | Burns Carbon or Condensed Carbon. Condensed Carbon lasts far longer per slot. A starter option, not an industrial one. |
| Electromagnetic Generator | Constant output, roughly 130 kPs (C-class) to around 315 kPs (S-class) | Requires an electromagnetic hotspot. No fuel, no downtime, no maintenance. The endgame answer. |
The practical reading: solar plus batteries is what you build while searching for a hotspot, and electromagnetic generators are what you build once you find one. A biofuel reactor is a stopgap for the first hour, because feeding carbon into reactors by hand defeats the point of automation.
Surveying Hotspots
The Survey Device is a Multi-Tool technology, bought from technology merchants in space stations or picked up as a module. Once installed, open the Analysis Visor and switch to Surveying Mode. The visor then displays directional indicators and a proximity readout for nearby hotspots.
Surveying on foot works, but it is slow. The efficient method:
- Install the Survey Device and confirm Surveying Mode toggles in the visor.
- Sweep low over the terrain in an exocraft, stopping every few hundred units.
- Open the visor and let the readout resolve. It names the resource type, the class, and the density percentage.
- Mark promising sites with a save beacon, because unmarked hotspots are painful to relocate.
- Walk the area to find the hotspot's center. Placement near the center improves yield.
Gas distribution correlates with planetary conditions, so a scorched or toxic world will not offer the same mix as a frozen one. For sites that combine high-grade power with good extraction targets, our notes on choosing strong base locations cover which biomes are worth the search time.
Hotspot Classes
| Hotspot class | Relative yield |
|---|---|
| C | Baseline (1.0x). Functional, but you will need more extractors and more generators to hit the same throughput. |
| B | Moderate step up, roughly 1.4x baseline. |
| A | Strong, roughly 1.8x baseline. Perfectly viable as a permanent site. |
| S | Roughly 2.5x baseline. The target for any base you intend to keep. |
Class applies to all three hotspot types. On an electromagnetic hotspot, it sets the kPs each generator produces. On a gas or mineral hotspot, it sets units extracted per cycle. The density percentage shown in the visor modifies output within that class, so an S-class at 62% can underperform a well-sited A-class at 98%.
Hotspots do not deplete. A site produces at the same rate a hundred hours from now, which is why it's worth spending an hour surveying rather than settling for the first C-class deposit you trip over.
Electromagnetic Generators
Electromagnetic Generators can only be placed inside the radius of an electromagnetic power hotspot, and the game will refuse placement anywhere else. A wide hotspot field can host several generators, so a single S-class site can carry an enormous industrial build without a solar panel anywhere on the map.
Two things worth knowing before you commit:
- Generators must still be wired to the rest of the base. Electrical Wiring is free, but power does not travel through walls or floors by proximity. Run a trunk line from the generator cluster back to your build and branch from there. The base power and wiring guide covers the wiring rules in detail.
- Your base computer radius has to reach the hotspot. If the hotspot sits at the edge of your build boundary, reposition the base computer before you construct anything expensive.
Once electromagnetic generation is online, batteries become insurance rather than infrastructure. Keep one or two wired in anyway: they let you read your grid's real behavior at a glance.
Gas Extractors
Gas Extractors work exactly like their mineral counterparts, except they sit on gas hotspots and pull one of three atmospheric resources:
- Sulphurine, from hot and volatile worlds.
- Radon, from toxic and radioactive conditions.
- Nitrogen, from cold and temperate conditions.
All three feed the advanced crafted-product chain. Fusion Accelerant, Cryo-Pump, and the components above them lead to Stasis Devices and Fusion Ignitors, the highest-value manufactured goods in the game. Selling raw gas at the Galactic Trade Network is fine, but crafting upward multiplies the return substantially. The resources and crafting hub maps those chains.
Practical setup notes:
- Blueprints come from the Construction Research Station on the Space Anomaly, priced in Salvaged Data.
- Each extractor draws 50 kPs, and that figure does not change with hotspot class.
- Extractors have a small internal buffer. Once full, production halts. Pipe them into Supply Depots immediately or you're capping out within an hour of logging off.
- Multiple extractors on one gas hotspot each pull independently, so scaling means adding generation to match.
Mineral Extractors and Storage
Mineral Extractors follow the same rules on mineral hotspots, pulling ores like Copper, Cadmium, Emeril, or Activated Indium depending on the system's star color. Each Supply Depot holds 1,000 units of a single resource, and Supply Pipes connect extractors to depots and depots to each other. Chain enough depots and you can leave a base unattended for a very long session without losing production.
For the full mineral-side workflow, including depot chaining and yield optimization, see the dedicated guide on mineral extractors and supply depots. If unit income is the goal, the Activated Indium mining base build is the highest-value version of the same pattern.
Power Budget Math
Sizing a grid is straightforward arithmetic that most players skip and then regret.
Step 1: total your draw. Hover each powered device in the build menu and note its kPs consumption. Extractors are 50 kPs each. Refiners, teleporters, landing pads, and lighting all add up faster than expected. Sum everything, including devices you intend to add later.
Step 2: total your generation. Solar Panels contribute 50 kPs each, but only for the daylight half of the cycle. Electromagnetic Generators contribute their full rate continuously.
Step 3: size storage for the dark half. If you are running solar, calculate your overnight deficit in kPs, then multiply by the length of night in seconds. That product is the kP capacity you need in batteries. A base drawing 200 kPs with no generation at night needs 200 multiplied by the night duration in stored kP, which is why solar-only industrial bases end up surrounded by battery banks.
Step 4: build in headroom. Target at least 25% surplus above current draw. Grids fail all at once rather than degrading gracefully, and diagnosing a dead base at 2 kPs of deficit is a miserable way to spend twenty minutes.
This math is the clearest argument for S-class electromagnetic hotspots. Four extractors plus supporting infrastructure sits at 300 to 400 kPs of continuous draw. Covering that with solar means a dozen panels and a wall of batteries. Covering it on a high-class hotspot means placing two generators and running a wire.
FAQ
Do I need the Survey Device to build extractors?
Yes, in practice. Extractors can only be placed on hotspots, and hotspots are invisible without the Survey Device installed on your Multi-Tool and Surveying Mode active in the Analysis Visor. There is no alternative detection method.
Can I put multiple Electromagnetic Generators on one hotspot?
Yes, provided the hotspot's field is wide enough to accept the additional placements. This is the standard way to scale power at a single site, and it's why the size and class of an electromagnetic hotspot both matter when you're evaluating a location.
Which gas should I extract?
Whichever your best-class gas hotspot offers. Sulphurine, Radon, and Nitrogen all feed valuable crafting chains, and an S-class hotspot of the "wrong" gas outproduces a C-class of your preferred one by a wide margin. Class beats preference.
Why did my whole base lose power at once?
Total draw exceeded total generation, and the batteries finished discharging. Power grids in No Man's Sky do not partially fail. Either add generation, remove or switch off devices, or expand battery capacity if the shortfall is only overnight.
Do hotspots run out?
No. Hotspot output is permanent and unchanging. The only things that stop an extractor are a power failure or a full internal buffer with nowhere to pipe the output.
Key Takeaways
Order of operations matters more than any single build decision. Survey first, place the base computer second, build third. Reversing that sequence is how players end up with a base whose boundary excludes the hotspot they built it for. Confirm the hotspot's center sits inside your build radius before spending a unit of Chromatic Metal.
Prioritize hotspot class over convenience. An S-class electromagnetic hotspot in an inconvenient system beats a C-class one beside your existing base, because the yield gap compounds over every hour the base runs and hotspots never degrade. Same logic for gas and mineral sites.
Build generation ahead of consumption. Add the generator before the extractor, always. A grid with surplus absorbs new devices silently; a grid at parity fails completely the moment you place one more object, with no warning.
Common pitfalls, in the order players hit them: assuming proximity wires a generator into the grid; skipping Supply Depots so extractors fill their internal buffers and idle; running solar without battery capacity to survive a full night; and reading a hotspot's class while ignoring its density percentage, which can drag an S-class site below a well-placed A-class one.
Treat gas as a crafting input, not a commodity. Raw Sulphurine, Radon, and Nitrogen sell adequately. Processed into Fusion Accelerant, Cryo-Pumps, and the products above them, the same extraction rate returns several times the income for a modest refiner setup. The extractor is the cheap part of that pipeline; the crafting chain is where the value sits.