Part of the Resources & Crafting series:

Resources & Crafting Guide Hub: Start here.

Refiner Recipes Reference: Turn these into something better.

Quick Answer

Materials sort into five families: common elements found everywhere, localised elements tied to a planet type, atmospheric gases pulled from hotspots, stellar metals tied to star colour, and crafted or refined products.
Colour is the fastest field guide. Red plants give Carbon-family material, yellow plants give Sodium, blue crystals give Di-hydrogen, and cave walls give Cobalt.
Localised elements (Paraffinium, Phosphorus, Dioxite, Ammonia, Uranium, Pyrite) each come from one planet biome, so finding the right planet matters more than searching harder.
Stellar metals are gated by star colour: yellow systems have Copper, red have Cadmium, green have Emeril, blue have Indium. All four refine into Chromatic Metal.
Curiosities (Gravitino Balls, Vortex Cubes, Storm Crystals, Larval Cores) are pure value items with no crafting role, and several carry a risk attached to picking them up.
Nanite Clusters and Quicksilver are currencies, not materials. They buy upgrades rather than feed blueprints.

Overview

Almost every lookup about a No Man's Sky material boils down to two questions: where do I get it, and what is it for. The tables below answer both, grouped by how you actually acquire things rather than alphabetically, because the acquisition method is what you need in the moment.

Where a quantity or ratio matters, check the in-game preview instead of trusting any list. The refiner shows its output the moment you load a single unit, and blueprint screens show exact costs. Ingredient lists here are deliberately given without amounts so they stay correct across patches, and the crafting and refining basics guide covers the interfaces themselves.

Common Elements

Available on essentially any planet, in any system, from the first hour onward.

Resource	Where to find it	Main use
Carbon	Any flora: trees, bushes, plants. Mining Beam	Fuel for portable tech, refiner fuel, base crafting
Condensed Carbon	Refine Carbon	Denser fuel, ingredient in Antimatter and many crafts
Ferrite Dust	Rocks, boulders, and rubble on any surface	Base building parts, Metal Plating
Pure Ferrite	Refine Ferrite Dust	Higher-tier base parts and structures
Magnetised Ferrite	Refine Pure Ferrite with a cobalt input (check preview)	Advanced base tech and components
Sodium	Yellow-flowered plants and Sodium crystal clusters	Recharges hazard protection, Deflector Shield fuel
Sodium Nitrate	Refine Sodium	Concentrated hazard protection, tech crafting
Oxygen	Oxygen-bearing flora, marked by the Analysis Visor	Life Support fuel, and the refiner's stack-multiplier catalyst
Di-hydrogen	Blue crystal formations on planet surfaces	Launch Thruster fuel via Di-hydrogen Jelly, refines into Deuterium
Cobalt	Crystal growths on cave walls and ceilings	Refines into Ionised Cobalt, base tech
Ionised Cobalt	Refine Cobalt	Higher sale value, advanced crafting
Tritium	Mine asteroids in space with ship weapons	Pulse Engine fuel, refines into Deuterium with Di-hydrogen
Rusted Metal	Crashed freighter debris fields and wreck sites	Refines back into Ferrite Dust

Localised Elements by Planet Type

Each of these appears as mineral deposits on one biome. If you cannot find one, you are on the wrong planet rather than looking in the wrong place.

Resource	Where to find it	Main use
Paraffinium	Lush / verdant planets	Alloy production, trade good
Phosphorus	Scorched planets	Alloy production, trade good
Dioxite	Frozen planets	Alloy production, trade good
Ammonia	Toxic planets	Alloy production, trade good
Uranium	Radioactive planets	Alloy production, trade good
Pyrite	Barren and desert planets	Alloy production, trade good

Plant-based harvestables follow the same biome logic and can be grown in base planters or a Bio-Dome once you have the seeds.

Resource	Where to find it	Main use
Star Bulb	Lush / verdant planets	Cooking, crafted products
Frost Crystal	Frozen planets	Refines into Glass, cooking
Cactus Flesh	Barren and desert planets	Cooking, crafted products
Solanium	Scorched planets	Cooking, crafted products
Gamma Root	Radioactive planets	Cooking, crafted products
Fungal Mould	Toxic planets	Cooking, crafted products
Marrow Bulb	Caves, on any planet type	Cooking, crafted products
Mordite	Killing creatures	Cooking, crafted products

Atmospheric Gases

Gases are not mined by hand. Scan for a gas hotspot with the Survey device on your Analysis Visor, then place a Gas Extractor on it and supply power. Output rate depends on the hotspot's strength rating, which the survey readout shows before you build. See the power and industrial extractors guide for wiring and storage.

Resource	Where to find it	Main use
Nitrogen	Gas Extractor on a Nitrogen hotspot	Refines into a high-value gas product, trade good
Sulphurine	Gas Extractor on a Sulphurine hotspot	Refines into a high-value gas product, trade good
Radon	Gas Extractor on a Radon hotspot	Refines into a high-value gas product, trade good

The three gas-derived products are Unstable Gel, Thermic Condensate, and Cryo-Pump. Load one unit of a gas into a refiner to confirm which product it feeds in your version.

Metals and Stellar Elements

Resource	Where to find it	Main use
Copper	Deposits on planets in yellow star systems	Refines into Chromatic Metal
Cadmium	Planets in red star systems (needs a Cadmium Drive to reach)	Chromatic Metal, better yield than Copper
Emeril	Planets in green star systems (needs an Emeril Drive)	Chromatic Metal, higher yield
Indium	Planets in blue star systems (needs an Indium Drive)	Chromatic Metal, highest yield of the four
Activated Copper / Cadmium / Emeril / Indium	Large mineral formations on planets in the matching star colour	Sell directly for large sums, or process for Chromatic Metal
Chromatic Metal	Refine any of the four stellar metals	Hyperdrive upgrades, base tech, most mid-game blueprints
Activated Quartzite	Planets orbiting purple stars	Refines into Chromatic Metal at a strong rate, and repairs the Exocraft Summoning Station
Silver	Asteroids and planetary mineral deposits	Sale value, refines into Gold
Gold	Asteroids and planetary mineral deposits	Sale value, occasional crafting ingredient
Platinum	Asteroids and planetary mineral deposits	Sale value, occasional crafting ingredient
Pugneum	Dropped by destroyed Sentinels	Sentinel-related crafting, sale value

Activated metals are the backbone of passive income. A Mineral Extractor parked on an Activated Indium hotspot fills silos while you play elsewhere, covered step by step in the Activated Indium mining base guide.

Curiosities and Valuables

These carry no crafting requirement in most recipes. They exist to be sold or converted into currency.

Item	Where to find it	Main use
Gravitino Ball	Surface objects on certain planets	High sale value. Harvesting wild ones alerts Sentinels; base-grown ones do not
Vortex Cube	Surface objects, common on Exotic worlds	High sale value
Storm Crystal	Harvest during storms on extreme-weather planets	Very high sale value
Larval Core	Whispering Eggs near abandoned buildings	High sale value, but harvesting spawns hostile creatures
Runaway Mould	Mould deposits, most reliably around abandoned buildings	Refines into Nanite Clusters at a poor ratio
Tainted Metal	Derelict Freighters	Refines into Nanite Clusters at the best ratio in the game
Salvaged Data	Buried caches located with the Survey device, dug up with the Terrain Manipulator	Unlocks base building blueprints at the Construction Research Station
Salvageable Scrap	The remains of a fallen satellite. Flagged on a planet's information panel when you scan from space, then pinpointed on the surface with the Analysis Visor	Marks a Salvage Container. Dig it out with the Terrain Manipulator, destroying every Protective Casing before the container itself
Salvaged Frigate Module	Derelict Freighters and frigate expedition rewards	Unlocks and builds freighter base technology
Nanite Cluster	Refining junk, mission rewards, scanning, damaged machinery	Currency for technology upgrades and modules
Quicksilver	Nexus community missions on the Space Anomaly	Currency for cosmetics and decorative items

Nanites are the bottleneck on almost every build, and the fastest routes are covered in the nanite farming guide. Quicksilver runs on a separate economy explained in the Quicksilver guide, and storm harvesting has its own risk profile in the Storm Crystal farming guide.

Legacy curiosities

A few items sit in inventories doing nothing, which is exactly why people look them up.

Item	Where it came from	What it does now
Myth Beacon	Expedition Two: Beachhead, bought from the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion for 80 Quicksilver	Nothing. It was tied to Nada's research into patterns in Gek, Korvax, and Vy'keen myths and broadcast a signal echo. That function was retired, so it is now a keepsake

If you are holding one, you have not missed a puzzle. Items from old past expeditions sometimes outlive the event that gave them a purpose.

Crafted Components

Blueprints for most of these come from Manufacturing Facilities and Operations Centres. Ingredient amounts are shown on the blueprint screen.

Item	How to make it	Main use
Metal Plating	Craft from Ferrite Dust	Repairs, base parts, higher components
Carbon Nanotubes	Craft or refine from Carbon	Component in many tech and trade goods
Glass	Refine Frost Crystal	Base windows, domes, and components
Microprocessor	Craft from Carbon Nanotubes and Chromatic Metal	Feeds Circuit Boards and advanced tech
Amino Chamber	Craft from Metal Plating, Chlorine, and Condensed Carbon	Component in the Medi-Pod, Plasma Launcher, Teleport Chamber, Automated Feeder, and Bionic Lure
Circuit Board	Craft from Microprocessors	Advanced technology and high-value trade
Superconductor	Craft from a Manufacturing Facility blueprint	Advanced components, strong sale value
Quantum Computer	Craft from a Manufacturing Facility blueprint	Top-tier trade good
Aronium and other alloys	Refine a localised element together with a metal in a Medium Refiner	Trade goods and inputs for advanced components

Alloys include Aronium, Herox, Lemmium, Magno-Gold, Geodesite, and Grantine. Each pairs one localised element with a metal, so load a single unit of each and read the refiner preview to confirm the pairing.

Progression Items

Item	Where to get it	What it does
Atlas Pass v1	Blueprint acquired through early story and mission progress	Opens v1 sealed doors and small locked containers in buildings
Atlas Pass v2	Blueprint from mission and facility rewards (varies)	Opens v2 doors and containers
Atlas Pass v3	Blueprint from mission and facility rewards (varies)	Opens v3 doors and containers, the highest tier
Antimatter	Crafted, and given as story rewards	Half of a Warp Cell
Antimatter Housing	Crafted from common metals	The container half of a Warp Cell
Warp Cell	Combine Antimatter and Antimatter Housing	Fuels the starship Hyperdrive for one warp
Di-hydrogen Jelly	Craft from Di-hydrogen	Refuels Launch Thrusters
Cadmium / Emeril / Indium Drive	Craft with Chromatic Metal and the matching metal	Unlocks travel to red, green, and blue star systems
Factory Override Unit	Reward from Manufacturing Facilities and related missions	Forces open a facility door to claim a blueprint
Portal glyphs	Speak to Travellers, then visit the grave location they mark	Each grave grants one of the 16 glyphs needed to dial portals
Knowledge Stone	Small stones scattered on planet surfaces	Teaches one word of Gek, Korvax, or Vy'keen

FAQ

What is the most valuable resource?

By raw sale price per unit, Storm Crystals and the activated stellar metals sit at the top, with Activated Indium the most practical because it can be extracted automatically. By usefulness, Chromatic Metal wins, since it gates hyperdrive upgrades and a long list of base and ship technology.

Where do I find Nitrogen?

Nitrogen cannot be mined by hand. Scan for gas hotspots using the Survey device on your Analysis Visor, then build a Gas Extractor on a Nitrogen hotspot and power it. Which gas a hotspot yields is fixed per location, so a planet that only shows Radon hotspots will never give you Nitrogen. Keep scanning across planets until the readout names the gas you want.

What are Gravitino Balls for?

They have no crafting role. Their purpose is sale value. Harvesting them in the wild triggers a Sentinel response, so the safe approach is growing them at a base, where no penalty applies.

How do I get Activated Indium?

Reach a blue star system, which requires an Indium Drive on your starship. Activated Indium then appears as large surface formations on planets there. Mine it by hand for a quick payout, or scan for a mineral hotspot and build a Mineral Extractor with silos for a hands-off supply.

What is the difference between Carbon and Condensed Carbon?

Condensed Carbon is refined Carbon at a two-to-one ratio. It performs the same jobs in a denser form, so it fuels portable tech longer per unit and appears as an ingredient in recipes where plain Carbon will not substitute.

Key Takeaways

Identify the family first. Common element, biome-locked element, gas hotspot, star-colour metal, or crafted product tells you the acquisition method immediately.
Biome-locked elements and plants are a travel problem, not a search problem. Note which planet types you have nearby and revisit them.
Chromatic Metal is the central conversion point of the early and mid game, and higher-tier stellar metals give more of it per unit consumed.
Curiosities exist for income. Treat Storm Crystals, Gravitino Balls, and Larval Cores as risk-versus-payout decisions rather than crafting inputs.
Verify quantities in game. Refiner previews and blueprint screens are always current for your version, while any written list eventually drifts.

No Man's Sky Resources & Items Index: What Everything Does