If you’ve spent any time grinding for mid-game upgrades in No Man’s Sky, you’ve probably hit a point where you’re asking how do you get cadmium in No Man’s Sky. This silvery-blue rare resource is required for some of the most useful upgrades in the game, from hyperdrive improvements to high-tier multi-tool mods, and it’s easy to feel stuck if you don’t know where to look. I remember spending three hours wandering my starting system’s planets looking for it when I first started playing, so I put together this guide to help you skip all that frustration and get the cadmium you need fast.
Pre-Requisites You Need Before Hunting for Cadmium
You can’t collect cadmium right out of the gate, and skipping these pre-requisites will leave you wasting hours of game time for no reason. First, you need a hyperdrive upgraded with the cadmium drive module, because cadmium only spawns in red star systems that are inaccessible with a basic hyperdrive. You can get the cadmium drive blueprint from the Space Anomaly after completing a handful of main story missions, or buy it from technology merchants in larger space stations for 150 nanites. Crafting it only requires 250 chromatic metal and 100 microprocessors, so it’s accessible pretty early in your playthrough.
Second, you’ll need a terrain manipulator with at least level 2 power to mine cadmium deposits efficiently. I made the mistake of heading to a red system with a basic level 1 manipulator on my first run, and I spent 20 minutes chipping at a single deposit that would have taken 2 minutes with an upgraded tool. It’s also helpful to have an advanced scanning upgrade for your multi-tool to spot cadmium deposits from farther away, so you don’t have to wander aimlessly across planet surfaces.
If you don’t want to grind for the cadmium drive right away, you can also join a multiplayer session with a friend who already has access to red systems, and mine cadmium on their playthrough. It’s a handy hack for new players who want to upgrade their gear faster.
How Do You Get Cadmium in No Man’s Sky: Top 3 Reliable Methods
Once you have access to a red star system, you have three main ways to collect cadmium, each with its own pros and cons depending on your playstyle. I use a mix of all three depending on what else I’m doing in the game at the time, and I’ve never run out of cadmium for upgrades. These are the most consistent methods I’ve tested over 200+ hours of play:
- Mining surface and underground deposits on red system planets: This is the most straightforward method, especially if you’re already exploring to find new bases or resources. Cadmium shows up as bright blue glowing deposits on your multi-tool scanner, and it’s most common on rocky, barren, or radioactive planets in red systems. You can get even more per run if you use an exocraft with a mining laser, since it has a larger inventory and can break deposits faster than a handheld tool.
- Breaking down cadmium-rich asteroids in red star systems: If you don’t want to deal with hostile planets, sentinels, or bad weather, you can farm asteroids as you fly between planets in a red system. Roughly 15% of asteroids in red systems carry cadmium, and you can collect large batches without ever touching ground. If you have a pulse engine upgrade that detects rare asteroid clusters, you can cut your farming time in half by targeting only cadmium-rich rocks.
- Completing frigate mining expeditions: If you own a freighter with mining-focused frigates, this is the most low-effort method by far. Send your mining frigates on short 1-2 hour mining missions to red systems, and they’ll often return with 200+ units of cadmium per successful run, no work required from you. Just make sure you only send frigates with high mining stats, so you get a higher success rate and more resources per trip.
You can also occasionally find small amounts of cadmium in crashed ships, reward containers, or for sale at space stations in red systems, but those are inconsistent and not worth relying on for bulk collection. Buying cadmium from stations is also extremely overpriced, so it’s only worth doing if you need 10 or 20 units for a last-minute upgrade.
Pro Tips to Maximize Your Cadmium Farming Efficiency
Once you pick your preferred farming method, these small tweaks will help you collect twice as much cadmium in half the time. I’ve tested all of these through trial and error, and they’ve saved me hours of grinding over multiple playthroughs:
First, always scan planets from orbit first before landing. Your system scanner will tell you if a planet has cadmium listed as a core resource, so you don’t waste time landing on planets that have no cadmium deposits at all. I can’t tell you how many times I forgot to do this early on, and landed on a frozen planet with nothing but ferrite dust and di-hydrogen for miles.
Second, set up a small base near a large cadmium deposit if you need lots of it long term. Add a teleporter and a couple of supply depots, and you can come back any time to farm more cadmium without having to hunt for new deposits. I have one base near a massive underground cadmium vein that I’ve been using for months, and it takes me 10 minutes to get 1,000 units of cadmium every time I visit.
Third, stack S-class mining upgrades on your multi-tool to get 20-50% more cadmium per deposit you mine. I run two S-class mining upgrades, and I can get 500+ cadmium from a single large deposit, which is way faster than farming dozens of smaller deposits. You should also keep 500 units of ferrite dust in your inventory at all times to power your terrain manipulator, so you don’t get stuck halfway through mining a huge deposit with no fuel left.
Don’t pass up activated cadmium deposits either, if you find them on extreme weather planets in red systems. Activated cadmium is a rarer variant that can be refined into regular cadmium at a 1:1 ratio, so it counts towards your resource needs just as well as raw cadmium.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Collecting Cadmium
Even if you know where to look, it’s easy to make small mistakes that waste your time and reduce how much cadmium you collect per run. These are the most common mistakes I see new players make, and they’re all easy to avoid:
The biggest mistake is trying to find cadmium in yellow, green, or blue star systems. Cadmium only spawns in red star systems, full stop. I’ve seen so many players waste hours scanning every planet in their starting yellow system looking for cadmium, and it just doesn’t exist there. Save yourself the time and upgrade your hyperdrive first, or join a friend’s red system session.
Another common mistake is using your starship’s laser to mine surface cadmium deposits. The starship laser destroys 70% of the resource in the deposit, so you’ll only get a tiny fraction of the cadmium you would get if you mined it with your terrain manipulator or exocraft. I made this mistake once, shot a huge deposit with my starship laser, and only got 30 cadmium from it when I would have gotten 300 if I mined it by hand.
Finally, don’t ignore underground cadmium veins. A lot of players only stick to surface deposits, but underground veins are usually 2-3 times larger, and you won’t have to deal with flying sentinels, extreme heat, or toxic rain while you mine. Just bring a light for your multi-tool, and you can farm in peace without any interruptions.
At the end of the day, figuring out how do you get cadmium in No Man's Sky doesn't have to be a frustrating process, as long as you have the right upgrades and know where to look. Start by upgrading your hyperdrive to access red systems, pick the farming method that fits your playstyle, and use the pro tips we shared to cut down on wasted time. Before you know it, you'll have all the cadmium you need to upgrade your starship, multi-tool, and build whatever you want in your next base. If you have your own favorite cadmium farming trick, feel free to drop it in the comments below.
