If you’ve spent any amount of time grinding for upgrades or building your first interstellar base in No Man’s Sky, you’ve definitely hit a wall where you need chromatic metal for almost every important recipe. I remember fumbling through my first 10 hours of gameplay, wasting rare resources on bad crafts because I had no clue how do you make chromatic metal in No Man's Sky reliably. This core crafting component is non-negotiable for everything from starship repairs to hyperdrive upgrades, and once you lock down a consistent method to make it, your whole gameplay loop gets way smoother. We’re breaking down everything you need to know, from raw resource gathering to hidden tricks to cut your crafting time in half.
Raw Resources Required for Chromatic Metal Crafting
Unlike common crafting materials like ferrite dust or carbon, you won’t find chromatic metal lying around on planet surfaces or in asteroid fields. It’s a refined material, meaning you have to process specific rare metals in a portable refiner or large refiner to turn them into usable chromatic metal. You only need one type of the following rare metals to make it, so you can pick whichever is easiest to find in your current star system:
You don’t need any secondary materials to refine these into chromatic metal, which is part of what makes the process so straightforward once you have the right resources. A lot of new players assume they need to mix multiple materials, but that’s a common misconception I see pop up all the time in community groups. You can even refine mixed stacks of these metals if you have leftover bits from different missions, they all convert the same way.
Step-by-Step Breakdown of How Do You Make Chromatic Metal in No Man's Sky
The process is identical no matter which of the four rare metals you use, so you can follow these steps regardless of what star system you’re currently exploring. I recommend starting with copper if you’re a new player, since you don’t need special starship upgrades to reach planets that spawn it, and it’s easy to find in almost every starter star system.
First, you’ll need to build at least one portable refiner if you don’t already have one. You can unlock the blueprint for it early in the main storyline, or purchase it from a technology merchant at any space station for a small amount of nanites. You’ll also need carbon or condensed carbon to power the refiner, so keep a stack of that in your inventory at all times when you’re out gathering resources.
Next, gather at least 50 units of your chosen rare metal. I usually gather 200 to 300 units at a time so I don’t have to make repeat trips back to the resource node. Once you have your metal and refiner, place the refiner on the ground, add your fuel to the power slot, and add your rare metal to the input slot. You’ll see the output slot automatically populate with chromatic metal, with a 1:1 conversion rate for all metals except activated indium, which gives you 2 units of chromatic metal per 1 unit of activated indium.
That’s it, that’s the whole process. A lot of players overcomplicate it because it’s such a high-value material, but the actual crafting steps are super simple. The hard part is finding enough of the raw rare metals to make the amount you need for bigger projects, like building a freighter base or upgrading all your multi-tool tech.
Pro Tips to Farm Chromatic Metal Fast
Once you know the basic crafting method, you can tweak your process to get hundreds of units of chromatic metal in less than 30 minutes of gameplay. I’ve tested all these tricks myself over hundreds of hours of playtime, so I can confirm they work for all game modes, including survival and permadeath.
First, set up a small base near a high-yield copper node if you’re early in the game. Place a large refiner and a supply depot at the base, so you can drop off all the copper you mine and refine it in bulk while you’re off doing other missions. Large refiners hold way more material than portable ones, so you can process 2000+ units of copper at a time without having to check on it constantly. You can even add more refiners to the base to process multiple stacks at once if you need a huge amount of metal quickly.
If you’re further along in the game and have access to blue star systems, prioritize farming activated indium. The 2:1 conversion rate means you get twice as much chromatic metal for the same amount of mining time, and activated indium deposits are usually huge, so you can get thousands of units in one mining run. Just make sure you bring an advanced mining laser with the drill speed upgrades installed, it cuts your mining time in half.
Another trick I swear by is scanning every planet you land on for rare metal deposits before you start exploring. Most players just wander around hoping to find copper or cadmium, but if you pull up your planetary scan, it will mark all large resource deposits on the map for you. You don’t have to waste time wandering through forests or caves looking for small nodes, you can drive your exocraft straight to the biggest deposit in seconds. That trick alone saved me hours of grinding when I first started playing.
So don’t waste your time farming cadmium or emeril if you don’t have to. Copper is easier to access early, and activated indium is way more efficient later. The middle two options have no real benefit over the other two, so you can skip them entirely unless you already have a stockpile sitting in your storage.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Chromatic Metal
I’ve made every possible mistake when crafting this material over the years, so I can tell you exactly what to avoid to save yourself time and resources. These are the most common errors I see new players make all the time, and most of them are super easy to avoid once you know what to look for.
First, don’t use your rare activated indium for small crafting jobs. If you only need 50 units of chromatic metal to fix your starship, use copper or another common rare metal instead. Save your activated indium for big projects like building a freighter base or upgrading all your starship tech, where the 2:1 conversion rate actually saves you a ton of time. Wasting activated indium on small repairs is one of the silliest mistakes new players make, and I’ve definitely done it myself.
Second, don’t forget to fuel your refiner before you add your raw materials. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve added 300 units of copper to a refiner, walked away to do something else, and came back to find it never started because I forgot to add carbon. Keep a stack of condensed carbon in your refiner’s fuel slot at all times, it lasts 4 times longer than regular carbon so you don’t have to refuel as often. You can make condensed carbon by refining regular carbon in the same refiner, so it’s easy to stock up.
Third, don’t sell all your extra chromatic metal at space stations. A lot of new players see that it sells for a good amount of units, and dump their whole stockpile for quick cash. But you’ll always need more chromatic metal later for upgrades or building projects, and it’s way more valuable to keep in your storage than it is to sell for units. If you need quick cash, sell extra activated indium instead, it sells for almost as much per unit and you can farm it in huge quantities easily.
Another small mistake: don’t carry all your chromatic metal in your personal inventory. If you die in survival or permadeath mode, you’ll lose all the metal you had on you, and you’ll have to farm all over again. Store the majority of your stock in a supply depot at your base or on your freighter, only carry what you need for your current mission.
At the end of the day, learning how do you make chromatic metal in No Man's Sky is one of the most important early game skills you can pick up. It unlocks almost every important crafting recipe in the game, and once you have a consistent farming method set up, you’ll never be stuck waiting for materials to repair your ship or build a new base again. Play around with the different methods we outlined to find what works best for your current progression level, and don’t be afraid to invest a little time early on setting up a dedicated farming base, it will pay off tenfold later in your playthrough.
