I still remember the first time I tried to build a curved glass observation deck for my mountain base in No Man’s Sky. I’d spent an hour placing frames, picking out the perfect spot to watch sunsets over the alien ocean below, only to realize I had zero idea how to source the one material I needed most. If you’re stuck on how do you make glass in No Man’s Sky, you’re not alone – it’s one of the most sought-after crafting materials for everything from sleek base builds to high-end tech upgrades. Most new players skip over the recipe early on, since it doesn’t pop up in the initial tutorial prompts, but it’s incredibly simple once you know what to do. This guide breaks down every step, from gathering raw materials to optimizing your production so you never run out mid-build again.
What Materials Do You Need to Make Glass in No Man’s Sky?
Unlike many advanced crafting materials in the game, glass has a surprisingly simple ingredient list that doesn’t require rare or hard-to-find resources. Silicone Powder is the only core component you need to craft standard glass, so your main task will be gathering enough of this material to meet your needs. You don’t need any special unlocks to access the glass recipe either – it’s available to all players from the start of the game, as long as you have access to a refiner.
Silicone Powder itself is made from Ferrite Dust, which is one of the most common resources in the entire No Man’s Sky universe. You can find Ferrite Dust on almost every terrestrial planet, by mining small rock formations, breaking open boulders, or using your terrain manipulator on exposed rock faces. If you’re lucky enough to find a Ferrite Dust deposit, you can gather hundreds of units in just a few minutes without running all over the planet looking for loose rocks.
You can also source Silicone Powder from secondary locations if you don’t feel like mining. Derelict freighter cargo pods often hold stacks of 20 to 50 Silicone Powder, and you can sometimes find it as a reward for low-level settlement missions. But for most players, mining Ferrite Dust is the fastest and cheapest way to get the materials you need for glass, especially if you need large quantities for a big build project.
How Do You Make Glass in No Man’s Sky: Step-by-Step Crafting Process
Crafting glass is straightforward once you have your materials gathered, but there are a few small rules you need to follow first. You can’t craft glass directly in your personal inventory, no matter how many resources you have – you’ll always need a portable refiner, base refiner, or freighter refining deck to process the materials. If you’re building away from your main base, keep a portable refiner in your exosuit inventory so you can make glass on demand.
Follow these simple steps to make glass every time:
- First, gather at least 150 Ferrite Dust to make enough Silicone Powder for one unit of Glass. Every 3 units of Ferrite Dust makes 1 unit of Silicone Powder, and you need 50 units of Silicone Powder per Glass, so 150 Ferrite Dust is the minimum per batch.
- Load your portable or base refiner with Ferrite Dust, and set the output to Silicone Powder. If you’re using a large refiner or freighter refining deck, you can stack multiple batches at once to avoid checking back every few seconds.
- Once you have 50 Silicone Powder in your inventory or refiner storage, select the Glass recipe from your crafting menu, or input the powder directly into the refiner for bulk production. Wait 10 seconds for the process to finish, then move your finished Glass to your inventory or storage.
That’s all there is to the basic process, but you can speed things up a lot with a few small adjustments. Setting up a dedicated refiner array near a Ferrite Dust deposit is the best way to make hundreds of units of glass quickly for big build projects. I usually put down 6 to 8 refiners whenever I settle on a new planet for a large base, and I can get enough glass for a full glass-walled base in under an hour without doing any extra work.
Pro Tips to Get Glass Faster and Avoid Common Mistakes
Even though the crafting process is simple, there are a lot of small mistakes new players make that waste time and resources. First, don’t make the mistake of buying glass from trade terminals unless you absolutely have to. A single unit of Glass can cost up to 1,200 units at trade terminals, which is a huge waste of money when you can make it for free with Ferrite Dust you mine yourself. The only time buying glass makes sense is if you need just one or two units to finish a build and you don’t have time to gather materials.
If you want to cut your gathering time in half, install a mining speed upgrade on your terrain manipulator. These upgrades are cheap to craft early game, and they let you mine Ferrite Dust twice as fast as the base tool. If you use the survey tool to find a Ferrite Dust hot spot, you can even set up an automated mineral extractor that pulls Ferrite Dust 24/7, so you can come back to thousands of units of raw material whenever you need it, no mining required.
You can also get glass for free without crafting at all, if you know where to look. Salvage missions on space station mission boards often give out 20 to 30 units of glass as a reward for simple delivery or wreck recovery tasks. If you’re exploring derelict freighters, you can also find stacks of glass in storage lockers and cargo crates scattered throughout the ship. I once came out of a derelict run with 80 units of glass, which was enough to finish the entire observation level of my freighter base without any crafting.
One last small tip: don’t store large stacks of glass in your ship’s general cargo if you’re planning to do a lot of space combat. Glass is one of the first resources that gets looted if your ship is destroyed by pirates, and you can lose hours of crafting work in one go. Keep extra glass in your base storage or freighter safe inventory to avoid losing it if you get attacked.
Practical Uses for Glass in No Man’s Sky
Most players first seek out glass for base building, and it’s easy to see why. You can use glass to make floor-to-ceiling windows, curved observation domes, transparent walkways, and even full glass walls that let you look out over the alien landscape around your base. Unlike metal or stone walls, Glass panels also don't block base power signals, so you don’t have to worry about running extra wires around windows to power your lights, research terminals, and other base tech.
Glass is also a key component for a lot of high-end tech upgrades, even if you don’t care much about base building. Advanced exosuit scanner upgrades, long-range freighter sensor modules, and some starship hyperdrive upgrades all require glass as a crafting component. If you’re a player who focuses on exploration rather than building, you’ll still need to make glass regularly to unlock the best upgrades for your gear.
You can also use extra glass as a low-effort way to make extra units early game. If you sell glass to settlements that are currently running building projects, you can get 20 to 30% more than the standard trade terminal price. I once sold 200 units of glass to a settlement that was building a new administrative tower, and made enough units to buy a new S-class hauler upgrade without having to mine rare resources like activated indium. It’s not the fastest way to make money in the game, but it’s a good side income if you already have a refiner array running for building materials.
One little-known use for glass is for base protection on harsh planets. A lot of new players assume glass panels are less durable than metal walls, but they have the exact same insulation and damage resistance as standard base building parts. That means you can build a full glass base on a frozen, radioactive, or toxic planet and still get full protection from the elements, no extra upgrades required.
At the end of the day, figuring out how do you make glass in No Man’s Sky is a simple process that opens up so many more possibilities for your playthrough, whether you’re a casual base builder or a hardcore explorer chasing the best tech upgrades. You don’t need rare materials or end-game gear to make it, just a little time mining and a refiner to process the raw resources. Next time you’re planning a new base build or need to craft a high-end upgrade, you won’t have to pause to look up the recipe again – you’ll have all the glass you need in no time.
