If you’ve ever spent 10 minutes hacking at a copper deposit on a radioactive planet, only to run out of tool charge right before you collect enough to build your first base computer, you know how limiting the basic No Man’s Sky mining tool can be. It’s slow, can’t break through hard bedrock, and barely gives you enough resources to cover the cost of recharging it half the time. The good news is you don’t have to put up with that for long, even if you’re only a few hours into your playthrough. This guide will walk you through exactly how to get advanced mining laser in No Man’s Sky, with no hidden late-game quest requirements or confusing prerequisites.
Prerequisites You Need Before Unlocking the Advanced Mining Laser
Before you run off to the nearest space station to grab this upgrade, there are a few basic items you’ll need to collect first. None of these require late-game progression, and you can gather all of them in under an hour even if you’re a brand new player. I’ve listed the exact requirements below, along with quick tips to source each one fast if you’re missing something. You won’t need to progress the main Artemis story path at all to unlock this upgrade, so don’t hold off just because you haven’t hit a certain story beat yet.
- A fully upgraded basic Mining Beam for your multi-tool, with at least 2 open upgrade slots available
- 120 Chromatic Metal, which you can make by refining copper, cadmium, emeril or indium in any portable refiner
- 4 Wiring Loom units, available for purchase from most space station tech vendors for 50,000 units each
- Access to a multi-tool upgrade station, found in every space station and large planetary settlement
If you’re short on Chromatic Metal, just land on any planet with copper deposits (they show up as bright yellow markers on your scanner) and farm 240 copper. Throw that into a portable refiner, and you’ll have 120 Chromatic Metal in about 10 minutes flat. Wiring Looms are a bit pricier, but you can easily earn the 200,000 units you need by selling a few stacks of excess ferrite dust or cobalt that you pick up while exploring. You can also sometimes find Wiring Looms in abandoned outpost chests if you don’t want to spend units on them.
How to Get Advanced Mining Laser in No Man’s Sky: Full Unlock Walkthrough
Once you have all your prerequisites gathered, the unlock process takes less than five minutes to complete, even if you’re still learning your way around space stations. First, warp to any space station in any star system, and head to the multi-tool upgrade terminal. It’s usually located right next to the ship upgrade terminal, near the main entrance of the station where you spawn in after docking your ship. Interact with the terminal, and scroll through the upgrade options until you find the Advanced Mining Laser blueprint.
The blueprint only costs 80 nanites to purchase, which you can earn easily by scanning fauna and flora on new planets, or selling unwanted upgrade modules to vendors. Once you buy the blueprint, it will automatically be added to your multi-tool crafting menu. Open your multi-tool inventory, select an open upgrade slot, and choose the Advanced Mining Laser from the list of craftable upgrades. Use the Chromatic Metal and Wiring Looms you collected earlier to craft it, and it will install immediately.
You don’t need to complete any main story quests or visit the Space Anomaly to unlock this blueprint, which is a common myth I see new players repeat all the time. I’ve unlocked this upgrade on brand new playthroughs before even meeting Artemis, so you don’t have to wait for a story prompt to get it. Once it’s installed, you can switch between the basic mining beam and the advanced version directly from your multi-tool menu, or assign it to a quick slot for faster access.
Key Benefits (and Minor Drawbacks) of the Advanced Mining Laser
You’ll notice a huge difference in your mining speed the second you start using this upgrade, and it changes how you approach exploration almost immediately. The biggest benefit is that it harvests 3x more resources per hit than the basic mining beam, so you can fill your inventory with the materials you need for base builds or ship upgrades in a third of the time. It also has a 40% longer range, so you don’t have to stand right next to toxic or radioactive deposits to harvest them, which saves you from wasting hazard protection charges.
Another huge perk is that it can cut through hard terrain blocks like bedrock and ancient artifact casings that the basic laser can’t touch at all. That means you can dig up buried treasure, access underground alien ruins, or clear space for a below-ground base in seconds, without having to switch back and forth to your terrain manipulator. It also deals minor damage to hostile creatures and sentinels if you get caught off guard without a weapon equipped, which is a nice bonus for new players who don’t have a strong multi-tool weapon yet.
There is one small downside to keep in mind, though: the advanced mining laser uses 2x more charge per minute than the basic beam. That means you’ll want to carry extra stacks of carbon or condensed carbon with you when you’re out exploring, so you don’t run out of charge halfway through a farming run. Condensed carbon is the better option for recharging, since it gives you 3x more charge per unit than regular carbon, so it’s worth keeping a stack of 200 condensed carbon in your inventory at all times once you have this upgrade installed.
Pro Tips to Maximize Your Advanced Mining Laser’s Performance
I’ve spent hundreds of hours farming resources in No Man’s Sky, and these small tweaks will make your advanced mining laser way more effective, without requiring any extra expensive upgrades. First, pair it with a S-class mining speed upgrade module that you can buy from anomaly vendors or find in pirate camp chests. These modules cut mining time by another 60% and reduce charge usage by 30%, so you can farm even faster without burning through carbon as quickly.
If you’re farming for rare resources like activated indium or storm crystals, use the charged heavy blast function by holding down the secondary fire button before you shoot. Hitting the center of a large deposit with a charged blast gives you a 50% higher chance of getting extra rare drops, and it can break an entire deposit in one hit instead of 3 or 4 regular hits. That’s a game-changer if you’re farming activated indium to earn millions of units fast, since you can clear an entire deposit in 10 seconds flat.
Finally, don’t waste this upgrade on a low-tier multi-tool with only 2 or 3 upgrade slots. Save it for a multi-tool with at least 5 upgrade slots, so you can add mining efficiency, range, and resource yield upgrades alongside it to make it even more powerful. If you’re playing multiplayer, you can also use the laser to help your friends clear out terrain for their bases way faster than using a regular terrain manipulator, which is a fun way to contribute to group build projects.
Once you know how to get advanced mining laser in No Man’s Sky, you’ll wonder how you ever played the game without it. It cuts down tedious farming time by hours, opens up new exploration opportunities you couldn’t access before, and makes even the most resource-heavy build projects feel totally manageable. Don’t stress if you don’t have all the materials right away, even if you spend an hour farming chromatic metal and saving up for wiring looms, the payoff is 100% worth it. Next time you land on a new uncharted planet, you’ll be able to harvest every resource you need in minutes, so you can spend more time doing the fun parts of the game like exploring alien ruins or hunting for rare ships.
