I remember my first panic run for pyrite: I was 12 stasis devices short of my first 100 million unit payday, and I had zero clue where to find the golden resource. I hopped between six frozen and lush planets over three hours before I finally stumbled on a desert world with massive pyrite deposits. That frustrating grind is exactly why I put together this guide, so you don't waste the same time I did. No matter if you're a brand new player building your first base or a veteran running a cross-system crafting empire, you'll find a method that fits your playstyle and current game progress.
How to Get Pyrite in No Man's Sky by Exploring Arid Biomes
The most straightforward way to get pyrite is to harvest it directly from natural deposits on the right type of planet. Pyrite only spawns on desert, arid, or scorched biome planets, so you can skip any lush, frozen, toxic, or radioactive worlds entirely if you're specifically hunting for this resource. To cut down on search time, use your galaxy map filter to prioritize systems with arid or desert world tags before you make a jump.
Once you land on a suitable planet, pull out your exosuit scanner to look for resource markers. Pyrite deposits show up as golden-brown icons, and most will give you between 100 and 300 units of pyrite per deposit with a standard terrain manipulator. You can also find small, loose pyrite nodes scattered across the surface that don't require a terrain manipulator to collect, but these only give 2-5 units each so they're not efficient for bulk farming.
One thing to watch for is sentinel activity on your chosen planet. Many scorched or desert worlds have aggressive sentinels that will attack you if you mine too openly. If you're just there for a quick pyrite run, look for planets with "low" or "passive" sentinel activity listed in their system details to avoid unnecessary interruptions. I keep a base computer set up on a quiet desert planet I found 20 jumps from my home system, and I fast travel back whenever I need a top-up, it saves me hours of search time every month.
Refining Pyrite From Common Raw Materials
If you can't find an arid planet anywhere nearby, or you don't want to deal with desert storms and aggressive fauna, you can make pyrite yourself using a refiner and common raw materials you probably already have in your storage. All these recipes work with portable, medium, and large refiners, though medium and large refiners run much faster for bulk production.
The exact recipes you can use are:
- 1x Sulphur + 1x Ferrite Dust = 1x Pyrite: This is the lowest-cost recipe if you have easy access to sulphur from toxic planets. I use this one most often since I already run a large sulphur farm for other crafting projects.
- 2x Oxygen + 1x Ferrite Dust = 1x Pyrite: Perfect for early game players who have stacks of oxygen collected from local flora and rock formations. You don't need to travel to any dangerous biomes for this recipe, so it's great if you're still working on upgrading your exosuit hazard protection.
- 1x Phosphorus + 1x Ferrite Dust = 1x Pyrite: A great secondary option if you already farm phosphorus on frozen planets for circuit board or stasis device crafting. It cuts down on the number of separate farms you need to run.
If you have a freighter, I recommend setting up 5-10 large refiners dedicated to pyrite production. You can load them up with raw materials, go off and do missions or explore for a few hours, and come back to thousands of units of pyrite waiting for you. It's completely passive, and you don't have to leave your freighter to get all the pyrite you need. Just make sure you keep a steady supply of ferrite dust on hand, since it's required for all three recipes.
Trading and Mission Rewards for Fast Pyrite Access
If you need pyrite right away and don't have time to farm or refine it, you can buy or earn it through in-game trade and mission systems. Trading posts and space stations in systems with arid planets almost always sell pyrite for 20-30 units per unit, which is incredibly cheap even for early game players. You can pick up 10,000 units of pyrite for less than 300,000 units, which is less than you'll make from selling a handful of common rare resources.
You can also get pyrite as a reward for certain in-game activities. Mining-focused frigate expeditions very often reward pyrite in bulk, I once got 25,000 units of pyrite from a single 8-hour frigate expedition I sent out while I was working on my base. It's a completely passive way to build up your pyrite stock without any extra effort on your part. Some NPC delivery and mining missions will also reward pyrite, especially missions that take place on arid or desert planets.
One bonus tip: if you end up with extra pyrite, you can sell it for a 10-15% premium at trading posts on lush or frozen planets. Those worlds don't have natural pyrite spawns, so local traders will pay more for it. I've made a few million units over time just hauling excess pyrite from my desert farm to lush systems and selling it to NPCs.
Pro Tips to Optimize Your Pyrite Farming Runs
Once you've picked the method that works best for you, there are a few small upgrades and tricks that can cut your pyrite farming time in half. First, install a resource scanner upgrade on your exosuit. This upgrade will highlight pyrite deposits from up to 500 meters away, so you don't have to wander around aimlessly scanning every rock you see. You can buy these upgrades from space station technology vendors or find them in crashed technology pods on planetary surfaces.
If you find a planet with really high pyrite density, drop a base computer there as soon as you can. This lets you fast travel back to the planet whenever you need more pyrite, so you don't have to search for a new arid world every time you run low. I also recommend building a small storage box next to your base computer so you can leave extra mining supplies and hazard protection upgrades there for future runs.
For bulk surface farming, use your exocraft's mining laser instead of your terrain manipulator. Exocraft mining lasers are 2-3 times faster than the standard terrain manipulator, especially if you have mining speed upgrades installed on your exocraft. You can harvest an entire deposit in 2-3 seconds instead of 10, which makes a huge difference if you're farming 10,000+ units of pyrite at a time. If you're playing multiplayer, you can also ask a friend who has an established pyrite farm to share base access with you, so you can grab as much as you need without any work at all.
It's also a good idea to keep a stack of at least 5,000 units of pyrite in your freighter storage at all times. Pyrite is used for dozens of common crafting recipes, from base building parts to weapon upgrades to high-value trade goods like stasis devices. Having a spare stack on hand means you won't have to pause a build or crafting run last minute to go hunt for more.
At the end of the day, there's no right or wrong way to gather this useful golden resource. Whether you prefer exploring distant desert worlds, running passive refiner lines on your freighter, or just buying a stack from a local trading post, knowing how to get pyrite in No Man's Sky will save you hours of frustrating grind down the line. I still switch between methods depending on how much time I have and what I'm working on that play session, and I've never run short since I started using these tricks. Pick the method that fits your playstyle, and you'll have all the pyrite you need in no time.
