I still remember the first 10 hours I spent in No Man’s Sky running around planets, hoarding every odd mineral I found, and having no clue why I couldn’t turn my piles of ferrite dust into pure ferrite. I wasted three hours trying to craft a better multi-tool before a random traveler I met in a space station told me I was missing one core piece of equipment: the refiner. If you’re stuck in the same spot, wondering how to get refiner No Man’s Sky unlocks to level up your gameplay, this guide is built exactly for you. I’ve tested every method of unlocking both portable and fixed refiners across 200+ hours of play, so I’ll break down exactly what you need to do, no vague lore hints or missed steps included.
How to Get a Refiner in No Man’s Sky: First Unlock Steps
The first refiner you’ll unlock in any playthrough is the portable model, and it’s far easier to get than most new players expect. You don’t need to travel to rare star systems or grind for exotic resources to get it. It unlocks automatically as part of the main Awakenings quest line, right after you place your first base computer on any planet. The game will push you to build a base computer shortly after you repair your initial ship’s launch thrusters and make your first jump to a nearby space station, so you won’t have to go out of your way to trigger the unlock.
Once you have the blueprint, you only need three easy-to-find resources to build your first portable refiner: 1 Metal Plating, 30 Oxygen, 50 Ferrite Dust. Metal Plating itself crafts from 50 Ferrite Dust, so you only need 100 total Ferrite Dust and 30 Oxygen to put it together, both of which you can collect on your starting planet in 10 minutes or less. The portable refiner is the only piece of base equipment you can carry in your inventory, so you can pull it out and use it anywhere, even on uncharted planets you have no intention of building a permanent base on.
You don’t need to connect it to any power grid to use it, either. It runs on carbon or condensed carbon as fuel, which you can collect from any plant life on nearly every planet in the game. I always keep a stack of 100 condensed carbon in my inventory alongside my portable refiner now, so I never get stuck without fuel when I’m farming rare resources on remote planets.
Upgrading to Fixed Refiners: Types and Build Requirements
The portable refiner works great for on-the-go resource processing, but once you start building a permanent base, you’ll want to unlock fixed refiners for faster processing and multi-ingredient recipes. There are three fixed refiner variants you can unlock as you progress, each with different perks and build costs. You’ll unlock their blueprints gradually as you complete base research missions from the construction terminal at your base, or you can buy missing blueprints from the technology merchant at the Space Anomaly for a small number of nanites.
The first fixed upgrade is the personal refiner, which you unlock via the Exosuit upgrade tree at the Space Anomaly. It doesn’t need to be placed at all – you can access it directly from your inventory menu to refine small stacks of resources on the fly, no fuel required. It only has one input slot, but it’s perfect for converting small piles of ferrite dust to pure ferrite while you’re exploring caves or climbing mountains. It costs 100 Chromatic Metal and 1 Microprocessor to install in your Exosuit.
Next is the medium refiner, which has two input slots and processes resources twice as fast as the portable model. It needs to be placed at a base and connected to a power grid, but it lets you combine two different resources to make rare crafting materials you can’t make with a portable refiner. It costs 200 Ferrite Dust, 100 Chromatic Metal, and 1 Microprocessor to build. The largest option is the large refiner, which has three input slots, processes resources three times faster than the portable model, and unlocks all possible refining recipes in the game. It costs 400 Ferrite Dust, 200 Chromatic Metal, and 2 Microprocessors to build, and it’s worth saving up for as soon as you can. The Activated Indium to Chromatic Metal conversion you can do with a large refiner is the fastest way to earn units in the mid-game, in my experience.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Using Your Refiner
I’ve made almost every possible mistake with refiners in my 200+ hours of play, so I’ve compiled the most common ones to help you skip the frustration and wasted time. Even experienced players fall for these missteps every now and then, so it’s worth double checking your setup every time you place a new refiner.
- Forgetting to fuel your portable refiner before leaving it unattended. If you run out of carbon mid-process, your resources will stay in the refiner but won’t finish processing until you come back and add more fuel, which can mess up timed farming runs.
- Storing rare resources in a refiner on an uncharted planet. If you don’t have a base computer placed within 300 units of the refiner, it will despawn when you leave the system, and you’ll lose everything inside it. I learned this the hard way when I lost 200 units of activated indium on my first trip to a blue star system.
- Ignoring input order for multi-input recipes. For medium and large refiners, some recipes only work if you add the ingredients in the correct order, so double check the recipe list if your refiner isn’t starting the process you expect.
- Using regular carbon as fuel for long refining runs. Condensed carbon gives 4x the fuel per unit, so you’ll save a ton of inventory space if you refine a stack of regular carbon to condensed first before loading it into your refiner.
Always place a base computer first if you plan to leave a refiner unattended for more than 30 minutes, even if you don’t plan to build a full base on that planet. It only takes 50 Chromatic Metal to place, and it will save you from losing hundreds of units of rare resources if you have to leave the system unexpectedly for a mission.
Another small mistake I see a lot of new players make is putting too many resources into a refiner at once. Each refiner has a stack limit for inputs and outputs, so if you load more than it can process at once, you’ll end up with leftover resources sitting in your inventory taking up space that you could use for other loot.
Best Uses for Your Refiner to Progress Faster
Once you have your refiner set up, you can use it to cut your progression time in half if you focus on the most useful recipes first. I prioritize these four uses for my refiners in every new playthrough, and they’ve helped me unlock S-class ships and multi-tools far faster than I did when I first started playing.
The first thing you should do with your new refiner is convert all your ferrite dust to pure ferrite. Pure ferrite is the core building material for nearly every base upgrade and Exosuit module, and you’ll need thousands of units of it over the course of a playthrough. Refining it from dust is 3x faster than mining pure ferrite directly from rock formations, so you’ll save hours of grinding.
Next, use your refiner to turn regular cadmium, emeril, and indium into their activated variants when paired with Chromatic Metal. Activated versions of these minerals sell for 4x more than the regular versions at space stations and trade outposts, and they’re the core ingredient for a lot of late-game base upgrades. I usually set up a small outpost with 4 large refiners on planets with high indium deposits, and I can make 2 million units in an hour of farming and refining.
You can also use your refiner to turn waste materials from frigate expeditions into useful resources. A lot of frigate missions return with junk like rusted metal or scrap electronics that you can’t sell for much, but you can refine them into Ferrite Dust, Chromatic Metal, and even nanites for almost no cost. I used to throw all that waste away until I realized how many resources I was wasting.
Finally, use your refiner to turn buried technology modules into nanites. You can find buried technology modules all over most planets with your analysis visor, and refining them gives you 2x more nanites than selling them directly to NPCs. Nanites are the currency you need to buy upgrade modules for your Exosuit, multi-tool, and ship, so this is the fastest way to upgrade all your gear in the early and mid-game.
At the end of the day, the refiner is one of the most versatile tools you can unlock in No Man’s Sky, and it’s well worth taking the 10 minutes to unlock it early in your playthrough. Now that you know how to get refiner No Man’s Sky unlocks for both portable and fixed models, you can start turning your piles of random collected resources into high-value crafting materials and credits right away. Don’t be afraid to test out different refining recipes as you play – some of the most useful ones in the game aren’t listed in the official tutorial, and half the fun is figuring out new ways to turn raw planetary resources into upgrades for your gear and base. Next time you land on a new planet, pull out your portable refiner and see what you can make with the resources you find on the surface.
