If you’ve ever found yourself stuck mid-base build, short on pyrite to craft a new starship component or trade for a haul of nanites, you know how frustrating it can be to hunt down this shiny golden resource on random desert worlds. A lot of new players assume you can only mine pyrite from planetary deposits, but there are far more reliable, faster ways to get the exact amount you need without spending hours scanning barren dunes. This guide breaks down exactly how to make pyrite in No Man's Sky, plus tips to farm it in bulk and use it to progress faster in every game mode.
How to Make Pyrite in No Man’s Sky Using Refiner Combinations
The easiest way to make pyrite on demand is using a refiner, and you don’t need rare or hard-to-source materials to pull it off. You can use any refiner size for these recipes, though a Large Refiner will let you process bigger batches at once to save time if you need hundreds of units of pyrite for a big project. You don’t have to wait to find a desert planet to get your hands on pyrite, either, since all these ingredients are available on nearly every type of world, so you can make pyrite in No Man's Sky no matter where you are in the galaxy.
- 1 x Sulphur + 1 x Ferrite Dust = 1 x Pyrite: This is the most accessible recipe for new players, since both sulphur and ferrite dust are easy to find on nearly any rocky or volcanic world. You can scrape ferrite dust off any surface rocks with your terrain manipulator, and sulphur appears as bright yellow deposits near volcanic vents and hot spots.
- 2 x Oxygen + 1 x Pyrrhotite = 2 x Pyrite: If you’re exploring icy or frozen worlds, pyrrhotite is a common byproduct of mining iron deposits, so this is a great recipe to use when you’re far from desert or volcanic biomes. Oxygen is easy to harvest from local flora or your atmosphere processor, so you won’t have to go out of your way for ingredients.
- 1 x Gold + 1 x Sodium Nitrate = 2 x Pyrite: This recipe is best for players who have excess gold sitting in their storage, since it doubles your input value if you’re making pyrite to sell or craft high-end trade goods. Sodium nitrate is easy to farm from yellow flora on most planets, so it’s low effort for high reward.
All of these recipes work in your Personal Refiner too, so you can make pyrite on the go if you run out mid-mission or while you’re exploring a distant system. You don’t need to set up a permanent base or refiner array to use these methods, which makes them perfect for casual players who don’t want to spend time building complex resource farms.
Fastest Pyrite Farming Methods For Large Stockpiles
If you need thousands of units of pyrite to craft fusion igniters for trade, build a massive base, or complete a community mission, the basic refiner recipes might be too slow for your needs. There are two primary methods to farm pyrite in bulk that cut down on your time investment drastically, and both work across all game modes including Survival and Permadeath.
The first method is setting up a mineral extractor on a pyrite hot spot. You can find pyrite hot spots by using your Survey Scanner on any desert planet, and higher concentration hot spots will produce more pyrite per hour without any input from you once the extractor is set up. Pair the extractor with a supply depot to store the pyrite it produces, and you can come back every few hours to collect hundreds of units without any mining or crafting work. You can also hook the extractor up to a refiner array if you want to turn the pyrite into more valuable goods automatically as it’s produced.
The second bulk farming method is turning excess ferrite dust into pyrite using a bank of large refiners. If you have a ferrite dust farm set up already, you can feed that output directly into refiners with sulphur to produce non-stop pyrite. This is a great option if you already have a base set up with automatic resource production, since you won’t need to hunt for new hot spots or travel to other planets to get your stockpile.
That means you don’t have to choose one method over the other, either. I usually set up a small extractor farm on a desert planet near my main base for passive pyrite production, and use refiner recipes to top up my stock if I need extra for a last-minute build or trade run. It takes less than 10 minutes to set up the extractor farm, and it produces enough pyrite for most of my regular needs without any extra work on my part.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Pyrite
Even though making pyrite is pretty straightforward, a lot of new players make small mistakes that waste their time or resources, especially when they’re first learning the refiner system. These are the most common errors I see, and how to fix them before you lose valuable materials.
The first big mistake is using gold to make pyrite when you’re low on rare resources. Gold is used for a ton of high-end crafting recipes, including starship upgrades and storm crystal processing, so you shouldn’t waste it on pyrite unless you have way more gold than you know what to do with. The sulphur and ferrite dust recipe is far more cost effective for most players, since those materials are basically free to collect in large quantities.
Another common mistake is trying to farm pyrite on desert planets without checking for storm risk first. A lot of desert worlds have extreme dust storms that drain your exosuit’s hazard protection in seconds, so you could end up dead mid-mine if you don’t scan the planet first before you land. Always check the planet’s weather rating in your system map before you head down to mine or set up an extractor farm, especially if you’re playing in Permadeath mode.
You also don’t want to store large amounts of pyrite in your starship’s cargo hold if you’re planning to do a lot of PvP or pirate hunting. Pyrite is a common target for pirates because it has a high trade value, and you could lose your entire stockpile if your ship is destroyed. Keep most of your pyrite in base storage, and only carry what you need for your current mission to avoid unnecessary losses.
Best Uses for Pyrite in Your NMS Playthrough
Now that you know how to make as much pyrite as you need, you might be wondering what to do with all that shiny golden resource. Pyrite is one of the most versatile mid-game resources, and it’s useful for everything from base building to making millions of units in trade.
The most profitable use for pyrite is crafting fusion igniters, which sell for over a million units each at trade terminals. You’ll need 100 pyrite per fusion igniter, so a large stockpile can net you tens of millions of units in just a few hours of crafting if you have the rest of the required materials. That’s one of the fastest ways to earn units to buy new S-class starships or exosuit upgrades without grinding missions.
Pyrite is also used for a ton of base building parts, including glass panels, decorative golden accents, and industrial power components. If you’re building a large base or a themed settlement, you’ll probably go through thousands of units of pyrite just for construction, so having a steady supply on hand will save you a ton of time running back and forth to trade terminals. I once spent three days hunting for pyrite mid-base build before I learned the refiner recipes, and I still kick myself for wasting that much time on random planet scans.
You can also use pyrite to recharge certain exosuit and starship upgrades, or trade it to alien NPCs for rare rewards like upgrade modules or nanites. A lot of planetary NPCs will request pyrite as part of side missions, and the rewards for those missions are usually far more valuable than the pyrite you give up, so it’s worth keeping a few hundred units in your inventory for random encounters.
You don’t have to spend hours flying from one desert planet to the next hunting for pyrite deposits once you learn the simple crafting and farming methods we covered. Whether you just need 10 units to finish a small build or thousands to make a haul of fusion igniters, these methods work for every play style and game mode. Next time you’re short on golden resources, you’ll know exactly how to make pyrite in No Man's Sky without wasting time on unnecessary exploration.
