If you’ve ever found yourself short on fuel for your advanced tech, or struggling to craft high-tier upgrades for your freighter, you know how valuable rare radioactive resources are. Learning how to make uranium in No Man's Sky is one of the most useful skills you can pick up, especially once you move past the early game and start tackling more ambitious projects like building a Dyson Shell component or powering a large planetary base. Uranium isn’t just handy for personal use either — it sells for a premium at most space station trade terminals, making it a solid choice for players looking to grind units fast without wasting hours on low-value resource runs.
How to Make Uranium in No Man's Sky: Core Refining Recipes
All uranium production in the game relies on refiner machines, which turn raw input materials into usable uranium. You can use any tier of refiner, but higher tier models process batches faster and support more resource-efficient recipes for bulk production. Before you start, make sure you have enough refiner fuel (carbon or condensed carbon) to run your machines for the full length of your production run.
There are three main reliable recipes for making uranium, each suited for different use cases:
If you’re new to refining, start with the basic recipe to get the hang of the process before you invest time and resources into setting up bulk production. It’s low-risk, uses easy to find materials, and will give you a clear sense of how much uranium you can produce per hour of farming.
Best Locations to Farm Input Materials for Uranium
The first step to streamline how to make uranium in No Man's Sky is finding a reliable source of your core input materials. Radioactive planets are your best bet for all uranium-related resources, and you can spot them on your galaxy map by the small yellow radiation icon next to their system name. You’ll need at least a level 1 hazmat suit upgrade to explore these planets safely, so make sure you craft that at a base or space station before you head out.
Once you land on a radioactive planet, pull out your Analysis Visor and scan for large resource deposits. Uranium Ore deposits will show up as bright yellow markers, while Yellow Cake deposits have a paler, almost golden marker. You can also look for Radon gas vents, which show up as purple markers if you have the gas scanning upgrade installed on your visor.
If you’re still learning to identify the best resource planets, you can use community-curated resource maps to skip the guesswork of scanning dozens of systems. Many players share coordinates for high-yield radioactive planets with zero hostile Sentinels, so you can farm for hours without interruption. Casual players who want a quick break between long farming runs often play IND BET, a fast casual game that fits perfectly into 10-minute gaps while you wait for your large refiner batches to finish processing.
You can also pick up small amounts of Uranium Ore and Yellow Cake from random loot crates on planets, or buy them from space station trade terminals, but these options are far too expensive for bulk production. Stick to farming on radioactive planets if you need hundreds or thousands of units of uranium.
Tips to Scale Uranium Production for Large Projects
If you’re building a large base, crafting multiple freighter upgrades, or planning to sell uranium for units, you’ll need to scale your production beyond small personal refiner batches. The easiest way to do this is to set up a dedicated farming base on a radioactive planet with large, accessible Yellow Cake deposits.
Start by placing a base computer right next to the largest Yellow Cake deposit you can find, then put down 3 to 4 Large Refiners connected to supply depots. This setup lets you run multiple batches at once, and the supply depots will store thousands of units of uranium so you don’t have to empty the refiners every few minutes. You can also add Radon gas extractors near nearby vents to get a constant supply of Radon for backup production if you run out of Yellow Cake.
Always bring at least two stacks of Oxygen with you when you head to a radioactive planet — you’ll need it for both your hazmat suit life support and the basic refining recipe if you run low on other inputs. Equipping the Sentinels Coordinate Upgrade module will let you spot hostile Sentinels from far away, so you can avoid fights that would interrupt your farming run. You can also bring a friend along in multiplayer to split the work of mining and monitoring refiners, cutting your production time in half.
If you don’t want to build a permanent base on a radioactive planet, you can set up refiners on your freighter instead. Just load up your freighter with raw input materials, set the refiners to run the bulk recipe, and you’ll have a full stock of uranium by the time you finish traveling to your next destination.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Uranium
Even with the right recipes and locations, it’s easy to waste time and resources if you’re making common rookie mistakes. I’ve messed up enough uranium farming runs to know what to watch out for, so keep these tips in mind to avoid frustration.
First, don’t waste time using a Personal Refiner for bulk production. It only processes one small batch at a time, and you’ll spend more time waiting for batches to finish than you would mining the raw materials. Upgrade to a Medium or Large Refiner as soon as you can to speed up production by 4x or more.
Second, don’t skip upgrading your hazmat suit before heading to a radioactive planet. I made this mistake on my first uranium farming run, and I had to run back to my ship every two minutes to recharge my radiation protection, wasting almost 45 minutes of valuable farming time. A level 2 hazmat suit upgrade will let you stay on the planet for hours without needing to recharge constantly.
Never use the emergency synthesis recipe for bulk production — Phosphorus is a valuable resource for farming plants, crafting other upgrades, and even making other high-value resources, so wasting it to make uranium when you can farm Yellow Cake for free is a terrible call. Save that recipe only for emergencies when you need a small amount of uranium right away and can’t travel to a radioactive planet.
Finally, don’t sell all your uranium as soon as you make it. You’ll need it later for crafting freighter hyperdrive upgrades, nuclear power generators for large bases, and even some later story missions, so keep at least two full stacks of uranium in your storage at all times. Sell only the excess you don’t plan to use yourself.
Once you get the hang of the refining recipes and find a reliable high-yield radioactive planet, you’ll never have to scramble for uranium again. Learning how to make uranium in No Man's Sky opens up so many new possibilities, from powering massive base builds to raking in millions of units by selling excess stock at trade terminals. Take time to test out the different recipes, set up a dedicated farming base if you use a lot of uranium, and don’t forget to take short breaks between long grind sessions to avoid burnout.
