Crafting in No Man's Sky is extremely useful. Players can get their hands on powerful items, craft helpful tools, and even use the crafting mechanic to make a nice packet of extra cash. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of items in No Man's Sky, but they're not all immediately obvious to the player.
To craft everything in No Man's Sky the player needs to embark on a mission of discovering blueprints and completing base missions. Here's a quick list of tips that will make crafting in No Man's Sky much easier.
Updated on September 6, 2021, by Juliet Childers: Hello Games has continued to update and support No Man's Sky, making it a fantastic exploration game. They've added promised features and more with things like companions, settlements, and improved graphics, too. Each update has added to or tweaked current crafting items, recipes, and strategies. So, we've updated our list in accordance with these changes.
13 How To Craft In No Man's Sky
It's best to start with the basics. You can access the crafting menu on console by pressing Square on your PlayStation controller or X on Xbox. The crafting menu can be accessed on PC by pressing E.
You need an empty slot in your inventory, otherwise, the crafting menu won't pop up. That's when you'll see all the blueprints you have available to use — more on that in a moment.
12 Find The Materials You Need
As well as blueprints, a player will also require the correct materials in their inventory. There is a very useful function in No Man's Sky that lets you pin recipes for certain items. This will create a mission tracker for every item needed in that recipe.
Use this mission tracker or pin system at the start of the game to learn how to collect and craft new materials via recipes and blueprints. You can also pin raw materials, which creates a tracker on where to find and harvest these materials.
11 Refine Materials For More Complicated Crafting
Advanced crafting blueprints require more advanced materials. Some of these can only be acquired by refining raw materials. To do this, you'll need to set up a Refiner in your home base.
Refined materials not only take up less inventory space, but they also provide a better performance, such as Condensed Carbon versus regular Carbon. Other common materials you need a Refiner for include turning Ferrite Dust into Pure Ferrite. These materials become essential in crafting recipes.
10 Keep A Portable Refiner On Hand
Building a base is all fun and games until you realise you have 0 Pure Ferrite left and you've barely begun building. If you're far from a space station or another base with more features, having a portable refiner in your inventory and ready to go can be a time-saving measure.
It allows you to craft the materials you need to create excellent bases for form, function, or just to harvest enough activated Indium to become a space trillionaire. The bigger ones do go faster, but they require more resources upfront. As an alternative, there's a mod that enables faster refining, too.
9 Craft Upgraded Technology
Technology is a crucial part of progression in No Man's Sky, and it's up to the player to craft upgrades for their exosuit, multi-tool, exocraft, and starship. These different technologies are upgraded via blueprints. Things work a little differently for the new living ships, of course.
For example, you can upgrade the Damage Potential of your starship, the scanner range for your multi-tools, and the life-support function of the exosuit. Steadily upgrading through these different techs will let you explore further and deeper into the strange planets of No Man's Sky.
8 Craft Consumable Items
Consumable items are another important aspect of No Man's Sky, as a player might need to craft fuel on the fly or some pellets for a brand new alien companion. To craft consumable items you just need to go into the crafting menu with an empty slot in your inventory.
Consumables have to be crafted one-at-a-time, but can later be sold in bulk at a merchant, which is a great way to craft items for extra profit. There are even some handy techniques to transform regular materials into more valuable items.
7 How To Get More Blueprints
Every item in No Man's Sky requires a blueprint to craft. There are different methods a player can use to acquire blueprints, but it often boils down to a bit of a grind. You can simply buy some basic blueprints at the Space Anomaly, although other blueprints are trickier to get your hands on.
To find more blueprints in No Man's Sky, you need to complete missions or go exploring. Blueprints can be discovered in hidden areas, such as Crashed Ships or Containers. Many blueprints, particularly for base-building, are awarded through base-building missions.
6 Find Even Rarer Blueprints For Crafting
Later in the game cycle when the grinding really begins, one useful method to discover rare blueprints is to invest in a pile of Planetary Charts. These charts are purchased from a Space Station Merchant.
Charts provide the directions to a secure or hidden location, usually something like an Operations Centre or Depot. Other locations such as a Trade Outpost, Crashed Ship, or an ancient artifact site might also appear. That being said, not every chart is guaranteed to point you towards something special.
5 Talk To Specialist Polo
Specialist Polo is a friendly Gek alien located on the Space Anomaly. They reward adventurous players with blueprints and progress on the AtlasPass missions.
Each time a player enters the Space Anomaly, Polo will make a new request for data, such as surviving on an extreme planet or general space exploration. Polo is an essential part of the new AtlasPass quests and also allows the player to purchase some expensive blueprint upgrades.
4 Make A Profit In No Man's Sky With Crafting
There are lots of ways to make money in No Man's Sky, and crafting can be very lucrative once you have the basics down. While many players opt to go on long mining trips to make extra nanites, mastering the crafting menu can also deliver respectable profits.
One of the most common items to craft and make a profit from is a Bypass Chip. This item is normally used to access Signal scanners and is consumed upon use. However, because the chip is cheap to make (it requires 10 Plutonium and 10 Iron) you can sell the crafted item for a mild profit. Keep your eyes open on items that might have been marked up on the Galactic Market. Some items will be selling for much more than their usual value, making the crafting method even more impressive.
3 "Craft" A Unique Companion
Okay, so this tip is a bit outside the traditional Crafting purview, but it is, in its own way, very similar. The key difference is that you are making up the recipe rather than working from an established one. Besides, it still yields something that has practical uses (even if your "use" is simply to see what you can create).
The trick lies in the egg sequencing, but, luckily for y'all, we have a handy dandy guide on companion breeding already.
2 Be Careful When You Dismantle Items
You are able to dismantle items in your inventory and you'll be able to get back 50 percent of the materials you originally put in. This can be useful if you need to get your hands on some resources for a more complicated item by stripping down cheaper parts and items.
However, be careful! If you continue to dismantle items when your inventory is full the items will be deleted. Vanished. Gone. Completely. Don't make the mistake of losing anything valuable. Always keep some space in your inventory if you're crafting and dismantling.
1 If All Else Fails: Buy, Buy, Buy
Crafting items like microprocessors or even quantum computers and materials like Magnetised Ferrite gets tedious after awhile. Sometimes, as in real life, it is just easier to buy things as you find them at various galactic terminals or vendors. And there's no shame in that either -- especially if you have the units to spare.
The trick is knowing what economies have which items or simply what you know you're going to need moving forward. For instance, if you're getting in on the new Settlements feature, you might need metal plating and microprocessors. If you're at a space station that happens to have those, save yourself the time and pick them up.