Best No Man's Sky Refiner Recipes for Nanites, Units, and Fast Progress

The refiner has hundreds of recipes, but most of them don’t matter. The ones that do matter can multiply your resources, print nanites, or turn a small stack of materials into millions of units. Here are the recipes worth knowing, with exact quantities from the game data.

Nanite Farming Recipes

These are the best routes to Nanite Clusters depending on what materials you have access to.

Tainted Metal → Nanites (Best Single-Step Recipe)

1x Tainted Metal → 2x Nanite Clusters Works in any refiner. This is the most efficient straightforward nanite recipe in the game.

Tainted Metal drops from Corrupted Sentinels (the purple-crystal variants you find on Dissonant planets). Kill them, loot Tainted Metal, refine it. At 2 nanites per metal, a good Sentinel farm can generate thousands of nanites per hour.

Runaway Mould Chain (Best for Bulk Farming)

The classic setup. Runaway Mould refines into nanites at a 5:1 ratio, which sounds bad until you realize Runaway Mould itself multiplies.

Step	Input	Output	Notes
1	1x Atlantideum + 1x Pugneum	3x Runaway Mould	Bootstraps the farm
2	1x Living Slime	1x Runaway Mould	Alternative if you have Living Slime
3	5x Runaway Mould	1x Nanite Cluster	Final conversion

Find Curious Deposits on planets (they look like pulsing yellow nodes), extract Runaway Mould, and refine it. Build your refining operation next to a cluster of deposits and you have a passive nanite farm.

Creature Products (Best Nanite Rate Per Item)

If you’ve been ignoring creature product drops, stop. These have some of the highest nanite conversion rates in the game.

Input	Output	Refiner
1x Larval Core	50x Nanite Clusters	Any
1x Flesh Rope	50x Nanite Clusters	Any
1x Radiant Shard	50x Nanite Clusters	Any
1x Vile Spawn	50x Nanite Clusters	Any
1x Inverted Mirror	95x Nanite Clusters	Any
1x Hyaline Brain	230x Nanite Clusters	Any

Larval Cores drop from destroyed Biological Horrors. Hyaline Brains and Inverted Mirrors come from corrupted planet creatures. A single Hyaline Brain gives you 230 nanites in one refiner cycle. That adds up fast.

Salvaged Data → Nanites

1x Salvaged Data → 15x Nanite Clusters

Not the most efficient use of Salvaged Data (it unlocks base building blueprints), but if you have more than you need, refining it is a solid fallback. 15 nanites per data point adds up fast when you’re sitting on 100+ of them.

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Unit Farming: The Chlorine Expansion Loop

This is the best unit-farming recipe in the game and it hasn’t changed in years. The ratio alone tells you why:

1x Chlorine + 2x Oxygen → 6x Chlorine

Every cycle multiplies your Chlorine by 6 (net +5 after replacing your input). Run it again with the output, and again, and again. A stack of 9,999 Chlorine sells for a few million units at any Galactic Trade Terminal.

To start the loop you just need a small amount of Chlorine. You can buy it from pilots at space stations or refine it from Salt:

Input	Output
2x Salt	1x Chlorine
2x Salt + 2x Oxygen	5x Chlorine
1x Kelp Sac + 1x Salt	2x Chlorine

The same multiplication trick works on Ionised Cobalt:

1x Ionised Cobalt + 2x Oxygen → 6x Ionised Cobalt

Ionised Cobalt is worth less per unit than Chlorine, but it’s easier to stockpile early on. Either loop works. Pick whichever resource you have more of.

Oxygen source tip: Build Gas Extractors near Oxygen hotspots on a planet and let them run. Oxygen is the catalyst for both loops, so having a steady supply makes these farms essentially free to run.

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Chromatic Metal Recipes

Chromatic Metal is used everywhere: technology upgrades, base parts, craftable products, exocraft. The best recipe depends on what stellar metals you have access to.

Basic Conversion (Any Refiner)

Input	Output	Ratio
2x Copper	1x Chromatic Metal	2:1
2x Cadmium	1x Chromatic Metal	2:1
2x Emeril	3x Chromatic Metal	2:3
2x Indium	4x Chromatic Metal	2:4
2x Quartzite	4x Chromatic Metal	2:4

Indium and Quartzite are the most efficient basic conversions. If you’re using Copper, you’re leaving Chromatic Metal on the table.

Activated Metal Conversion (Better Ratios)

Activated metals give you more Chromatic Metal per unit. Mine Activated variants when you can — they’re the same mineral from different planet types.

Input	Output
1x Activated Copper	1x Chromatic Metal
1x Activated Cadmium	2x Chromatic Metal
1x Activated Emeril	3x Chromatic Metal
1x Activated Indium	4x Chromatic Metal

Best Recipe: Activated Metal + Pure Ferrite

Adding Pure Ferrite to the mix multiplies output:

Input	Output
1x Activated Cadmium + 1x Pure Ferrite	4x Chromatic Metal
1x Activated Emeril + 1x Pure Ferrite	6x Chromatic Metal
1x Activated Indium + 1x Pure Ferrite	8x Chromatic Metal

1 Activated Indium + 1 Pure Ferrite → 8 Chromatic Metal is the most efficient recipe without a Large Refiner. If you have Indium access, use this.

Large Refiner: Stellar Fusion

For the truly absurd Chromatic Metal output, combine Silver, Gold, and a stellar metal in a Large Refiner:

Input	Output
1x Silver + 1x Gold + 1x Copper	5x Chromatic Metal
1x Silver + 1x Gold + 1x Cadmium	10x Chromatic Metal
1x Silver + 1x Gold + 1x Emeril	20x Chromatic Metal
1x Silver + 1x Gold + 1x Indium	30x Chromatic Metal
1x Silver + 1x Gold + 1x Quartzite	30x Chromatic Metal

That’s a 10:1 ratio on three inputs. Gold and Silver are both farmable from asteroids or planetary deposits, so running this chain is practical if you have Indium on your main base planet.

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Carbon and Condensed Carbon

The basic recipe (2x Carbon → 1x Condensed Carbon) is fine in a pinch, but it’s not the one you should be using. Oxygen changes everything.

Input	Output	Notes
2x Carbon	1x Condensed Carbon	Baseline, ratio is poor
2x Carbon + 2x Oxygen	5x Condensed Carbon	Much better. Use this.
1x Condensed Carbon + 2x Oxygen	6x Condensed Carbon	Best. Multiplies your stock.

The third recipe (1 Condensed Carbon + 2 Oxygen → 6 Condensed Carbon) is effectively the Chlorine loop but for Carbon. Start with a small stack of Condensed Carbon, add Oxygen, and your supply multiplies every cycle. Condensed Carbon is better to carry than raw Carbon (it’s more inventory-efficient and used in more recipes), so this is worth setting up early.

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Ferrite Upgrades

Ferrite Dust is everywhere, but some base parts and repairs need Pure Ferrite or Magnetised Ferrite. The upgrade chain is simple:

Input	Output
1x Ferrite Dust	1x Pure Ferrite
2x Pure Ferrite	1x Magnetised Ferrite

You can accelerate this with Pugneum:

Input	Output
2x Ferrite Dust + 1x Pugneum	3x Pure Ferrite
2x Pure Ferrite + 1x Pugneum	3x Magnetised Ferrite

Pugneum drops from Sentinels, so if you’re farming Tainted Metal anyway, you’ll have Pugneum as a byproduct. Use it here for faster Ferrite throughput.

Note: Magnetised Ferrite also refines back down to 2x Pure Ferrite if you need to reverse the chain. You won’t lose anything.

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Bonus: Warp Cell Recipe (Large Refiner)

Warp Cells from scratch without crafting Antimatter:

Input	Output
25x Condensed Carbon + 5x Sodium Nitrate + 250x Chromatic Metal	1x Warp Cell
25x Condensed Carbon + 10x Sodium + 250x Chromatic Metal	1x Warp Cell

250 Chromatic Metal per Warp Cell is steep, but if you’ve got the Activated Indium loop running it’s free. Useful when you need Warp Cells quickly and don’t have Antimatter in stock.

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Which Refiner Do You Actually Need?

Most of these recipes work in any refiner: Portable, Medium, or Large. The only exceptions are the three-input recipes (stellar fusion Chromatic Metal, Warp Cells, and alloy recipes), which require a Large Refiner.

If you’re just starting out, build a Medium Refiner as soon as possible. The Portable one caps out fast. The Large Refiner unlocks the three-input slots but doesn’t speed up single/dual input recipes.

For the full recipe list, the refining page has every combination searchable by input or output.

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Sources

• Extracted game data
• All refiner recipes
• Tainted Metal
• Runaway Mould