No Man's Sky NEXT: How To Create A Self-Sustaining Base

Bases are kind of a big deal in No Man’s Sky. Custom bases have been a part of No Man’s Sky for a very long time, but it wasn’t until now that you could create a completely self-sustaining base — why? Well, you can make oxygen now. There’s more good news. Now you can build medium / large refineries that can be used to convert inventory items into any materials you need. Running low on a specific mineral? Your refiner can help.

There’s more you need to know if you want to keep a self-sustaining base, but having plenty of materials and farms is a good start. Refineries come in three sizes — portable, medium, and large. The bigger the refiner, the more efficiently you’ll be able to process materials. Refined materials created in a refiner are much, much better than standard raw materials too — you can carry way more refined materials in your inventory, and it requires less refined materials to recharge systems.

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How To Create A Self-Sustaining Base | Refiner Guide

The refiner is one of the most important new additions to No Man’s Sky NEXT, and you’ll only be able to access the larger refineries if you start building a base. So let’s start from there — how to build a base, and how to build all three types of refineries.

To build a base, you need a Base Computer. Go to your blueprints menu and build it — it’s in the Portable Technology menu.
- From this same menu, you can also build a Portable Refiner. This is the most inefficient refiner, but it can be dismantled and moved at any time.
Once a Base Computer is placed, you can use it to establish your base. Just start building stuff, and eventually you’ll get computers that can be used to take on missions. You’ll need to do these to get the medium / large refineries.
To unlock the Medium Refiner: Complete Base Analyzer missions. Once you finish about half, you’ll unlock this refiner.
To Unlock the Large Refiner: Complete Science Terminal missions. You’ll get it early on in the mission sequence.

Medium / Large Refineries cannot be moved once placed. They’re stationary, and they stay in your base. You can build multiple of them if you want to refine more materials, faster.

Refiner Recipes

Refineries can process materials into different materials — and the bigger the refiner, the more efficient that processing becomes. You’ll be able to put in fewer resources for more returns. That’s just good economics, so you’ll want to upgrade to the large refineries as soon as possible.

There are many, many recipes you’ll have to discover for yourself. It helps to experiment, but if you’re lost and need help finding a recipe, check here for a complete list of all the current recipes discovered so far.

Many of the most efficient refiner recipes that multiply your materials require oxygen. You can refine oxygen yourself, or use an oxygen extractor.

Efficient Refiner Recipes List:
- Oxygen
  - Superoxide Crystal x1 = Oxygen x150
- Chromatic Metal
  - Copper x1 + Pure Ferrite x1 = Chromatic Metal x3
- Parrafinnium
  - Silver x1 + Oxygen x1 = Parrafinnium x2
- Chlorine
  - Salt x2 = Chlorine x1
  - Chloride Lattice x1 = Chlorine x150
- Pyrite
  - Gold x1 + Oxygen x1 = Pyrite x2
- Carbon
  - Condensed Carbon x1 + Oxygen x2 = Condensed Carbon x6
  - Carbon x2 + Oxygen x2 = Condensed Carbon x5
- Sodium
  - Condensed Sodium x1 + Oxygen x2 = Condensed Sodium x6
  - Sodium x2 + Oxygen x2 = Condensed Sodium x5
- Cobalt
  - Condensed Cobalt x1 + Oxygen x2 = Condensed Cobalt x6
  - Cobalt x2 + Oxygen x2 = Condensed Cobalt x5
- Pure Ferrite / Magnetized Ferrite
  - Platinum x1 + Oxygen x1 = Magnetized Ferrite x10

You can also extra Gold / Silver / Platinum from most manufactured alloys. Lemmium converts to gold, most other manufactured alloys convert to silver. Iridesite and geodesite are processed into platinum.

How To Get Oxygen

If you’re on an oxygen-rich planet, which is probably a good idea, unless you want to keep refilling your O2 tank just to stand outside, you can use the Oxygen Extractors. These were introduced in No Man’s Sky NEXT, and allow you to collect oxygen with very little effort.

Oxygen Harvesters collect 250 Oxygen — it takes 5-10 minutes for one harvester to fill. They cost 50 Condensed Carbon to fuel.

To keep plenty of carbon, you can create a base tray of Coprite. Use the large refiner to multiple the amount of carbon you have, so you can keep a steady fuel supply that won’t run dry. You’ll never even need a spaceport, and you’ll have all the resources you need for an almost-endless supply of fuel.

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