No Man's Sky: How To Get Copper

There are some resources in No Man's Sky's nearly infinite universe that are barely ever needed, while other resources are nearly constant necessities. For more than one reason, copper is a resource that you're going to be on the almost-constant lookout for.

No Man's Sky: How To Get Faecium

Farming in No Man's Sky needs fertilizer, and that means you're gonna need Faecium.

Copper is useful in a variety of ways, and can be obtained in plenty of different ways, too. While you're going to need a lot of it, it is a relatively easy resource to collect a huge amount of at one time, as long as you know how to refine your search to get the most out of your time.

How To Get Copper

Copper can be found very regularly on planets, as long as those planets have one consistency.

Gathering Copper From Planets With Yellow Stars

Copper is specifically found on planets that are orbiting yellow stars. Planets orbiting different class stars are going to have different resources, and so those metals won't generally be present on planets where copper is.

Star colors can be determined from the Galaxy Map, before you actually jump to a new system.

For players that require color-blind settings, head to Options > Accessibility > Galaxy Map Colour Filter to apply a filter to properly display the colors for you.

Once on a planet orbiting a yellow star, use your visor to scan for resource deposits. Once located, you can pin the location on your HUD. At the resource deposit, use your Terrain Manipulator in Mine mode to gather the copper.

Buying Copper From Galactic Trade Terminals

Some Galactic Trade Terminals will offer Copper for sale at a standard price of slightly more than 56 Credits. This is a relatively inexpensive price in systems where the price isn't inflated, but as easy as copper is to gather, it's usually better for you to gather it yourself unless you're in a hurry.

Secondary Elements In Mineral Extraction

Certain minerals on planets, especially in caves, can have copper available as a secondary mineral. This is not going to be a regular or consistent way to get copper, because instances of this are pretty rare; but, when it happens, it can be a great way to get a good amount of unexpected copper for the next time you need it.

To see whether a mineral will provide copper, scan it with your visor. The elements that the mineral provides will be revealed, and once you've spent some time on a planet, you'll be able to quickly identify which minerals will be useful and which to skip.

How To Gather Copper Automatically

You can also gather copper with both Autonomous Mining Units and Mineral Extractors. These both require finding resource nodes of their own respective types, but both passively provide copper while you're able to do other things.

In the case of the Mineral Extractor, you'll need to find a Deep-Level Mineral Deposit with the Survey modification on your Analysis Visor, as opposed to the above-ground resource nodes for the Autonomous Mining Unit, which you would otherwise gather with your terrain manipulator.

How To Make Copper In A Refiner

Copper can also be made at a Refiner, though this is not a particularly effective method for doing so. However, if you happen to have an abundance of chromatic metal and want to double the amount of copper you have, you can use this recipe to do so:

• x1 Copper + x1 Chromatic Metal = 2x Copper

Chromatic metal is generally more useful overall than copper, so in most cases, you'll do better to simply find more copper than spend your chromatic metal doing this, unless you find yourself in a situation where finding copper is more difficult than usual.

What Is Copper Used For?

Copper is used in a lot of crafting recipes. Many upgrades using copper are for certain modules attached to your suit or your multi-tool, but there are other things you can craft too, like Bronze Statues and other very specialized items, like the first AtlasPass.

Copper can also be refined into other things; individually, you can turn copper into chromatic metal, as well as combine copper with other metals of the same type to make chromatic metal in a different way.

Unlike platinum and gold, copper cannot be gathered from asteroids by blasting them with your spaceship.

Crafting Recipes That Use Copper

Here are many of the crafting recipes that require copper.

Item

Ingredients

Aeration Membrane

x150 Oxygen + x60 Silver + x75 Copper

Air Filtration Unit

x160 Copper + x5 Carbon Nanotubes + x1 Wiring Loom

AtlasPass v1

x200 Copper + x1 Microprocessor

Bronze Astronaut Statue

x15 Pure Ferrite + x15 Copper

Bronze Atlas Statue

Bronze Blob Statue

Bronze Diplo Statue

Bronze Fighter Statue

Bronze Gek Statue

Bronze Walker Statue

Coolant Network

x150 Phosphorus + x60 Silver + x75 Copper

Mounted Cannon

x50 Pugneum + x100 Copper

Orange Pustule

x10 Carbon + x10 Copper

Photic Jade

x1 Dawn's End + x100 Copper

Radiation Deflector

x150 Uranium + x60 Silver + x75 Copper

Rocket Launcher

x200 Copper + x100 Condensed Carbon

Thermic Layer

x150 Dioxite + x60 Silver + x75 Copper

Toxin Suppressor

x150 Ammonia + x60 Silver + x75 Copper

Refining Recipes That Use Copper

Here are the resources you can create by refining copper.

Resource

Recipes

Chromatic Metal

x2 Copper

x1 Gold + x1 Copper + x1 Silver

x1 Pure Ferrite + x1 Copper

Magnetised Ferrite

x1 Ferrite Dust + x1 Copper

No Man's Sky: Ranking Every Ship Weapon

While combat is not a huge part of No Man's Sky, starships still come with some good weapon options. Which is the best?