Refinery Ate a Bunch of Copper....

[maestro]

So, I started getting absolutely tired of how much Chromatic Metal it takes to do anything... 200 here, 350 there, it adds up fast. So I went out and got about 1,300 copper, and I had 1,000 silver on me, and this is rather early-game, mind you... I stuck about 400 gold in the refinery and started it up.

Apparently making Chromatic Metal this way is nice as it gives 5x metal per tick, but with a projected time of a couple hours, I was like "bleh..." so I thought in the meantime I'd go get some other stuff done.

Come back and the Refinery is empty and now I just feel like I wanna quit.... it took FOREVER to get all that copper. Really wish they'd make the stuff a little easier to get or something, or at least make it so the refineries don't lose their crap or speed up the refining process some..

Now I'm sitting here looking for console commands or something so I can restore what I lost..

EDIT: I checked all of my inventories, starship, exosuit, even the new freighter I just got, the copper is nowhere to be found. Though strangely my starship had 180 some chromatic metal I have no idea where it came from, but that pales in comparison to the 2,000+ I shoulda had from the 500 some gold, there should have been 500 silver left over and 800+ copper.

[High Density Hamster]

Are you referring to the Portable Refinery? IIRC, that has a bug that tosses whatever's refining if you leave the area.

Most base materials like Copper and Chromatic Metal can be purchased by the thousands in some systems - the easiest way to rack up the credits for this early on is by digging for relics / salvage to sell or scanning discoveries with S-rank Scanner modules on your multi-tool. Otherwise, I think I read someone say the more advanced refineries are safe, though I haven't tested.

I recommend focusing on earning credits and finding systems whose economies sell the materials you want at prices you want. Once you find the right places (which really shouldn't take too long with an Economy Scanner installed on your ship), shopping is just a portal away.

[maestro]

This was a large refinery this happened to (I was combining Copper+Silver+Gold to get 5 Chromatic metal). I left my base to do other stuff, came back and the refiner was empty.

I suppose I could replace the copper I lost for like 180,000 credits, but bleh. That's going to hurt somewhat as I was trying to save up for a really nice multi-tool that one of the stations sells, lol. It's like 5,000,000 credits and I got like.... 1.6m

[Deranger]

Hi, I find hunting enemy ships in space pays well in Chromatic Metal. I think I recall you can get over 100 from one dead ship if you collect their loot drop. It adds up quick and saves you the other resources, which you can also collect from asteroids while you're up there.

[maestro]

That might explain the 180 Chromatic Metal my starship had in its inventory, I did get attacked while blowing up asteroids for gold...

[DyD&Marina]

Originally posted by maestro:

This was a large refinery this happened to (I was combining Copper+Silver+Gold to get 5 Chromatic metal). I left my base to do other stuff, came back and the refiner was empty.

I suppose I could replace the copper I lost for like 180,000 credits, but bleh. That's going to hurt somewhat as I was trying to save up for a really nice multi-tool that one of the stations sells, lol. It's like 5,000,000 credits and I got like.... 1.6m

Next time is better if you stay near the refiners , there are some bugs can make disappear your items in refiners.

Don't trust the time you see in refiners, the time is bugged, are years that in this state.

[High Density Hamster]

Originally posted by maestro:

This was a large refinery this happened to (I was combining Copper+Silver+Gold to get 5 Chromatic metal). I left my base to do other stuff, came back and the refiner was empty.

I suppose I could replace the copper I lost for like 180,000 credits, but bleh. That's going to hurt somewhat as I was trying to save up for a really nice multi-tool that one of the stations sells, lol. It's like 5,000,000 credits and I got like.... 1.6m

Ouch. That multi-tool's probably gonna change at some point. If you'd like, you can join my game and I can direct you to a planet I salvage from? It's covered in ancient bones. I managed to rack up millions in one sitting once, though it's certainly not a quick trek on the surface.

[DyD&Marina]

For make chromatic is better you concentrate on make the hyperdrive upgrade and go on blue star, you can find indium, give 4 chromatich metal for 1 indium.

If you can't for now, is better you take a small amount of copper from mining/merchant(even only 50) and start to multiply it with chromatic metal in refiners, is boring but you can create infinite copper in this way.

[maestro]

Haha. Is this intended gameplay? Bought 100 copper and using the above mention, I'm now up to like 600 just by repeatedly turning it into chromatic metal and back lol. Ah well, I can get back what I lost. Thanks!

[DyD&Marina]

Originally posted by maestro:

Haha. Is this intended gameplay? Bought 100 copper and using the above mention, I'm now up to like 600 just by repeatedly turning it into chromatic metal and back lol. Ah well, I can get back what I lost. Thanks!

After the Next update yes, they introduce refiniers to reduce grinding, there are various recipe can make you multiply items with another.

For example carbon condensate, nitrate sodium and ionized cobalt can be multiple for 1:6 ratio with oxygen, oxygen can be obtained creating a buildable object(not remember if unlock with main quest/nexus or specialists quests) and the fuel is condensated carbon, so all infinite, but oxygen item need around 10-15 minutes to give 250.

And you can simple refine this items with a 2:1 to get carbon, sodium e cobalt, but you can always multiply again them for 6 so is basically infinite with an oxygen farm thanks to other object(not sure about the english name i think oxygen harvester).

There are many others recipe to multiply or transmute resources in other resources.

If you need something better you check this site, if you search an item you can find the recipe to create this item and even the recipe where this item is needed.

https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Copper

[Pain]

Go to Emeril or Indium system and use them to process for chromatic metal.

You can chez entry into such systems by using the nexus missions. I got into a indium system really early doing a bone salvage mission. And you can always portal back to the system once you visit.

[maestro]

I'll keep that in mind. I was able to duplicate a bunch of copper (got myself 1,600!) in about 15 minutes or so by making chromatic metal and then turning it back into copper repeatedly. So I'll know what to do if that ever happens again (which it won't because I ain't dumping all the materials in the refinery again lol).

[maestro]

Somewhat off topic, holy crap 200 Tonne Frigate Fuel is easy as pie to make and freaking expensive... had 9999 Tritium I dumped into my refinery, made half of it into Di-Hydrogen and then combined that with the rest of the Tritum to make 400,000 credits worth of fuel lol.