Fastest Ferrite (Dust, Pure, Magnetized) Fillup in Beyond

[Rexxer]

With the new update, if you have lots of bases, you will need massive amounts of ferrite of all kinds. Since Magnetized Ferrite extraction is broken in Beyond, the fastest way I have found to get a full pack of all three kinds (Dust, Pure, Magnetized) in a few minutes is this:

You will need:
(1) a portal to an exotic planet, such as the contoured type (fastest ferrite dust collection)
(2) an activated Indium extraction mine (essential for many things, sold directly for units, or as catalyst for making other things)
(3) A medium refiner or better (a couple if you want to go faster)

An exotic planet, such as contoured or webbed planets, have crazy dense piles of ferrite dust balls everywhere. And they are small balls. That seems to be all they have. Not only that, but the balls of ferrite dust mine faster for some reason. That means if you point your mining laser at any clump, you are mining 15 times the number of ferrite dust containers and doing so faster. I can easily get 10000 of Ferrite dust in 15-30 min. And do so pretty much standing in the same spot.

Plus, exotic planets like this often don't have weather, so you don't waste time with environment filters.

Plus you get massive numbers of Geodes, about 5 per 1000 ferrite dust collected, so in 15-30 min you are also getting about 50 geodes, some of which will be Rare Metal Earth drops which can supercharge the Pure Ferrite manufacture.

Once you have 10000 Fe (or more to seed the other conversions) you can convert dust to Magnetized Ferrite at the ratio of (1 x) Fe dust to (8x) Magnetized Fe very quickly with Activated Indium (which you can collect 10000 units at a time with your activated Indium mine). Very little Fe dust and Activated Indium is used up.

Magnetized Ferrite which you now have 10000's of will break down to Pure Fe at a ratio of 1 to 2, or in other words, for every 1 unit of Fe dust, you make 16 units of Pure Ferrite. So 10K Fe dust will yield 160K of Pure Ferrite. You can make 800 cuboid rooms with that. Or 80K Magnetized Fe, depending on your need. All for about 1/2 hour mining and another 15 min processing.

By the time you are done, the activated Indium mine should have another 10K and you can repeat.

I tried fleets and frigates, but while they produced enough for NEXT, I don't think it will be fast enough for Beyond given the higher cost of everything. Have to build silver mines now, for example, to make glass cuboids, and that takes massive amounts of Ferrited Dust (for plating) and Magnetized Ferrite for extractors and supply depots.

[Auriga_Nexus]

This is a good setup for late-game, but for those of you who haven't gotten your Indium drives yet, here's a slightly less prolific yet easier method. First, find an Oxygen Cloud and set up Gas Extractors and silos to harvest Oxygen (as well as all the related bits and bobs such as power required to run said extractors). Set up about 2 extractors and 3 or so silos, then save and log out and go to bed. By the time you have your 8 hours of sleep in (you ARE getting 8 hours, right?) your silos should be filled with about 3k units of Oxygen.

Next, mine about 200 units of Carbon. Run the Carbon and Oxygen into a medium or large refiner together and you should get Condensed Carbon at a 1:3 ratio. You can also run the Condensed Carbon with the Oxygen to get Condensed Carbon at a 1:2:6 ratio. Use this to effectively extend your Condensed Carbon stores infinitely so long as you have the Oxygen.

Next, mine about 200 units of Pure Ferrite. Put the Pure Ferrite in with the Condensed Carbon, it will generate Mag Ferrite at a 1:6 ratio. Afterwords run the Mag Ferrite by itself to get Pure Ferrite at a 1:2 ratio. Congratulations you've just multiplied your existing Pure Ferrite store by a factor of 12, and if you need more Condensed Carbon you can create it using your existing C/C+ stores and the Oxygen that you are now mining passively from your Oxygen Farm.

It's not nearly as impressive as the Indium trick but it works and doesn't require you to have found a blue star yet. And this trick also works for Cobalt (can be extended using Oxygen) and Sodium (using C+) as well.

In fact, I would recommend finding a guide to recipies and reading up on what all can be done, because you'll find that there are several of these infinite production loops that you can use to extend existing stores of materials with a catalyst such as Carbon, Oxygen, or Chromatic Metal. Really, the only harvesting I am doing right now is passive mining for Oxygen, farming for plants that can be broken down into planetary resources such as Pariffium, and gathering undersea resources.

[Asmosis]

Or just buy 5000 at a time from Space NPC's.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Asmosis:

Or just buy 5000 at a time from Space NPC's.

That's implied since I said a depot load of Activated Indium itself can be sold for 50 million units at a time. But then you have to portal around more, and not all NPCs sell 5000. I was at some that only had 1000 or so. And once you buy it, it refills only if you exit the system and return. Seems easier to stand in one spot and get it directly, plus the geodes give you Rare Earth Metal bonuses as well as Pure and Magnetized. Depends on how much you need. If you are stockpiling, I'd do both to maximize the stockpile.

[eram]

Just refine the stuff into more stuff.

Look at the list for the best recipes.
https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Refiner

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by eram:

Just refine the stuff into more stuff.

Look at the list for the best recipes.
https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Refiner

That's what I said, but not all formulas are equally productive. That's the point. The maximum conversion rate for magnetized ferrite appears to be 8x the original input, so you want to avoid all the other "stuff". Rare Earth Metal is really productive for Pure Ferrite, if you have a lot in storage, but not if you don't. That's the point. Some formulas are better than others. Especially since industrial mining some things in Beyond is broken, and for other things it is not.

[ꌗꉣ꒒ꂦ꓄]

Unless things have changed in the last week I have no trouble keeping up a ferrite supply simply from 1:2 refining rusted metal. The only downside is that it takes sooooo so long to process.

Something to leave churning in a refiner while you're away doing other things. :)

[JTracx]

Or just strafe the rocks with your ship mining laser...?

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Psyra:

Unless things have changed in the last week I have no trouble keeping up a ferrite supply simply from 1:2 refining rusted metal. The only downside is that it takes sooooo so long to process.

Exactly, so don't do it. Ferrite mining is fast when you have tightly packed clusters of small rocks on a planet, fastest seems to be on certain exotic planets where everything is ferrite....and fast to mine too. I can easily load up 10000 units of Ferrite in a few minutes on one of those planets. Or if you have units to burn you can also buy some at various space stations, most sell it, but not always in a predictable quantitiy. And once you buy it up at one station you have to exit and reenter for the market to reset. That's why I prefer just getting mine on exotic planets with those little ferrite spheres everywhere.

[Rexxer]

Also I forgot early on you can also shoot platinum asteroids (usually the spiky ones) and refine platinum with oxygen for a 10:1 ratio for magnetized ferrite. That gives you a Pure Ferrite yield of 20 Pure Ferrite to 1 input unit. That's the best yield ratio, and you can do it very early in the game, but industrial mining is ultimately faster because you gather the base input units automatically in mass quantities.

Here is a list of various yield ratios for various start metals which will combine with ferrite dust to give magnetized ferrite which then gives pure ferrite:

1:1 Copper
2:1 Cadmium, Activated Copper
3:1 Emeril
4:1 Indium, Activated Cadmium
6:1 Activated Emeril
8:1 Activated Indium

Just remember to double the number on the left to get Pure Ferrite yields. So the best industrial scale yield would be 16:1.