what is a "Nanite Mine"...?

[Kaeru Gaman]

I think I saw this caption on some screenshots and in some postings...
my question is, what is it?
is it a factory to make nanites out of mined silver or gold?

[Rexxer]

There is no mine for nanites. Just a cute way of saying they have a way of generating nanites quickly, as if they were mining. If I were to rank the amount of time it took to generate X number of nanites, it would be from slowest to fastest:

(1) clicking on desk toys in stations and buildings, some give a few nanites, some nav chips; also more recently you can "Practice Language" with the natives on a space station, - occasionally they will give nanites or modules or credits in return, if they are pleased. Travellers are also a reliable source, once: simply given them some trade item requested and they will give you nanites.
(2) Uploading discoveries, you get nanites when you upload all the things you've scanned and discovered. Slow to very slow IMO but it happens just by playing the game, so I wouldn't go pursue this specifically, just cash in on it at some point.
(3) research modules in shelter trailers (two trailers and a save station on the terrain of planets) or in other buildings on the terrain
(4) Manufacturing or operation centers sometimes drop nanites or upgrade modules which you can sell in space stations for nanites....you get a moderate amount of nanites for this, but it is slow because you have to fly around to each one answering riddles. Some crashed freighter sites and space encounters are also probably somewhere in here... but these are just another "quarter in the street" type of farming: a fairly slow and unpredictable way to accumulate nanites,
(5) This next way is probably what some might mean by a Nanite Mine, because they are mining to get the raw materials: Refining silver and gold to platinum and then refining platinum with silver and gold produces nanites. But not a lot. In fact a really tiny amount for the amount of metal. This potentially could be much slower or faster depending how many refiners you have going. It seems this should be fast but is in fact very slow if you add in collecting the gold and silver first from your mines then refining them. Also depends on if you are counting the refining time or not (since in theory you could go do something else while it is refining). I do this only when I have too much gold or silver, otherwise I totally avoid this method.
(6) Making food and selling to the vendor on the Anomaly. Not really sure if this can be made to go faster, as is seems the vendor doesn't take many at one time. But you can keep giving him things, usually 40 to 140 nanites per item. The problem is you then have to spend time hunting ingredients and cooking them up in the nutrient processor, sometimes modify your base to raise animals and such. Seems like the total time would be excessive for the actual nanite payoff. Maybe someone who's done it a lot can give a better time estimate of nanite return.
(7) Crashed command modules on the landscape nearly always drop nanites directly or in the form of an upgrade module. These are the wreckages you see on the landscape with the blue flashing light. They are also good early on because there is also salavaged tech buried within 20 u which you can refine to make nanites or stockpile to buy needed blueprints. Since they also often yield goop, you could double its value if you refine the stuff into nanites later rather than sell it, but that likely would make it an even slower method as it is a multistep process, requiring even more input from you.
(8) Killing sentinels. Middle of the road way, but kinda fun so you may do it longer.
(9) Space station quests also give a lot of nanites but usually also a bit slow as you have to fly around to fetch things or such. Nexus quests also, but these quests are easy to lose if you accidentally reload or try to save...tricky. But if you streamline your movements, it could place much higher, next to digging salvaged tech or larval core farming.
(10) Digging up salvaged tech: besides being useful for blueprints, it can be refined directly into nanites. The hunting and refining time is very short and you get 15 per tech.
(11) Hunting larval cores. Since you pick up about 20 cores in 10 minutes, and because its equivalent to 50 nanites per core, you generate about 1000 nanites in 15 min. That is usually much better than quest returns on nanites. And because you can do it immediately at the start of the game with your starter jetpack and multitool, I highly recommend this is the way you quickly build up nanites to buy blueprints at the Anomaly. The underwater Hadal cores also yield 50 nanites each, so it may be slower since it is an underwater collection, which is hard to do a the start of the game, and more random.
(12) By far and away the fastest way to build nanites is scrapping ships. You get many modules which you can sell for nanintes and the turnaround is fast. You can stockpile 50K or more in an hour scrapping, not to mention get the ideal ship you want to upgrade in the process. However, this method usually can't be done at the start because you need seed cash for it. If you are right at the start of the game, larval cores are the way to go. Use the nanites to buy industrial and electrical blueprints so you can set up mining. Then quickly build mining capability, then go scrapping.

[Kaeru Gaman]

thanks for the comprehensive answer.
yeah maybe they mean mining gold and silver. I completely dislike that method, because that way nanites are incredibly expensive. 19'700 per cluster, ridiculous. (only material value, mining and refining time not counted)

what is that Larval Core thingy. I saw the object in the wiki and in the Catalogue, but never on a planet... what are this larvas and how to find them?

[Blendi]

larval cores are from whispering eggs found around abandoned buildings or found on dead planets but they are spread out from each other there. They are somewhat dangerous to gather cause destroying the whisperinng egg to drop the core causes a swarm of angry aliens to appear andd attack you. It can be done but gotta be careful.

[Happy Monkey]

I used it to mean mining gold and silver. It's not a great method, but I think it's the only way to farm/mine for nanites (Initial setup cost, then free to operate. Scrapping ships is like farming, but continually drains cash). Everything else is foraging.

But, of course, foraging is the main thrust of the game, so the mine is mostly a curiosity.


My mine:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2091470797
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2092589424

It also has Indium
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2091475953

[Kaeru Gaman]

Originally posted by Blendi:

larval cores are from whispering eggs found around abandoned buildings or found on dead planets but they are spread out from each other there. They are somewhat dangerous to gather cause destroying the whisperinng egg to drop the core causes a swarm of angry aliens to appear andd attack you. It can be done but gotta be careful.

oh THAT Ö.Ö
omg I just didn't think of those because I couldn't imagine anyone would consider this way "easiest" and "beginner" *chuckles*
no no... this is much too adrenaline struck for me.

Originally posted by Happy Monkey:

But, of course, foraging is the main thrust of the game, so the mine is mostly a curiosity.

well, I think this game is what you make of it. I would call this way to make nanites not exactly a curiosity, rather "money burning" cause as said above, 19'700 units worth of ressources for one nanite cluster is much too expensive for my taste.

anyhow, nice buildings! are those some kind of hover thrusters at the other corners of the trading post?

[Lailantie]

Originally posted by Kaeru Gaman:

Originally posted by Blendi:

larval cores are from whispering eggs found around abandoned buildings or found on dead planets but they are spread out from each other there. They are somewhat dangerous to gather cause destroying the whisperinng egg to drop the core causes a swarm of angry aliens to appear andd attack you. It can be done but gotta be careful.

oh THAT Ö.Ö
omg I just didn't think of those because I couldn't imagine anyone would consider this way "easiest" and "beginner" *chuckles*
no no... this is much too adrenaline struck for me.

I recently watched a video of someone who built a base around an abandoned building, with walls around one cluster of eggs. He would shoot one of the eggs inside the walls, the swarm would appear but wouldn't be able to move freely. He then gathered all the larval cores around the building undisturbed, as there seems to be only one swarm, never a second one. I thought I'll try that one day in the future, when I'm done building trailers and pools :-D

[Galactic Starman]

Nanites can be refined from Platinum (destroy freighter pods) but the best way of gathering them is doing Space Station missions. As you do those you complete other tasks for more nanites and get nanites for rewards. Sell or refine any loot like upgrrade tech you might find for nanites during the missions. Speak to aliens they sometimes give tech you can sell for nanites. You can get tech from crashed ship parts and again sell them for nanites. The Nexus often gives nanites for mission completion.

Simply just play the game have fun and collect them as you go unless you want to sit for hours refining them from farmed or mined resources.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Lailantie:

Originally posted by Kaeru Gaman:

oh THAT Ö.Ö
omg I just didn't think of those because I couldn't imagine anyone would consider this way "easiest" and "beginner" *chuckles*
no no... this is much too adrenaline struck for me.

I recently watched a video of someone who built a base around an abandoned building, with walls around one cluster of eggs. He would shoot one of the eggs inside the walls, the swarm would appear but wouldn't be able to move freely. He then gathered all the larval cores around the building undisturbed, as there seems to be only one swarm, never a second one. I thought I'll try that one day in the future, when I'm done building trailers and pools :-D

It takes a very long time for the eggs to regrow though, so that method would be a waste of time since you essentially are building a base for a 1 or 2 time use. It's not that hard and a lot faster (if slightly more dangerous) to just stand on top of the abandoned building and fly down for each egg. Since they nerfed the monstrosities, it's actually very easy. Back in 2016 or 2017, one hit took your shields down by 1/2, so it was very easy to die. Now one hit only takes your shields down by 1/10, so you can take a few hits to secure each core, if you are particularly slow.

[Kaeru Gaman]

Originally posted by Star-Lord:

Nanites can be refined from Platinum (destroy freighter pods) but the best way of gathering them is doing Space Station missions. As you do those you complete other tasks for more nanites and get nanites for rewards. Sell or refine any loot like upgrrade tech you might find for nanites during the missions. Speak to aliens they sometimes give tech you can sell for nanites. You can get tech from crashed ship parts and again sell them for nanites. The Nexus often gives nanites for mission completion.

Simply just play the game have fun and collect them as you go unless you want to sit for hours refining them from farmed or mined resources.

exactly my thoughts. actually I'm wondering what for I would need tons of nanites.
some people seem to accumulate things just because the game allows to do so.
I just was curious what a "nanite mine" was about.

[Kaeru Gaman]

Originally posted by Rexxer:

Originally posted by Lailantie:

I recently watched a video of someone who built a base around an abandoned building, with walls around one cluster of eggs. He would shoot one of the eggs inside the walls, the swarm would appear but wouldn't be able to move freely. He then gathered all the larval cores around the building undisturbed, as there seems to be only one swarm, never a second one. I thought I'll try that one day in the future, when I'm done building trailers and pools :-D

It takes a very long time for the eggs to regrow though, so that method would be a waste of time since you essentially are building a base for a 1 or 2 time use. It's not that hard and a lot faster (if slightly more dangerous) to just stand on top of the abandoned building and fly down for each egg. Since they nerfed the monstrosities, it's actually very easy. At the beginning of the game, one hit took your shields down by 1/2, so it was very easy to die. Now one hit only takes your shields down by 1/10, so you can take a few hits to secure each core, if you are particularly slow.

I would not say "waste of time"... wich time? you build a base computer, a handful of walls, harvest the eggs, dissamble the walls, destruct the base computer. only investment 15 minutes and 30 Chromatic Metal for the base computer you won't get back.
but okay, I remember, you want everything super fast.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally posted by Kaeru Gaman:

Originally posted by Happy Monkey:

But, of course, foraging is the main thrust of the game, so the mine is mostly a curiosity.

well, I think this game is what you make of it. I would call this way to make nanites not exactly a curiosity, rather "money burning" cause as said above, 19'700 units worth of ressources for one nanite cluster is much too expensive for my taste.

It generates the wealth that it consumes, though, while ship scrapping just consumes wealth.
You could also just mine and sell the platimum, of course, and then go ship scrapping.

anyhow, nice buildings! are those some kind of hover thrusters at the other corners of the trading post?

Thanks! Each pad has one thruster; the other corners are primarily guardrails; I may decorate them further at some point.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally posted by Kaeru Gaman:

exactly my thoughts. actually I'm wondering what for I would need tons of nanites.

Upgrading a ship to S-class if you find one you like the look of costs a lot of nanites.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Kaeru Gaman:

I would not say "waste of time"... wich time? you build a base computer, a handful of walls, harvest the eggs, dissamble the walls, destruct the base computer. only investment 15 minutes and 30 Chromatic Metal for the base computer you won't get back.
but okay, I remember, you want everything super fast.

Let's just say it's not the most efficient way. Interesting, but not efficient. Some people dig holes too, although I'm not sure exactly how that helps gathering them as the egg cores disappear if you don't pick them up right away. Just seems like a lot of unnecessary busy work. Also edits may dig into your construction limit as well. I'd hate to not be able to build a base when I really want to just because I liked to corral every abandoned building I visited with walls. It's not an effective farming technique, but sure, it is interesting to wall off monstrosities, I guess.

Do the arithmatic: let's say early on you want to save up the 50000 nanites to upgrade an awesome A-class ship you found and could afford. But you can't really afford to go full on scrapping yet. Eggs come from all sizes of abandoned buildings, the smaller ones may only have 15 and the larger ones 20. Let's say your average haul is 18. That means to get enough eggs you will need 50000/(18X50) or about 56 abandoned buildings to raid, since the eggs respawn slowly, longer than you could wait. Are you really going to build 56 bases just to farm those eggs? I don't think so.

[Grimmslayer73]

Originally posted by Rexxer:

(11) Hunting larval cores. Since you pick up about 20 cores in 10 minutes, and because its equivalent to 50 nanites per core, you generate about 1000 nanites in 15 min. That is usually much better than quest returns on nanites. And because you can do it immediately at the start of the game with your starter jetpack and multitool, I highly recommend this is the way you quickly build up nanites to buy blueprints at the Anomaly. The underwater Hadal cores also yield 50 nanites each, so it may be slower since it is an underwater collection, which is hard to do a the start of the game, and more random.

I haven't tried scraping ships but this is by far my favorite method. Using the exocraft you can hop in and out quickly and grab the core before getting attacked then off to the next one.

[Rexxer]

Originally posted by Grimmslayer73:

I haven't tried scraping ships but this is by far my favorite method. Using the exocraft you can hop in and out quickly and grab the core before getting attacked then off to the next one.

That sounds like a good idea. Normally I just stand on the roof of the building and fly down to pick up one or two then fly back up before the critters beat up on me. Rinse and repeat. The exocraft may also be useful in blocking attacks briefly. Killing them of course doesn't work as for each one you kill, another pops up out of the ground.