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The subject of this article is from the Echoes update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 13 February, 2024
NmsTech Refiner Process

How a refiner works

Refining is a process of combining ingredients.

Summary[ | ]

Refining is a process of combining various ingredients (mostly resources) into other ingredients with the use of a refiner.

Refined materials are more condensed or more powerful and efficient than raw materials. The advantage of refined materials is that you can carry more of them. Also you need fewer refined materials to recharge something. The disadvantage is that refining takes time and possibly fuel.

You can take out refined materials before all are processed. You can also stop the refining process or adjust the output number to meet your requirements. Though output number can go up to 1023, the output slot can only hold one standard Exosuit stack at a time (250x for resources, 5x for products) on survival or premadeath modes and 9999 in normal mode --- the refining process will automatically pause if the refiner detects that its output slot is full. An exception is with inputs that produce 150 outputs (e.g. TetraCobalt). The refiner will process 2x input items and stop with 300x items in the output slot.

Refiner Types[ | ]

There are five types of refiners with different properties.

  • Portable Refiner - Can refine one item into another (for example, Ferrite Dust into Pure Ferrite). It can be easily picked up (occupying 1x inventory space) and deployed again elsewhere; this means you don't need to carry its building materials. Must be fueled with Carbon or Condensed Carbon to operate.
  • Personal Refiner - Works exactly like a Portable refiner, but is accessible directly from the user's Exosuit interface. Items can be refined automatically by dropping them directly on the refiner icon (if the refiner has fuel), or manually by selecting the refiner icon and entering the refining control screen.
  • Personal Refiner Mk 2 - Works similar to the Personal refiner, but has two input slots like to the Medium Refiner. These two inputs have the same functionality as the Medium Refiner, meaning they can combine materials.
  • Medium Refiner - Can refine two items into another (for example, Pyrite and Oxygen into Cactus Flesh). It can also be used to reduce complex materials into simpler ones (example: Carbon Crystal into 150 Condensed Carbon). Requires no fuel as it is attached to a base or freighter power supply.
  • Large Refiner - Can refine three items into another (for example, Pure Ferrite, Sodium Nitrate, and Silver can be combined to produce an Advanced Ion Battery). Requires no fuel as it is attached to a base or freighter power supply.

Notes[ | ]

  • Items and fuel in refineries may be lost upon quitting the game
  • Single-name ingredients can often be refined into a double-name ingredient.
  • Refined materials can also be refined.
  • A ratio of 2:1 means the output will be half as much as the input (2 in, 1 out).
  • Multiple refiners can be used at the same time.
  • The arrow buttons increase or decrease the target total of the operation.
  • The displayed amount of time for the refining action is often incorrect.
  • If a refiner is processing a recipe and only has one item left in the inputs, the input will be consumed with no reward, so as to prevent the player having to deal with stacks of one item such as carbon.

Additional Information[ | ]

  • A comprehensive refining/recipe resource is available at Refiner Recipe Search
  • Assistant for No Man's Sky is an Android and iOS App providing Crafting and Refiner recipes, plus a Portal Library and user guides.
  • Mobile apps to browse recipes are available: Android (Google Play Android), iOS (App Store iOS)
  • A spreadsheet of Profitable Recipes that takes the products' total values into account can be found here.
  • A comprehensive spreadsheet of all NEXT recipes can be found here (created by Ket). (July 2018) (Outdated)

Related Articles[ | ]

Release History[ | ]

  • NEXT - Introduced to the game.
  • NEXT 1.51 - Fixed a crash when multiple players put ammunition into a refiner.
  • NEXT 1.55 - Fixed a number of incorrect refiner recipes. Expanded the available refiner recipes. Wiki notes: It is no longer possible to use other resources as catalysts. The new recipes include the ability to refine asteroid metals (Gold, Platinum, Silver) without a medium or large refiner.
  • NEXT 1.58 - Fixed a number of issues around the refiner and general inventory systems.
  • Abyss - Wiki notes: Added recipes for the refiner, including the ability to refine certain underwater materials (Cyto-Phosphate, Crystal Sulphide).
  • Visions 1.76 - Fixed an issue that could cause Big Ball to become permanently stuck in a refiner output (this fix prevents any new occurrences, existing blocked refiners continue to be blocked).
  • Visions 1.77 - Fixed an issue where Big Ball would get stuck in the refiner output (any previously broken refiners will now be clear).
  • Synthesis - Introduced Personal refiner.
  • NextGen - Quadruple refining process removed.
  • Echoes - Introduced Personal Refiner Mk 2.
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