Things to know and do before you begin

Before you set out on your journey to strip-mine the entire galaxy, you should know a few things about galactic rules, quitting and upgrading.

The four most important things to know about planets

In No Man's Sky, planets are the best places to gather resources. But how do you know what resources a planet contains — and what resources it doesn't? It's actually pretty simple. You just have to know what to look for.

If you know four things about a planet, you can make surprisingly accurate predictions about the elements you're likely to find — and, just as importantly, what you won't find, no matter how hard you look.

What are those four things? Good question!

The planet's weather

What element lies inside green crystals

What element lies inside shiny boulders

What element lies inside other big stone structures

Those seemingly disparate pieces of information are, in fact, related, and function within a predictable set of rules. Take a couple of minutes to gather that knowledge when you arrive on a new planet, and No Man's Sky will seem a lot less random and mysterious.

If it's not working, leave

Given No Man's Sky's procedurally generated and random nature, there will invariably be exceptions to the general rules we outline here. But exceptions don't render the rules useless. If something's not working out, there's a very simple solution: Leave, and try again somewhere else.

For example, based on our testing, there is a clear correlation between shiny boulders (like the one pictured above) and Chrysonite crystals (also pictured above, not even a little bit coincidentally). On a cold planet, find a metal-like boulder, and you're very likely — but not absolutely assured — to find Chrysonite crystals in the surrounding area.

That's the correlation between the important things we mentioned above. The planet is cold, and there's a shiny boulder, and wouldn't you know it, there's some Chrysonite right next door.

We've tested this dozens of times in different games, on different planets, in different galaxies, and the correlation is … mostly … rock-solid. (Sorry not sorry.) However, some small amount of the time, we just didn't find Chrysonite.

If you find yourself in that situation, hop into your starship, fly until you find another golden boulder and try again. Remember: You're on a planet the size of a planet. There's plenty more geography to explore, and there's no reason to stay where you are for more than a minute or two if you can't find what you're looking for.

Upgrade your Scanner to make finding elements easier

When you're on foot, your Scanner is an indispensable tool for finding elements. Press a button, and moments later, your screen fills up with icons showing the locations of nearby elements.

Your basic scanner is fine, but if you have the Companion Unit blueprints for Scanner upgrades, build them. With Scanner upgrades, finding elements is immeasurably easier. It's the difference between seeing what's in your immediate vicinity and seeing everything in what seems like a mile in every direction.

Make the most of your companion units Upgrading your Scanner will make your life easier and your hunt for elements faster. There's more to upgrading than reading blueprints, though. To get the most out of your Companion Units, be sure to place your upgrades next to each other, a process that we explain in No Man's Sky item placement guide.

Putting it all together

At this point, you know what to look for, you know when to cut your losses and you know that you should upgrade your Scanner. Now it's time to find elements. In the next sections, we'll teach you how to find elements by teaching you how to think about elements.

The five resource classes

Whether you shot a rock or punched a flower to get them, No Man's Sky's resources fall into five classes — Isotope, Neutral, Oxide, Precious and Silicate — each of which has its own associated icons.

Learning element classes and their general applications is immensely helpful and not particularly difficult. Just associate red Isotope resources with fuel, and you won't have to stop and think about what you need every time your weapon runs out of juice or your Launch Thrusters run dry. Just think red, use your Scanner and head toward the red icons on your map.

No Man's Sky sure likes to fill up your screen with icons, and that can get a bit overwhelming. That's why we created the table below, which you can use as a quick reference guide to help you find what you're looking for.