Resource refining and production chains are central systems in SpaceCraft, which are tied to a permit system, station facilities, and automated planetary bases with drones and logistics. This guide will provide you with tips and tricks on how to refine collected resources and set up production chains at your base.
How to Mine & Refine Resources
You can mine resources using ship-mounted lasers or extractors on your base. Be sure to use Pulse lasers to avoid overheating and generally higher-tier lasers. Since resources on asteroids respawn faster than on planet veins, try to focus your attention there first before moving on to planets. Here are some of the most important resources:
| Resources | Locations |
|---|---|
| Iron Ore | Common in asteroid belts; used for hull plating and basic structures. |
| Copper Ore | Rocky planet veins; used for wiring and electronics. |
| Carbon | C-class asteroids or gas planets; for lightweight panels and drones. |
| Silicon | Desert and ice planets; for wafers, sensors, solar panels. |
| Quartz | Ice moons or deep asteroid belts; FTL coils and scanners. |
| Titanium | High-gravity planets; advanced hulls and armor. |
| Helium-3 | Gas giant scoops; plasma cores and late-game power weapons. |
| Iridium | Rare anomaly sites; endgame components. |
Note that raw ores take up inventory space and have lower value, so start refining them as soon as possible. Here’s how to refine raw ores:
- Deposit ores into the smelter inventory.
- Select recipes and use the “Smelt” option after acquiring a permit.
- You’ll get various types of ingots from different types of ores, such as Iron Ingots from Iron Ore, Copper Ingots from Copper Ore, etc.
- This will also allow you to unlock the Modular Systems Permit after completing contracts, which unlocks crafting, shipyard access, and more blueprints.
- Finally, you can use ingots at the Workshop Assembler to turn them into components.
How to Set Up Production Chains
Since automation in SpaceCraft is gated by various permits, you won’t be able to do everything at once. Here’s the most efficient way to set up your own production chain:
- Once you unlock the Modular Systems Permit, you need to gather materials for the Base Deploy Kit.
- Join or create a Corporation for shared access, logistics, and scaling.
- Find a planet with rich deposits and flat, safe terrain near multiple nodes with no hazards.
- Place the deploy kit to claim the area, providing initial storage, power, and basic smelting.
- Place Solar Plants or Fuel Power Plants and add Battery Arrays for storage.
- Use Pylons and Cables to connect everything.
- Build Warehouses for solids and Cisterns for liquids, and place them near production buildings.
Once you have your infrastructure ready and a steady inflow of resources, you can begin automating all the refining and production processes. Follow these steps:
- Place Extractors directly on resource deposits, since they must align with the node.
- Build Smelters near Extractors that convert ore to ingots automatically.
- Connect them via Drone Dispatchers or manual links.
- Assign drones to pull from Extractors and Storage to feed smelters and move ingots to assemblers.
- Use Landing Pads or Shuttle Landing Pads for ship cargo transfers.
- Add specialized buildings like Chemical Factory, Crystallizer, and Factory for advanced items.
Finally, you can share bases with corp members for collaborative chains, establish trade routes and specialized hubs to automate fuel, housing, and defense production.
