Best Ways To Get Carbon In No Man’s Sky

Summary

• No Man’s Sky has evolved into a solid space exploration game with free updates to make up for a rocky launch.
• Carbon is a crucial resource in NMS for crafting, base building, and fueling refiners, which can be farmed, mined, or refined.
• Players can efficiently gather carbon by farming, harvesting condensed carbon crystals, mining flora, or using the refinery on various items.

No Man’s Sky has matured into a solid space survival and exploration title. Yes, it had a rocky launch, but the developers, Hello Games, have gone to great lengths to make up for this. Every update that has added new features has been completely free, as was promised following complaints at launch.

One of the key gameplay loops in No Man’s Sky is harvesting or collecting resources that are used to construct base parts, craft items, or fuel infrastructure. Carbon is one of the cornerstone resources that all players will need to collect in decent quantities while playing the game.

What Is Carbon Used For In No Man’s Sky?

One of the primary uses of carbon and condensed carbon in No Man’s Sky is to fuel refiners. However, gathering enough carbon to fuel several refiners, even the larger ones, doesn’t require much effort.

More importantly, carbon is needed as a raw material for base building and crafting. There are dozens of crafting recipes that call for carbon in NMS. Many of these are for cosmetic items that can be placed in a player base, for example. Overall, every NMS player will need to gather or farm carbon at some stage, especially in the early game.

5

Can Be Mined From Minerals

As A Secondary Element

• Easy to find.
• Not very efficient.

When a player scans a mineral formation, such as a rock, with their visor scanner, they will learn which resources the formation contains. There are no mineral formations that contain carbon as a primary element, but some do contain carbon as a secondary element.

However, this is a pretty slow way to collect large quantities of carbon, and it is not recommended to use this method for serious carbon gathering. It is useful, though, as it means that players will likely pick up a decent amount of carbon whilst they are collecting other mineral-based resources such as ferite dust. This method does work quite well in combination with gathering condensed carbon crystals, though, as both require the player to scan flora and mineral deposits and mine them.

4

Can Be Refined

Some Items Contain Carbon

• It can be tough to find resources.
• Work well in tandem with other exploration activities

There are a number of items and materials that can be put into a refiner and then refined down into carbon. This can be a pretty good way to acquire a decent volume of this important resource, although there are faster ways.

Depending on which items the player is farming to refine into carbon, this can be a pretty quick way to acquire this resource. Items such as cactus flesh, gamma root, fungal mould, and star bulb all refine down into carbon. However, how efficient this method is will entirely depend on the planet that the player is on, as some have a lot more of these items to harvest than others. Once again, this method combines well with hunting for condensed carbon crystals, as it is likely the player will come across these other resources whilst doing so.

3

Can Be Farmed

In A Standing Planter

• Easy way to get carbon.
• Works almost hands-free.

No Man’s Sky players can literally farm carbon. By taking 25 condensed carbon and 2 metal platings, they can craft a standing planter. This is a base item that can also be constructed on a player freighter. Once it has been set up, it can be harvested every 10 minutes and will reward the player with between 60 and 120 carbon for their efforts.

Now, 60 to 120 units of carbon doesn’t sound like a lot. But consider for a moment that it is possible to construct many standing planets to create a huge carbon farm. Aside from the effort of constructing such a farm, there is little work involved. All the player has to do is walk along harvesting each planter to gather large volumes of carbon. The only downside of this method of gathering carbon is that the player needs to keep on top of the 10-minute timer to get the most output.

2

Can Be Harvested

From Condensed Carbon Crystals

• Use the suit scanner to locate crystals.
• Must be mined using the advanced laser.

It is possible to harvest condensed carbon from the appropriate crystals found dotted around the landscape. The player needs to use their suit scanner and look for the carbon waypoints. There, they will find large, red crystals. These can be harvested using the advanced mining laser.

Once harvested, the condensed carbon can be refined further into simple carbon. For players who spend a lot of time exploring planets, this can be a solid source of carbon, as they will likely encounter plenty of advanced carbon crystals out in the wild. Combine this method with collecting carbon-rich resources that can be refined into carbon, and also using the mining laser on carbon-based flora for the best results.

1

Can Be Mined From Flora

Deforest Huge Areas

• Use the visor scanner to find flora with carbon.
• Use the basic mining laser to harvest it.

Using the visor scanner, players can identify flora. Many of the natural plants, trees, and bushes on NMS contain carbon as a primary resource. The larger plant life, such as trees, gives the most carbon.

Spending a few minutes harvesting carbon-bearing plant life is a good way to gather a large volume of carbon very quickly. This is especially true in the early game, when a player may not have access to the tools or equipment required to gather carbon in the ways previously covered in this list.