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The Portable Refiner is a tool in No Man's Sky that you will become very familiar with. The game requires you to build one before you can even repair your ship and leave the starting planet, but it may not be entirely clear just how it works.
You'll be able to build the Portable Refiner and, as the name suggests, bring it along with you on your journeys. Whether you need to quickly convert materials into another type, or have a project in the works of a grander scale, you will need to become familiar with exactly how to use this equipment. Here is exactly what you need to know about the Portable Refiner.
Updated May 3, 2023, by Sean Murray: Even though the Personal Refiner largely replaces it later on, you'll still be hauling the Portable Refiner through much of your journey though No Man's Sky. As such, we've updated this guide with a few formatting tweaks to make it easier to read.
What You Need The Portable Refiner For
The Portable Refiner is used to convert one material into another. For example, by placing Copper (or another metal) into the input slot, you will output Chromatic Metal. In many cases, this is the only way to obtain these refined materials, other than purchasing them directly from the Galactic Trade Terminals.
There are more advanced refiners that will allow you to combine materials, but these are only useful much later on.
Here are the basic materials that you will need the Portable Refiner for earlier on in the game:
Pure Ferrite | Input 1x Ferrite Dust |
|---|---|
Magnetised Ferrite | Input 2x Pure Ferrite |
Condensed Carbon | Input 2x Carbon |
Sodium Nitrate | Input 2x Sodium |
Di-Hydrogen | Input 1x Di-Hydrogen Jelly |
Chromatic Metal | Input Copper (or similar metals) |
There are many other refinements possible using the Portable Refiner. Test other resources to see what you can get.
How To Build A Portable Refiner
The Portable Refiner is required during your first steps through this game, so building one of these early on is something you'll need to know how to do.
While standing anywhere out of your ship, press up on the D-pad to bring up the buildable technology menu. This is where you'll find the Portable Refiner. To build it you will need 1 Metal Plating and 30 Oxygen.
Oxygen can be found using the scanner built into your multi-tool. This is the first thing the game will have you install, so scan the environment and look out for the red flora marked as O2. Find a few of these, and you'll have more than enough Oxygen.
Metal Plating is crafted within the inventory, so hover over an empty space in your Exosuit's inventory screen and look for it there. To craft Metal Plating you'll need 50 Ferrite Dust, which is found by mining rocks around the environment.
Once you have what you need, you will be able to build yourself a Portable Refiner through the buildable technology menu and place it on the ground wherever you wish.
Don't Forget To Pick It Up Afterwards
An important note for Portable Refiners: you should always pick it up once you are done using it. Doing so will place the equipment into your inventory and allow you to place it again without the need to build another one.
If you leave it on the ground, it will stay where it is, so be sure to grab it before you take off and leave orbit.
You'll unlock larger, non-portable refiners later in the game that are both faster than the Portable Refiner and can combine elements to form entirely new items. There's also a Personal Refiner that can be built into your Exosuit's technology inventory.
For No Man's Sky's early game though, it's generally good practice to keep this one on your person at all times.