Storm Crystals are used to craft four notable items in No Man's Sky. However, they are primarily-credit generating items within the game. Beginners can make quite a bit of money off of these unique resources. Once explorers begin trading and manipulating the economy, Storm Crystals will not have as big of a role in the game, but they're useful early on.
In order to find the bright crystals, players will have to travel to one of the universe's many extreme-weather planets. Only in these harsh environments will the crystals appear. They will only be harvestable during a storm, so there are a few strategies people will need to follow to in order to get the crystals and survive to tell the tale.
How To Locate An Extreme Weather Planet
The telltale sign of an extreme weather planet is an activated metal. To begin their search, players should scan the planet and look for any of the following activated stellar metals:
- Emeril
- Copper
- Cadmium
- Indium
Extreme colors often indicate that a solar system has an extreme weather planet. For example, green, blue, and sometimes red systems seem to have a higher chance of generating extreme weather worlds where players can find storm crystals.
What To Bring On The Journey
Those that prefer to gather the crystals by foot will have to get their hands on a supreme suit upgrade, based on the weather hazard for the planet. For example, if the planet has a high level of radiation, the Magnetic DNA Repair System must be equipped.
Given the choice, using a vehicle is a much better option for these expeditions. Each hazard protection upgrade will need a resources to power it, so survivors need to make sure they have enough of those. Likewise, depending on the type of fuel used, players will need either carbon or oxygen to power the vehicle.
Soup Up The Exocraft
This step is optional, but explorers will have a much easier time traversing the harsh extreme weather planets if they give their exocraft a few upgrades. Gamers should give the craft several S-class upgrades to improve speed, handling, and control while driving. However, any upgrades will help, as not every player will be able to make all of the modifications. Upgrading the suit is a good idea too if possible.
Farming Methods
Gamers can collect the crystals on foot or in the exocraft. They can even use the starship for a wider point of view. Of all the options, using the exocraft is by far the safest and the fastest. Explorers can gather the crystals while in the craft in a fraction of the time it takes on foot. Surviving the hazardous climate on foot will require players to use an absurd amount of resources. On the other hand, using the starship is cool, but the exit animation will slow the process down.
It is generally a good idea to have a base setup for storage, which will make future farming trips smoother. Similarly, bringing a save point can be helpful because of the dangers on these planets, and because the exocraft will not autosave each time the character exits.
Wait For The Storm
Shockingly, Storm Crystals can only be acquired during an active storm. Before setting out, wait for the storm indicator. Within a few seconds, the storm will hit and the crystals can be farmed. Once the Crystals shed their outer layer, players can harvest them.
Spotting The Crystals
Storm Crystals are extremely bright and can be spotted from fairly far away. The exocraft provides a wide field of view, which is good enough to see a handful of crystals. When the visor is equipped, the Storm Crystals are marked by a yellow electricity icon. The visor is really only necessary on icy worlds, because the crystals may blend into the landscape in such environments. It might make sense to avoid these frozen planets, because of how bad visibility can be.
Items Crafted With Storm Crystals
The four most useful items crafted with Storm Crystals are the Warp Hypercore, Environment Control Unit (ECU), Icarus Fuel System, and Antimatter Reactor. The number of Storm Crystals needed for each is listed below.
- Warp Hypercore: 1 Storm Crystal
- ECU: 3 Storm Crystals
- Icarus Fuel System: 3 Storm Crystals
- Antimatter Reactor: 5 Storm Crystals
Explorers can use the Warp Hypercore as a replacement for the Warp Cell for extra fuel on long journeys. The ECU will provide increased hazard protection while on the extreme weather planets. Anyone that likes using the Minotaur will benefit from the Icarus Fuel System, which basically acts as a solar power unit for the walker. The last item is the Antimatter Reactor, which produces antimatter, but needs fuel to operate. How this little machine creates antimatter out of thin air is anyone's guess. Still, since physicists do not even understand how antimatter works, technically it makes sense.