Refinery and materials

Enemies drop wreck materials, four basic kinds (Tier 1): Rustplate and Veinwire on every map, Rime on the middle maps, and Neverember on the high maps and from strong ships. In the Refinery window of the menu you turn them into Tier 2 intermediates (Alloy, Coil), and those into Tier 3 blends (Weapon Alloy, Current Essence). Intermediates and blends are boost fuel as they are: for a while, or for a set number of shots, they raise your damage, shield or speed.

Tiers and the four boost lines

Laser and Rocket are the weapon lines (Rustplate, Alloy, Weapon Alloy); Shield and Speed are the system lines (Veinwire, Coil, Current Essence). Tier 1 fuel is the raw material that drops; it needs no refining.

Refining recipes

Refining is instant, works anywhere and needs no station. The materials are spent from your cargo; the refined product stays in your cargo and takes less room than its inputs (4 → 1), so refining frees up cargo space. When you refine a product, any missing intermediates are refined for you on the way (a chain); if you lack materials or Credits, nothing changes and you are told what is missing.

Boosts

• Laser: Tier 1 +5% (Rustplate), Tier 2 +15% (Alloy), Tier 3 +30% (Weapon Alloy). 1 unit lasts: Tier 1 2 shots, Tier 2 12 shots, Tier 3 60 shots (a Laser fires once a second, a Rocket once every three seconds).
• Rocket: Tier 1 +5% (Rustplate), Tier 2 +15% (Alloy), Tier 3 +30% (Weapon Alloy). 1 unit lasts: Tier 1 2 salvos, Tier 2 4 salvos, Tier 3 20 salvos (a Laser fires once a second, a Rocket once every three seconds).
• Shield: Tier 1 +5% (Veinwire), Tier 2 +15% (Coil), Tier 3 +30% (Current Essence). 1 unit lasts: Tier 1 2 s, Tier 2 12 s, Tier 3 1 min.
• Speed: Tier 1 +5% (Veinwire), Tier 2 +15% (Coil), Tier 3 +30% (Current Essence). 1 unit lasts: Tier 1 2 s, Tier 2 12 s, Tier 3 1 min.

• Tier 1 is open to everyone. Loading and using Tier 2 and Tier 3 needs the Research → Professions → Refinery Mastery tree: Weapon Boost II / III for Laser and Rocket, Defense Boost II / III for Shield and Speed. The Refinery window names the node that unlocks a locked tier; refining is always free, so you can make Tier 3 material and sell it on the Market. Fuel Efficiency (−5% per level) cuts the fuel a boost burns, Refining Fee (−10% per level) cuts the Credits that refining costs, and Boost Master cuts Tier 3 fuel by a further 15%.
• Each line has only one tier active at a time. A boost burns only the amount you loaded onto the ship; when the load runs out the boost switches off, and you load it again.
• While you are docked at a station, the time of Shield and Speed boosts does not run down.
• A boost has half its effect in PvP.
• Basic Tier 1 materials are bound to the pilot. Alloy, Coil, Weapon Alloy, Current Essence, Ring Essence, Protection Seal and Beam Core can be bought and sold on the Market.

Automatic refining and boost loading

Automatic refining (Vessarion Plus) is a switch and a product queue. When it is on, it refines everything it can from the raw materials you hold (the 10 + 10 → 1 rule, with missing intermediates made for you). The queue is a priority list: the product at the top gets the raw material first. It runs when loot enters your cargo, when you pick up a crate with a full cargo (it refines first, then takes the rest), and every 60 seconds.

You load a boost, and it burns only what you loaded: in the Refinery, on the line's tab, the tier's card has Load buttons (×1, ×10, ×100, Max or a slider) that load material from your cargo onto the ship: the material is removed from your cargo at once (which frees cargo space) and becomes the ship's loaded boost (shown as shots, salvos or seconds). A boost burns only the loaded amount; it never uses the material in your cargo by itself. When the load runs out the boost stops and tells you “Laser boost used up, load again”. Unload returns the whole units that were loaded but not burned to your cargo (as far as there is room). A loaded boost is not dropped when your ship dies; only half of the materials in your cargo fall into the wreck. The old “Automatic use” is gone.

The Cargo and Storage window

• One window, three tabs: the Industry button in the menu (shortcut I) opens with the tab you looked at last. Storage is everything you have in one place: your cargo, your production goods and your module count, plus Sell Plunder / Dust / Cores. Refinery has the tiers, the boost lines and the load buttons, and an Automatic tab for Plus automatic refining. Production has Dismantling, LT-4 crafting and the Protection Seal, with your Research → Professions perks shown on top. Storage is not a station warehouse; it opens anywhere.
• Wreck materials (Rustplate, Veinwire, Rime, Neverember and refined products) go into your cargo and take up space: they share the hold with Plunder, Dust and Cores, 1 unit each. When the cargo is full, the extra stays in the crate; the Plus collector drone does not pull materials into a full cargo either. Refining frees space (3 Rustplate + 1 Rime = 4 units, 1 Alloy = 1 unit).
• Selling one kind at a time: every row in the Storage and Cargo windows has Sell buttons (1 / 10 / All); they sell that kind to an NPC buyer anywhere in space. While you are in combat (for 10 s after you take damage or fire), the button says “You are in combat · N s” and does not sell. Plunder, Dust and Cores sell at full price (with the Plus share); materials sell at a low fixed price: Rustplate 1, Veinwire 1, Rime 2, Neverember 2, Alloy 15, Coil 15, Weapon Alloy 150, Current Essence 150 Credits. Refining them and selling on the Market pays far better. Ring Essence, Protection Seals, Beam Cores and modules cannot be sold to an NPC (they sell on the Market); the bulk button at the bottom sells only Plunder, Dust and Cores and leaves materials alone.
• The Refinery, boost loading, Ring Essence, LT-4 crafting, automatic refining, upgrades and Market sell orders spend from your cargo, and no station is needed. Materials you buy on the Market arrive in your cargo (if they do not fit, the purchase does not happen, and a waiting buy order waits until there is room).
• Ring Essence, Protection Seals and Beam Cores take no cargo space: they sit in a separate production inventory and, like modules, are not lost when you die. If your ship is destroyed, half of your cargo (goods and materials together) falls into the wreck. Plunder, Dust and Cores are sold anywhere in space with Sell Plunder / Dust / Cores to turn them into Credits.

Where do they drop?

Each enemy drops a fixed pack, with no dice. There are two packs: the weapon pack (20 Rustplate + 20 Rime: the raw material of the Laser and Rocket lines) and the system pack (20 Veinwire + 20 Neverember: the raw material of the Shield and Speed lines). The most common creature on a map (type 1) drops all four basic materials, half of each pack: even a pilot who hunts only that creature collects Veinwire and Neverember. The other types drop the whole of their own pack, starting with the system pack and alternating: type 2 system, type 3 weapon, type 4 system. On a map with a single type (X-1), every kill gives half of both packs. The pack grows with the creature's level: a level 1 creature drops 20 + 20, and each level multiplies it by ×1.25 (20 → 25 → 31 → 39 → 49 → 61 → 76). Every kill goes into your cargo (what does not fit stays in the crate).

• An Elite enemy drops its pack ×2, a Paragon ×10 (split by contribution), and a Commander group ×1.5. Named captains (the Exile Captains) drop both packs at once ×1 (196 units), and the Notorious Boss ×2 (608 units).
• PvP wreck: 6 Rustplate, 6 Veinwire, 4 Rime; on the Frontier Line, The Broken Belt and The Shroud also 3 Neverember.
• Crown War (the Touchstone): 12 / 8 / 5 / 3 Neverember (units 1-4). The Grand Wormhole Chest: 2000 / 2000 / 2000, and 2000 Neverember on top of that in every run. It is a delivery, so it always goes into your cargo (if it overflows, your cargo turns red, and refining fixes that).

For the map tiers, see the Maps page. For LT-3 / LT-4 / RK-3 / RK-4 upgrades and Ring Essence, see Weapons.