You’re staring at a terminal on a desolate, radioactive rock. Your hazard protection is screaming. All you want is to finish that specific milestone or craft that high-tier upgrade, but the game is asking for something specific. It's asking for a trace of metal nms players often overlook until they absolutely need it. This isn't just about gold or silver. We're talking about the specific, refined elements that make the difference between a starter ship and a galaxy-hopping freighter.
No Man's Sky is massive. Truly massive. 18 quintillion planets.
Because the game is procedurally generated, finding specific "traces" of metals often feels like a wild goose chase. Most players get frustrated because they're looking in the wrong star systems. Honestly, if you're orbiting a Yellow star expecting to find the heavy stuff, you're wasting your warp cells. You’ve gotta understand the spectral classes. It's the only way to play efficiently.
What People Get Wrong About Finding Metals
Many travelers think that every planet has a bit of everything. That’s a lie. The game's engine, developed by Hello Games, uses a specific logic for resource distribution. If you're looking for a trace of metal nms veterans use for late-game crafting, you need to look at the color of the sun.
Yellow stars (Class F & G) are the "safe" zones. You'll find Copper here.
Red stars (Class M) house Cadmium.
Green stars (Class E) give you Emeril.
Blue stars (Class B & O) are where the Indium lives.
If you're hunting for "metal traces" in the context of the "A Trace of Metal" questline specifically, that’s a whole different beast. That quest is tied to your Settlement. It’s the gateway to getting your own Sentinel Minotaur companion. Most players trigger it by warping after they've established a settlement, but it won't pop if you're currently in the middle of another major story beat like The Purge. It's finicky.
The Sentinel Connection
During the actual "A Trace of Metal" mission, you aren't just mining rocks. You're hunting Sentinels. You’ll need to defeat Sentinel Pillars and gather salvaged glass. This is where the "trace" comes in—it’s literally the scraps of drone technology you’re stitching into your own machinery.
It’s intense.
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I remember the first time I tried this on Permadeath mode. One wrong move with a Sentinel Exomech and your 40-hour save file is toast. You need to be prepared with a Pulse Spitter or a high-damage Blaze Javelin. Don't go in with a standard mining beam. You'll get melted.
Refining: Turning Scraps into Value
Sometimes, you don't find the metal you need in the wild. You make it.
Refining is the "secret sauce" of No Man's Sky. You can take a trace of metal and multiply it. For example, Chromatic Metal is the backbone of almost everything. You can get it from Copper, sure. But did you know that if you mix Indium with Silver and Gold, the output ratio is insane?
- 1 Indium + 1 Silver + 1 Gold = 30 Chromatic Metal.
That’s not a typo.
If you’re struggling to find rare metals, stop looking for deposits and start looking for a Medium or Large Refiner. The game doesn't explicitly tell you these recipes. You have to experiment. Or, you know, look them up on the NMS Assistant app, which is what most of us actually do.
Why the Sentinel Pillar Matters
If you're doing the quest, you'll eventually be sent to a Sentinel Pillar. These are massive, glowing structures that control the local drone population.
Pro tip: You don't actually have to fight the five waves of Sentinels to disable the pillar. If you’re fast—and I mean really fast—you can fly your starship right up to the control nodes, blast them from the cockpit, land, and interface with the terminal before the reinforcements even spawn. It feels like a sequence out of a movie. It also saves you a ton of shield batteries.
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The "Pillar Map" is a rare drop from salvaged glass, but during the quest, the game marks it for you. This is the best time to farm for those specific metal traces and "Hardened Fragments" needed for the Minotaur upgrades.
The Economy of Metal
Let's talk units.
If you're looking for metal to get rich, skip the basics. Activated Indium used to be the king of the market. Then Hello Games nerfed it in the Waypoints update. Now, the economy is more balanced.
Gold is actually surprisingly viable now. Finding a planet with "Submerged Relics" or "Ancient Bones" often yields higher profit margins than basic mining. But for the "A Trace of Metal nms" crowd, the value isn't in the sale—it's in the utility. You're building a drone. You're upgrading a base. You're becoming a literal god of the star system.
The grind is real, but it's manageable if you stop treating it like a chore.
Breaking Down the Quest Steps
- Establish a Settlement: You can't start the metal quest without being an Overseer.
- Wait for the Attack: Eventually, your settlement will be raided by Sentinels.
- The Pristine Shell: You'll collect a fragment from a fallen drone. This starts the dialogue with Tethys on the Space Anomaly.
- The Journey: You'll visit various NPCs on the Anomaly (Hesperus, Gemini) to gather parts.
It's a lot of back-and-forth. Honestly, the Anomaly is a bit of a maze if you aren't used to it. Just keep your jetpack fueled.
Actionable Steps for the Resource-Hungry Traveler
If you’re stuck or just trying to optimize your metal gathering, here is exactly what you should do right now.
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Upgrade your Scanner immediately.
Go to the Space Station. Find the Multi-tool technology merchant. Buy the S-class Scanner modules. If you stack three of these, a single scan of a rare mineral can net you 50,000 to 100,000 units. It also highlights "Secondary Elements" in rock formations. That's how you find traces of rare metals like Cobalt or Sodium inside common Ferrite Dust rocks.
Invest in a Survey Device.
This is a separate upgrade for your Multi-tool. It allows you to find "Hotspots." Instead of mining a rock that disappears, you can build an Extracting Outpost. This is passive income. You build it, you leave, you come back 24 hours later, and your silos are full of metal.
Use the Terrain Manipulator's Small Setting.
When you are mining a physical deposit of metal, use the smallest brush size. It takes longer, yes. But the game calculates the resource yield based on the "time spent mining" rather than the volume of the hole. You get way more metal from a single node this way. It's a "pro gamer move" that saves hours of flying around looking for new patches.
Check the Galactic Trade Terminal.
Sometimes, the easiest way to find a trace of metal is to just buy it. If you’re in a high-economy system (look for 3-star icons in the galaxy map), the traders in the landing bays often carry 2,000+ units of whatever local metal is prevalent. It’s cheaper than you think.
No Man's Sky is a game about patience. Whether you're hunting for that specific quest-related fragment or just trying to fill your cargo hold with enough Chromatic Metal to build a base on a paradise planet, the rules are the same. Look at the stars, check your refiner recipes, and don't let the Sentinels catch you slacking.
Go check your Multi-tool's installed technology. If you don't have the "Advanced Mining Laser," you can't even touch the rare crystals that contain the best metal traces. Get that blueprint from the Anomaly first. It changes the entire game.