No Man’s Sky – Repairing Your Scanner

The first thing you should do is repair your scanner. Without it, you’re essentially blind when it comes to navigation, finding resources, and other essential tasks. The game will prompt you to do this, both in the lower right-hand corner and in your secondary quests if you pause and look at your quest log.

To repair the scanner, you need ferrite dust. The way to get that? Rocks. All the rocks scattered about, however tiny, can be mined for ferrite dust. As you do so, you’ll see the total number of ferrite dust increase in the lower right, especially if this secondary objective is selected in your Log screen (Pause > Log).

Note: The game is populated by Sentinels. Sentinels don’t like it when you mine their worlds. It’s best to stay as far away from them as possible when mining. You can see and hear them, and an icon will appear on your HUD when they are close, along with a large directional indicator showing where they are. If they approach you, which they will after you mine large objects or a lot of material, stay calm unless they attack first.

If you don’t attack them, you should be alright the first few times you mine, especially if you stay out of their line of sight and detection range. However, if you continue mining right in front of them, expect to be punished. Treat sentinels as a stealth enemy you should avoid.

Some worlds have particularly hostile sentinels. You can check the aggressiveness of Sentinels by pausing the game, going to your Discoveries screen, and navigating to the planet you’re currently on. It will list information such as weather, Sentinels (typical, aggressive, etc.), and conflict levels (peaceful, etc.), giving you a quick idea of what to expect. Always scope it out.

If you start on a particularly tough planet, don’t be afraid to start a new game and “re-roll,” since your starting planet is selected randomly. With that out of the way, back to the Scanner.

Since you’re now mining, this is a good time to mention the mining laser overheat timing. On the upper right of your screen, when mining, you’ll see a meter fill. If you continue mining beyond that point, your laser will overheat, and you’ll have to wait for it to cool down. However, if you release the mining trigger/button just as the meter reaches its maximum, the laser will cool down instantly, allowing you to mine almost uninterrupted. If you run out of charge for your mining laser, you’ll need carbon to refuel it. More on that later.

Once you reach the required amount of ferrite dust to repair your scanner, enter your inventory, move to the Multitool screen (the multitool is your all-purpose tool in the game—scanner, miner, etc.), and mouse/cursor over it. Press the prompted key/button to repair, provided you have the necessary ingredients, which you should after mining a small amount of ferrite dust from rocks.

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