Refining
Refineries turn raw ore into more valuable components before you sell your haul.
Raw ore is worth credits, but not its full share — not until it’s been through a refinery. That’s the last leg of the mine → haul → sell chain, and the reason a hold full of ore is worth escorting.
Ore in, components out
Dock at a Refinery station and the shop slot grows a second section: REFINERY, one row per ore you’re carrying that has a recipe. Every ladder mineral refines into a matching component:
| Ore | Refines into |
|---|---|
| Ferrite | Alloy Plate |
| Silica | Circuit Board |
| Ice | Fuel Cell |
| Titanium | Armor Plating |
| Iridium | Weapon Core |
| Voidite | Fold Capacitor |
Gem and every salvage commodity have no recipe — they’re rarity procs and scrap, not feedstock, and never show up in the REFINERY section.
The ratio
Refining runs 2 ore in for every 1 component out — whole batches only. Hit REFINE and a stack converts in full-batch chunks; anything below the ratio stays behind unrefined, waiting for the next haul to top it off. REFINE ALL runs every eligible stack in the hold at once.
Why bother
A component sells for more per unit than the ore it came from, so the haul out to a refinery is what turns a middling ore run into a real payday. It’s also why mine and refinery rarely sit in the same spot — the value only banks once it’s been processed, so until you dock and refine, what’s in your hold is still just vulnerable ore.