Resource node

Resource nodes are specific locations spread across the world where resource extractors (Miners and Oil Extractors) can be placed to automate ore (or Crude Oil) harvesting, solid resources to be extracted manually by the Engineer, or are used for power generation using Geo Thermal Generators on Geyser nodes. Three nearest resource nodes from the Engineer can be located with the Resource Scanner.

Nodes have 3 possible purities, which affect how fast are resources extracted (see below). All resource nodes are infinite which means they cannot be depleted.

Deposit
Resource deposit is the rocky shaped part that often found on resource nodes. There can be more than 1 deposit on a node, while some nodes don't come with any deposit at all. There are many more deposits laying all around the world, particularly useful ones are the Caterium, Sulfur and Raw Quartz deposits, as they enable the scanner unlock at M.A.M. once picked up.

Some collectibles such as Power Slugs are hidden behind deposit that must be mined out first, while several Uranium deposit can be found on the edge of the Red Jungle to act as an obstacle to the Crash Sites, as they produce radiation.

The location of deposits around the world is fixed, as with resource nodes. But the type of each deposit is randomly selected. So in different game session you may see different type of deposit at the same position.

The number of ores in a deposit is random and averaged at about 60 ores, but can sometimes go beyond 100.

Accessing
Solid resource nodes will often have resource deposit(s) on top of them, which must be mined out by hand before a miner building can be placed on them. Portable Miners can be placed on them without clearing the deposit. There are also often hostile creatures spawned nearby to make accessing the node more challenging.

Some resource nodes, such as Caterium Ore, can be blocked by large round boulders with cracks on them. These boulders can be detonated using a Nobelisk Detonator. These boulders block the placement of buildings, but not the placement of Portable Miners.

Mining
There are a few ways to mine a resource node:
 * Manual hand-mining with a chisel. Simply approach it and interact (default ). At the same time, open the inventory so that you can release the mining key, and the manual mining will continue until the inventory window is closed.
 * Placing a Portable Miner on it. Equip the portable miner, to place down. You can place multiple portable miners on a same node. As the internal storage of a potable miner is limited, and lack of a belt output, you need to take out the mined ores manually.
 * Placing a Miner building on it. This is the only way to fully automate the mining process. However only one Miner is allowed to be built on each resource node.

Types
All ores have their own resource deposits that are present all over the world. S.A.M. Ore nodes behave strangely, as they only produce ore in batches after the game is reloaded or after specific periods of time (see S.A.M. Ore for details). Uranium nodes and deposits, just like all Uranium-based items, are radioactive.

History

 * Patch 0.3.2.0:
 * Portable Miners can be no longer placed on Crude Oil resource nodes
 * Crude Oil resource nodes now again show purity when approached
 * Patch 0.3:
 * Crude Oil and Geyser resource nodes no longer show "(resource) can not be picked up" when approached, and instead just tell the name of the node. Node purity is no longer shown on Crude Oil nodes, an Oil Extractor has to be built to detect it
 * Crude Oil is now extracted as a fluid instead of in barrels
 * Patch 0.1.20: Uranium nodes and clusters now radiate
 * Patch 2018-10-11: Initial design. Various resource nodes were updated throughout Closed Alpha