The Planet Crafter Crafting Guide: Resources, Recipes & Priorities

The Planet Crafter drops you alone on a dead world with a single objective: make it breathable. You build heaters, drills and greenhouses to push a terraformation index through oxygen, heat, pressure and biomass stages until the sky changes colour and rain falls on ground that was bare rock when you landed.

Resource management and crafting determine how quickly your power scales. This guide covers what to prioritize, where to farm, and how to avoid wasting resources on the wrong upgrades.

Crafting Priority List

The order you should invest resources:

Resource Farming by Area

Landing site

Key resources: Iron, silicon, safe building space Farming efficiency: Low value per run, but safe and consistent

Focus on gathering materials for Heater upgrades here. See our maps guide for detailed area layouts.

Iridium Cave

Key resources: Iridium, rare ores Farming efficiency: Good early-game farming spot

Focus on gathering materials for Heater upgrades here. See our maps guide for detailed area layouts.

Meteor Field

Key resources: Rare materials, debris salvage Farming efficiency: Best mid-game farming, worth revisiting

Focus on gathering materials for Heater upgrades here. See our maps guide for detailed area layouts.

Aluminium Cave

Key resources: Aluminium, construction materials Farming efficiency: High-value materials for late-game upgrades

This is where you farm materials for Mining drill max upgrades. See our maps guide for detailed area layouts.

Crashed wrecks

Key resources: Blueprints, chips, rare components Farming efficiency: Best resources in the game, requires strong build

This is where you farm materials for Mining drill max upgrades. See our maps guide for detailed area layouts.

Upgrade Path

Early Game (Landing site to Iridium Cave)

1. Upgrade your starting equipment to functional level
2. Craft basic defensive gear
3. Save specialty materials, since you'll need them later
4. Focus on Heater once accessible

Mid Game (Meteor Field)

1. Push Heater to mid-level upgrades
2. Start collecting materials for Mining drill
3. Craft situational consumables for boss fights
4. Upgrade build-specific gear pieces

Late Game (Aluminium Cave to Crashed wrecks)

1. Max out Mining drill. This is your top priority
2. Complete your build's core gear set
3. Craft endgame consumables
4. Optional: upgrade secondary equipment for variety

Crafting Mistakes to Avoid

1. Spreading upgrades across multiple equipment: Focus one weapon to max before diversifying.
2. Hoarding materials: Use them. The game provides enough if you farm efficiently.
3. Upgrading the wrong gear: Check our builds guide before investing.
4. Ignoring Meteor Field farming: This area has the best resource-to-time ratio in mid-game.
5. Crafting consumables too early: Save specialty materials for late-game recipes.

Resource Efficiency Tips

• Heat is the first gate and everything else waits behind it. Put your opening resources into heaters rather than storage or comfort, because the index thresholds unlock the machines that make later stages fast.
• Farm Meteor Field during mid-game for the best return on time
• Check the walkthrough to know when each resource becomes available
• Match your farming route to your build. Some classes farm faster in certain areas

More The Planet Crafter Guides

• The Planet Crafter The Planet Crafter Overview
• The Planet Crafter Best Builds
• The Planet Crafter Tier List
• The Planet Crafter Walkthrough
• The Planet Crafter Beginner's Guide
• The Planet Crafter Tips & Tricks
• The Planet Crafter Weapons Guide
• The Planet Crafter Combat Guide
• The Planet Crafter Boss Guide
• The Planet Crafter Maps & Locations
• The Planet Crafter Classes & Characters

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• Rust Crafting Guide: survival game with similar mechanics
• ARK: Survival Evolved Crafting Guide: survival game with similar mechanics