Crafting and Research: From Scrap to New Equipment

What feeds the crafting system?

The current Steam description identifies scrap extraction, mineral processing and gathering organic materials. It also describes crafting items, manufacturing resources, cooking and researching artifacts to learn new things to create. This makes it important to read the requested output: a raw find and a finished manufactured item are not automatically interchangeable just because both belong to the same production chain.

What should you check when you cannot make an item?

Work backwards from the visible recipe or objective. Identify the required output, the materials you hold, the equipment available at your camp or Cruiser and whether the knowledge is unlocked. This is a diagnostic method, not a claim that a specific recipe always needs four stages. Do not dismantle valuable finds solely because a generic guide calls all salvage equivalent.

Where does research fit?

The launch guide explicitly includes object research among Cloud Cruiser functions, while the store ties artifact research to knowledge of new creations. Keep research-related finds identifiable until you understand their use. The first announced hotfix also lists an issue involving research drives during recovery; update and record the build if progress appears to be lost.

Why is there no complete recipe table here?

A complete table needs current-build quantities and unlock conditions, not a mixture of old demo footage and future designs. Those values have not been independently verified for every item. Use the menu in your own save as the immediate authority, and treat future recipe pages as additions to this overview rather than inventing figures to fill a database.

Related guides

• Beginner Guide: Prepare Your First Expedition
• Power and Fuel: A Practical Supply Checklist
• Performance Issues and the EA 1.0-4 Hotfix