World
Worlds are planetary bodies, which includes both planets and moons.
Biomes Types
Every world is composed of a single biome. Biomes determine a world's primary appearance, available resources, environmental conditions, and types of weather possible. See Biomes for more information on the different types that exist.
Terrain Types
Every world also has a specific terrain type, chosen at random from the following list: Floating Island, Canyon, Ravines, Arches, Alien, Craters, Caverns, Alpine, Lilypad, or Desert.
Terrain types are chosen independently of biome types and any combination seems possible. Despite the names of some of the terrain types, they only affect the overall shape of the land. Each of terrain type has the same chances of being or not being a Water World. See Terrain for more information.
Ecosystems
Each world can also be divided into three to five ecosystems. Ground, Flying, Underground, and Mountain ecosystems exist on every world. Underwater ecosystems only exist on water worlds. Each species of fauna found on a world is limited to spawning in a single ecosystem. See Ecosystems for more information.
Rarity Levels
Rarity levels are used for determining how common flora, fauna, and minerals are. Each world will have separate rarity levels for each of these discovery types.
The following sequence is taken from the game data.
| Sequence | None | Low | Mid | High | Weird |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | None | Low | Average | Abundant | Unusual |
| 2. | Deficient | Scarce | Regular | High | Lost |
| 3. | Undetected | Infrequent | Common | Ample | Displaced |
| 4. | Lacking | Rare | Typical | Frequent | From Elsewhere |
| 5. | Absent | Limited | Ordinary | Full | Uprooted |
| 6. | Nonexistent | Sporadic | Occasional | Generous | Misplaced |
| 7. | Empty | Intermittent | Numerous | Bountiful | Forfeited |
| 8. | Not Present | Uncommon | Moderate | Copious | Between Worlds |
| 9. | Devoid | Few | Fair | Rich | |
| 10. | Barren | Sparse | Medium | Abundant |
Planetary Resources
Each world has three to five major resources. These resources will be found scattered upon the surface of the world in large deposits. They will be listed on several screens including Ship Scans and Visor Scans of the planet. These resources will be listed in a set order, not including Salvageable Scrap or Ancient Bones if one of the two are present.
- Biome-specific plant: Only present for specific biomes. Dead, Exotic, Chromatic, Lava, and Swamp worlds do not have a biome-specific plant.
- Stellar-specific metal: See Spectral Class for more information.
- Copper: The stellar metal always present in yellow star systems.
- Cadmium: The stellar metal always present in red star systems.
- Emeril: The stellar metal always present in green star systems.
- Indium: The stellar metal always present in blue star systems.
- Biome-specific resource: Each biome-specific resource is unique to one or two biome types.
- Ammonia: Present on all Toxic and Green Chromatic worlds.
- Basalt: Present only on some Lava worlds.
- Dioxite: Present on all Frozen and Blue Chromatic Worlds.
- Faecium: Present only on some Swamp worlds.
- Gold: Present only on Exotic worlds.
- Mordite: Present only on some Swamp worlds.
- Paraffinium: Present on all Lush and some Swamp worlds.
- Phosphorus: Present on all Scorched and Red Chromatic worlds.
- Pyrite: Present on all Barren and some Lava worlds.
- Rusted Metal: Present only on Dead worlds.
- Uranium: Present only on Irradiated worlds.
- Random resource: Each world will have one of the following resources, selected at random: Cobalt, Magnetised Ferrite, Salt, Silver, or Sodium.
- Salvageable Scrap or Ancient Bones: These special resources are only rarely present. Some screens will inconsistently place them first in order. When documenting resources for world pages on this wiki, they should be placed last.
Documenting Planetary Resources
When documenting new planet and moon discoveries on this wiki, this order is considered the standardized presentation order for resources. This matches most menus and scans in-game and ensures consistent resource placement on System pages. Please note the Planetary Menu of the Discoveries tab shows resources in an alternative order.
Viewing Planetary Resources
When viewing resources listed for a world's infobox, their names will automatically be abbreviated to their elemental notation to save space. Be aware their full names can be seen when moused over. For example, Seba Tau's resources would be listed in its infobox as So, Cu, P, NaCl, Sa.
When viewing a world page's Resources section, their names will be displayed in full alongside their icons. For example, Seba Tau's resources would be listed as:
Solanium
Copper
Phosphorus
Salt
Salvageable Scrap
When viewing resources on a System page, all planet and moon resources are shown as icons only. Be aware their full names can be seen when moused over. For example, Seba Tau's resources on its parent System page would be listed as:
Known Worlds
For a list of known worlds, see here.
Documenting Worlds
New world discoveries can be added using the Planet Form or Moon Form, as appropriate for which type it is.
Additional information
- The Rarity Level sequence was extracted from the 3.00 version of NMS_LOC1_ENGLISH.MBIN game file by PC player Ertosi. This version is identical to the previous 2.x versions except for the addition of the Weird rarities.
- Universal World Records has listings of the most extreme worlds documented.