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No Man's Sky

How to Hire a Scientist for the Science Terminal

By
Scott Peers

This page details everything you need to know about how to hire a Scientist for the Science Terminal at your personal base in No Man’s Sky. We’ll cover how to get the blueprint for the Science Terminal by speaking with the Overseer, and where to find a Scientist to recruit.

How to Get the Science Terminal Blueprint in No Man’s Sky

The Science Terminal can only be obtained once you’ve set up a Construction Terminal at your base, and hired an Overseer to operate it. You can see how to do this on our page How to Hire an Overseer for the Construction Terminal. Once you have an Overseer, you’ll need to complete a few basic tasks for them in the form of gathering specific materials, primarily Chromatic Metal, before they will give you the blueprint for the Science Terminal. You’ll need 40 Chromatic Metal and 25 Magnetised Ferrite to construct the Science Terminal, so it’s a good idea to gather or purchase plenty so that you only need to make one trip.

Material 1 Material 2 Output
NMS_Chromatic_Metal.png Chromatic Metal NMS_Magnetised_Ferrite.png Magnetised Ferrite NMS_Science_Terminal.png Science Terminal

Where to Construct the Science Terminal in NMS

As with the Construction Terminal, you don’t need to place the Science Terminal within any specific type of building. All you need to ensure is that the building you want to place it in is a valid interior space, with flooring, walls, a door, and a roof. It’s a good idea to have more than one layer of walls constructed on top of each other, as this will give you plenty of space to build taller structures when necessary. You should build the Science Terminal before you go looking for a Scientist to recruit, since you won’t be able to recruit any scientists until the Science Terminal is up and running.

Where to Find a Korvax Scientist in No Man’s Sky

The only restriction on hiring a Scientist for the Science Terminal at your base is the fact that they must be of the Korvax species. This is primarily due to the requirements of the questline, which are Korvax-specific at times, but most hired NPCs will be restricted to a specific species regardless. There are no inherent advantages or disadvantages to hiring any particular Korvax Scientist, so you can just hire the first one that you find. The only difference between each Scientist will be the physical appearance, so if this is something you care about, you may want to visit multiple systems in search of a Scientist. You will have the best chance of finding them at space stations in Korvax-controlled systems, but they can also sometimes be found at Trading Outposts on planets.

Scientist Blueprints

The Scientist will provide you with a number of blueprints in exchange for specific materials or simple quests that they might send you on. Some of the quests that a Scientist will send you on require a significant amount of real time to pass before you can proceed with them. This amounts to roughly 3 hours. A full list of the blueprints can be seen in the table below.

Icon Blueprint Type
NMS_Lubricant.png Lubricant Advanced Agricultural Product
NMS_Acid.png Acid Advanced Agricultural Product
NMS_Microprocessor.png Microprocessor Crafted Technology Component
NMS_Large_Refiner.png Large Refiner Automated Refinery Unit
NMS_Living_Glass.png Living Glass Advanced Agricultural Product
NMS_Save_Becon.png Save Beacon Portable save point and waypoint marker
NMS_Autonomous_Mining_Unit.png Autonomous Mining Unit Autonomous Mining Device
NMS_Atmosphere_Harvester.png Atmosphere Harvester Autonomous Gas Compressor
NMS_Unstable_Gel.png Unstable Gel Advanced Agricultural Product
NMS_Poly_Fibre.png Poly Fibre Advanced Agricultural Product
NMS_Circuit_Board.png Circuit Board Advanced Agricultural Product
NMS_Heat_Capacitor.png Heat Capacitor Advanced Agricultural Product
NMS_Liquid_Explosive.png Liquid Explosive Advanced Agricultural Product

(1 of 4) You can build the Science Terminal anywhere within an interior space of your base.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Hello Games
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, XB One, XB X|S
  • Guide Release
    27 April 2022
  • Last Updated
    11 January 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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