While there are many ways to farm a given item, the collection information within is purely composed of my preferred farming loops for each item. Where applicable I will also include notes on both how and where to collect each resource.

Additionally, I will try to include common or recurring uses for each resource, as applicable.

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Please note, that I've made the blanket assumption that anyone looking to farm materials in any notable quantity already has access to hard mode, and as such, my suggestions are tailored with the expectation that most farming will be done in hard mode, unless there happens to be a case in which normal mode offers a faster farm.

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Given the vast differences in relevance of materials with some being required in neigh uncountable quantities, and others needing only a few hundred, I've chose to structure this guide to account for that. The first two sections are specifically for Catalysts and Energy Activators, which will be constantly farmed as long as one plays the game, whereas the Sigma Sector, Fellow, and Limited sections will include materials that only need to be farmed as needed, and sometimes only once.
The Ctrl+F function is your friend, wherever possible I have used the exact item name for ease of searching, for materials/blueprints/locations/etc.

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Comments, notes, and additions are welcome. Credit noted where credit due

As with any guide, your mileage may vary
Time to go to work

You're going to need lots of these. So learning to farm the materials efficiently is a key way to save some time and make the core loop easier.

The Void Vessel drops a small amount of relevant materials as a completion bonus in both normal and hard mode. In my opinion, not a particularly efficient source of materials but a welcome bonus if you happen to be running the Vessel for another reason.

With no field farming location, the only choice is is one of the infiltrations in the Sterile Land. Expect drops in the ~14-24 range. My advice is to stock up on these whenever one of the relevant missions is the daily 400%.
The Forgottense also drops Artificial Biometals (~7/run) as well as the Distorted Resolve external component set, which is a nice bonus if you don't want to queue for Death Stalker to collect pieces of it.
The Unknown Lab also drops Fusion Plasma Batteries (~5/run) and the Venom Essence external component set.
As an interesting side perk to this farm, amorphous 60-63 can be used at the Rockfall/Repository Reactors where elite enemies drop ~3-5 fusion plasma batteries each.

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If you're already doing 400% infiltrations and the rotation favors you, Echo Swamp, The Chapel drops ~18/run. Not the most efficient time/resource ratio, but a palatable option if one is already doing infiltrations.
For every other day of the week, outposts are your friend (and only other option) here. The biogel drops from the elite enemy, so you do have to finish the outpost. Typical drops range between 11-22 per kill. Note that you are not guaranteed a drop, so dry spells are unfortunately possible.
Both outposts are in Echo Swamp, one in the Derelict Covert and the other in the Muskeg Swamp.
I recommend the outpost in the Muskeg Swamp because the sabotage targets are close enough together that most AoE descendant skills can pop all three at the same time.

As an aside, you can also do this on normal mode for a guaranteed, but smaller drop (~8-16) as mentioned in the comments by @Stevie-Keyz. Though I still personally prefer hard mode as I feel the available amorphous material are more valuble.

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Nothing special about this one, Get an Enzo (or Nell as soon as season 3 drops), and start running around the Agna Desert and open up some vaults. (I'm partial to The Remnant and The Storage because these zones are smaller, so there is less running around to do)
My recent farming cycle seems to suggest that there are vaults seemed to spawn faster in The Remnant, but there were more blue and purple vaults in The Storage. Ultimately I found that I gathered resources equally quickly, but my distribution of code breaker usage skewed differently in each zone.

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Probably the most annoying part of the Catalyst farming circuit.
Best advice, take an AoE speed farmer to The Borderline of Truth in The Mountaintops region of White-Night Gulch. Each of the three elites that spawn during the course of the mission have a chance to drop Advanced Neural Circuits ~0-8/kill.
Alternatively, if you happen to be running infiltrations, the Mysteries End infiltration in White-Night Gulch drops 5/run for completion. Far from efficient if your only goal is Advanced Neural Circuits, but possibly usable as a secondary farm if you're doing something else.

So I found this video on the tube by Sawus5282 and after trying it out, it definitely merits inclusion. My testing suggests that this method yields between 15-25% more brains per minute on average. The caveat is that this method requires Jayber to work (if you're running solo), in addition to being notably higher effort than just standing around in the usual option and spamming Ines' fourth ability. That said, if you're looking to maximize your farming yield, this would seem to be your new best option.

For those who don't want to watch the video (its only 2 minutes long, though it is in Russian). Head to the Shipment Base region of White-Night Gulch, use Tactical Teleporter #2. Start the Fortress Courtyard mission, an elite will spawn on a platform a bit away from you, head out there and place double attack turrets, kill the elite. Restart the mission, let the turrets kill the elite. Rinse and repeat. Don't forget to run over and pick up your drops periodically. I advise doing this bit on private.
As a team farming alternative, you and a friend could do this by having one person pretend to be the turrets and just standing in the elite's spawn zone while the other hangs out near the mission beacon. After which both people abort the mission, rinse and repeat.
Side perk, the rapid resets bring in a pretty constant flow of champion mobs, so I've seen a decent number of Cooling Metallic Foil drops.

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Given the one and done nature of using Energy Activators on descendants and weapons, you won't need a massive number of these. Figure ~20 for descendants and ~30 for weapons (as of season 2 episode 2).

With the change to Void Reactors a while back, farming Low-Carbon Activators has never been easier. Head to The Grand Square in Kingston and start up the Void Reactor, kill both elites and collect your Low-Carbon Activators. Assuming you get a drop from each kill, you should see ~10-22 per times 2 elites. With a half decent build, this is repeatable between 3 and 4 times every minute.

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Nothing special about this one, Get an Enzo (or Nell as soon as season 3 drops), and start running around Vespers and open up some vaults. (I'm partial to The Ruins and Timberfall due to the general tendency of the vaults to spawn in clusters)

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A slightly inconvenient farm in my opinion, but the best I've been able to find so far. Load into the Old Mystery infiltration on 250%, sprint past all the enemies until you can't advance any further. You'll end up in a room with some water in the lower section and a raised circular platform right before a locked door. Kill all the enemies in this room, each elite spawn has a chance to drop Heat Plasma Batteries. After 1-2 minutes, you should have cleared all the enemies and received somewhere between ~30-60 batteries for your trouble. Abort the mission once the door unlocks and enemies stop coming. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

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There are two notable options for farming this particular material.
The Command Relay battlefield mission located in the Frozen Valley region of The Fortress, and in my opinion is the superior option for farming Polyatomic Ion Particles if and only if your sole intent is to collect them as fast as possible. To do so, set your instance to private and key the "abort mission" button to your ring menu. Start the mission, fight until you've slain two elites, one of whom spawns in the middle of the ring, the other to the east, just past the slight drop, on the flat snowy section. Once you've slain both elites, abort the mission and restart. Rinse and repeat as needed. Each elite has a drop chance of ~0-12 Polyatomic Ion Particles per kill. With a fast farming build, you should be able to cycle this about once a minute, netting somewhere between ~0-24 particles each time.

The Quarantine Zone infiltration yields notably less Polyatomic Ion Particles than the previous option (fixed at 11/run), but has the fringe benefit of generating more experience and amorphous materials that can in turn be opened for blueprints. On that note, unless one desires to fight Frost Walker to open amorphous materials, I recommend selecting amorphous 118 as your reward. 118-121 are all easily opened, but I find that the topography of the reactor for 118 makes the fights ever so slightly faster, and time is money.

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All of the materials in this beyond this point have (as of the time of writing) a limited number of uses and thus, a limited number that one needs to acquire. This is largely due to the fact that most players only need to create one copy of each descendant, and 5 of each legendary weapon, meaning that once this has been done, the material in question no longer needs to be farmed.

Regardless, some are easier to acquire than others and some are more utilized than others. So efficient farming is a must. Below will be a (hopefully) comprehensive list of basic materials and what I have found to be the best way to acquire them in the needed numbers.

Interestingly enough, these items are part of the Core Material subgroup instead of the Basic Material group like all the others. Don't think it means anything, but it's interesting nonetheless.

At this stage of season 3, there doesn't seem to be a trick to farming any of these items in any way that materially impacts yield. I can say that I tend to see people cluster around three of the seven missions in the Axion Plains. Emergency Deployment Zone which I do not particularly recommend because it seems people have a harder time with the boss since he can fly. First Crater seems to be a decent choice. AX Power Converter Station has the advantage of being able to split push objectives for slightly faster completion. I personally prefer Sealed Residential District because the combat area is rather small and with a good AoE build, it feels faster to complete. Ignore this, it seems that despite my earlier success, this mission is somewhat glitchy about paying out. I wouldn't rely on it for farming at this stage.

Breach Stone Shard

Lifetime Need (900)+100 per crystal
• Orca Engine (100)
  
• Orca Controls (100)
  
• Orca Blueprint (100)
  
• Vortex Engine (100)
  
• Vortex Controls (100)
  
• Vortex Blueprint (100)
  
• Snowy Sled Dog Enhanced Cells (100)
  
• Snowy Sled Dog Stabilizer (100)
  
• Snowy Sled Dog Spiral Catalyst (100)
  
• Refined Axium Crystal (100)

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Entropium

Lifetime Need (975)+100 per crystal
• Nell Enhanced Cells (100)
  
• Nell Stabilizer (100)
  
• Nell Spiral Catalyst (100)
  
• Ultimate Luna Enhanced Cells (225)
  
• Ultimate Luna Stabilizer (225)
  
• Ultimate Luna Spiral Catalyst (225)
  
• Refined Axium Crystal (100)

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Kerasid

Lifetime Need (300*5)+100 per crystal
• ERASER Polymer Syncytium (100)
  
• ERASER Synthetic Fiber (100)
  
• ERASER Nano Tube (100)
  
• Refined Axium Crystal (100)

Unless my math is off by a lot, Kerasid is going to be the sticking point as far as Axion Plains materials run. I'm currently looking for a way to reliably target farm this material, since you'll need some 1500 to build the eraser plus a recurring 100 (20x) for Axium crystals vs 900 Breach Stone, 975 Entropium, or 900 Silentra.

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Silentra

Lifetime Need (900)+100 per crystal
• Orca Engine (100)
  
• Orca Controls (100)
  
• Orca Blueprint (100)
  
• Vortex Engine (100)
  
• Vortex Controls (100)
  
• Vortex Blueprint (100)
  
• Snowy Sled Dog Enhanced Cells (100)
  
• Snowy Sled Dog Stabilizer (100)
  
• Snowy Sled Dog Spiral Catalyst (100)
  
• Refined Axium Crystal (100)

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Balanced Plasma Battery

Lifetime Need (251)
• Executor Nano Tube (11x5)
  
• Secret Garden Nano Tube (11x5)
  
• Jayber Stabilizer (43)
  
• Ultimate Ajax Enhanced Cells (98)

As an item that only drops from Infiltration missions, your options here are rather limited.
My testing seems to suggest that the amount of Balanced Plasma Batteries one can expect from a given Infiltration is about even between your two choices, Quarantine Zone and Heart of the Fortress, both on Normal and Hard. That said, Quarantine Zone is almost always faster than Heart of the Fortress. And as an additional bonus Quarantine Zone drops 11 Polyatomic Ion Particles as a completion reward, of which you will need many.

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Divided Plasma Battery

Lifetime Need (132)
• Divine Punishment Nano Tube (6x5)
  
• Piercing Light Polymer Syncytium (6x5)
  
• Ultimate Lepic Enhanced Cells (50)
  
• Yujin Enhanced Cells (22)

This one is a bit strange, as it doesn’t seem like there are any particularly efficient methods to acquire Divided Plasma Batteries. The best I’ve seen is to enter The Asylum infiltration on Normal and push forward until you kill the elite in the first room. Quit, rinse and repeat. Do this in private mode, with or without friends, abandoning random people in public runs is just rude after all.
[note to self, test 400% dungeons, maybe we’ll get lucky and they will be more available there] 400% The Asylum, 11 batteries. Not really faster than the previous method. There is one mitigating factor though, the Invader external component set drops, which can be nice if you're having a hard time with Death Stalker.

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Fusion Plasma Battery

Lifetime Need (231)
• Albion Cavalry Gun Nano Tube (10x5)
  
• Clairvoyance Nano Tube (10x5)
  
• Albion Cavalry Gun Nano Tube (10x5)
  
• Viessa Enhanced Cells (40)
  
• Ultimate Ajax Spiral Catalyst (91)

If you reference the Murky Energy Residue section of this guide, you'll notice that in the process of farming that material you are highly likely to encounter this one as well. That said, this guide wouldn't be complete without me pointing out that likely the fastest farm for Fusion Plasma Batteries is to hit the Void Fusion Reactor in either Rockfall or the Repository in the Sterile Land region.

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Heat Plasma Battery

Lifetime Need (infinity+256)
• Executor Polymer Syncytium (18x5)
  
• Ultimate Valby Stabilizer (166)
  
• Energy Activators (55)

See the detailed farming info in the Energy Activators section.

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Crystal Biogel

Lifetime Need (250)
• Python Polymer Syncytium (11x5)
  
• King’s Guard Lance Nano Tube (11x5)
  
• Lepic Stabilizer (43)
  
• Ultimate Lepic Stabilizer (97)

This is an easy one, the Void Fusion Reactor in the Mountaintops region of White-night Gulch spawns a pair of elites, each of whom as a chance to drop between ~5-8 Crystal Biogel.

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Inorganic Biogel

Lifetime Need (341)
• Divine Punishment Polymer Syncytium (15x5)
  
• Albion Cavalry Gun (15x5)
  
• King’s Guard Lance Polymer Syncytium (15x5)
  
• Kyle Enhanced Cells (58)
  
• Enzo Enhanced Cells (58)

There are two notable options here, the first of which is to farm outposts for the boss drop in either the Lost Supply Depot or The Lumber Yard. Of the two, I prefer the Lost Supply Depot due to the ease of clearing based on the position of the sabotage targets.
Alternatively, you can split farm Inorganic Biogel while farming Common Carbon Activators in The Shelter infiltration.

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Macromolecule Biogel

Lifetime Need (infinity+242)
• Ultimate Valby Spiral Catalyst (242)
  
• Crystallization Catalyst (22)

See the detailed farming info in the Catalyst section.

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Organic Biogel

Lifetime Need (155)
• Smithereens Nano Tube (7x5)
  
• Nazeistra’s Devotion Synthetic Fiber (7x5)
  
• Ultimate Viessa Spiral Catalyst (59)
  
• Esiemo Stabilizer (26)

If you’re not super concerned with getting these right away, split farming with Insulated Metallic Foil is always an option. For those that need it right now and want to be efficient about it, head to the Kingston region of Grand Square and run the Kingston Surveillance Radar mission. It should take less than a minute to push through the mission and kill the elite at the end (who has a chance to drop the Organic Biogel in question). Fringe benefit, I felt like I saw a higher than average rate of code breakers drop from this mission.

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Artificial Biometal

Lifetime Need (204)
• Nazeistra’s Devotion Polymer Syncytium (9x5)
  
• Piercing Light Synthetic Fiber (9x5)
  
• Ajax Enhanced Cells (35)
  
• Ultimate Viessa Stabilizer (79)

The Anticipated Ambush Point battlefield mission in the Rockfall region of the Sterile Land has a single elite enemy at the end which has a chance to drop ~4-8 Artificial Biometal when slain. Given that the mission should take less than a minute, this is as far as I can tell, the fastest way to encounter an elite enemy in the Sterile Land.
While not a direct farm, The Forgottense infiltration in the Sterile Land region drops 7 Artificial Biometal as a completion reward. Given that this infiltration is also one of the two places to get Murky Energy Residue, it stands to reason you’re going to be getting a decent amount of these along the way.

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Deformed Biometal

Lifetime Need (437)
• Greg’s Reversed Fate Synthetic Fiber (19x5)
  
• Clairvoyance Synthetic Fiber (19x5)
  
• Enduring Legacy Nano Tube (19x5)
  
• Kyle Stabilizer (76)
  
• Esiemo Enhanced Cells (76)

Head to the Fortress and do the Outpost in either Frozen Valley or the Convertor Facility. If you’re just after the Deformed Biometal, I find the outpost in the Convertor Facility is a bit easier just due to topography. If you’re after amorphous materials, then do whichever suits your needs.

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Specialized Biometal

Lifetime Need (304)
• King’s Guard Lance Synthetic Fiber (11x5)
  
• FrostWatcher Synthetic Fiber (11x5)
  
• Luna Spiral Catalyst (46)
  
• Ultimate Bunny Stabilizer (102)
  
• Esiemo Spiral Catalyst (46)

Head to the Void Fusion Reactor in The Corrupted Zone region of Hagios. Two elites will spawn, each of which has a chance to drop ~3-6 Specialized Biometal per kill.

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Synthesized Artificial Biometal

Lifetime Need (573)
• Blue Beetle Synthetic Fiber (25x5)
  
• Perforator Nano Tube (25x5)
  
• Albion Cavalry Gun Synthetic Fiber (25x5)
  
• Gley Spiral Catalyst (99)
  
• Viessa Spiral Catalyst (99)

Head to the Void Fusion Reactor in The Storage region of Agna Desert. Four elites will spawn, each of which has a chance to drop ~8-12 Synthesized Artificial Biometal per kill.

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Common Carbon Activator

Lifetime Need (120)
• Nazeistra’s Devotion Nano Tube (4x5)
  
• Afterglow Sword (4x5)
  
• FrostWatcher Nano Tube (4x5)
  
• Viessa Stabilizer (14)
  
• Ultimate Gley Spiral Catalyst (32)
  
• Hailey Spiral Catalyst (14)

Common Carbon Activators don’t seem to be too common, being only found in the Vespers infiltration missions The Shelter and the Sepulcher. In my experience, I tended to find more Common Carbon Activators in The Shelter than the alternative.

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Complex Carbon Activator

Lifetime Need (345)
• Restored Relic Synthetic Fiber (15x5)
  
• Executor Synthetic Fiber (15x5)
  
• Piercing Light Nano Tube (15x5)
  
• Gley Stabilizer (60)
  
• Lepic Spiral Catalyst (60)

Head to the Seed Vault infiltration in Echo Swamp, push through the mobs as fast as you can, kill two elites and destroy the vulgus tech thingie, proceed to the next room. Kill two more elites who are carrying bombs to detonate power cores. Once you’ve detonated both structures, abort as there are no more drops past this point. Each elite seems to have a drop range of ~3-5/kill Rinse and repeat as necessary. Do this in private mode, with or without friends, abandoning random people in public runs is just rude after all.
As a time limited, alternative option. The Chapel on 400%, drops just about the same amount of Complex Carbon Activators for a couple minutes extra work, but does have the fringe benefit of netting you some Macromolecule Biogel as well (one of the materials used in catalysts)

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Compound Carbon Activator

Lifetime Need (232)
• Greg’s Reversed Fate Polymer Syncytium (7x5)
  
• Blue Beetle Nano Tube (7x5)
  
• Perforator Synthetic Fiber (7x5)
  
• Ajax Stabilizer (30)
  
• Kyle Spiral Catalyst (30)
  
• Ultimate Freyna Spiral Catalyst (67)

If you’re just after the Compound Carbon Activator, load up the Mystery’s End infiltration located in White-night Gulch and push through until you end up in the room with the big metal hand, kill the elite and restart. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Do this in private mode, with or without friends, abandoning random people in public runs is just rude after all.
Alternatively, if you’re looking to maximize your possible overall gains, even if it means extending this particular farm, I might suggest pushing through to the end for the Heavy Ion Collector and Advanced Neural Circuit completion rewards. (Additionally, you’ll get 4 extra Compound Carbon Activators as a completion bonus). If you’re feeling even spicier, you can set Mystery’s End as your base mission while doing Other Infiltration Support, which will lose you the potential elite mob drop, but get you some Support Coins instead.

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Low-Carbon Activator

Lifetime Need (infinity+72)
• The Final Masterpiece Nano Tube (18x5)
  
• Peacemaker Synthetic Fiber (18x5)
  
• Energy Activators (55)

See the detailed farming info in the Energy Activators section.

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Collectible Coin

Lifetime Need (infinity? definitely a lot though)
• Common Collectibles Box (100)
  
• Direct Exchange (1000/3000/5000)
  
• Void Abyss Metal Fragment x150 (400)
  
• Quantum Incubator x50 (400)
  
• Kuiper x50,000 (400)
  
• Gold x500,000 (400)

See the table below for Collectible Coin drop rates and locations.

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Mysterious Coin

Lifetime Need (infinity? definitely a lot though)
• Premium Collectibles Box (100)

See the table below for Mysterious Coin drop rates and locations.

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Support Coin

Lifetime Need (your mileage will vary)
• Any past Season weapon part (30)
  
• Any past Season weapon (complete) (30x4)x5

Given the wildly variable need for these depending on when a person started playing the game, you may or may not ever need to farm this item. That said, everyone can expect to easily obtain 210 Support Coins while farming for Heavy Ion Collectors.
Other Infiltration Support yields 2 per run on Normal, and 5 per run on Hard. Additionally, with the Season 3 update Support Coins have been added to the Void Vessel completion reward at 3/run in Normal and 7/run in Hard. With this change, new players can expect to obtain the vast majority of their needed coinage in the process of farming Ines, Keelan, and the two Fellows.

Also worth noting, Macromolecule Biogel drops as a completion reward for The Chapel infiltration in Echo Swamp, so if you’re trying to collect Support Coins, this makes a decent option as your selection while doing Other Infiltration Support. Ultimately, I expect that the new source of Support Coins will largely eliminate the need for most people to farm them specifically.

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Highly-Concentrated Energy Residue

Lifetime Need (264)
• Restored Relic Nano Tube (8x5)
  
• Enduring Legacy Synthetic Fiber (8x5)
  
• Secret Garden Polymer Syncytium (8x5)
  
• Lepic Enhanced Cells (34)
  
• Luna Stabilizer (34)
  
• Ultimate Freyna Enhanced Cells (76)

If you have the code breakers, opening vaults anywhere in the Hagios region is probably the quickest option. I've recently become partial to the Dune Base region, there seem to be 4-5 spawn locations in the vicinity of the primary outpost location. If resources are tight, Champion mobs from any mission have a decent chance to drop what you need. I find that the Dig Deeper battlefield mission in The Corrupted Zone has a good number of champion mobs without being terribly hard.

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Mixed Energy Residue

Lifetime Need (infinity+50)
• Peacemaker Polymer Syncytium (10x5)
  
• Crystallization Catalyst (8)

See the detailed farming info in the Crystallization Catalyst section.

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Murky Energy Residue

Lifetime Need (infinity+40)
• Valby Stabilizer (40)
  
• Crystallization Catalyst (8)

See the detailed farming info in the Crystallization Catalyst section.

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Pure Energy Residue

Lifetime Need (269)
• Afterglow Sword Synthetic Fiber (10x5)
  
• FrostWatcher Polymer Syncytium (10x5)
  
• Luna Enhanced Cells (40)
  
• Yujin Stabilizer (40)
  
• Ultimate Bunny Spiral Catalyst (89)

No special trick here, vaults in the Fortress region have what you need.
Theoretically, this material also drops from champion mobs, but I’ve yet to find a mission with enough density to make it worth the effort.
You might try The Aurora Forest map zone, it's a relatively small area and the last couple of times I've passed through, the vaults were clustered together.

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The biggest thing to remember when farming for you very own Fellow is to make use of the Target Reward List feature. This will guarantee that you'll eventually get whatever part you're looking for. Note: this does not prevent you from getting other parts that are currently not targeted.
Had a random person in-game tell me this feature does not work until you get a fellow, but I could've sworn I used this feature to get my first one. note to self, make new steam account, launch game on new account and check. I had a friend start the game the other day and he has access to the Target Reward List feature at Mastery 2, so you can definitely use this feature from the very beginning.



The mechanism for obtaining the major components of both Fellows is done by completing the Void Vessel and open the vault that appears after killing the boss. Parts for the Hagios Sheepdog come from Normal, whereas Vespers Hunting Dog parts come from Hard. Interestingly enough, I felt like my limiting factor while acquiring both of my fellows was Decryption Keys. Just go in with your fastest farming build and push though. Oh, and once you have all the major blueprint components and just need materials. Stop opening the big vault at the end, it uses up a key, which you'll need for the smaller chests.

As of right now (Season 2, Episode 2) you can get stacks of 5 Decryption Keys in the Battle Pass Bonus Shop. Given how many keys you'll likely need to build a Fellow and then level them up. I'd recommend picking up as many as you can. Plus, the all of the other options from the Bonus Shop are relatively easy to create or farm, whereas Decryption Keys only drop as completion rewards from the Void Vessel. This won't preclude you from having to run the Void Vessel to open chests, but there will almost always be more chests than you have keys available, so this can help mitigate that to some degree.
Looks like we're in luck. Decryption Keys are in the season 3 bonus shop as well. I expect that this will be a time limited option as the Bonus Shop contents seem to change each season, take advantage of this while its an option. As of today June 13 '25, dev notes indicate the S2E2 content will be extended to Aug 7 '25

As of the 1.3.3 update, there is now a second avenue to acquire a Fellow, the Snowy Sled Dog major components drop from Axion Plains mission reward boxes. Considering the incredibly low drop rate for the parts box, I highly advise that you set the rewards on your target item list.

At this stage, I think the most important thing is to be smart with your Decryption Key usage. Only open the chests that contain the specific material you need until such time as you have an abundance of keys. Keep in mind, that as you are looking to craft your Fellow, you are looking for Experimental Materials Storage boxes, they're wide with a blue light. Given the drop rate for materials, I figure you'll have to open something like ~75 of these guys for each Fellow you want.

If you have the keys, it is quite nice to get all the major and minor parts while also gathering materials to level up your new doggo. That said, if Decryption Keys are your limiting factor, you can always level them up later, focus on collecting the parts you need to make them first. With the 1.3.3 update, there is now a second avenue to acquire the blueprints for leveling components via mission monsters in the Axion Plains. At this stage, I can definitively point to which monsters are responsible for the drops, the Operational Area special monsters: Steel Pincers, Razor Claws and Breach Dischargers. Given the relative abundance of drops from the aforementioned enemies, unless you're in a hurry to level your Fellow, I would advise acquiring your blueprints from the Axion Plains instead of spending your Decryption Keys on Genetic Information Boxes in the Void Vessel.

Its worth noting here, the maximum level for a Fellow is 30. This will cost you 50,000 exp.
Consider the following table, in which I break down the maximum number of items one would need to fully level a Fellow. Obviously, if your luck is better and you have more Ultimate Protein then you'll need less Fortified Supplements.

In all likelihood you're going to need a lot of these materials, which come from these nice boxes with the blue light. (The small ones) The drop rate is marginally better in Hard, so if you can do it, I would.
As of the Season 1.3.3 update, it appears that small amounts of these materials are available from Axion Plains Resource and Supply drops (the white and yellow containers respectively). That said, the rates are low enough that this should be regarded as a secondary source of these materials in relation to the Void Vessel. On that note though, despite notably lower drop rates, it is free to get on your bike and run over crates. So if you're short on Decryption Keys, this may end up being a viable option for you.

Dog Food, per Fellow
• Lectin Acceptor (12x5-50)
  
• Adaptive Protein (36x5-50)
  
• Ionized Metal (120x5-50)

interestingly enough, I found that Lectin Acceptor was the rate limiting factor, despite the fact that all three materials come from the same chests.

While there aren't any real tricks to getting and leveling up your Fellow, I'm hoping this section provides enough background on the process so that each of you can make an informed decision on what to use your very limited supply of Decryption Keys on.

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My advice, in short is to prioritize boss vaults first for major components, followed by Experimental Materials Storage Boxes for minor components, and if you have keys left over, spread them out between Special Materials and Genetic Information boxes for leveling items.

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Anode Ion Particle

Lifetime Need (194)
• Greg’s Reversed Fate Nano Tube (7x5)
  
• Blue Beetle Polymer Syncytium (7x5)
  
• Peacemaker Nano Tube (7x5)
  
• Yujin Spiral Catalyst (27)
  
• Ultimate Ajax Stabilizer (62)

Unfortunately I have not been able to find a particular farming method for this material that stands head and shoulders above the rest. There are two viable options in my mind, and they largely seem to be equivalent in yield. I recommend trying both to see which you prefer.
The mission I tend to default to is Broadband Fleet Beacon located in the Forward Base region of Hagios. Run the mission as normal, there are three elite enemies near the end (one of whom is the last enemy of the mission) that have a chance to drop the Anode Ion Particles in question. Should take you less than 3 minutes to finish. Alternatively, the Large Supply Transport Point mission in the Fractured Monolith region can spawn elites during the kuiper destruction phase of the mission. If you just lurk in this area and kill enemies until the time runs out you should encounter ~5 elites over the course of ~6 minutes.

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Negative Ion Particle

Lifetime Need (107)
• Wave of Light Polymer Syncytium (12x5)
  
• Hailey Stabilizer (47)

Open vaults in the Sterile Lands region, I personally prefer to farm in the Classified Area, as the vaults have a tendency to spawn in clusters along the north-northwestern edge of the zone.
If you’re short on resources, I also find that the Anticipated Ambush Point battlefield mission in the Rockfall region of the Sterile Land to regularly drop ~1-3 Negative Ion Particles when killing champion mobs. It’s undoubtedly less efficient than opening vaults, but it does have the benefit of being free.

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Polyatomic Ion Particle

Lifetime Need (infinity+432)
• Perforator Polymer Syncytium (24x5)
  
• Hailey Enhanced Cells (96)
  
• Ultimate Freyna Stabilizer (216)
  
• Energy Activators (72)

See the detailed farming info in the Energy Activators section.

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Positive Ion Particle

Lifetime Need (234)
• Restored Relic Polymer Syncytium (10x5)
  
• Python Synthetic Fiber (10x5)
  
• Wave of Light Synthetic Fiber (10x5)
  
• Ajax Spiral Catalyst (42)
  
• Enzo Spiral Catalyst (42)

Imagine you were farming Advanced Neural Circuits, but in the Agna Desert instead, head to the Commanding Ground mission located in Miragestone. Push through the mobs killing the three elites that spawn along the way. Rinse and repeat as necessary. There is also the fixed, 7/run drop of Positive Ion Particles from The Asylum infiltration. Probably not the best resource to time ratio, but if you’re already running the infiltration a free drop doesn’t hurt. Oh and The Asylum drops the Invader external component set, so if you're having a hard time with Death Stalker, farming the 400% isn't an awful move.

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Conductive Metallic Foil

Lifetime Need (infinity+115)
• Python Nano Tube (8x5)
  
• Ultimate Valby Enhanced Cells (75)
  
• Energy Activators (25)

See the detailed farming info in the Energy Activators section.

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Cooling Metallic Foil

Lifetime Need (213)
• Wave of Light Nano Tube (9x5)
  
• Afterglow Sword Nano Tube (9x5)
  
• Gley Enhanced Cells (38)
  
• Ultimate Gley Stabilizer (85)

Nothing special, no trick here. Just get on Enzo (or Nell when season 3 drops) and go open some vaults. Technically, you can also get Cooling Metallic Foil from champion mob kills anywhere in White-night Gulch but I’ve yet to find a place that offers a sufficient yield to make it worth the effort. Odds are good that you’ll have a few on hand before you start opening vaults though, so it might save you a couple of code breakers.

In the past week or so (June '25) I've had a decent number of drops from the Border Line of Truth (the same place where one farms Advanced Neural Circuits.) Far from efficient as a primary farming option, but a nice side perk for split farming.
With the addition of a new farming option for Advanced Neural Circuits, I've seen a decent number of drops there as well. More than the above option at least, but still less efficient than opening vaults.

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Insulated Metallic Foil

Lifetime Need (190)
• Smithereens Polymer Syncytium (8x5)
  
• The Final Masterpiece Synthetic Fiber (8x5)
  
• Jayber Enhanced Cells (34)
  
• Ultimate Viessa Enhanced Cells (76)

The Kingston infiltrations Slumber Valley and Magister Lab at either 250% or 400% should take between 5 and 6 minutes with a decent public team and net you ~20-26 Insulated Metallic Foil per run, regardless of whether you run the 250% or the 400%. As a fringe benefit, you’ll net some experience, amorphous materials, and either Low-Carbon Activators or Organic Biogel as completion rewards. If you don’t need a specific Amorphous Material then I’d advise running Slumber Valley, the lifetime need for Organic Biogel is rather low, and you’ll always need more Low-Carbon, so even at only 20 a run as a completion reward, at least you’ll use them.

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Thermal Metallic Foil

Lifetime Need (144)
• The Final Masterpiece Polymer Syncytium (6x5)
  
• Enduring Legacy Polymer Syncytium (6x5)
  
• Jayber Spiral Catalyst (26)
  
• Ultimate Gley Enhanced Cells (58)

Echo Swamp vaults contain what you seek.
As a free alternative, Thermal Metallic Foil has a chance to drop from champion mobs anywhere in Echo Swamp. See the entry for Encrypted Neural Circuits, as that mission has a high frequency of champion mobs and is easily farmable. I typically saw ~1-3 per run.

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Heavy Ion Collector

Lifetime Need (294)
• Hammer and Anvil Polymer Syncytium (7x5)
  
• Hammer and Anvil Synthetic Fiber (7x5)
  
• Hammer and Anvil Nano Tube (7x5)
  
• Ultimate Sharen Enhanced Cells (63)
  
• Ultimate Sharen Stabilizer (63)
  
• Ultimate Sharen Spiral Catalyst (63)

Due to the unfortunate aspect of this item only dropping from infiltrations in White-night Gluch, there is no trick to acquiring the needed number other than running 42 missions (at 7 a drop) to get what you need. That said, I advise making extensive use of the Other Infiltration Support button. If you select the infiltration and check the box for Other, you’ll also get 210 Support Coins along the way assuming you do the infiltrations on hard mode.

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Neuromorphic Chip

Lifetime Need (60 for Ines, 75 per Season weapon)
• Ines Enhanced Cells (20)
  
• Ines Stabilizer (20)
  
• Ines Spiral Catalyst (20)
  
• Sigvore’s Proof Polymer Syncytium (5x5)
  
• Sigvore’s Proof Synthetic Fiber (5x5)
  
• Sigvore’s Proof Nano Tube (5x5)
  
• EXCAVA Polymer Syncytium (5x5)
  
• EXCAVA Synthetic Fiber (5x5)
  
• EXCAVA Nano Tube (5x5)
  
• Voltia Polymer Syncytium (5x5)
  
• Voltia Synthetic Fiber (5x5)
  
• Voltia Nano Tube (5x5)

Unfortunately there's no particular trick to this one. Head into the Void Vessel on Hard mode and open broken boxes (the ones with red lights). If you're newer to the Void Vessel, follow your teammates to the chest clusters or spam your Ecive while you move through. Don't forget to look up and down as some of the chest clusters are tucked away.
On the positive side, odds are very good that you'll have plenty of these from farming for Ines or the Vespers Hunting Dog that you should have enough Neuromorphic Chips to meet your needs without going too far out of the way for them.

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Refined Void Essence

Lifetime Need (135)
• Keelan Enhanced Cells (45)
  
• Keelan Stabilizer (45)
  
• Keelan Spiral Catalyst (45)

Unfortunately there's no particular trick to this one. Head into the Void Vessel on Normal mode and open broken boxes (the ones with red lights). If you're newer to the Void Vessel, follow your teammates to the chest clusters or spam your Ecive while you move through. Don't forget to look up and down as some of the chest clusters are tucked away.

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Supersaturated Solution

Lifetime Need (your mileage will vary)
• Advanced Shape Stabilizer (30)

This is an interesting one, as a primary component of Advanced Shape Stabilizers, it has quite a bit of value. As something that only has a chance to drop from Champion mobs in Hard Special Operations, there is no real trick to farming this one. On top of that, there are only two choices open at any given time. Albion Resource Defense or Kuiper Mine Blockade.

My testing to this point now suggests that both options have roughly equivalent yield. Though this must be taken with some skepticism. Party play is much more likely to experience yields on the lower end, I believe this is due to the nature of drops disappearing beyond a certain saturation point. Which is much easier to hit when you have a full party (with Freyna and Ines being the main culprits). On the other hand, I clocked my highest yield during Kuiper Mine Blockade missions while running solo* (repeatably vs the high water mark in Albion Resource Defense which occurred once). Ultimately, if I had to pick the "most efficient" farming option, soloing Kuiper Mine Blockade would be my recommendation. Keep in mind, it is also generally easier to solo Kuiper Mine Blockade compared to Albion Resource Defense, which may factor into the decision making process.


(Side note, if you pop a 30% weapon exp booster and keep the same gun in your hand the whole time, a full run of Albion Resource Defense should result in a fully leveled weapon each run)

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Advanced Neural Circuit

Lifetime Need (infinity+90)
• Enzo Stabilizer (90)
  
• Crystallization Catalyst (18)

See the detailed farming info in the Crystallization Catalyst section.

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Data Processing Neural Circuit

Lifetime Need (275)
• Smithereens Synthetic Fiber (12x5)
  
• Secret Garden Synthetic Fiber (12x5)
  
• Ultimate Lepic Spiral Catalyst (107)
  
• Valby Enhanced Cells (48)

Head to The Ruins region of Vespers and run the battlefield mission Destroyed Temple. Move to the waypoint and kill all the mobs, the last enemy is an elite that has a chance to drop ~8-12 Data Processing Neural Circuits. The mission should take you less than a minute given the enemies have a tendency to spawn grouped together. AoE skills with lasting effects are particularly useful here.

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Encrypted Neural Circuit

Lifetime Need (185)
• Clairvoyance Polymer Syncytium (8x5)
  
• Divine Punishment Synthetic Fiber (8x5)
  
• Valby Spiral Catalyst (32)
  
• Ultimate Bunny Enhanced Cells (73)

Head to the Abandoned Zone in Echo Swamp and run the Environmental Contamination Zone mission. The two elites that spawn at the end of the mission have a chance to drop Encrypted Neural Circuits ~4-8 per kill. Additionally, the champion mobs that spawn during this mission have a chance to drop Thermal Metallic Foil. As a fringe benefit, this mission was previously thought to be one of the best gold and reactor farms in the game.

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Material that essentially only come from combat drops but are also only required in limited numbers.

As depressing as it is, there isn't actually an efficient way to farm these materials other than getting on your fastest mob-clearing build and going to town. That said, with the recent addition of mutation cells, there are more reasons than ever to farm Sigma Sector, so it's likely that you'll end up with all the materials you need without having to go too far out of the way.

As of update 1.2.20 on June 19 '25 all Sigma Sector materials and blueprints are accessible in Hard mode. Given this change, I would advise avoiding Normal mode entirely beyond what is required for quest completion.

Lifetime Need (300)
• Truly Deadly Arson Polymer Syncytium (20x5)
  
• Truly Deadly Arson Synthetic Fiber (20x5)
  
• Truly Deadly Arson Nano Tube (20x5)

Acquired from all Sigma Sector operations as a combat drop from slain elites.
Best advice, speed farming build, blitz through, make sure you and your Fellow don't miss any drops. Odds are decent you'll have just about enough by the time you grab all the blueprint fragments you need. I'm not entirely sure this bit is true anymore given that Furinite and Truly Deadly Arson prints are now part of the Hard mode drop pool. I suppose you could still dedicate farming time to Normal mode if you wanted to, but I'm not sure why you would. Just go to Hard mode, a couple of runs of both pretty much confirmed that you can expect more Furinite in Hard. Plus, if one considers that all the fun external components and new cores also drop from hard, its really a no brainer to avoid Normal mode at this point.

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Lifetime Need (258)
• Serena Enhanced Cells (26)
  
• Serena Stabilizer (26)
  
• Serena Spiral Catalyst (26)
  
• Ultimate Blair Enhanced Cells (60)
  
• Ultimate Blair Stabilizer (60)
  
• Ultimate Blair Spiral Catalyst (60)

Drops from all Sigma Sector Operations as a combat drop from slain elites. Odds are good that you'll have all you need before you acquire all the blueprints, so not likely to be a bottleneck.

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Lifetime Need (240+48)
• A-TAMS Polymer Syncytium (16x5)
  
• A-TAMS Synthetic Fiber (16x5)
  
• A-TAMS Nano Tube (16x5)

This material only drops from the Hard Isolated Desert Sigma Sector Operation as a combat drop from slain elites. I would also note, that given the current dominance of the A-TAMS as a single shot damage tool, its not unreasonable for people to have multiple copies in different elements. Fortunately a recent update has greatly simplified the process of producing duplicate weapons, requiring only a single additional copy after the first is maxed out.

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Lifetime Need (150)
• Ancient Knight Polymer Syncytium (10x5)
  
• Ancient Knight Synthetic Fiber (10x5)
  
• Ancient Knight Nano Tube (10x5)

This material only drops from the Hard Broken Boundary Sigma Sector Operation as a combat drop from slain elites. In my case, I acquired all the blueprints shortly before hitting the 150 I needed, requiring a couple of extra runs, but I expect some will experience the opposite.

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Beyond this point has nothing to do with farming. Just a collection of probably useless information that I've collected over my time in the game that just might be useful to someone, somewhere.

Specifically in regards to the Descendant Module Badge II

The medal in question, spend 60 catalysts on the same Descendant. And I do mean spend, not just having 60 socket types assigned.

Observe the images I captured as I was attempting to identify why I had not yet hit the completion requirement for my first of twenty counts on the medal. Below on the left, you can see that I have fully catalyzed every single slot with the exception of a single blank that is missing. Which means at that point I had spent 59 catalysts (remember that ultimate descendants come with 4 slots pre-catalyzed). In addition to the 8 blank spots, that do, for all intents and purposes count as assigned socket types. I ultimately did not make progress on the medal until I catalyzed the last [blank] slot (the cell selected in green).















This is further proved by the following images on the left, in which you can see an Ultimate Ajax with 8 assigned sockets, but only a count of 4 in the image below. This heavily implies that progress for the medal only counts assigned sockets secondary to spent catalysts, but not the ones that you start with. On the right, for Ultimate Gley you can see that I have fully catalyzed all of the normal module slots. If you count, it appears that there are 60 socket types assigned in addition to the single malachite on the sub module slot (for 61 total), yet the image below shows only 51 assigned to Gley. This lends significant weight to my position that one has to spend 60 catalysts on a descendant, not just have 60 sockets assigned.

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I also realize that this is likely to be a non-issue for 99% of the player base, because why spend 60 catalysts on a descendant when ~12 will get you a completed build. But I have no where else to include this, and its probably relevant to someone, somewhere.

Some math, the weapon medal requires 30 completed 50 catalyst weapons to the tune of 1500 catalysts spent, and the descendant medal requires 20 completed 60 catalyst descendants to the tune of 1200 catalysts. Both of these figures are mind boggling considering I've played every day since week 2 of season 1, and to date, I have crafted only 646 catalysts. Barely more than half the required amount for the easier medal if I also never upgraded a weapon. Ridiculous.

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while this section is a work in progress, preliminary data as follows

Ecive scan duration (such as weak point and resistance information) ~30s duration
+ maxed out processor with Ecive duration ~60s duration

Nell passive mark with Ecive
range ~62.5m (not impacted by range modules or processor external components)
mark duration ~12s (not impacted by duration modules or processor external components)

So, here is my issue. You get a new hairstyle for your descendant of choice, but the style comes bright green (for example) as its default color. But you don't want bright green hair, you want it to be the same color as your descendant's original hair color.
Below are what I have found to be the closest matches, some being closer than others.
Behold a testament to my OCD.


Once again, not related to farming at all, but someone out there will appreciate this bit, I hope.

I get why there are no perfect match skin tone paints, but why isn't there a hair dye labeled ____'s default color. Like really? How hard could it be?

To-Do

• do testing on Supersaturated Solution drop rates, Albion Resource Defense vs Kuiper Mine Blockade
  
• see if party comp impacts yield of the above
  
• add season 3 materials
  
• update support coin entry
  
• finish testing and rewrite the section on Descendant Module Badge II (and Weapon Module Badge)
  
• make an entirely new steam account, to test if new TFD accounts have access to the Target Reward List before crafting your first Fellow
  
• finish the section on Fellows

Changelog

May 30 '25
• update Complex Carbon Activator info to reflect drop rates and 400% infiltrations

May 31 '25
• update missing info in the Murky Energy Residue entry in the Repeat Offenders Crystallization Catalyst section

June 1 '25
• added a Miscellaneous Info section with an Awards subsection to demonstrate the easiest way to waste a dozen catalysts by not understanding a tooltip.

June 2 '25
• "finished" the section on Fellow acquisition and leveling
  
• update formatting for Changelog to be less lame

June 5 '25
• confirmed that new players do, in fact, have access to the Target Reward Item feature

June 9 '25
• updated Macromolecule Biogel entry
  
• updated Cooling Metallic Foil entry

June 13 '25
• updated Pure Energy Residue entry
  
• typos
  
• moved the Ion Particle entry further down the list, apparently alphabetizing is hard
  
• updated Fellow section to include acquiring Decryption Keys from the Season 2, Episode 2 Bonus Shop
  
• changed all date formats in guide to be [Month # 'Year] for ease of readability

June 19 '25
• updates Sigma Sector section to account for changes from update 1.2.20

June 24 '25
• fixed typo in Support Coin entry

June 28 '25
• added a fun Gif I made

June 29 '25
• continuing to update my entry on wasting catalysts for a medal challenge

June 30 '25
• typo corrections

July 4 '25
• updated Fellow section to reflect 1st Anniversary Event shop contents

July 12 '25
• added an entirely useless section on trying to match hair dyes to the default descendant hair colors

July 13 '25
• added a new farming method for Advanced Neural Circuits I found on the tube
  
• had to break the Repeat Offender section into specific Crystallization Catalyst and Energy Activators sections due to character count issues.
  
• replaced all references to Repeat Offenders with the appropriate Catalyst/Energy note

July 17 '25
• added entry for Supersaturated Solution to the Misfit Materials section

July 20 '25
• updated secondary farming options for Cooling Metallic Foil

July 22 '25
• updated Highly-concentrated Energy Residue entry

July 31 '25
• updated Mixed Energy Residue entry

August 8 '25
• updated Support Coin entry
  
• add placeholder for Axion Plains materials

August 11 '25
• added preliminary Axion Plains info
  
• updated guide info panel

August 18 '25
• updated Supersaturated Solution entry
  
• updated Neuromorphic Chip entry
  
• resized images in Axion Plains entries

August 24 '25
• updated Fellow entry
  
• added preliminary Ecive entry
  
• add Nell to Matchy Matchy Hair section

September 4 '25
• updated Axion Plains section to reflect update 1.3.3
  
• updated Fellow entry to reflect update 1.3.3
  
• split Coin type items out of the Misfit Material section due to character limits
  
• created Coin section
  
• added Collectible Coin and Mysterious Coin entries