Aluminum is one of the first resources used in Lightyear Frontier and the most important early game mineral. In fact, keen players can begin harvesting this mineral right as the game begins. But while it’s one of the best resources to farm in the early game, it’s probably best to start by gathering wood and making a basic camp, maybe even building a small farm, before moving on to farming minerals.

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Aluminum is necessary to build some essential early crafting machines like the Assembler, which combines and processes resources into advanced materials. Aluminum is also a key material for unlocking many powerups, including the first Spike Saw upgrade, the near-essential Irrigation Hose Splash, and the Seed Shooter’s Lock-On mode.

Best Aluminum Farming Spots In Lightyear Frontier

The world map of Lightyear Frontier. The major Aluminum farmings spots are market with red circles.

Aluminum is harvested in the form of Aluminum Rods. Unlike most mining games, those minerals will respawn a couple of days after being extracted. This is true for most minerals and crystals in the game, and it’s also the case with coal. While small deposits of aluminum can be found all over Pine Heights and The Meadow, those are the best locations to gather aluminum.

  • North and Center of Pine Heights
  • South-East of The Meadows
  • East of The Meadows

Pine Heights is easily the best place to farm for farming aluminum in Lightyear Frontier, thanks to an incredible 12 deposits sitting at a very short distance from one another. The only reason to go somewhere else is if the player’s base camp is very distant, but even then, visiting Pine Heights when farming aluminum is simply a must.

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There are two other good locations for gathering aluminum in Lightyear Frontier, both located in The Meadows, but neither can be compared to Pine Heights. On the other hand, they are much less isolated from the rest of the map, so they might be worth swinging by. Those deposits are also located in the central section of the world map. This is the game’s starting location, meaning it’s likely near the player’s homestead.

The southern Meadows are home to a small group of four aluminum deposits. There are an additional seven deposits closer to the center of the area, next to the yellow forest; not an incredible number, but still enough to build some early games machinery and mech upgrades.

How To Find More Aluminum In Lightyear Frontier

In most mining games, harvesting a mineral vein dry means there will never be any more of that mineral in that area. That makes sense. Aluminum and copper aren’t plants, they don’t grow or respawn, but that’s not the case in the world of Lightyear Frontier. The ores, crystals, and coal found on the game’s planet appear to behave very strangely.

Once harvested, an aluminum deposit will be replenished after sleeping. Not all the deposits will necessarily have new Aluminum Rods, but there is a way to improve the respawn rate of any mineral. By using the appropriate Fodder, players can feed the animal nests in the region to get more resources to respawn.

Materials won’t respawn in regions that haven’t been restored yet. Those regions are easy to recognize as they appear in purple on the in-game map. Restoring a region is fairly simple: it requires cleaning out the bad weeds and purple ooze from the area. However, some of those obstacles pose more of a challenge, requiring a mech upgrade to be cleaned out.

lightyear frontier
Lightyear Frontier

Released
March 19, 2024
Developer(s)
Frame Break , Amplifier Studios
Genre(s)
Open-World , Adventure , Farming