In Astroneer, players will need Exo Chips for completing missions, unlocking vehicles, and crafting. The chips are found in Exo Caches or purchased.

In Astroneer, players will want to collect Exo Chips, which is a required material for several crafting recipes and missions. Exo Chips visually resemble piles of computer chips. As players explore the frontiers of space and reshape planets, they will need to gather a lot of material, including the Exo Chips, which cannot be crafted and must be discovered or purchased. Exo Chips are a rare resource that can be used to unlock vehicles such as the VTOL or the Hoverboard, and they are used for crafting other items such as a Hydrazine Thruster or Large Shredders.

To obtain Exo Chips, players can blow up Exo Caches or a Vehicle Data Recorder in space in Astroneer. Additionally, players can purchase them from the Trade Platform or earn them as a reward for completing certain in-game missions. For example, completing the mission 'Cracking Caches' will reward players with three Exo Chips instead of the standard bytes, items, and devices that missions typically reward. The mission 'Prototype Recovery' will require players to retrieve an Exo Chip, and 'Vertical Thinking' requires players to obtain an Exo Chip from a Vehicle Data Recorder on Vesania.

Players will be able to farm Exo Chips within Exo Caches, which resemble sturdy boxes and hold between one to three chips. To open Exo Caches, players will need to blow them up using their dynamite or another method of creating an explosion during gameplay in Astroneer, such as Cataplants. Of note, players can blow up multiple caches using one stick of dynamite. On some planets, using baiting attacks from a Volatile Cataplant or Volatile Attactus will also break the cache without using dynamite. To transport Exo Caches, players can pack them to medium size.

Where To Find Exo Chips And Caches in Astroneer

Exo Caches can be found on every planet in the game. These caches can spawn on any layer of the planet, but they are primarily found underground. Players may even find some Exo Caches in caves. In addition to Exo Chips, five pieces of debris will be obtainable in Exo Caches, which players may shred into Scrap directly or pick them up to craft a Debris Bundle.

Additionally, in Astroneer, players can use their compass to find caches, which is found by opening the action wheel and choosing the compass icon. When using their compass, players will see a green circular icon when an Exo Cache is nearby. The blue icon players will see when using their compass indicates a Vehicle Data Recorder, another type of Exo Cache that can be found on certain planets. Additionally, players may find rare Exo Chips in certain Wrecks, such as on Glacio.

Players will also be able to acquire Exo Chips from a Trade Platform, a module that allows players to trade scrap or Astronium in exchange for resources or other items. Using a Trade Platform, the exchange rate for Exo Chips will be three Astronium for one chip. Astronium is an important in-game resource that may also be difficult to come by. Additionally, if players find themselves with an excess of Exo chips, they are the only resource that can be shredded directly for three pieces of scrap.

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Astroneer is available now on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. It will arrive on Nintendo Switch in January 2022.