For Alien Worlds explorers, Trilium is the lifeblood of the universe. Whether you have just landed on your first planet armed with only a shovel, or are traversing your empire with AI Excavators, Trilium is the fundamental resource we all desire. Recently, a new feature was released called “Rarity Pools” that brings some pretty big changes to Mining. Keep reading for three powerful strategies for mastering the Rarity Pools update, hauling in more Trilium, and making a name for yourself. If you’re looking for an edge, you’ve found it.

Shining NFTs

If you have duplicate NFTs, it’s time to turn them into something a bit more special. Whether you’ve found several of the same tool, or you bought a bundle on Atomic Hub that contained duplicate weapons, the Shining mechanic means you can give yourself an advantage over fellow explorers.

If you have four of the same NFT, you can combine them and get a new version of that NFT type issued to you. It will have a special visual effect added and a new mint number. However, with certain NFTs, the upgrade isn’t merely cosmetic — the card’s stats will be improved. That is, if you had four Standard Drills, you could craft a new and more efficient drill.

Each NFT has one of five Shininess levels: Stone, Gold, Stardust, Antimatter, and XDimension (though that last Shininess is not craftable). Each Shininess has a different visual effect and, in some cases, higher stats than the tier before it. To craft a Gold NFT, you will need four identical Stone NFTs. To craft a Stardust NFT, you will need four identical Gold NFTs. Unsurprisingly, to craft an Antimatter NFT, you will need four identical Stardust NFTs. It’s important to note that the higher tier Shininess an NFT is, the lower the maximum supply. For example, there will only ever be two Antimatter versions of the Mythical Sungorger weapon!

Let’s say you had an abundance of the Nanominer exotool and decided to upgrade them until you got a Nanominer with an Antimatter Shininess level. When you compare the Stone Nanominer with the new Antimatter Nanominer, you can see this is a clever path to significant gains. The recharge time decreases from 150 seconds to 99 seconds and the Proof of Work Reduction increases from 3 to 4.

NFT User Points

The NFT Points system is one of the most reliable methods for improving in Alien Worlds and there is no luck involved. By mining using Common and rarer tools on any land, explorers are issued with NFT Points — these are not tokens per se and cannot be transferred between accounts. NFT Points are accrued automatically and can be redeemed within the game UI. Once you hold them, you can spend them.

Hover over your NFT Points and click Exchange Points to be taken to the NFT Outpost, a rotating shop filled with useful items, from a Standard Sword for 1,500 points, to a legendary Storm Giant for a whopping 280,000.

There is, however, another important dimension to NFT Points. By earning NFT Points, you also earn Rank Points which increases your level. As soon as you earn enough NFT Points, you can rank up and claim an NFT reward. The process of ranking up by clicking Level Claim does not spend any of your NFT Points, so in essence, these are free NFTs. Low ranks will get Common rewards, but as you climb, the rewards get rarer, all the way up to a Mythical NFT. Use the NFT Outpost to improve the areas you are weakest.

Cross-Pool Mining

The third way you can gain an edge over your fellow explorers is the lesser-known mechanic of cross-pool mining. Until recently, rarer tools had better stats and thus mined more, but the times have changed and now you can eke out even more Trilium if you know how.

Mining pools have been separated into rarity, meaning that there are dedicated pools based on the rarity of the tools you are using. Each rarity (Common, Rare, Epic, and so on) has its own pool and only the corresponding tool can mine from that pool. That is, if you have a Rare tool, you will mine from the Rare mining pool. This is impactful in several ways. Firstly, it doubles down on rarer tools mining more Trilium.

Secondly, this makes mining more dynamic and you can capitalize on this to mine more than your rivals. For example, Abundant tools are the most used and so the Abundant mining pool is the largest by some distance, and by contrast, the Epic pool is a smaller allocation. However, if lots of people were to be mining the Epic pool, for instance, it will yield less Trilium. It is often the case that a less rare tool, therefore, will mine more Trilium. As I write this, Rare tools will mine more from the Sandy Coastline I’ve settled on, than Epic tools.

You can capitalize on this in two ways, one easy, one more difficult. The easy way is cross-pool mining: using three tools that all have different rarities (Common, Rare, and Epic, for example.) This means if one pool becomes less efficient and one is more efficient, you won’t be hit as hard as you’re likely covered.

The more difficult way is to constantly react to the Pool Details. If you click Switch Land in the navigation bar, you will see a button on the left called “Pool Details”. This will give you a live breakdown of the estimated yield from different tool rarities. Before you mine, work out which combination of your tools will yield the most Trilium, remembering to account for different tool stats.

Final Thoughts

Alien Worlds is a game of exceptional depth which can be intimidating, but if you are armed with some methods to gain an edge, you can soar past other explorers. With these three strategies, you can radically improve how much Trilium you are bringing in and stuff your inventory full. Good luck, explorers.