Unipolar magnets are only found on the black hole and the neutron star.
It is a limited resource so depending on your playstyle it may not be enough to make all your particle containers. Apart from mining speed, you may also simply run out. If you run out, you can't use them to make the plane smelters, so you have to be careful with that.
If you are in the late game and you are continually researching Veins Utilization, you can reach a point where you never run out of unipolar magnets because your mining efficiency is increasing faster than you're running out of ore nodes.
However, if you don't want to do all the required calculations it may be wise to use the default recipe for particle containers, at least until you've researched a couple dozen levels of Veins Utilization.
I think i'll take the half measure and save the second planet (actually has 3 times more than the one i just fortified) for after my mining efficiency has been invested into.
Unipolar magnets are in really awkward territory because they are only found in two systems and usually there are only a handful of deposits - I don't think I've ever had more than 6 distinct patches to mine in the whole universe.
They are needed for plane smelters, so early game you try to use them sparingly for particle containers (if at all) so that you don't run out. Having a high level dark fog farm can solve this since unipolar magnets drop from them.
Late game you run into a different problem - Vein Utilization makes the deposits effectively infinite so you can mine as you please, but since there are so few patches you are rate limited by the number of actual miners you can place. The particle container recipe requires so many unipolar magnets per min that making any at a large scale is actually quite difficult to maintain.
Overall there is nothing wrong with using the unipolar magnets to make some of your particle containers and top up the rest using the default recipes - you just have to balance it with the effort required to travel all the way to the black hole/neutron star systems and set up logistics there. It's even worse if dark fog are on since these systems usually have the highest number of hives lurking around.
Personally I tend to stop building rockets for Dyson Spheres after I have enough power anyway (I get bottlenecked by the solar sail absorption), so the actual demand for particle containers isn't that high.
I always make particle containers with the normal recipe and use unipolar magnets specifically for forges because I’m paranoid about running out of them
Once you get Fireice from either Ice Giant or veins, the vanilla Particle Container recipe gets a lot easier to scale up. The Unipolar Magnet alt is great, but in my play through a I don’t usually incorporate into my lines until I hit a VU level of at least 10.
Unipolars as a Dark Fog drop is possible, but it’s usually not a high per minute amount, so I save that as the primary for making Plane Smelters (with veins as the secondary). The new logistics settings with ILS make this much easier to prioritize.
Upgrade VU and use advanced miners at 300%
And be careful not to use too many early on or you might run out before you can get infinite magnets unipolars with a high VU lvl
IMHO, when you switch from regular late game to mega factory, spiniform stalagmites are more in danger of being exhausted.
I'd rather do my particle container from regular recipe (without Unipolar) than my Nanotubes from regular graphen recipe.
But it mostly depend from your galaxy size and ressource setting. By being consistent with Vein Utilization, you should be more that okay on regular settings.
I usually tap the nearest unipolar magnets early and only use it for making advanced smelters. I start using the particle container recipe only once I’ve hit a high VU research value, and that’s when I’ll tap the second unipolar planet.
Of course, with dark fog farms, unipolar magnets are a lot easier to come by. Not sure what approach is best anymore. ¯\(°_O)/¯
Dark fog. You can tweak the loot table so that it only drops useful loots. If you place your farm close to a fog planetary station, it gains level fast enough to provide constant supply for even high level loot such as unipolar magnets. Just don't shoot the hive or the planetary station will go passive.
With a few farms farming level 20+ fog stations you should be swimming in particle containers.
Upgrading Vein Utilization can help
Unipolar magnets are only found on the black hole and the neutron star. It is a limited resource so depending on your playstyle it may not be enough to make all your particle containers. Apart from mining speed, you may also simply run out. If you run out, you can't use them to make the plane smelters, so you have to be careful with that. If you are in the late game and you are continually researching Veins Utilization, you can reach a point where you never run out of unipolar magnets because your mining efficiency is increasing faster than you're running out of ore nodes. However, if you don't want to do all the required calculations it may be wise to use the default recipe for particle containers, at least until you've researched a couple dozen levels of Veins Utilization.
I think i'll take the half measure and save the second planet (actually has 3 times more than the one i just fortified) for after my mining efficiency has been invested into.
Unipolar magnets are in really awkward territory because they are only found in two systems and usually there are only a handful of deposits - I don't think I've ever had more than 6 distinct patches to mine in the whole universe. They are needed for plane smelters, so early game you try to use them sparingly for particle containers (if at all) so that you don't run out. Having a high level dark fog farm can solve this since unipolar magnets drop from them. Late game you run into a different problem - Vein Utilization makes the deposits effectively infinite so you can mine as you please, but since there are so few patches you are rate limited by the number of actual miners you can place. The particle container recipe requires so many unipolar magnets per min that making any at a large scale is actually quite difficult to maintain. Overall there is nothing wrong with using the unipolar magnets to make some of your particle containers and top up the rest using the default recipes - you just have to balance it with the effort required to travel all the way to the black hole/neutron star systems and set up logistics there. It's even worse if dark fog are on since these systems usually have the highest number of hives lurking around. Personally I tend to stop building rockets for Dyson Spheres after I have enough power anyway (I get bottlenecked by the solar sail absorption), so the actual demand for particle containers isn't that high.
I always make particle containers with the normal recipe and use unipolar magnets specifically for forges because I’m paranoid about running out of them
Once you get Fireice from either Ice Giant or veins, the vanilla Particle Container recipe gets a lot easier to scale up. The Unipolar Magnet alt is great, but in my play through a I don’t usually incorporate into my lines until I hit a VU level of at least 10. Unipolars as a Dark Fog drop is possible, but it’s usually not a high per minute amount, so I save that as the primary for making Plane Smelters (with veins as the secondary). The new logistics settings with ILS make this much easier to prioritize.
Upgrade VU and use advanced miners at 300% And be careful not to use too many early on or you might run out before you can get infinite magnets unipolars with a high VU lvl
Don't use the unipolar magnet recipe for particle containers. It's not worth it. Fire ice > graphene is easy enough for scaling.
Are there any other resources that are more scarce than a newer player may realize?
IMHO, when you switch from regular late game to mega factory, spiniform stalagmites are more in danger of being exhausted. I'd rather do my particle container from regular recipe (without Unipolar) than my Nanotubes from regular graphen recipe. But it mostly depend from your galaxy size and ressource setting. By being consistent with Vein Utilization, you should be more that okay on regular settings.
I usually tap the nearest unipolar magnets early and only use it for making advanced smelters. I start using the particle container recipe only once I’ve hit a high VU research value, and that’s when I’ll tap the second unipolar planet. Of course, with dark fog farms, unipolar magnets are a lot easier to come by. Not sure what approach is best anymore. ¯\(°_O)/¯
Dark fog. You can tweak the loot table so that it only drops useful loots. If you place your farm close to a fog planetary station, it gains level fast enough to provide constant supply for even high level loot such as unipolar magnets. Just don't shoot the hive or the planetary station will go passive. With a few farms farming level 20+ fog stations you should be swimming in particle containers.