The Cadmium Drive is one of the most crucial technologies to have for your starship as it enables the ability to travel to red-coloured star systems in No Man’s Sky. It is also the first upgrade to the Hyperdrive installed in your starship, ahead of Emeril and Indium Drives.
Given that No Man’s Sky is primarily a game based on exploration, access to red-coloured star systems is necessary for some missions and objectives of the game, so the sooner you can install it, the better.
To install the Cadmium Drive upgrade in your Hyperdrive, you need to first obtain its required blueprint. You can purchase this blueprint from Iteration: Hyperion on Space Anomaly for 80 Nanites.
Once you obtain the blueprint, you have to gather resources to build the Cadmium Drive. To build the Cadmium Drive, you need 250 Chromatic Metal and 3 Wiring Loom. Chromatic Metal is a pretty important resource for space travel in No Man’s Sky, and it is one of those resources where it is best to keep stacks of it since the material is also required to build fuel for the Hyperdrive.
You can get Chromatic Metal from Galatic Trade Terminals (if you’re lucky), or you can get it from drops from Freighter cargo pods and destroyed Pirate ships.
Wiring Loom can also be purchased from Galatic Trade Terminals if it is available on the market of the star system. You can also get Wiring Loom from Upgrade Modules or purchase it from outposts.
Once you have everything you need, simply go to the starship technology inventory to upgrade your Hyperdrive and install the Cadmium Drive.
Since this is the first upgrade to your Hyperdrive, it is also a necessary step if you plan on installing the Emeril and Indium Drive upgrades to your starships.
