Erythrite Crystal & your first Ornithopter—requirements, parts, and flight tips (with taxi costs vs. self‑fly)

From pink shards to first flight: where to farm Erythrite, how to build or buy your first ’thopter, and when it’s smarter to hire a taxi than fly yourself.

At a glance

• Erythrite Crystal spawns in Hagga Rift and refines into Cobalt Paste, a core ingredient of your first Ornithopter. You’ll need a Cutteray (Mk.2 or better) to mine it and a Chemical Refinery to turn it into paste.
• You can buy a Scout Ornithopter outright at Faction Rep 4 for ~120–125k Solari (fastest, no crafting), craft one (materials heavy), or piece one together via Exchange/vendor modules.
• Taxi (Ornithopter Pilot) costs 700 Solari between tradeposts and 2,500 Solari to main hubs (Arrakeen/Harko). It’s instant, but only between unlocked posts/cities.
• Self‑fly tips: learn Vulture (glide) mode for speed and fuel savings, stay high and fast to avoid intercept, and carry fuel cells. Four wings must match tier.

Erythrite Crystal 101: where, how, and why it matters

What it is: Erythrite is the pink, translucent crystal you’ll mine mid‑game to unlock a flood of recipes. Its main use early on is Cobalt Paste, which gates a long list of vehicle parts—including your first Ornithopter.

Where to find it: The reliable answer is Hagga Rift—a deep trench that runs from north of Riftwatch through Jabal Eifrit Al‑janub and toward Pinnacle Station. Erythrite appears about halfway down, starting near the Wreck of the Kytheria, then pops up near CHOAM Mineral Extraction Facilities along the way. These nodes are big, unmistakably pink.

Tools & prep: Bring a Cutteray Mk.2 or higher; lower grades won’t harvest Erythrite. Expect scavengers and elites in the Rift—pack healkits, a solid melee (e.g., a crysknife), and travel by vehicle (sandbike or better) to create a nearer respawn point if things go sideways.

Refining to Cobalt Paste:
At a Small Chemical Refinery, the ratio is 3 Erythrite + 75 mL water → 1 Cobalt Paste. Upgrading to Medium Chemical Refinery improves it to 2 Erythrite + 75 mL water → 1 Cobalt Paste and speeds the cycle. If you’re aiming squarely at your first ’thopter, that refinery upgrade cuts your Erythrite requirement by a third.

Route tips inside Hagga Rift: Head toward lit CHOAM extraction facilities—they often have multiple Erythrite spawns in contained spaces. Entering from Riftwatch or the eastern approaches and then dropping into facility levels is an efficient loop for most players.

Your first Ornithopter: three legitimate paths

1) Buy it (fastest, no workshop pain)

If you just want to fly, grind Faction Reputation to Level 4 (Atreides/Harkonnen), then visit the faction vendor in Arrakeen (Atreides) or Harko Village (Harkonnen). Expect to pay ~120–125k Solari for a ready‑to‑assemble Scout Ornithopter. This bypasses most of the resource grind and is the speedrun option for solo players.

2) Craft it (cheapest in coin, heavy on materials & water)

Crafting demands research, facilities, and a sizable shopping list:

• Research cost: you’ll need to have spent ~300 Intel overall and then 30 Intel for the Ornithopter research itself (≈330 Intel total).
• Facilities: plan on a Medium Ore Refinery (to churn Aluminum) and a Vehicle Fabricator (to assemble modules). A Medium Chemical Refinery pays for itself with the improved Erythrite→Cobalt ratio.

Mk.4 Scout Ornithopter — total parts (typical first build):

• ~241 Aluminum Ingots
• 82 Cobalt Paste (→ 164 Erythrite if using a Medium Chemical Refinery; ~246 if using Small)
• 46 Advanced Servoks, 22 Particle Capacitors, 22 Armor Plating
• 8 Complex Machinery, 8 Industrial Pumps
• 14 Diamondine Dust, 7 Carbide Scraps
• ~57,000 mL water for the components (budget more if you still need to build/refine at lower tiers)

We advise budgeting ~70,000 mL water if you’re also crafting the required machines on the way to your first ’thopter—so if your base is early‑tier, plan for the higher figure.

Per‑module breakdown (Mk.4, Vehicle Fabricator):

• Chassis: Aluminum Ingots, Advanced Servoks, Cobalt Paste, Carbide Scraps (+ water)
• Generator: Aluminum Ingots, Particle Capacitors (x16), Cobalt Paste (+ water)
• Engine: Aluminum Ingots, Cobalt Paste, Particle Capacitors (x6), Complex Machinery (x8) (+ water)
• Hull: Aluminum Ingots, Advanced Servoks, Cobalt Paste, Armor Plating (x11), Diamondine Dust (x7) (+ water)
• Cockpit: Aluminum Ingots, Advanced Servoks, Cobalt Paste, Armor Plating (x11), Diamondine Dust (x7) (+ water)
• Wings (x4): Aluminum Ingots, Advanced Servoks, Cobalt Paste, Industrial Pumps (x2 per wing) (+ water)
  Numbers above are per the in‑game recipes collated by the community wiki/recipe DB.

Rule of thumb: all four wings must be the same tier, but you can mix other modules (e.g., Mk.5 engine on a Mk.4 frame) as you upgrade later.

3) Mix‑and‑match (Exchange & rotating vendors)

If Rep 4 is far off and you don’t want the full craft grind, you can buy modules when vehicles vendors rotate stock or via the Exchange (player market) and finish the craft in your Vehicle Fabricator. This method is opportunistic—check daily—you can get lucky on wings/generator recipes in particular.

Taxi costs vs. self‑fly: when to pay, when to pilot

Taxi service (Ornithopter Pilot):
Once you unlock the pilot (you’ll meet one during early Hagga Basin progression), you can purchase instant flights between tradeposts and the main hubs. Tradepost ↔ tradepost costs 700 Solari; to Arrakeen/Harko Village costs 2,500 Solari. You can only taxi to places you’ve physically discovered before.

Some guides also note that tradepost hops are strictly one‑way, whereas hub city routes can present a round‑trip option—either way, budget per trip and treat taxiing as a Solari sink for convenience.

Self‑fly:
Pros: You can scan, loot, and harvest en route (Erythrite in Hagga Rift is a classic example). You also leave the local map to the Overworld only with your own ’thopter—handy for cross‑region travel later. Cons: planning fuel, risk (storms/worms/PvP), and the time to take off/climb.

Break‑even thinking: If you’re doing one‑off city runs and short on time, 2,500 Solari is usually worth it. If you’re on a resource loop (Erythrite, Aluminum, Testing Stations) or running quests along a line, self‑flying is strictly superior—your travel time doubles as progression. Since good gliding consumes no fuel, the cost per trip is mostly your attention, not Solari.

Flight basics & advanced tips (Scout ’thopter)

Power vs. Glide (Vulture mode). Ornithopters can hover and fly “like a drone,” but their signature mode is Vulture (glide): engine spools down, wings loosen, and speed jumps. Toggle it and think of the horizon as your ruler. Glide is faster than powered flight and the foundation of both speed and fuel economy.

How to enter and hold an efficient glide. Players report the most reliable setup like this:

• Hit Vulture (Shift), accelerate, and put the center dot roughly on the horizon (“keep it in the center of the ^ carrot”).
• Aim for max glide speed for your wings (with Mk.4/Mk.5 aluminum, that’s typically in the 155–165 km/h ballpark; higher for Mk.6).
• Use gentle pitch to trade speed for altitude and vice versa—avoiding hover/power climbs as much as possible.

Fuel discipline. Hovering chews fuel; gliding doesn’t. Carry at least one Medium Vehicle Fuel Cell (crafted at a Chemical Refinery) for a Mk.4; it fills a Scout ’thopter once and even leaves some in the canister. Large fuel cells are available as you progress.

Altitude is insurance. Enter risky areas high and fast. If intercepted, the safest tactic is often straight‑line escape at max glide: climbing in a zoom (nose up ~20°) to convert speed into height, then settling back to glide. Hard turns bleed energy and make interception geometry work against you.

Situational awareness. Use Free Look to scout (without changing attitude) and resist the urge to hover to “get bearings.” If you must loiter, have a safe descent path picked out and the fuel to execute it. (Multiple community flight primers emphasize “don’t hover; glide.”)

Module housekeeping. The four wings must match tier, but you can mix other modules. Consider Scan, Storage, or Thruster modules as you gear up—scan while traveling resource routes, storage for Deep Desert legs, and thruster if you value vertical burst.

Storing and protecting your ’thopter. You can store a Scout Ornithopter in a Vehicle Backup Tool, summon it when needed, and build a shielded helipad at home later. This minimizes losses during PvP/PvE mishaps.

Patch note to know: Recent patches on test/live have reduced ’thopter griefing by making colliding ornithopters bounce apart, and riding sandworms is now fatal—keep speed, keep separation, and don’t “test the worm.”

Crafting checklist: turning Erythrite into a working ’thopter

1. Unlock taxi (optional but helpful) by speaking to an Ornithopter Pilot at a tradepost; doing so enables paid fast‑travel while you build up.
2. Research & machines: Accrue Intel, unlock the Ornithopter, build a Vehicle Fabricator and at least a Medium Chemical Refinery (for the 2:1 Erythrite→Cobalt efficiency).
3. Farm Erythrite: Run Hagga Rift, prioritize facilities, and mine pink nodes with your Mk.2+ Cutteray. Convert to Cobalt Paste as you go.
4. Parallelize Aluminum: Your ore refinery should be smelting ~241 Ingots while you loot Testing Stations and ruins for Servoks, Particle Capacitors, Armor Plating, Diamondine, Industrial Pumps, etc.
5. Assemble modules: Build Chassis, Generator, Engine, Hull, Cockpit, and four matching Wings (Mk.4 is the early baseline) and weld them.
6. Fuel & fly: Bring one Medium (or two Small) fuel cells, take off, climb, and transition promptly to Vulture. Practice holding max‑glide without bleeding height.

When it’s worth paying the taxi

• You’re broke on time, not on Solari. One click, instant arrival, 700–2,500 Solari paid, done. Use this to chain trainer visits, unlock hubs, or skip back to a city seller.
• Your objective is in a hub. Exchange, vendors, advanced trainers—Arrakeen/Harko are taxi‑friendly. If you’re not harvesting along the way, the time saved is real.
• You’ve already farmed your loop. After a full Rift run, it’s fine to taxi back to a city to sell and reset rather than fly the same safe route empty.

Fly yourself when: you’re actively farming (Erythrite/Aluminum/testing stations), doing map discovery, or stitching together multi‑stop objectives (contracts, trainer quests, refinery deliveries). The run back pays for itself in loot and paste—and glide is free.

Common early pitfalls (and how to dodge them)

• Mining Erythrite with the wrong tool tier. If nothing’s dropping, your Cutteray isn’t Mk.2+. Upgrade before trekking back.
• Under‑budgeting water. The parts alone take ~57k mL, and building/refining at lower tiers pushes you toward ~70k mL. Stage windtraps/dew reapers and run blood purifiers early.
• Hovering to “line up” your approach. It burns fuel and paints a target. Free Look and shallow pitch changes in glide are your friends.
• Mismatched wings. The ’thopter won’t fly if wings aren’t the same tier—upgrade them as a set.

Final word

Your Ornithopter is more than a shortcut; it’s a skill ceiling. By mining Hagga Rift efficiently, refining Erythrite into Cobalt at the right ratios, and choosing wisely between taxi and self‑fly, you’ll hit that sweet spot where every trip advances your progression. And once you’re comfortable in Vulture mode, Arrakis opens up: quick Overworld transits, safe Deep Desert runs, and the freedom to route through spice, steel, and pink crystal veins—on your terms.

Note: Material counts can vary slightly with machine tiers and recipe updates; when in doubt, check the current in‑game recipe panel before crafting.