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As you soar through the skies in Aloft, keep an eye on your map for all the little islands you might find floating between you and your next destination - there are going to be plenty of resources on each of them, with different resources in every new area you enter.
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Since these collectible resources are the key to practically everything you do in Aloft - from sustaining your health, to creating new tools, to establishing a home island and taking off for a far-out distance - we've kept track of every collectible in Aloft to help you find them.
Aloft released on Steam on January 15 in early access, and our guides are accurate as of launch. If new resources are added to the game as it continues to develop, we'll keep our guides up to date.
How To Gather And Store Resources
Mine Rocks, Chop Trees, And Gather Plants
As you explore different islands sailing across the fractured sky in Aloft, you'll encounter plenty of different kinds of natural resources scattered across islands. These can be all kinds of things, from natural resources like rocks and stones, to plant resources like flowers and leaves, animal-based resources like what livestock will produce or the various bugs you'll find in different biomes, and so many more.
How you collect resources depends on which resource it is. For the most part, you'll simply interact with things to collect them when you spot them out in the world, especially if you've turned on the white glow that occasionally highlights collectible resources nearby. However, there are a few resources that you'll need to use assorted tools in your inventory to break down and grab, things like whole trees of larger rocks that can't easily be stuffed into your pockets.
It's important to note, though, that your inventory is limited - your pockets are only so big, after all, and your character doesn't seem to be able to expand their inventory in any way. As such, you'll likely want to build storage spaces on your home island to stash all your spare resources when you leave the island. It's typically best to leave with as few things as you can, outside your tools and the things you may need to restore an unhealthy ecosystem should you find one.
The tables below contain raw materials you'll find while exploring, though you'll be able to put several of these together at your workbench and create new assembled materials, things like paper, sharp stone, and rope, resources that you'll craft from your assorted collectibles listed in our guide below.
Store Extra Resources On Your Home Island To free Inventory Space
Different resources require different kinds of storage, which you'll find on the Storage tab of your Crafting menu. You can access this menu on any island with a healthy ecosystem, though it's typically best to build these storage spaces on your home island so you can bring them with you. When you craft at a workbench on your island or from the Crafting menu, it seems to pull right from the storage on the island.
In the Storage tab on the Crafting menu, you'll find both specialized storage for specific types of resources, with things like wood and charcoal both being stored in the Wood Stockpile or Small Plants being stored in the Leaf Stockpile, and more general storage options like baskets made of different materials that vary in size (with sturdier baskets offering additional storage slots).
You can store specialized resources in baskets, but you cannot store anything else in a specialized resource stockpile. For example, you can put a stack of stone into a basket with a bug you collected, but you wouldn't be able to stash that bug in the Stone Stockpile.
It's wise to keep a few resources on you, but not too many - while you'll need some resources for fixing ecosystems, it's often best to deposit extra resources into your home storage before you venture out to explore. You'll be crafting and making new things all the time in Aloft, so it's best to keep some of everything accessible for easy use when the time comes.
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All Natural Resources
In the table below, you'll find all the earthy resources like rocks, wood, and gemstones. We've split them into groups based on where you store them and have included a section at the bottom for anything that doesn't fit neatly into these storage containers but are similar in nature.
Every Wood, Rock, And Gem Resource In Aloft
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Resource |
Photo |
How to Collect |
Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
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Stone/Clay Storage |
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Face Sculpture |
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Gather from pillars in caves. |
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Rock Salt |
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Use your pickax on Rock Salt deposits. |
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Stone |
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Use your pickax on any regular gray rock, or gather fallen stones on the ground. |
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Windstone |
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Use your pickax on any gray rock with blue accents. |
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Wood Storage |
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Charcoal |
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Use your ax to chop up any burned tree stumps you find. |
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Curved Plank |
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Refine on the Workbench. |
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Wood |
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Use your ax to chop down trees, gather branches from the ground, or grab them from trees. |
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Wooden Cog |
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Refine on the Workbench. |
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Other Natural Resources |
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Dirty Water |
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Use the Gather button while standing in water of any kind. |
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Hardstone |
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Use your pickax on the large, square, black stone deposits you'll find sporadically across islands. |
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Opal |
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Find in treasure chests, often in locked chests. |
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Windstone Crystal |
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Use your pickax on any blue Windstone deposit you see as you explore islands, often within caves. |
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Windstone Gem |
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Keep your ax and pickax on you as you venture out in Aloft - who knows which natural resources you'll need and when.
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All Plant And Crop Resources
Next, we've got all the plant-based crops, things like plants, bushes, decomposers, and flowers. While only Small Plants seem to go into the Leaf Stockpile bin at the moment, there are plenty of other plant resources in Aloft that you'll need before long.
Every Farming And Plant-Based Resource In Aloft
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Resource |
Photo |
How to Collect |
Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
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Leaf Storage |
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Leaves |
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Gather from fallen trees in any biome. |
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Small Plants |
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Use the scythe on wild plants, and gather them from fallen trees. |
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Other Plant-Based Resources |
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Flax |
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Use your scythe on the purplish blue flowers in Fallen Heights. |
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Glasswort |
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Use your scythe on the green and brown finger-like tendrils when you see them in the wild. |
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Mykter Fibre |
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Defeat monsters in combat, and break up fungus nodes left over after healing an ecosystem. |
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Reishi Mushroom |
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Gather from the bases of certain trees. |
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Rope |
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Combine two mykter fibres on a Workbench |
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Paper |
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Turf |
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Use the dorkip on any grass to pull up the turf and leave behind dirt instead. |
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Waxed Rope |
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Combine two ropes and one wax on a Workbench. |
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Floral Resources |
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Azure Sky Blossoms |
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Gather from islands in the Fallen Heights during the day. |
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Brightsun Flower |
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Gather from islands in the Emerald Isles. |
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Purple Moonbloom |
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Rare grab from the island in Fallen Heights, only in bloom at night. |
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Yellow Moonbloom |
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Gather from islands in the Fallen Heights, only in bloom at night. |
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Keep a good amount of Mykter Fibre stored as you collect it, as well as any Mykter samples you may come across - you'll need them once you've found the recipe for the Research Lab.
All Animal And Bugs Resources
Finally, you'll also be collecting plenty of bugs and livestock resources, which can be found either on your home island if you tamed and kept any animals you've found or just out and about as you explore if you've got hay or pellets on you to help make friends.
Every Bug And Livestock Resource In Aloft
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Resource |
Photo |
How to Get |
Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
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Livestock Resources |
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Egg |
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Occasional drop with female Pheasants on the island. |
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Feather |
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Occasional on islands with Pheasants. |
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Golden Feather |
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Rare drop on islands with Pheasants. |
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Honey |
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Collect from trees that have a beehive in Fallen Heights. |
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Manure |
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Dropped on the ground from most livestock. |
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Milk |
Use a bucket on a female goat after feeding it. |
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Wax |
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Collect from trees that have a beehive in Fallen Heights. |
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Wool |
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Use shears on any sheep or alpaca after feeding it. Animals with different patterns seem to produce the same wool. |
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Bug Resources |
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Bee |
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Gathered from trees that have a beehive. |
Adding bugs to an unhealthy ecosystem to help balance it |
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Blue Beetle |
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Gathered from trees and stumps across different islands. |
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Ladybug |
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Worm |
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Manure can be turned into soil using a Compost Bin when you're ready to start your own garden on your home island!
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