Orbital Workshop & Exotics

The Orbital Workshop sits on the Orbital Station between drops — never in-mission — and spends different currencies depending on the item: Ren (the common one, earned from missions and Great Hunt ops), Exotics and the rarer Red Exotics (extraction rewards), and premium materials like Uranium Rod and Legendary Biomass for elite unlocks.

Research vs. crafting

• Research unlocks a schematic — a one-time cost. Crafting the same item afterward is repeatable and usually cheaper than the research cost, so a workshop weapon or suit upgrade is replaceable if lost on a mission.
• Cost scales with tier, not a flat fee: the Xigo S5 envirosuit line alone has 7 named variants — the base Xigo S5/S5-II research for 50 Ren, S5-X/Gustav for 100 Ren, Duo/Fermi for 200 Ren, and Hark tops the line at 250 Ren. Crafting each afterward runs roughly half its research cost.
• Weapons often mix Ren and Exotics rather than picking one: the CHAC "Sovereign" Rifle asks 1,000 Ren + 500 Exotics to research (750 Ren + 250 Exotics to craft), the Inaris "Heavy" Crossbow 500 Ren + 250 Exotics (250 Ren + 100 Exotics to craft) — roughly half the tier and half the price.
• Some lines drop Ren entirely instead: the Larkwell Martinez Spear costs 1,000 Exotics flat to research (400 to craft), and the Shengong CZ4 Bow costs 500 Red Exotics to research (150 to craft) — no Ren involved at all.

What's actually on the list

• Envirosuits — Xigo's S5 line (cheap, Ren-only) through the Larkwell Martinez, Larkwell "Bulwark"/"Haulier" and Scouts Arctic variants (Exotics/Uranium Rod) for serious thermal and O2 protection.
• Weapons — CHAC firearms, Inaris spears and crossbows, Shengong bows and spears, Larkwell Martinez bows and spears — all Orbital-exclusive lines, separate from anything craftable in-mission, priced anywhere from a few hundred Ren to four figures depending on tier.
• Utility modules — the Oxygen Consumption Module (75 Ren + 25 Exotics to research, 50 Ren + 10 Exotics to craft) is a cheap, high-value early buy that makes every later cave or deep-mining mission easier.

Priority order (crew consensus — argue in comments)

1. Envirosuit upgrades (thermal + O2) — a survival multiplier on every future drop, not just the next one.
2. An Oxygen Consumption Module — cave and deep-mining missions stop being a timer.
3. A workshop weapon each — repairable, persistent, drop-ready without a mission-loot gamble.
4. Extraction and deep-mining upgrades — faster exotics compounds every later purchase.

Crew doctrine

• Research is account-wide progress, not per-character loadout — unlock once, everyone crafts from it.
• Track Ren, Exotics and Red Exotics as three separate ledgers, not one currency: the top tier of most lines specifically wants Exotics or Red Exotics, so a Ren surplus alone won't get you there.
• Great Hunt campaigns (see the Great Hunts Campaigns guide) pay 200 Ren per op and 500 per finale — a full Quarrite or Rimetusk run nets 2,500 Ren by itself, enough to fund most of the Workshop's Ren-priced tiers outright.
• The Exotic Power Resources talent cuts how much Exotics weigh in your inventory — grab it before a dedicated extraction run if your crew is banking toward a Red Exotics purchase.